Outline Studies in the New Testament for Bible Teachers

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By JESSE LYMAN HURLBUT, D.D.
New York: EATON & MAINS Cincinnati: JENNINGS & GRAHAM

Copyright, 1906, by EATON & MAINS.


There is no book in the world which repays earnest study so abundantly as the Holy Bible. Even the cursory reader who possesses a candid mind can gather many precious thoughts from its pages; and he who turns to it for guidance in life, however ignorant he may be, will never be led astray. But as the precious metal lies hidden in the mountains, and must be sought out by the miners, so the treasures in the Word of Life are found only by those who search diligently for them. He who not only reads but studies the Scriptures finds an abundant reward. There is need in our age of searchers in the Bible, who shall bring out of its treasure-house things new and old.
In the old Bible the most important themes are those which gather around the God-man, Jesus Christ. His coming to earth was the culmination of all prophecy, the focus of all history, and the center of all doctrine; and the church which he founded has been for nineteen centuries the inspiration of the world's progress. There are two subjects in the New Testament with which every follower of Christ should be thoroughly acquainted, and they are its two most prominent themes: the life of Christ on earth, and the growth of the early church. In the life of Christ he should know the order of the leading events; he should grasp its principles, and should enter into its spirit. Only as we apprehend Christ can we comprehend the truths taught and inspired by Christ.
But our work as New Testament students must not end with the story of Christ's ascension from earth. Jesus left behind him a little church, of only one hundred and twenty members, which in seventy years overswept all the lands of the greatest empire then on the earth, and which now covers nearly all the world. Of that church we are members, inheritors of its traditions, its doctrines, and—best of all—its spirit. It should be our delight to trace the steps of its early progress, to see how its plans grew with the advancing years, and how an obscure company of Jewish disciples became a church of world-wide reach.