Teaching the Word

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 3, 1885

FromThe Signs of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 34

Teaching the Word.

THE following is an extract from a letter to the Christian Union. The lessons referred to are, of course, the International. We sincerely wish that all Sunday-school scholars could be trained to learn the words of the sacred text, and especially the ten commandments. One great reason why it is so difficult to get people to accept Bible truth, is that the Bible is to them a foreign book. We would that there was no necessity to exhort believers in the Third Angel’s Message to familiarize themselves with Old Testament events, which were “written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come:” —

Some time ago the golden text of our lesson was, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” “Who was Moses?” I asked my class of girls, ranging from fourteen to sixteen years of age, one of them our minister’s daughter, others coming from the families of prominent church-members, “Who was Moses?” No one could answer. After telling them a little of who he was, I asked what the text meant, which, of course, they could not tell. To them, like many other passages of God’s word, it meant nothing. This summer, while in the country, I taught a class of little girls fresh from the infant class. The lesson was, “David, King over Israel.” Looking for a place to start, I asked, “Can you tell me who David was?” “No.” “Can you tell me who the Israelites were?” “No.” Well, I thought, I will go back to something they do know, and get a starting-point. “Who was Joseph?” No one knew. Then I tried Abraham; no better success. Almost in despair, I asked, “Who was the first man?” Not one could tell. Were those children prepared to take up the lesson that taught that David was chosen king over all Israel?

In the number of the Union where the question above referred to was asked, you close your answer by saying, “It is of little importance whether a child can answer the question, Who was the first man? so long as they learn to answer, Who is Jesus Christ? with ‘My Saviour.’” This, indeed, should be the aim in all our teaching. How better can a child be led to Christ than through the teachings of the Bible, and how can a child understand the Bible if he is not taught to study it? The child will read, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,” and what does it mean to him if he know not who Adam was? Try to teach a child faith in God through the beautiful faith chapter in Hebrews; will it have anything like the same interest to him if he know not the characters mentioned therein?

What can we do to improve the present system of teaching? I would suggest, in the first place, that we have our children memorize more, yes, far more, than they are doing. A fact firmly fixed in a child’s mind will last there long after many of the most clearly explained lessons have been forgotten. How many of our schools now expect a child to learn anything by heart, and how many children will do it when it is not expected? I asked the superintendent of our school, at one time, when the ten commandments was the subject of our lesson, to ask the school how many could repeat the commandments. Out of the entire school two hands were raised. I mentioned it to a friend, and she had her superintendent put the question in their school, with no better success. Is it right that such should be the case? Our school voted it far from right, and arranged that thereafter a part of the opening exercises of the school should be repeating the commandments in concert. At first all opened their Bibles and read them, many looking blankly at the book and wondering where to turn, but gradually the books were left closed, until now the entire school, at the close of the opening hymn, remain standing, while all repeat from memory the ten commandments.

When they learn, as I trust they each will, to know Jesus Christ as their Saviour, I believe they will make more useful Christians for having their minds stored with the teachings of God’s holy word. I heartily wish that all who are engaged in this work would see the importance of having the children fill their minds with Bible truths. We would not attempt to teach anything else and draw as little help from the memory (one of God’s priceless gifts) as we do in teaching the Scriptures. Begin with the child when first it toddles to the infant class, and continue when it is promoted to the larger room. Then teachers need not so often say, as they do now, of their half-grown boys and girls, “It’s no use asking them to study, for they won’t do it.” They will do it if they are educated up to it.