THE SABBATH-SCHOOL LESSONS.
By William C. White
EVERY school from which we have heard, reports an increase of interest since the adoption of the New Testament lessons, and many inquiries are made as to the best sources from which information may be gained relative to the condition of the Jewish people, the reign of Herod, the history of the temple, and the organization and duties of the priestly order at the time of our Lord's advent. While there is no one book or set of books that will contain all the facts that a teacher or scholar will desire to find, there are in the most common books of the Bible student's library many of the facts most desired. But these are so hidden among a multitude of other things which he does not particularly care about at this time that the inexperienced searcher will be apt to overlook them. The articles on the "Temple" and "Priests," in our smallest Bible Dictionaries, throw much light upon Lesson One, also the articles on "Bethlehem," "Nazareth," "Herod," the "Wise Men," etc., on other lessons. Much valuable information about the temple and its services will be found in Eld. Smith's "Sanctuary and its Cleansing." Cunningham Geikie, in his "Life and Words of Christ," gives several chapters on the holy land at the time of Christ, the reign of Herod, the Rabbis at the time of Christ and their ideas respecting the Messiah. All will be interested in reading the article given in our Sabbath-school Department this week, "The Visit of the Wise Men." Perhaps no set of books will be of so much help to the student of the New Testament as Mrs. White's second and third volumes of Spirit of Prophecy, which treat of the life of Christ and the ministry of his apostles. No one should mourn if all these and many other books of the kind are not within his reach. It is not the number of books one owns so much as the amount of study he devotes to those within his reach that measures his knowledge.