How to master the English Bible : an experience, a method, a result, an illustration

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Cngitsl) Bible

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AN EXPERIENCE
A METHOD
A R E S U L T
AN ILLUSTRATION

By
REV. JAMES M. GRAY, D.D.

V
MINISTER IN THE REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH, AUTHOR OP

" SYNTHETIC BIBLE STUDIES," " THE BULWARKS OP THE

FAITH," "THE HISTORY OP THE HOLY DEAD," ETC.

CHICAGO
THE WINONA PUBLISHING COMPANY

1904

Lig5»*sv of 09N3RESS
Two O0BIC8 Received
SEP 3 1904
^ooyrtsrht Entry

CLASS CL XXC No.

<77£vz

COPY B

,A04

COPYRIGHT 1904

BY

THE WINONA PUBLISHING COMPANY

September

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. The Story of the Case . . .13
II. Explanation of the Method . .31

III. The Plan at Work .... 41

IV. Results in the Pulpit ... 59
V. Expository Outlines .... 77

NOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS

The author of this book requires no intro-
duction to the Bible-loving people of our time.
A time it is of unusual quickening in the study
of God's Word along spiritual and evangelical
lines, toward which, as the editor of a leading
newspaper has said, no one man has con-
tributed more than Rev. James M. Gray, D.D.

"He knows what is in the Book," says the
Christian Endeavor World, "as Dudley Buck
knows what majestic melody is in the great
organ in Carnegie Hall or Trinity, and when
he sounds the clear, strong notes of God's love,
of victory over sin, of the believer's assurance,
it is no wonder that thousands of young people
wax as enthusiastic over the Bible as others do
over athletics or art. ' '

The interdenominational Bible classes which
he has carried on, and to which his work
directly and indirectly has given rise, are the
largest and in other respects the most remark-
able known. His work has revolutionized the
method of teaching in some Sunday schools;
it has put life into dead prayer -meetings ; in
not a few instances it has materially helped to
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IRote b£ tbe ©ubltsfoers

solve the problem of the second service on the
Lord's day; it has been a boon to many pastors
in the labors of study and pulpit, whose
gratitude is outspoken; it has contributed to
the efficiency of foreign missionary workers,
whose testimony has come from the uttermost
parts of the earth ; and it has reacted bene-
ficially on the instruction given in the English
Bible in some of our home academies, smaller
colleges and seminaries. The secret of these
results is given in this book.

Nor is it as a Bible teacher only, but also as
a Bible preacher, that Dr. Gray holds a distin-
guished place in the current history of the
church. His expository sermons leave an
impress not to be effaced. Presbyteries and
ministerial associations are on record that they
have stirred communities to their depths.
Even secular editors, commonly unmoved by
ordinary types of evangelism, have written:
"Here is something new for the people, some-
thing fresh and suggestive for every active
mind, which the business interests of the city
cannot afford to neglect." The testimony of
one pastor given at a meeting of the presbytery is
practically that of scores of others throughout
the country. He had attended a series of
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Bote bs tbe publtsbers

popular meetings conducted by Dr. Gray, and
said: "I learned more during the few days I
listened to Dr. Gray about the true character
of preaching than I had learned in all my
seminary course and my twenty years of min-
istry. Because of what I learned there of true
expository preaching I shall hope to make the
last years of my ministry the very best of all."

The Interior holds up Dr. Gray in this re-
spect as an example "for all preachers of the
Gospel," adding that "for the pastor who
would make practical, spiritual use of the
Word in his ministry, feeding himself and his
people, the method which is characteristic of
his work is the right one."

We are glad that this book contains a prac-
tical application of all that the author has said
and taught to the results which may be gath-
ered from it in the pulpit.

The Publishers.

tTOtje g>tori? of tyt Case

f|oto to faster t^ e CttQlt^ Bible

PART I

THE STORY OF THE CASE

How to master the English Bible! High-
sounding title that, but does it mean what it
The Bible says? It is not how to study it,

Like a Farm but how to master it ; for there
is a sense in which the Bible must be mastered
before it can be studied, and it is the failure
to see this which accounts for other failures
on the part of many earnest would-be Bible
students. I suppose it is something like a
farm; for although never a farmer myself, I
have always imagined a farmer should know
his farm before he attempted to work it. How
much upland and how much lowland? How
much wood and how much pasture? Where
should the orchard be laid out? Where plant
my corn, oats, and potatoes? What plot is to
be seeded down to grass? When he has mas-
tered his farm he begins to get ready for results
from it.

Now there are many ways of studying the
Bible, any one of which may be good enough
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in itself, but there is only one way to master
it, as we shall see. And it is the Bible itself
we are to master, not books about the Bible,
nor yet * 'charts." I once listened to an
earnest and cultivated young man delivering a
lecture on Bible study, illustrated by a chart so
long that when he unrolled and held one end
of it above his head, as high as his arms could
reach, the other curled up on the floor below
the platform. As the auditor gazed upon its
labyrinthian lines, circles, crosses and other
things intended to illuminate it, and "gathered
up the loins of his mind" to listen to the ex-
planation following, it was with an inward sigh
of gratitude that God had never put such a
yoke upon us, "which neither we nor our
fathers were able to bear."

And it is the English Bible we are thinking
about, the Bible in the veruacular, the tongue
T- most of us best understand. One

vernacular is grateful to have studied He-
Tongues brew and Greek, just to be able
to tell others who have not that they do not
require either to hearken to our Heavenly
Father's voice. He has an advantage as a
scholar who can utilize the original tongues ;
but the Bible was not given to scholars, but
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to the people, and "hear we every man in our
own tongue wherein we were born" (Acts 2:8).
It is not at all inconsistent to add that he who
masters the Engish Bible is possessed of the
strongest inducement to study it in Hebrew
and Greek.

That which follows grows largely out of the
writer's personal experience. For the first
eight or ten years of my ministry I did not
know my English Bible as I should have known
it, a fact to which my own spiritual life and
the character of my pulpit ministrations bore
depressing witness. Nor was I so fortunate as
to meet with more than one or two brethren
in the ministry who knew their English Bible

The Bible m very mucn better than I knew
tne Seminary mine. They all declared that
the theological seminaries did not profess to
teach the English Bible. They taught much
about the Bible of great importance for min-
isters to know, such as the Hebrew and Greek
tongues, the principles of exegesis and inter-
pretation, the history of the text, and the proofs
and illustrations of Christian doctrine; but, in
the words of one of the ministers referred to
(which have appeared in print), "while we
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had some special lessons in one or two of the
epistles, several of the psalms, in some of the
prophecies, and in a few select portions of
the gospels, other and vastly important parts
of the Bible were left out altogether. We had
nothing on the book of Eevelation, no elabo-
rate study of the Mosaic ritual and its pro-
found system of types, and especially were we
left uninitiated into the minute and wonderful
coordination of parts in the various books of
the Old and New Testaments, which disclose a
stupendous divine plan running through the
whole, linking them all together as an indis-
soluble unit and carrying with them an amazing
power of conviction."

The seminaries have assumed that students
were acquainted with the great facts of the
English Bible and their relation to one another
before matriculation, but so competent an
authority as President Harper declares that
"to indicate the line of thought and chief ideas
of a particular prophet, or the argument of an
epistle, or to state even the most important
events in the life of our Lord, would be im-
possible for the average college graduate." It
is such an unfortunate state of things which,
to a certain extent, accounts for the rise and
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maintenance of those excellent institutions, the
Moody Bible Institute in this country and
Spurgeon's College in London, with their
almost countless offspring and imitators
everywhere, creating as they have a distinct
atmosphere of biblical and evangelistic teach-
ing and preaching. It is commonly supposed,
it may be said in passing, that these institu-
tions cater to or attract only men or women
of very limited educational attainments, but
in the case of the first-named, at least, an inci-
dental census taken recently disclosed the fact
that one-third of the male students then on
the rolls or who had lately left were college-
trained; one may safely hazard the opinion
that in the woman's department the propor-
tion of college-trained students would hav'e
been still larger.

The first practical help I ever received in
the mastery of the English Bible was from a
Help from a layman. We were f ellow-attend-
Layman ants at a certain Christian con-

ference or convention and thrown together a
good deal for several days, and I saw some-
thing in his Christian life to which I was a
comparative stranger — a peace, a rest, a joy,
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a kind of spiritual poise I knew little about.
One day I ventured to ask him how he had
become possessed of the experience, when he
replied, "By reading the epistle to the Ephe-
sians." I was surprised, for I had read.it
without such results, and therefore asked him
to explain the manner of his reading, when he
related the following : He had gone into the
country to spend the Sabbath with his family
on one occasion, taking with him a pocket
copy of Ephesians, and in the afternoon, going
out into the woods and lying down under a
tree, he began to read it ; he read it through at
a single reading, and finding his interest
aroused, read it through again in the same
way, and, his interest increasing, again and
again. I think he added that he read it some
twelve or fifteen times, "and when I arose to go
into the house," said he, "I was in possession
of Ephesians, or better yet, it was in possession
of me, and I had been 'lifted up to sit to-
gether in heavenly places in Christ Jesus' in
an experimental sense in which that had not
been true in me before, and will never cease to
be true in me again."

I confess that as I listened to this simple
recital my heart was going up in thanksgiving
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to God for answered prayer, the prayer
really of months, if not years, that I might
3ome to know how to master His Word. And
yet, side by side with the thanksgiving was
humiliation that I had not discovered so sim-
ple a principle before, which a boy of ten or
twelve might have known. And to think that
an "ordained" minister must sit at the feet of a
layman to learn the most important secret of
his trade !

Since that day, however, the writer has
found some comfort in the thought that other
Dr. stalker's ministers have had a not unlike
Experience experience. In an address before
the National Bible Society of Scotland, the
Rev. Dr. Stalker speaks of the first time he
ever "read a whole book of the Bible straight
through at a sitting." It was while as a
student he was spending a winter in France,
and there being no Protestant church in the
town where he was passing a Sunday, he was
thrown on his own resources. Leaving the
hotel where he was staying, he lay down on
a green knoll and began reading here and there
as it chanced, till, coming to the epistle to
the Romans, he read on and on through to
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the end. "As I proceeded," lie said, "I
began to catch the drift of Paul's thought;
or rather, I was caught by it and drawn on.
The mighty argument opened out and arose
like a great work of art above me till at last
it enclosed me within its perfect proportions.
It was a revolutionary experience. I saw for
the first time that a book of Scripture is a
complete discussion of a single subject; I felt
the force of the book as a whole, and I under-
stood the different parts in the light of the
whole as I had never understood them when
reading them by themselves. Thus to master
book after book is to fill the mind with the
great thoughts of God."

Let me now speak of what I, personally,
began to do after the suggestion of the layman,

The Author's for tlie results which, in the
Plan providence of God, have grown

out of it seem to warrant dwelling upon it
even at the risk of prolixity on the one hand
or the suspicion of egotism on the other. At
first, supposing it more desirable to read the
books in the original than the vernacular, I
began to memorize some of the smaller epistles
in Greek, but the Lord showed me "a more
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excellent way" in view of the purpose which
the event proved Him to have had in mind in
the matter. Accordingly, ignoring the Bible
tongues for the time, I read Genesis through
in the English at a single reading, and then
repeated the process again and again until the
book in its great outlines had practically become
mine. Then I took up Exodus in the same
way, Leviticus, Numbers, and practically all
the other books of the Old and New Testa-
ments to Eevelation, with the exception of
Proverbs, the Psalms and one or two others
which do not lend themselves readily to that
plan of reading, and indeed do not require it
to their understanding and mastery. I am
careful to emphasize the fact that I did not
read the Bible "in course," as it is commonly
understood. One might read it in that way a
great many times and not master it in the
sense indicated above. The plan was to read
and reread each book by itself and in its order,
as though there were no other in existence,
until it had become a part of the very being.

"Was the task tedious and long? No more
than was Jacob's when he served Laban for
his daughter Rachel. There were compensa-
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tions all along the way and ever-increasing
delight. No romance ever held sway over the
Joy and thought and imagination in com-

Power parison with this Book of books.

A better investment of time were never made
by any minister ; and, shut me up to-day to a
choice between all the ministerial lore I ever
learned elsewhere and what was learned in this
synthetic reading of the Bible, and it would not
take me many minutes to decide in favor of
the latter. Nor did I know until lately how
closely my feeling in this respect harmonized
with that of a great educator and theologian

Dean Burgon of an earlier da?- Dean Burgon
and Dr. Routh tells of an interview he had in

1846 with the learned president of Magdalen

College, Oxford, Dr. Martin Joseph Routh,

then aged ninety-one. He had called upon him

for advice as to the best way of pursuing his

theological studies.

"I think, sir," said Dr. Routh, "were I you,

sir — that I would — first of all — read the — the

Gospel according to St. Matthew." Here he

paused. "And after I had read the Gospel

according to St. Matthew — I would — were I

you, sir — go on to read — the Gospel according

to St.— Mark."

XTbe Stors ot tbe Case

"I looked at him," says Dean Burgon,
* 'anxiously, to see whether he was serious.
One glance was enough. He was giving me,
but at a very slow rate, the outline of my
future course."

"Here was a theologian of ninety-one," says
the narrator of this incident, "who, after sur-
veying the entire field of sacred science, had
come back to the starting point, and had
nothing better to advise me to read than — the
Gospel!" And thus he kept on until he had
mentioned all the books of the New Testament.
Sad, however, that the story should have been
spoiled by his not beginning at Genesis!

Words fail me to express the blessing that
reading has been to me — strengthening my
Lightening conviction as to the integrity and
Lat>or plenary inspiration of the whole

Book, enlarging my mental vision as to the
divine plan along the line of dispensational
truth, purifying my life and lightening my
labors in the ministry until that which before
had often been a burden and weariness to the
flesh, became a continual joy and delight.

To speak of this last-named matter a little
further. The claims on a city pastor in these
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days are enough to break down the strongest
men, especially when their pulpit preparation
involves the production of two orations or fin-
ished theses each week for which they must
"read up in systematic treatises, philosophic
disquisitions, works of literature, magazine
articles and what not, drawing upon their
ingenuity of invention and fertility of imagina-
tion all the time in order to be original, strik-
ing, elegant and fresh." But when they come
to know their Bible, and get imbued with its
lore and anointed by the Spirit through whom
it speaks, "sermonizing" will give place to
preaching — the preaching that God bids us to
preach, the exposition of His own Word,
which is not only much easier to do, but cor-
respondingly more fruitful in spiritual results.
And, indeed, it is the kind of preaching that
people want to hear — all kinds of people, the
converted and the unconverted, the rich and
the poor. A wide experience convinces me
of this. Here is the minister's field, his
specialty, his throne. He may not be a mas-
ter in other things ; he may and should be a
master in this. The really great preachers
to-day, the MacLarens, the Torreys, the Camp-
bell Morgans, are Bible expounders. George
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Whitefield, in Boston, had a congregation of
two thousand people at six o'clock in the
morning to hear him "expound the Bible."
The people trod on Jesus to hear the Word of
God, and if pastors only knew it, it is the way
to get and to hold the people still.

My experience in the premises soon began to
be that of others. Some theological students
under my care at the time under-
bid the°0dy *°°k ^e mas^ery °f ^ne English
Bible classes1 Bible *n tne same wav an(* with
the same blessing. Then the
work began to broaden, and God's further
purpose to reveal itself. Such Bible institutes
as those already spoken of, organized for the
purpose of training Christian young men and
women as evangelists, pastors' helpers, mis-
sionaries, and gospel workers generally, were in
need of some simple, yet practical, method of
putting their students in possession of the
facts of the Word of God for use among the
people with whom they had to deal, and God
had been making ready to supply their need.
But out of these institutes again have grown
those large interdenominational Bible classes
which have become a feature of our church life
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in different parts of the country. Their origin
is traceable, like that of so many other good
things of the kind, to the suggestion and sup-
port of the late D. L. Moody. One summer,
while conducting a special course of Bible
study in the Chicago Institute, he said to the
writer: "If this synthetic method of teaching
the Bible is so desirable for and popular with
our day classes, why would it not take equally
well with the masses of the people on a large
scale? If I arrange for a mass meeting in the
Chicago Avenue Church, will you speak to the
people on 'How to Master the English Bible'
and let us see what will come of it?" The
suggestion being acted upon, as a result about
four hundred persons out of some one thousand
present that evening resolved themselves into
a union Bible class for the synthetic study of
the Bible under the leadership of Mr. William
E. Newell, then assistant superintendent of
the Institute. This class continued to meet
regularly once a week with unabated interest
throughout the whole of that fall and winter,
and the next year had multiplied into five
classes held in different parts of the city, on
different evenings of the week, but under the
same teacher, and with an aggregate member-
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ship of over four thousand. The year follow-
ing, this had increased to over five thousand,
two or three of the classes averaging separately
an attendance of twelve hundred to fifteen
hundred. Since that time several similar
classes have attained a membership approach-
ing two thousand, and one, in Toronto, to
nearly four thousand. At the time of this
writing, in the heat of the summer, such a
class is being held weekly in Chicago. From
Chicago the work spread in other cities of the
East and Middle West, and under other teach-
ers. Classes for briefer periods have been car-
ried on in Canada and Great Britain. A
religious weekly organized a class to be con-
ducted through its columns, enrolling tens of
thousands in its membership, and through its
influence many pastors, Y. M. C. A. and
Y. W. C. A. workers have instituted classes in
their own fields which have, in turn, multi-
plied the interest in the popular study of the
English Bible in increasing ratio.

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Explanation of tbe /IDetbofc

PART II

EXPLANATION OF THE METHOD

The contents of the preceding pages may be
said to be preliminary to the definition or de-
scription of what the synthetic study of the
Bible is ; for by that name the method to be
described has come to be called. The word
"synthesis" suggests the opposite idea to the
word "analysis." When we analyze a subject
we take it apart and consider it in its various
elements, but when we "synthesize" it, so to
speak, we put it together and consider it as a
whole. Now the synthetic study of the Bible
means, as nearly as possible, the study of the
Bible as a whole, and each book of the Bible as
a whole, and as seen in its relation to the other
books.

A very dear Christian friend and neighbor,
the late A. J. Gordon, D.D., used to tell an
A colored amusing story of a conversation

critic with a deacon of a church for

colored people in his proximity. He asked
the deacon how the people liked their new
pastor, and was surprised to hear him say,
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"Not berry much." When pressed for an
explanation he added that the pastor told "too
many 'antidotes' in the pulpit." "Why,"
said the doctor, "I'm surprised to hear that;
I thought he was a great Bible man."
"Well," replied the deacon, "I'll tell yer how
'tis. He's de best man I ebber seed to tak'
de Bible apart, but he dunno how to put it
togedder agin." Principal Cairns, I think it
was, who heard this story, said it was the best
illustration of the distinction between the con-
structive and destructive criticism to which he
had ever listened. The synthetic study of the
Bible, it may be said in a word, is an attempt
to put it together rather than to take it apart.

To illustrate, I have always felt a sort of
injury in the way I was taught geography;

Illustrations caPes and ha?s> and lakes and
of the Method rivers were sought to be crowded

on my understanding before I ever saw a

globe. Should not the globe come first, then

the hemispheres, continents, nations, capitals,

and the rest? Does not a view of the whole

materially assist in the comprehension of the

parts? Is it not vital to it, indeed? And

history — what is the true method of its study?

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Is it not first the outline history of the world,
then its great divisions, ancient, mediaeval,
modern, then the separate peoples or kingdoms
in each, and so on? How could you hope to
interest a child in botany who had never seen
a flower? How would you study a picture of a
landscape? Would you cover the canvas with
a cloth and study one feature of it at a time?
What idea of it would you obtain under such
circumstances? Would you not rather say,
"Hang it in the proper light, let me get the
right position with regard to it, and take it
all in at a single glance, fasten the whole of
it at once on the camera of my consciousness,
and then I shall be able and interested after-
ward to study it in detail, and to go into the
questions of proportion, and perspective, and
shading, and coloring and all that"? Is it
not the failure to adopt the corresponding
plan in Bible study which accounts in large
measure for the lack of enthusiastic interest
in its prosecution on the part of the people?

It is assuring to discover that the American

Bible League, which promises to do much to

quicken Bible study among the people along

lines of faith in its integrity as the revealed

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Word of God, has reached almost precisely the
same conclusion as to method. The esteemed
The American secretary of that league, Eev.
Bible League D. S. Gregory, D.D., LL.D., a
man of wide experience in educational and
literary lines other than those of the promulga-
tion of Bible truth, charges the present ignor-
ance of the Bible, "everywhere in evidence,"
to the failure of the old methods of its study.
To quote his words in the "Bible Student
and Teacher":

"The fragmentary method was tried for a
generation or two. We were kept studying
the comments upon verse after verse, on the
tacit assumption that no verse had any con-
nection with any other verse, until we wearied
of that, and would have no more of it.

"So the lesson systems came in, and we have
had series upon series of such systems, show-
ing that men deeply felt that there was need of
system in the study of the Bible. But these
systems have been artificial, all of them; the
latest of all the most so of all. The men who
have been engaged in preparing them deserve
our gratitude. They have done the best they
could, doubtless; and we will look for more
light and improvement for the time to come.
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Explanation ot tbe /iDetbofc

But you hear everywhere that the people are
weary of lesson systems. They are so because
the systems are artificial, and because they do
not take you directly to the Bible as the Word
of God, but rather by means of most useful
lesson leaves and other devices take you away
from it.

"And it is impossible to grasp the system,
however valuable it may be. You study in
seven years your three hundred and fifty les-
sons in a so-called system ; and at the end of
the seven years the best memory in Christen-
dom has been found unable to hold that sys-
tem so as to tell what has been taught in that
time. When you have passed on from each
lesson you have lost its connection with the
Bible, and lost the lesson, too."

It is the judgment of this same observer that
these "fragmentary methods" account, in

Rationalism Part> foy the. assaulfc of the ra"
Sunday tionalistic critics upon the work

school 0f the Sunday school. "There

was a call for something better, a 'vacuum'
in the minds of teachers and professors in
charge of instruction in the Bible, and just
at the psychological moment there came all
this German material — interesting, ingenious,
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imaginative, ready to fill that vacuum. The
two needs meet, and so we have had our recent
development of the critical system of studying
and presenting the Bible, which they are seek-
ing now to introduce into all the schools and
colleges and Sunday schools.

"That critical method has taken the Bible
apart into bits and scraps and scattered it to
the ends of the earth, as we have heard and
have reason to know. When one comes upon
its results he feels that he does not know
exactly where he is."

Men hate bits and scraps, as this writer says,
and as Bible teachers we should bring our
methods into harmony with their natural con-
structive sense. Like the expert mountain
climber, let us take them to the highest peak
first, that they may see the whole range, and
then they can intelligently and enthusiastically
study the features of the lower levels in their
relation to the whole. The opposite plan is
confusing and a weariness to the flesh. Give
people to see for themselves what the Bible is
in the large, and then they will have a desire
to see it in detail. Pat a telescope in their
hands first, and a microscope afterwards.
Martin Luther used to say that he studied the
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Explanation ot tbe /Ifeetbofc

Bible as he gathered apples. He shook the
tree first, then the limbs, then the branches,

Luther and the and after that he reached out
Apple Tree under the leaves for the remain-
ing fruit. The reverse order is monotonous
in either case — studying the Bible or gathering
apples.

37

Ww plan at Igorfe

XTbe plan at TKHorft

paet ill

THE PLAtf AT WORK

There are certain simple rules to be observed
in the synthetic study of the Bible if we want

Begin at the ^° master ^, an^ the first is to
Beginning begin to study it where God

began to write it, i.e., at the book of Genesis.
The newer criticism would dispute this state-
ment about the primary authorship of Genesis,
but the best answer to the objection is to try
the plan. As Dr. Smith says in his "The
Integrity of Scripture": "Inherent in revela-
tion there is a self- witness. The latest portion
points to the beginning, and the beginning,
with all that may be limited and provisional,
contains the germ of the end. God's discovery
of Himself is not an episode, but rooted in a
vast breadth of the world's life, intertwined
with human history, and growing from less to
more, as in this divine education and discipline
man became capable of receiving the full self-
unveiling of God."

Dr. Ashmore, for fifty years an honored
missionary of the American Baptist Missionary
41

fboxo to /IDaster tbe Englfsb 3Bible

Union at Shanghai, relates the following, which
furnishes a practical illustration of this
thought. At one time he and his brother mis-
sionaries started a Bible school for their young
converts, and began to teach them the epistle
to the Hebrews. Now the Chinese are remark-
able for an inquiring disposition, and questions
began to descend upon the teachers to such a
degree that they were compelled to forego
their purpose to teach Hebrews and go back to
Leviticus as explanatory of or introductory to
it. But the teaching of Leviticus produced
the same result, and they went back to Exodus.
And from Exodus they were driven to Genesis,
when the questions materially abated. The
Bible is wondrously self -interpretive if we will
give it an opportunity, and that opportunity is
afforded if in its perusal we will wisely and sub-
missively follow the channel marked out by its
divine Author.

The second rule is to read the book. It is

not asked that it be studied in the ordinary

sense, or memorized, or even

sought to be understood at first ;

but simply read. The purpose is to make

the task as easy, as natural, and as pleasant as

42

XTbe plan at Worft

possible. It matters not, for the time being,
how rapidly yon read it, if yon bnt read it.
But is it not strange that this is one of the last
things many really earnest Christians and seek-
ers after Bible truth are willing to do? They
will read books about the Bible almost without
limit, but to read the books of the Bible itself
is another matter. But how could one master
any corresponding subject by such a method?
And is it not dishonoring to God for any
reason to treat His authorship thus? We are
living in a time when, if only for good form,
we feel an obligation to be acquainted with the
best authors. But shall we say that Dante, or
Shakespeare, or any other of the masters is
able to interest us in what he wrote, while He
who created him is unable to do so? Are we
prepared to confess that God cannot write a
book as capable of holding our attention as
that of one of His creatures? What an indict-
ment we are writing down against ourselves
in saying that, and how it convinces us of
sin!

I know a lady who once traveled a long dis-
tance on a railroad with her trunk unlocked,
and when she met her husband at the terminus
and reported the circumstance there was
43

Ifcow to flDaster tbe Bnalfsb Bible

naturally some emotion in her speech. She
had been unable to find the key anywhere, she
said, and only discovered its loss at too late a
moment to have another fitted before she
started upon her journey. And the trunk with
all its treasures had come that whole distance
with only a strap around it. "Why," ex-
claimed her husband, "do you not recall that
when we come home from a journey I always
fasten the key of the trunk to one of its
handles? There's your key," pointing to the
end of the trunk. The incident is recalled by
the so frequent inquiry one hears for a "key"
to the Bible. Its Author has provided one,
and to the average person, at least in this
enlightened country, it is always at hand.
Eead the book.

The third rule is, read the book continu-
ously. I think it is in his lecture on "The

Read it Lost Arts' ' that Wende11 Phillips

Continuously tells the story of the weaver who
turned out so much more material from his
loom than any other workman in the mill.
How was it done? In vain was the secret
sought, until one day a bribe from one of his
employers elicited the information, "Chalk the
44

Ube flMan at Timorft

bobbins." Each morning he had carried a
piece of chalk with him to his loom, and when
unobserved, applied it to that small but im-
portant part of the machinery. The result
was astonishing. The application of the chalk
to every bobbin of every loom of every work-
man made his employers rich. Who cannot
supplement this story with some other where a
principle just as simple wrought results as
great? Try it in the case of the continuous
reading of a given book of the Bible, and see
what it will do.

But what is the meaning of " continuous" in
this instance? The adjective may not be the
most lucid, but the idea is this : It stands for
two things — the reading of the book uninflu-
enced by its divisions into chapters and verses,
and the reading of the book in this way at a
single sitting. The divisions, it should be
remembered, are of human origin and not
divine, and, while effecting a good purpose in
some particulars, are a hindrance to the mas-
tery of the book in others. Sometimes a
chapter or a verse will cut a truth in half,
whose halves state a different fact or teach a
different doctrine from that intended by the
whole, and necessarily affecting the conception
45

1foow to /toaster tbe lEnglisb JBible

of the outline. As to the " single sitting," the
reason for it is this. Many of the books of the
Bible have a single thread running through
the whole — a pivotal idea around which all the
subsidiary ones revolve — and to catch this
thread, to seize upon this idea, is absolutely
necessary to unravel or break up the whole in
its essential parts. To read Genesis in this
way, for example, will lead to the discovery
that, large as the book is, it contains but five
great or outline facts, viz. :

The history of creation.

The history of the fall.

The history of the deluge.

The history of the origin of the nations.

The history of the patriarchs.

It is, then, a book of history, and the larger
part of it history of the biographical sort.
This last-named fact can be subdivided again
into four facts, viz., the histories of Abra-
ham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and thus the
whole book can be kept in mind in a very
practical way in eight words. Moreover, the
reading necessary to have gained the eight
words will unconsciously have fastened upon
the understanding the subsidiary facts asso-
ciated with each word, so that a very satis-
46

TTbe flMan at WLoxk

factory examination might be passed as to the
contents of the whole book.

The fourth rule is to read the book repeat-
edly. The reader will understand that by the
Read it "book" in every case is meant

Repeatedly the particular book of the Bible,
Genesis, for example, which it is now being
sought to master, and which is not to be laid
aside for any other succeeding book of the
Bible until the mastery is assured. This can-
not usually be accomplished by one reading,
but only by repeated readings after the man-
ner designated. A stranger sailing along
the New England coast on a foggy morning
could hardly believe there were a coast. But
later, when the sun rises and the fog begins
to dissipate, there is, at first, a line of sandy
beach discernible, then a cluster or two of
rocks, then a little verdure, a house or two, a
country road, the wooded hillside, until at
length the whole of the beautiful landscape
stands out in view. It is much the same in
the synthetic reading of a given book of the
Bible. The first view is not always satisfac-
tory, and it requires a little courage to try
again and again ; but the effort brings a won-
47

1bow to /IDastet tbe Englfsb Bible

derful and inspiring result at last. The first
reading of Genesis may not reveal what was
spoken of above, but two or three readings will
reveal it.

Leviticus is more difficult than Genesis or
even Exodus, because it is dealing with laws
and ordinances rather than historic happen-
ings; but as soon as you discover that its
theme is laws, these latter will begin to differ-
entiate themselves before your mind and natu-
rally suggest a simple classification such as
this:

The law of the offerings.

The law of the consecration of the priests.

The law of the clean and the unclean.

The law of the day of atonement.

The law of the feasts.

The law of the redemption of land and slaves.

The law of the year of jubilee.

What a great and indispensable aid such a
classification is for any further study of that
book or, for that matter, any other part of the
Bible to which this revelation of the cere-
monial law is particularly related ! Even the
Old Testament prophets, which some have
described as "the desert of the Scriptures,"
will "rejoice and blossom as the rose" under
48

Ube JMan at TKHorfe

such treatment as this, the discourses readily
distinguishing themselves by structure and
subject. And, of course, the Xew Testament
will possess far less difficulty than the Old.

The fifth rule is to read it independently —
i.e., independently, at first at least, of all corn-
Read it mentaries and other outside aids.
Independently These are invaluable in their
place, of course, but in the mastery of the
English Bible in the present sense, that place
is not before but after one has gotten an out-
line of a given book for himself. Indeed, an
imperfect or erroneous outline of one's own is
better than a perfect outline of another. The
necessity to alter it when, by comparison, the
error is discovered may prove a valuable dis-
cipline and education.

The independent reading of a book in this
sense is urged because of its development of
one's own intellectual powers. To be ever
leaning on help from others is like walking on
stilts all one's life and never attempting to
place one's feet on the ground. Who can ever
come to know the most direct and highest type
of the teaching of the Holy Spirit in this way?
Who can ever understand the most precious
49

tbow to /IDaster tbe Bnslfsb Bible

and thrilling experiences of spiritual illumina-
tion thus? Should you wish to teach others,
how could you communicate to them that
sense of your own -mastery of the subject so
vital to a pedagogue had you never really dealt
with it at first hand? One of our millionaires
is reported as carrying a cow around with him
on his yacht because he dislikes condensed
milk. It is a great gain to so know the Bible
for yourself that, carrying it with you wherever
you go, you may be measurably independent of
other books in its study and use.

But there is another reason for the inde-
pendent reading of the book, and that is the
deliverance from intellectual confusion which
it secures. The temptation is, when an inter-
pretive difficulty is reached, to turn at once to
the commentary for light, which means so very
often that the reader has become side-tracked
for good, or rather bad, as the situation is now
viewed. The search for the solution of one
little difficulty leads to searching for another,
and that for another, until, to employ F. B.
Meyer's figure, we have "become so occupied
with the hedgerows and the copses of the land-
scape as to lose the conception of the whole
sweep and extent of the panorama of truth. ' '
50

XTbe BMan at TBGlork

The "intensive" has been pursued to the great
disadvantage of the "extensive," and usually
there is nothing to be done but to begin all
over again, for which every reader does not
possess the required courage.

And there is an advantage in this inde-
pendent reading from the teacher's point of
view, too, as well as that of the learner. How
many pastors through the country have spoken
of the success the synthetic method has been
to them in attracting their people to the house
of God and awakening in them a real interest
in Bible study! That is, what a success it has
been up to a certain , point, when they got
"swamped," to use the very expressive word
of more than one of them! Swamped? How?
Investigation has always revealed the one
cause, and brought the one confession — a fail-
ure to diligently and faithfully pursue the
method in consequence of the temptation to
investigate minutiae and multiply details.
There is lying before me at this moment the
debris of a collapse of this kind. A devoted
pastor sends me the printed syllabus of his
work with his congregation covering the Hexa-
teuch. They were so delighted and so helped
by it until now, when there has come a
51

1bow to /toaster tbe Englisb Bible

"hitch." He fears he is getting away from
the plan, and giving and expecting too much.
And his work reveals the ground of his fears.
Such work belongs to the pastor in his study,
but not on the platform before a popular
audience in Bible teaching. And if it will
"swamp" the trained and cultivated teacher,
how much more the inexperienced learner ! A
faithful reading of the various books on an
independent basis will secure a working out-
line, and this should be carried with one in his
mind, and on his note-book, as he proceeds
from book to book, until the work is done.
Then he can successively begin his finer work,
and analyze his outline, and study helps, and
gather light, and accumulate material, without
confusion of thought, without a false per-
spective, and with an ever-increasing sense of
joy and power.

The most important rule is the last. Read
it prayerfully. Let not the triteness of the
Read it observation belittle it, or all is

Prayerfully iost. The point is insisted on
because, since the Bible is a supernatural
book, it can be studied or mastered only by su-
pernatural aid. In the words of William Luff,
52

Gbe ©Ian at TKIlorfe

"It is the Spirit's Bible! Copyright every word!
Only His thoughts are uttered, only His voice is
heard!"

Who is so well able to illuminate the pages
of a given book as the author who composed
it? How often when one has been reading
Browning has he wished Browning were at his
side to interpret Browning! But the Holy
Spirit, by whom holy men of old wrote, dwells
within the believer on Jesus Christ for the very
purpose of bringing things to his remembrance
and guiding him into all the truth. Coleridge
said, "The Bible without the Holy Spirit is a
sundial by moonlight, " and a greater than he
said, "We have received, not the spirit of the
world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we
might know the things that are freely given us
of God" (I Corinthians 2:12). That dear
old Scottish saint, Andrew Bonar, discrimi-
nated between a minister's getting his text
from the Bible, and getting it from God
through the Bible ; a fine distinction that holds
good not only with reference to the selection
of a text to preach upon, but with reference to
the apprehension spiritually of any part of the
Word of God. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of
53

t>ow to /faster tfoe JEnalteb Bible

man, the things which God hath prepared for
them that love him; but God hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit" (I Corinthians
2 : 9, 10). The inspired apostle does not say-
God has revealed them unto us by His Word,
though they are in His "Word; but by His
Spirit through His Word. "For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of
God. For what man knoweth the things of a
man, save the spirit of the man which is in
him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God."

There is a parallel passage to the above in
the first chapter of Ephesians which has always
impressed the writer with great force. Paul
had been unveiling the profoundest verities of
holy writ to the Ephesians, and then he prays
that the eyes of their heart (R. V.) might be
enlightened to understand, to know what he
had unveiled. He had been telling them what
was the hope of their calling, and the riches of
the glory of God's inheritance in the saints,
and the exceeding greatness of His power
toward them that believe ; but how could they
apprehend what he had told them, save as the
Holy Spirit took of these things of Christ and
showed them unto them? The Word of God is
54

XTbe plan at TJClorfe

not enough without the Spirit of God. In the
light of the foregoing, let the reader punctuate
the reading of it and every part of it with
prayer to its divine Author, and he will come
to know "How to Master the English Bible."

55

Results in tlje pulpit

IResults in tbe pulpit

PAET IV

KESULTS IN THE PULPIT

In the preceding pages the consideration of
the lay reader has been in the foreground,
though the ministry has not been out of mind.
But in what follows the writer ventures to
address his brethren of the ministry, especially
his younger brethren, most particularly. In
vain we seek to interest the people in Bible
study in any permanent or general way except
as they are stimulated thereto by the instruc-
tion and example of their ministers.

There must be even more than an example.
In connection with a Bible conference in a
A Vitiated c^ °^ ^e Middle West, a private
Taste gathering of pastors was held, at

which one of them arose and with deep emo-
tion said: "Brethren, I have a confession to
make. I know not whether it will fit in with
the experience of any others, but I have been
guilty of cultivating in my people a vitiated
taste for preaching, and henceforth, by God's
help, I intend to give them His own Word."
To search the Scriptures on their own account,
59

1bow to flDaster tbe Enaifsb Bible

the people of our churches must acquire a taste
for their contents. They must be constantly
fed with the bread of life to have an appetite
for it. They will " desire the sincere milk of
the word," if so be "they have tasted that the
Lord is gracious." But to what extent do
they "taste" it in the ordinary pulpit ministra-
tions of the day?

The Honorable Leslie M. Shaw, Secretary of
the Treasury, gave an address recently in
Secretary Washington, on the occasion of

Shaw a Sunday school jubilee, which

interested the writer deeply. He was plead-
ing for the Sunday school on the ground that
it was the only place at present in which the
Bible was taught. "It is not now taught in
the public schools," said he, "nor am I here
to say that it ought to be taught there. In
our busy life it is not taught in our homes.
The head of the family ought to be a priest,
but the Bible is seldom read, much less taught,
in the home. It is seldom taught in the pul-
pit. Not that I am criticising the ministry.
But take up a paper and see what the sermons
are to be about. You will learn about the plan
of salvation if you listen to the sermons, but
you will not know much about the Bible if you
60

IResults in tbc pulpit

depend on getting your knowledge of it from
the pulpit." He then went on to say that
"the only place on this earth where the Bible
is taught is in the Sunday school." When,
however, we consider the character of the
average Sunday school, the scraps and bits of
the Bible there taught, the brief period of time
devoted to the teaching, the lack of discipline
in the classes, and the inadequate training and
preparation of the average teacher, we begin to
inquire, Where is the Bible taught? and won-
der whether we have fallen on the times of the
prophet :

Behold, the days come, saith the
Lord God, that I will send a famine
in the land, not a famine of bread,
nor a thirst for water, but of hearing
the words of the Lord ; and they shall
wander from sea to sea, and from the
north even to the east, they shall run
to and fro to seek the word of the
Lord, and shall not find it. — Amos
8:11, 12.

I am with Professor Shailer Mathews,
D.D., in some of his strictures on the modern
Sunday school, if only it be allowed that
there are not a few blessed exceptions to the
rule he lays down. I do not know how we
61

t>ow to /IDaster tbe Englisb Bible

should agree as to a remedy for present con-
ditions, but one remedy would be, where there

is a Bible expositor in the pulpit,
Professor Math- , n *\t. , . , ,

ews on the to do away with certain features

of the Sunday school altogether
for the time being. The infant or primary
departments might be retained as they are,
and possibly the Bible classes for older adults,
but the intermediate classes would do well to
be gathered together under the instruction
only of the pastor himself. In time, such a
plan would beget enough teachers of the right
quality and spirit to return to the former
method if desired. The cabinet officer's warn-
ing and appeal are timely, for an awful har-
vest of infidelity and its attendant evils must
be reaped in the next generation should the
church fail to arise to her responsibility as to
the teaching of the unadulterated Word of Grod
in the present one.

It is for this reason that the writer pleads
with his brethren to make expository preach-
ing the staple of their pulpit ministrations.
Should they have read the previous chapters
in a sympathetic spirit, they will begin to do
this without much urging even where they
have been strangers to it hitherto. But if
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IResults in tbe pulpit

otherwise, then a further word, before our con-
cluding chapter, as to the history and prac-
ticality of that kind of preaching, may throw
them back on what has been said before in
such a way as to catch the spirit of it and be
influenced by it.

Expository sermons differ from the textual
not so much in kind as in degree. For exam-
ple, the text is usually longer,
Expository r ,' .... . J . & ,

sermons and more attention is given to

the explanation of the words.
The text, indeed, may cover several verses, a
whole chapter, or parts of more than one
chapter. And the treatment need not neces-
sarily be confined to the definition of words,
but include the adjustment of the text to the
context, and the amplification and illustra-
tion of the various ideas suggested.

Dr. James W. Alexander, from whose
"Thoughts on Preaching" I draw generously
in what follows, says :

"Suppose a volume of human science to be
placed in our hands as the sole manual or text-
The Notion book to elucidate to a public
of a Sermon assembly, in what way would it
be most natural to go to work? Certainly we

1foow to /iDaster tbe Enslisb 3BibIe

would not take a sentence here, and another
there, and upon these separate portions frame
one or two discourses every week! No inter-
preter of Aristotle or Littleton would dream
of doing that. Nor was it adopted in the
Christian church, until the sermon ceased to
be regarded in its true notion, as an explana-
tion of the Scripture, and began to be viewed
as a rhetorical entertainment, which might
afford occasion for the display of subtlety,
research and eloquence."

The same author recites some interesting
facts that might be summed up under the
inspired general head of the history of

sermons expository preaching. For ex-

ample, he reminds us that as early as the time
of Ezra we find the reading of the law accom-
panied with some kind of interpretation. See
Nehemiah 8. In the synagogues, moreover,
after the reading of the law and the prophets,
it was usual for the presiding officer to invite
such as were learned to address the people,
and it was in this way that our blessed Lord
Himself — as well as His apostles, subse-
quently— was given the opportunity to open up
the Scriptures. See our Lord's discourse in the
synagogue at Nazareth, reported in the fourth
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IResults in tbe pulpit

of Luke, and observe that it was an expository
treatment of Isaiah 61. Notice, also, the dis-
courses of Peter and Paul in the book of the

Acts.

The early Christian assemblies adopted this
method in their religious services, as we may

■rue Christian 3udSe from allusions and exam-
Fathers pies in the writings of Justin
Martyr, Origen, Augustine and Chrysostom.
Their homilies, especially in the instances of
the last mentioned two, were usually of the
nature of "a close interpretation, or running
commentary on the text, followed by a prac-
tical application." Chrysostom, quoted by
Neander, says: "If any one assiduously attend
public worship, even without reading the Bible
at home, but carefully hearkening here, he will
find a single year sufficient to give him an inti-
mate acquaintance with the Scriptures." In
how many of our churches could the same be
said to-day? But ought it not to be said in
all?

Dr. Alexander is further sponsor for the

statement that it was about the beginning of

the thirteenth century when the method of

preaching from insulated texts came into

65

t>ow to /toaster tbe TEwQlisb Bible

vogue, and the younger clergy adopted the
subtle divisions of the sermon. And he says,
too, that it was warmly opposed by some of the
best theologians of the age, as "a childish
playing upon words, destructive of true elo-
quence, tedious and unaff ecting to the hearers,
and cramping the imagination of the preach-
ers." He is not prepared to entirely accept
this criticism of the theologians, however, nor
am I, believing that both the topical and the
textual methods of preaching have their
attractions and advantages. Nevertheless, it
is a pleasure to record that "when the light of

TheReforma- dhine truth beSan to emerSe
tion Period from its long eclipse, at the

Eeformation, there were few things more
remarkable than the universal return of
evangelical preachers to the expository method.
Book after book of the Bible was publicly
expounded by Luther, and the almost daily
sermons of Calvin were, with scarcely any
exceptions, founded on passages taken in
regular course as he proceeded through the
sacred canon. The same is true of the other
reformers, particularly in England and Scot-
land." In the times of the Nonconformists
the textual method came into practice again;
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IResults in tbe pulpit

but, notwithstanding, exposition was consid-
ered a necessary part of ministerial labor.
Matthew Henry is a conspicuous example of
this, who, although he frequently preached
from single texts, yet "on every Lord's day
morning expounded a part of the Old Testa-
ment, and in the evening a part of the New, in
both instances proceeding in regular order."

In modern times Charles H. Spurgeon has
followed the example of Matthew Henry to a
Modem great extent. He preached topic-

Examples aiiy? with great interest and

power, but at almost every service the exposi-
tion of Scripture was made a- distinctive, and
always popular, feature of the exercises. The
late Dr. Howard Crosby was heard to say that,
in the course of his pastorate in New York, he
had thus given instruction to his people on
every verse in the Bible. The writer, also,
can add his testimony to the fact that this
method of preaching is delightful both to pas-
tor and people. Both need training for it, but
when once the taste has been acquired it de-
mands constant gratification.

Let me now supplement these observations
on the nature and history of expository preach-
67

1bow to /IDaster tbe Englisb Bible

ing with some remarks upon its practicality

and value.

In the first place, when the art is learned, it

is the easiest form of preaching; and this is

saying a good deal in an era of
The Easy Way J & & . ^

the conservation 01 energy. The

other day my attention was called to an an-
nouncement of a series of Sunday evening dis-
courses by a city pastor, on "The Gospel in
Eecent Fiction," in the course of which he
proposed to speak of the spiritual and ethical
teaching of some half-dozen of the popular
novels of the day. I could not but think if he
had put the same time and interest into the
reading and analysis of as many books of the
Bible, he would have worked less and accom-
plished more. It might be said he would not
get as many people to hear him, but I doubt
the truth of that statement, if it were known
what he was going to do, and if he did it well.
Moreover, there is another side to the ques-
tion. The Watchman says: "Time and again
we have seen Sunday congregations increased
greatly under the stimulus of what is called
1 up-to-date' preaching, but the church as a
spiritual body, effective for achieving the true
ends of a church, became progressively weaker.
68

IResults In tbe JMilpft

The outsiders said that it was doing a tre-
mendous work, but really it was not doing any-
thing like the work it did in the days of its
comparative obscurity."

At the risk of enlarging upon this idea
beyond its due proportion, it is difficult to
resist the temptation to quote a further para-
graph from the Interior, to the effect that
"nothing is of less value to the church than a
full house — except an empty one. We hap-
pened the other morning," says the editor,
" — it was Monday — to meet the treasurer of an
important city church whose doors had been
crowded the night before. We congratulated
him upon the success of his pastor in * filling
the pews.' 'Yes,' was the hesitating reply,
'he has filled the pews, and filled the vestibule,
and filled the pulpit steps — but he has emptied
the collection baskets. We have the biggest
audience in the city, and will soon have the
biggest debt. ' In another 'city two thousand
miles distant, and in another denomination,
we came upon a church from whose doors hun-
dreds were nightly turned away. Three years
later we asked the principal layman how the
church was doing now, and he replied, with a
tinge of sadness, 'We had a grand debauch

1foow to /IDaster tbe TErxQlisb 3Bible

under Brother X., and we haven't quite recov-
ered from it yet. ' ' '

It is not only the easiest but the most appro-
priate form of preaching, i.e., it assumes and
The Proper compels on the part of the
Wa,y preacher a large knowledge of the

Word of God and aptness in imparting it. As
was remarked in part, before, in another con-
nection, where no extended exposition is
attempted the preacher is naturally induced to
draw upon systematic treatises, philosophical
theories, works of mere literature, or his own
ingenuity of invention and fertility of imagina-
tion; with the result that the rhetorical aspect
of preaching attracts undue attention, and the
desire to be original, striking, ingenious and
elegant supersedes the earnest endeavor to be
biblical. There are few ministers, honest
with their own souls, who will not admit the
truth and the seriousness of this implication.
Here, too, is how heresy comes to raise its head
and grow apace. The biblical preacher is
always orthodox and evangelical, and has no
trouble in remaining so.

And this is the same with his congregation,
for here we have a rule that works both ways.
70

IResults in tbe pulpit

A biblical preacher comes, in time, to make a
biblical church, and should that not be the aim
of every minister? Should not his example be
that of Paul, "teaching every man in all wis-
dom, that he may present every man perfect in
Christ Jesus"? The truth, however, is, as the
authority quoted above says, that "the scrip-
tural knowledge possessed by our ordinary
congregations, amidst all our boasted light
and improvement, bears no comparison with
that of the Scottish peasantry of the last genera-
tion, who, from very infancy, were taught to
follow the preacher, in their little Bibles, as
he expounded in regular course. ' ' Why hear
we so much in these days of Bible Training
Schools and Bible Conventions, and Union
Bible Classes and the like? They are good
signs of the times, and bad signs. They
demonstrate a hunger on the part of some of
the people of God for His Word, and an
inability to have it satisfied in the place where
they naturally belong. Every church should
be more or less truly a Bible Training School,
and the pastor the head of it.

It is the most useful form of preaching.
Dr. Alexander has some excellent observa-
71

1foow to /toaster tbe Englteb Bible

tions that fit in under this head, every one of
which I have experienced to be true in my own
ministry, and earnestly recommend to the
prayerful consideration of my brethren.

For example, expository preaching affords
inducement and occasion to the preacher to
The Useful declare the whole counsel of God.
Wa,y It keeps him from neglecting

many important doctrines and duties which
otherwise would almost necessarily be over-
looked. It gives a symmetry and completeness
to his pulpit efforts. It promotes variety and
enables him to escape ruts. To how many
people are such biblical truths as predestina-
tion and election unwelcome! Yet, how im-
portant they are, how necessary to be discussed
and explained by the minister of the Gospel,
and how likely to be avoided nevertheless!
But let him be expounding Eomans, and he
must deal with those difficulties, and glorify
God in the doing of it. I say glorify God ; for
the reason that those doctrines, and some
others, are abhorrent to the popular mind, is
chiefly that they are usually set forth in
their "naked theological form," and not in
their scriptural connection.

And then, too, there are certain sins which
72

IResults in tbe pulpit

every pastor feels he ought to inveigh against
once in a while, but from which he is pre-
vented either from delicacy, or through fear
of being considered personal in his remarks.
Let him adopt the expository method of
preaching, however, and his hesitation in these
respects will be removed as he comes across
the very themes that should thus be touched
upon, in a natural way.

It may become the most popular form of
preaching. Indeed, it should become so.

The Popular Tlie fault is ours> i'e"> tlie mmis"
Wa,y ters', if such is not the case.

We should keep at it till we learn to do it well.
We should besiege the throne of grace for
power and wisdom to do it well. Who doubts
that the Author of the Holy Scriptures would
answer such entreaties? Chalmers' lectures on
Romans, Archbishop Leighton's lectures on
First Peter, F. W. Eobertson's on First Corin-
thians, are old, but standard types of what
may be done in this respect. I doubt not that
Archbishop Trench delivered the substance of
his book on the "Epistles to the Seven
Churches" to his congregation before it ap-
peared in print ; and so in the case of Bishop

t>ow to flDaster tbe Bnolisb 33ible

Eyle and his "Expository Thoughts on the
Gospels," and Dr. Moule and his "Studies in
Philippians. " I, myself, have seen large
congregations held from week to week in city
churches, where the chief attraction was the
exposition of the Bible text. God wrote the
Bible for the "common people," and it is
irreverent to suppose that they cannot be inter-
ested in the reading and explanation of it.
There is no other book in the world which
sells like God's Book; it leads the market!
How short-sighted, then, are we ministers who
fail to take advantage of the fact, and utilize
it to draw our audiences, and interest them,
and nourish them with the bread of life !*

* A part of what the author has here written on
the subject of expository preaching formed the
substance of a previous communication from his
pen in "Current Anecdotes," a monthly magazine
for ministers, F. M. Barton, Cleveland.

74

CDrpostton? Qutlints

75

Expositors ©uttines

PART V

EXPOSITORY OUTLINES

Our concluding chapter has been reserved
for one or two "sample" expository outlines
that may prove helpful as suggestions to inex-
perienced beginners. The first is drawn from
the author's own store, and the second is that
of Pastor F. E. Marsh, of Sunderland, Eng-
land, which has come under the author's
observation and affords a good illustration of
another variety of the species.

The principle on which the first-named was
obtained was that explained in the previous

_ chapters. The synthetic reading

How Obtained ^L J, ,.&

oi Romans led to certain dis-
coveries, as follows: (1) That epistle contains
a single theme, viz., the gift of God's right-
eousness to men. (2) This theme is developed
along three main lines: its necessity, its na-
ture, and its effect upon man. (3) Its effect
upon man is developed again along three lines :
his relations to God, his own experience, and
his relations to others. (4) The last-named
subdivision (his relations to others) covers
77

LofC.

Ibow to /iDaster tbe Enslisb Bible

chapters 12-16, and expands the idea socially,
politically, and ecclesiastically.

Some time before this final thought was
arrived at, the consideration of the epistle had
The strong and already yielded material for sev-
the Weak erai expository discourses, but it

was conceived that still a good one of a very
practical order lay imbedded, say, in chapters
13 : 8 to 15 : 7, where the inspired writer is deal-
ing with the Christian in his church or ecclesi-
astical relations. A sample better in some
respects might readily be given, but this is
chosen because it lies at hand, and also because
it is not a "stock" piece gotten up for the
occasion, but such an one as lies upon the sur-
face of the text, and which any young beginner
might evolve on his own account with a little
pains.

The theme decided on was this :

The Strong and the Weak, or the Christian's
Debt to His Brother. Eomans 13:8 to 15 : 7.

1. We have here the command for Christians
to love one another. 13:8-10.

2. The urgency for its observance. 11-14.

3. The particular call for its application
(fellowshiping the weak) . 14:1.

4. The description of the weak (conscientious

78

Expository Outlines

scruples as to eating, and the observance of
days). 14:2,5.

5. The way in which fellowship is to be
shown: (a) by not judging them, 3-12; (b) by
not putting a stumbling-block in their way,
13-19; (c) by edifying them, 20-23.

6. The motive in the premises (the example
of Christ). 15:1-4.

7. The object in view (the glory of God).
5-7.

In developing division 5 it was shown (a)
that we should not judge the weak brother, for
the following reasons :

(1) God has received him. Verse 3,

(2) He is accountable to God only. Verse
4, first part.

(3) God can make him stand. Verse 4, last
part.

(4) Each man must be fully persuaded in his
own mind. Verse 5.

(5) The weak brother may be honoring and
serving God even under the conditions named.
Verse 6.

(6) Each one of us must give account of
himself to God. Verses 10-12.

It was shown (b) that we put a stumbling-
block in the way of our weak brother by an
79

Ifoovv to /IDaster tbe Englisb 3Btble

undue insistence on our liberty (verses 14, 15),
and that such insistence may itself become sin.
16-18.

Finally it was shown (c) that we edify one
another by following after things which make
for peace (verse 19), and that it makes for
peace sometimes to control our zeal. Verse 22.

Of course it is almost vital to the be3t results
of expository preaching that the people bring

Some Practical their Bibles to churcn> and use
Hints them more or less in following

their minister. Frequently it is desirable for
them to read the text aloud with him re-
sponsively, or in unison. A little gentle coax-
ing at first, preceded by private prayer, will get
them to do both these things, bring their
Bibles and read the text, while afterwards
they will delight to do them. It will cause
church-going and sermon-hearing to become a
new and living experience to them. Young
and old will like it, and sinners as well as
saints.

But another almost necessity is to select a

subject and treat it in such a way as to obviate

as far as possible the turning over of the leaves

or pages of the Bible during the progress of

80

Expositors Outlines

the exposition. The best plan is to limit the
exposition, where you can, to the page or two
just before the reader's eye. But if turning
must be done, let it be on the principle of
Edward Everett Hale's "Ten Times Ten" or
"Lend-a-Hand" Society, i.e„, forward and not
backward. It is especially confusing and
wearisome to a congregation to be turning
pages backward, and then forward, and then
backward again, and will not be relished as an
innovation. Eow with the tide.

In the outline now to follow there are leaves
to turn, for it covers a whole epistle. And yet
with a single (and perhaps unnecessary) excep-
tion, there is progress in each division. The
hearers are stimulated by the thought of get-
ting on, and that there is an end in sight. It
might be styled;

The Character of the New Born.

What kind of persons are those who are born
again? We have only to turn to the first
epistle of John for the answer. Mark the
words "born of him," or "born of God,"
which we have again and again in the epistle.
We get seven characteristics of those who are
begotten of God:

1. The people who are born of God are
81

1bow to /Ifoaster tbe Enalfsb Bible

righteous. "Every one that doeth righteous-
ness is born of him" (2:29). If I am not
doing righteously, what evidence have I that I
am born of Him?

2. Those born of God are an unsinning peo-
ple. "Whosoever is born of God doth not com-
mit sin" (2 : 9). Sin is not the habit of life of
the one who has been born again. The trend
of his life is not in the old paths of sin.

3. Those who are born of God are an abiding
people. "His seed abideth in him, and he
cannot sin, because he is born of God" (3: 9).

4. Those who are born of God are a loving
people. "Every one that loveth ia born of
God" (4: 7).

5. They are a believing people. "He that
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of
God' '(5:1). It is not merely that they say
that Christ is Christ, but they know Him
experimentally as the Christ in power.

6. Those who are born of God are an over-
coming people. "Whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world" (5: 4). The evidence,
therefore, of being born of God is victory over
the world.

7. Those born of God are a preserved
people. "Whosoever is born of God sinneth

82

Expository Outlines

not, but he that was begotten of God keepeth
him" (5:18, K. V.).

Those who have been born of God are kept
by the power of God. These are the people
who constitute the church of God, and they
answer to everything that is said of those who
are found faithful, and who escape the things
that are coming on the world.

The author lingers over the closing word,
for he is enamored of the theme and loath to
leave it. Iso typewriting machine has ground
out these pages for the press; the subject has
been too sacred for other than his own pen.
He covets the love of it for every fellow-mem-
ber of the body of Christ. He sees the re-
generation of the church in the general
adoption of the plan. He sees the sanctifica-
tion of the ministry. He sees a mighty
quickening in the pews. He sees the world-
wide revival for which a thousand hearts are
praying. He sees the unmasking of a
Christianized rationalism, and the utter rout
of a rationalized Christianism. He sees the
first thing in the world getting the first place
in the world. He sees the solution of a score
of civic problems. He sees the protection of
83

1bow to /IDaster tbe JBriQlish 3Bibie

vested rights against lawlessness, and the
laborer receiving the due reward of his hire.
He sees the oppressed set free; no longer

"Condemned by night, enchained by day,
Drowned in the depths of grim despair ;
While running brooks sing roundelay,
And God's green fields are ev'ry where."

He sees the missionary treasuries repleted.
He sees the hastening of the day when this
Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached as a
witness to all nations,1 and when He who is
our life shall appear, and we also shall appear
together with Him in glory.2

0 brethren of the ministry and the laity,
get back to the Bible! Let the word of
Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.3
Let us preach the preaching that God bids us.*
Diminish not a word.5 Let us be as His
mouthpieces, nothing more, nothing less, tak-
ing forth the precious from the vile,6 for who
knoweth if He will return and repent, and
leave a blessing behind Him?7

^att. 24:14. 5Jer. 26:2.

2Col. 3-4. 6Jer. 15:19.

3Col. 3:16. 7Joel2:14.
4Jonah3;2.

84

OTHER WORKS BT Tilt 5M AUTHOR

Synthetic Bible Studies $1.50

An outline study of every book of the
Bible on the plan herein defined. The
Baltimore Methodist says it "cannot be
measured by money value."

Oneness with Christ 1.60

"The best exposition of Colossians in
the English language." — Watchword and
Truth. This work is edited by Dr. Gray
from the notes of the late Bishop W. R.
Nicholson, D.D.

Bulwarks of the Faith 75

A concise and popular treatise on the
authenticity, truth and inspiration of the
Scriptures, with questions for normal
classes at the close of each chapter. Fif-
teen hundred copies of this work were
recently purchased by one denomina-
tion for free distribution to its min-
istry.

History of the Holy Dead 15

A brief exposition of the teaching of
Scripture concerning the different condi-
tions of God's people in the life beyond,
from the earliest to the eternal age.

Evil of Christian Science 10

The distinction is shown between Chris-
tian Science and Divine Healing, and the
peril from the former pointed out from
the Bible point of view.

THE WINONA PUBLISHING COMPANY, CHICAGO.

SEP 3 1904

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