SUNDAY SCHOOL QUARTERLIES AND THE BIBLE.
I think Sunday school teachers are making a woeful mistake if they don’t take the whole Bible into their Sunday school classes. I don’t care how young children are, let them understand it is one book, that there are not two books—the Old Testament and the New are all one. Don’t let them think that the Old Testament doesn’t come to us with the same authority as the New. It is a great thing for a boy or girl to know how to handle the Bible. What is an army good for if they don’t know how to handle their swords? I speak very strongly on this, because I know some Sabbath schools that don’t have a single Bible in them. They have question books. There are questions and the answers are given just below; so that you don’t need to study your lesson. They are splendid things for lazy teachers to bring along into their classes. I have seen them come into the class with a question book, and sometimes they get it wrong side up while they are talking to the class, until they find out their mistake, and then they begin over again. I have seen an examination take place something like this:
“John, who was the first man?”
“Methuselah.”
“No; I think not; let me see. No, it is not Methuselah. Can’t you guess again?”
“Elijah.”
“No.”
“Adam.”
“That’s right, my son; you must have studied your lesson hard.”
Now, I would like to know what a boy is going to do with that kind of a teacher, or with that kind of teaching. That is the kind of teaching that is worthless, and brings no result. Now, don’t say that I condemn helps. I believe in availing yourself of all the light you can get. What I want you to do, when you come into your classes, is to come prepared to explain the lesson without the use of a concordance. Bring the word of God with you; bring the old Book.