XXII
BIBLE STUDY AND MEMORY WORK
AIMS IN BIBLE STUDY.—SELF-CONTROL.—TRAINING THE MEMORY AND VOICE.—DIVINE TRUTH THE NEED OF ALL.—ONE BOOK IN THE HOME.—COMMITTED TO MEMORY.—THE BIBLE ONLY IN SUNDAY SCHOOL.—A LIFE-LONG GOLDEN TREASURE.—A FOUNTAIN OF BLESSING.—UPLIFTING POWER IN NEW HEBRIDES.
"Hold fast the form of sound words; ... that ye may be able to give to every one that asketh, a reason of the hope that is in you."—Paul.
The development of the Bible-memory work, that, during the later years of this period, moved forward very rapidly, was one of small beginnings and slow progress at first. The meetings were held at half past two o'clock on Sabbath afternoons.
The girls were formed into one class and their meeting was held in the sitting room of the Girls' Hall. The boys met immediately afterwards in the office of the superintendent in the Boys' Hall.
The weekly lesson consisted in committing to memory five to seven verses in the more important chapters of the New Testament and Psalms, commencing with the ten commandments in Exodus XX, 1-17. The passages assigned were read and studied every week in the school under the direction of the principal, in order that all the younger pupils, as well as the older ones, might be able to repeat them on Sabbath.
At the meetings, which were conducted by the superintendent, the lesson assigned would have to be read over several times in concert before their voices would acquire the right movement and expression. The effort to train the memory, by committing scripture verses, was one from which many of them shrank as being too irksome, and the weekly lesson of one verse a day would have to be repeated a number of times, before most of them could continue to be heard to the end of the lesson. The previous lessons were then reviewed, to fasten them more firmly on the memory. The advance lesson was then read together that all might surely know its place and extent.