Hints on Sabbath-School Work.
By Wm. Penniman
Perhaps a few suggestions on the subject of learning Bible lessons and on finding Bible books and passages quickly, may not be amiss in the REVIEW. By all means use the Lesson Sheet. Those who do not, “oppose themselves.” Some will say, “Why use the Lesson Sheet!” It should be used because it is an aid in understanding the Bible, and because it leads to uniformity of study and effort in the great work of Bible education. The questions are arranged upon the plan of reviewing often. This is a very good thing. If one would become a good scholar in any branch of education, he must not only study it thoroughly, but review, and review often. Just so it is with the Bible; we must study in earnest, and with a love for it, and the Lord will bless our efforts. If the memory is poor, then make a greater effort. Study the lesson, if possible, every day in the week. Think of it when you lie down and when you rise up; and be careful to have one lesson, if no more, always learned in advance. The best way to be able to find the books of the Bible readily, is to read the Bible much, and through by course often. But if this does not fix their locality in the mind, they can be memorized from Genesis to Revelation. To make this subject interesting the teacher can ask a class of children questions something like the following: Between what two books are found that of the woman who gleaned in the wheat fields, a record of honorable men, and the book of a spy? Where do we find in succession the books of a scribe, prophet, queen, and patient man? Where do we find the book of the poetic prophet, and where that of the weeping prophet? These questions can be varied as much as the teacher wishes, until all become familiar with the locality of the books. In regard to finding Bible passages quickly, we give a quotation from the Christian Age, as follows:— Scholars are usually so awkward and slow in turning to cross references that most teachers, after a few trials, give up the attempt to illustrate the lesson by the parallel passages. A great benefit will be conferred upon scholars if they can be helped to overcome the mechanical difficulties in the way of prompt and easy reference. Mark how an unskilled man counts a pile of bank-bills. He wets his fingers, clutches the upper bill in the middle, lays it over in a separate pile; discovers one or two others cleaving to it, lays down the rest to separate them; finds the bills, by “the perversity of inanimate things,” getting more and more mixed; begins again; repeats the process half a dozen times, only to find that the amount never comes out twice alike; finally, he hands the money over to an expert bank clerk, and the counting is done so quickly that the looker-on can hardly tell how. There is a like difference between a bungling and a dexterous use of the Bible. How often does the Bible reader neglect to turn to a passage he would like to refer to, because it is too much trouble to find it. Learn first, where there are no desks or tables, to hold the book on the outspread left hand and arm. By a little practice even a large Bible may thus be held firmly and easily. Then turn the leaves from the upper right-hand corner for looking forward, and from the upper left-hand corner for looking backward. Some may find it more handy to work on the lower corners. Practice the scholar in this until he can do it neatly, easily, quickly, and without creasing the paper. Next (assuming that he has already been taught the order of the books), let him try to open at exactly the middle of the Bible. The first quarter ends in 1 Samuel; the last quarter in Zephaniah. All of the New Testament is in the last quarter of the book. Then minor sub-divisions may be made in various ways, as the ingenious teacher can suggest. After this it will be found profitable to spend three or four minutes at every lesson in drilling the scholars to find the passages quickly. Tell them to find Job, and the dividing line between the Old and New Testaments. Then show that all the distinctly historical books come before that. Find the first of the epistles, the last, etc. This process should be continued until every book can be turned to at once, without any hustling the leaves back and forth in perplexity as to where in the world that book comes in. Such a mechanical drill will give the scholar a facility in finding places that will help him in Bible study all his life.