Our Sabbath-School Lessons by William Clarence White

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 17, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 27.

Our Sabbath-School Lessons.

By William Clarence White

Now that our study of the New Testament history is brought to a close, it has been thought best to devote a few months to the study of Bible doctrines. There never was a time when our schools were so well prepared as now to take up the study of these subjects. It is not possible to estimate the value of the lessons we have learned in the three or four years that we have been studying the Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles. Those who have studied diligently and entered the most into the spirit of the subject, realize most fully the necessity and the blessing of making the life of our Lord the subject of daily meditation. The study of the lives and labors of the apostles as brought out in the Acts has given us broader, nobler views of Christian duty and attainments.

What we have learned by the study of these subjects is a very essential preparation to a critical study of the teachings of our Lord and his apostles. Some of these teachings we have studied briefly in connection with the history, but now we desire to take up such subjects as the Lord’s Second Coming, the Resurrection, Immortality through Christ, and the Sabbath in the New Testament, and examine the texts bearing directly upon each subject.

There was never a time when a thorough knowledge of these subjects was so much needed as it is now. False doctrines are multiplying and gaining in popularity, and our only safety is to have a definite knowledge of what is taught in the word of God. Peter says, “sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.” This we understand to be the duty of every one; and to so prepare ourselves as to be “ready always” will require daily diligent study.

We believe the time has come for a revival of the spirit of daily Bible study. It is this that we need more than anything else, for with many the love for the study of God’s word is almost extinct. We are starving our souls, while the word of life is almost constantly within our reach. The Bible-readings have done a good work; they are a most valuable help to the study of the Scriptures, but they are studied by a comparatively small number. It is our hope that the new lessons which are framed on the same plan as the Bible-readings, but which differ from them in being made shorter, and in calling for some of the texts to be committed to memory, will arouse in every school, and in every member of every school, an earnestness for Scripture study which we have never seen before.

W. C. WHITE.