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A MODEL SABBATH-SCHOOL

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 31, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 53.

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A MODEL SABBATH-SCHOOL.

By W. W. Prescott

The Sabbath-school ought simply to be the Church studying the Word together; and the idea sometimes prevailing that the Sabbath-school is a sort of subordinate side issue, while the most important thing is the preaching service, is a wrong thing.
If the Church as a whole should simply give its time to the real study of the Word, and that with the chief purpose of getting good, the profit would oftentimes be greater than it is.
So I shall not deal with the technical side of the Sabbath-school separate from the Church. It seems to me that the main thing to be considered is the benefits and the possibilities that would come to the Church if the Church as a body would study the word of God faithfully. So when I speak about a Sabbath-school, I mean the church gathered together for devotion and study of the Scriptures.
It seems to me that a model study of the Scriptures, or a model Sabbath-school if you wish to use that term, would be this: Where the word of God is the text-book, where Christ crucified is the theme, and where the teachers are filled with the teaching Spirit of God. It might almost seem a trite thing to say that; but I believe there is need of saying that very simple thing, and of giving very serious attention to it.
First, where the word of God is the book studied. I believe we have been “helped” so much that we have been pretty nearly helped out of the Bible. I do not believe such help as that is helpful. We have had crutches and canes to walk with so long that we have almost lost the use of our walking powers. We have been told what is in the Scriptures, rather than ourselves finding out by personal study what is in the Scriptures, until we have, to a very large degree, a lamentable degree, lost the power of finding out for ourselves what is in the Scriptures.
I believe there are too many books published about the Scriptures; too many helps about the Word; and we spend our time too much with the “helps,” and too little with the thing itself.
I want to emphasize as the foundation thing, that the book to be studied is the Bible itself, the word of God—and that from the Bible itself. I was very much surprised to be told not long ago, that there were few members of the Sabbath-school, comparatively speaking, especially the younger portion, who bring their Bibles habitually to Sabbath-school. I suppose the reason may be because their lesson is printed in the paper.
The Bible is the book from which to study the lesson; and from early childhood we ought to learn to study the book itself, and to handle the book itself, and to read from the book itself. In writing to Timothy, his son in the faith, Paul said: “Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.” There is a distinct loss in separating portions of the book from the book itself, and simply studying certain verses brought together and printed elsewhere. The book itself is the book to be studied.
The theme is Christ crucified. This brings us to a direct consideration of what the word of God is. God has put His own life into human language. Of Christ here in the flesh it is said, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” That is, the Word of God, the life of God, was put into a form, and was presented to the world in action, in conduct, that men might be acquainted with the character of God. God put himself into humanity, that through humanity He might come into touch with humanity, and thus give himself to humanity. That mystery of God in the flesh we speak of as the mystery of the incarnation. The same mystery is found in the Scriptures.
That God might make himself known to humanity, He has taken human language, and incarnated himself, His own thought, His own life, in it. And in the word of God, whether by that we mean Christ in the flesh or Christ in language, there is the same mystery of the incarnation. There is no other book, there is no other word, in the universe like it.
Think for a moment of the Scriptures as they were given to the people when Christ came in the flesh. In those Old Testament scriptures we have a revelation of Christ. Hear His own statement as He spoke with the people: “Ye search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. I receive not honor from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” John 5:39-47.
Read the 39th verse: “Ye have not His word abiding in you: for whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not.” The evidence that they did not have His word abiding in them was that when His word appeared in flesh, there was no answer in them to that Word in the flesh, and they rejected it. They did not have the word of God abiding in them, in their flesh.
When the word of God appeared in the flesh, the two did not answer, the one to the other, and in their flesh there was no response to the manifestation of the word in His flesh. Therefore He said, “Ye have not His word abiding in you: for whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not.” Then He said, “Ye search the Scriptures.” (R. V.) O, yes, they did that; they could even tell the number of words, even the number of letters in the books of the Bible. O, yes, they searched the Scriptures. “In them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” But when I am here to impart the life, you do not believe in me. “Ye will not come to me,” which shows that they did not find Him in the Scriptures; they really did not get life from the Scriptures, because when He of whom the Scriptures testified, and who was a revelation in the flesh of the life that was in the Word, was manifested in the flesh, they would not come to Him that they might have life.
He speaks of the time when Moses wrote. He said, Moses “wrote of me.” Moses was their authority to whom they appealed. Now He said, “Had ye believed Moses, you would have believed me: for he wrote of me.” Not that once in a while, in some verse in the five books making up the Pentateuch you will find a reference to Christ, but the whole theme upon which Moses wrote was Christ: whether he was writing of creation, in the first chapter of Genesis; or whether he was writing of the building of the tabernacle, in the twenty-fifth of Exodus and onward; or writing of the services of the tabernacle, or of the ministry of the tabernacle especially set forth in the book of Leviticus; or whether he was rehearsing and giving them the law the second time, in the book of Deuteronomy,—the one theme with which he was dealing was Christ.
They read and studied those books, and did not see Christ, did not recognize what the theme was, because their eyes were blinded, because they were not seeking life, light, and salvation from the Scriptures, and they were not being guided into such a knowledge of the Scriptures as is life.
The theme of the Old Testament scripture is Christ, whether it be in direct statement, or whether it be in history, or biography, or prophecy. No matter what form it takes, the one theme of the Old Testament scripture is Christ,—not simply Christ as the Son of the living God, but Christ as manifested and to be manifested in the flesh. It is revealed in action; it is revealed in concrete form, in biography, in history. Of course there stand out in a marked way Noah, and Moses, and Joseph, and Abraham, and Daniel, and a score of others,—their lives revealing the teaching concerning Christ, not manifesting Christ apart from humanity, but Christ manifested among men, and in man; because the whole theme, the center and heart of all this question of salvation, is in the manifestation of Christ in this mortal flesh. Any theory about Christ, any mere intellectual view of the revelation made, is as nothing. It must be the manifestation of that life in human conduct.
What we need to know about above every other thing is not simply the fact that the life is pure, and is holy; but how that life which is pure and holy may be revealed in flesh that is impure and unholy. That is Christianity. Every one knows his own tendencies toward evil. Every one knows the plague of his own heart; every one knows the battle that he fights; every one knows the need of a power to come upon him, to dwell in him, to rule over him; and that power is the power of the Eternal manifested in humanity. That is Christianity.
Now when that experience is lacking, you may have much form, much ceremony, much creed, but you do not have Christianity. The first thing is to have that power of an endless life, the power of holiness, and let that make its own creed and conduct. That is the only creed that is worth anything anyway. It is the creed of conduct. It is the manifestation of life in living, and not a statement of how it ought to be.
Now that is the revelation of Christ that is made, not simply in these biographies, but in the whole course of history. From the time that man was driven out of the garden because of sin, until God was manifested in the flesh, there is a revelation, a prophecy of the coming of Christ in the flesh. It is not the general course of history that led up to that time; but it is that course of divine history which is set forth in the Scripture. It is not simply that there are certain texts in the Old Testament scripture that are referred to as setting forth the coming of Christ in the flesh. It is the whole course of history as it moves on. The children of Israel are a constant revealing of this truth. Their history when they walked in the counsel of God; their history when they departed from the counsel of God; their history when they were in captivity; their history in their deliverance from captivity; the revelation of the power that delivered them,—all these themes are simply making up one complete whole theme, and that is the revelation of Christ in humanity.
When we study the Scriptures, it is not simply to study words, words, words; but it is to study Christ; it is to become acquainted with the revelation of Jesus Christ, that God has made unto us. An intellectual study is not sufficient. What did Christ say to these persons who studied the Scriptures so minutely that they counted the words, and counted the letters? They came to Him with the question about the future; and He said, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” And yet the words were familiar to them. They made everything of the words; but instead of finding Him in the words, they put themselves into the words, and then the words were mere weakness. Then they could not understand the revelation of Christ.
The same thing is true at this time. It is no study of the Bible at all to form a conclusion first, and then look in the Bible to find reasons enough to establish that conclusion. That is no study of the Bible at all. The purpose of Bible study is not to establish propositions; it is not to arrive at certain definite conclusions which we put into words. The purpose of the study of the Bible is that we may feed upon the life. W. W. PRESCOTT.
(Concluded next week.)