In childhood, youth, and adulthood, Jesus studied the Scriptures. As a little child He was taught daily at His mother's knee from the scrolls of the prophets. In His youth the early morning and the evening twilight often found Him alone on the mountainside or among the trees of the forest, spending a quiet hour in prayer and the study of God's Word. During His ministry His intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures testifies to His diligence in their study. And since He gained knowledge as we may gain it, His wonderful mental and spiritual power is a testimony to the value of the Bible as a means of education.
Teach Children From an Early Age
In giving His Word our heavenly Father did not overlook the children. In all that mortals have written, where can anything be found that has such a hold on the heart, anything so well adapted to awaken the interest of little ones, as the stories of the Bible?
In these simple stories may be made plain the great principles of the law of God. Thus by illustrations best suited to a child's comprehension, parents and teachers may begin very early to fulfill the Lord's injunction concerning His precepts: "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." Deuteronomy 6:7.
The use of object lessons, maps, and pictures, will be an aid in explaining these lessons and fixing them in the memory. Parents and teachers should constantly seek for improved methods. The teaching of the Bible should have our freshest thought, our best methods, and our most earnest effort.
In arousing and strengthening a love for Bible study, much depends on the period of worship. Morning and evening worship should be the sweetest and most helpful time of the day. Into this time no troubled, unkind thoughts are to intrude. Parents and children assemble to meet with Jesus, and to invite holy angels into the home. The services should be brief and full of life, adapted to the occasion, and varied from time to time. Let all join in the Bible reading and learn and often repeat God's law. It will add to the interest of the children if sometimes they are permitted to select the reading. Question them about it, and let them ask questions. Mention anything that will serve to illustrate its meaning. When the service is not too lengthy, let the little ones take part in prayer and join in song, even if it is only a single verse.
To make such a service what it should be, thought should be given to preparation. And parents should take time daily for Bible study with their children. No doubt it will require effort and planning and some sacrifice to accomplish this, but the effort will be richly repaid.
In order to interest our children in the Bible, we ourselves must be interested in it. To awaken in them a love for its study, we must love it. Our instruction to them will have only the weight of influence given it by our own example and spirit.
God called Abraham to be a teacher of His word, and chose him to be the father of a great nation, because He saw that Abraham would instruct his children and his household in the principles of His law. And that which gave power to Abraham's teaching was the influence of his own life. His great household consisted of more than a thousand people, many of them heads of families, and not a few who were newly converted from heathenism. Such a household required a firm hand at the helm. No weak, vacillating methods would suffice.
Of Abraham God said, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him." Genesis 18:19, KJV. Yet his authority was exercised with such wisdom and tenderness that hearts were won. Abraham's influence extended beyond his own household. Wherever he pitched his tent, he set up beside it an altar for sacrifice and worship. When the tent was removed, the altar remained, and many a roving Canaanite, whose knowledge of God had been gained from the life of Abraham His servant, tarried at that altar to offer sacrifice to Jehovah.
No less effective today will be the teaching of God's Word when it finds as faithful a reflection in the teacher's life.
All Must Give Account of Themselves
It is not enough to know what others have thought or learned about the Bible. Everyone must in the judgment give account of himself or herself to God, and each should now learn personally what is truth. But in order to do effective study, the interest of the pupil must be enlisted. This is a matter not to be lost sight of, especially by teachers who have to deal with children and young people who differ widely in disposition, training, and habits of thought. In teaching the Bible to children, we may gain much by observing the bent of their minds, discovering the things in which they are interested, and arousing their interest to see what the Bible says about these things. He who created us, with our various aptitudes, has in His Word given something for everyone. As the students see that the lessons of the Bible apply to their own lives, teach them to look to it as a counselor.
Help them also to appreciate its wonderful beauty. Many books of no real value--books that are exciting and unhealthful--are recommended, or at least permitted to be used, because of their supposed literary value. Why should we direct our children to drink of these polluted streams when they may have free access to the pure fountains of the Word of God? The Bible has a fullness, a strength, a depth of meaning, that is inexhaustible. Encourage the children and youth to seek out its treasures both of thought and of expression.
As the beauty of these precious things attracts their minds, a softening, subduing power will touch their hearts. They will be drawn to Him who has thus revealed Himself to them. And there are few who will not desire to know more of His works and ways. Students of the Bible should be taught to approach it in the spirit of a learner. We are to search its pages, not for proof to sustain our opinions, but to know what God says.
A true knowledge of the Bible can be gained only through the aid of that Spirit by whom the Word was given. And in order to gain this knowledge we must live by it. All that God's Word commands, we are to obey. All that it promises, we may claim. The life that it enjoins is the life that, through its power, we are to live. Only as the Bible is thus held can it be studied effectively.
The study of the Bible demands our most diligent effort and persevering thought. As the miner digs for the golden treasure in the earth, so earnestly, persistently must we seek for the treasure of God's Word.
In daily study the verse-by-verse method is often most helpful. Let the student take one verse, and concentrate on ascertaining the thought that God has put into that verse for him or her. Then dwell on the thought until it becomes one's own. A single passage thus studied until its significance is clear is of more value than the perusal of many chapters with no definite purpose in view and no positive instruction gained.
One of the chief causes of mental inefficiency and moral weakness is the lack of concentration for worthy ends. We pride ourselves on the wide distribution of literature, but the multiplication of books, even books that in themselves are not harmful, may be a positive evil. With the immense tide of printed matter constantly pouring from the press, old and young form the habit of reading hastily and superficially, and the mind loses its power of connected and vigorous thought.
Furthermore, a large share of the periodicals and books that are overspreading the land like a plague, are not merely commonplace, idle, and enervating, they are unclean and degrading. Their effect is not merely to intoxicate and ruin the mind, but to corrupt and destroy the soul. The mind, the heart, that is indolent and aimless falls an easy prey to evil. It is on diseased, lifeless organisms that fungus takes root. It is the idle mind that is Satan's workshop. Let the mind be directed to high and holy ideals, let the life have a noble aim, an absorbing purpose, and evil finds little foothold.
Teach the youth, then, to give close study to the Word of God. Received into the soul, it will prove a mighty barricade against temptation. "Your word," the psalmist declares, "have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You." "By the word of Your lips, I have kept myself from the paths of the destroyer." Psalm 119:11; 17:4.
Compare Scripture With Scripture
The Bible is its own expositor. Scripture is to be compared with scripture. Students should learn to view the Word as a whole, and to see the relation of its parts. They should gain a knowledge of its grand central theme, of God's original purpose for the world, of the rise of the great controversy, and of the work of redemption. They should understand the nature of the two principles that are contending for supremacy, and should learn to trace their working through the records of history and prophecy, to the great consummation. They should see how this controversy enters into every phase of human experience, how in every act of life a person reveals one or the other of the two antagonistic motives, and that they are even now deciding on which side of the controversy they will be found.
Every part of the Bible is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. The Old Testament no less than the New should receive attention. As we study the Old Testament we shall find living springs bubbling up where the careless reader discerns only a desert.
The book of Revelation, in connection with the book of Daniel, especially demands study. Every God-fearing teacher should consider how most clearly to present the gospel that our Savior came in person to make known to His servant John--"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him, to show His servants things which must shortly take place." Revelation 1:1.
When real love for the Bible is awakened, and students begin to realize how vast is the field and how precious its treasure, they will desire to seize every opportunity for acquainting themselves with God's Word. Its study will not be restricted to any special time or place. This continuous study is one of the best means of cultivating a love for the Scriptures. Encourage students to keep their Bibles always with them. As they have opportunity, let them read a text and meditate on it, thus gaining some precious thought from the treasure house of truth.
The great motive powers of the soul are faith, hope, and love, and it is to these that Bible study, rightly pursued, appeals. The outward beauty of the Bible, the beauty of imagery and expression, is but the setting, as it were, for its real treasure--the beauty of holiness. In its record of the men and women who walked with God, we may catch glimpses of His glory. In the One "altogether lovely" we behold Him of whom all beauty of earth and heaven is but a dim reflection. As students of the Bible behold the Redeemer, there is awakened in the soul the mysterious power of faith, adoration, and love. The gaze is fixed upon Christ, and the beholders grow into the likeness of that which they adore.
The springs of heavenly peace and joy unsealed in the soul by the words of Inspiration will become a mighty river of influence to bless all who come within its reach. Let young Christians of today, those who are growing up with the Bible in their hands, receive its life-giving energy, and what streams of blessing will flow forth to the world!