The Newtown bee., 1901-08-23

COUNTY.
WASHINGTON.

METHODS OF BIBLE STUDY. '-AD- DRESS BY ROSTER W. RAYMOND, PHI. D., AT CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR CONVENTION AT WASHINGTON.-R
 PORTED FOR THE BEE BY SPECIAL
 CORRESPONDENT.
 We will take it for granted at the outset that the Bible is worth study ing and waste no time in proving that proposition. If it is worth studying at all it is curtainly worth studying in the best way. Don't mix up studying with SteWing, by SteWing mean turn ing the leaves in a listless manner without definite plan of work. In other words don't go to sleep over it.
 Let us now consider some of the best ways, but let me tell you first in my judgement any way is better than no way. Our attention is frequently called to superstitious uses of Gods Word and not farther back than our grandfather's day, pious parents when naming a child opened the Good Book and selected the first name which came toview. Now this is all right but it's not sensible in my opinion that baby'S chance of getting the best name should be settled in that way.
 Then you have heard of the custom, when two friends were parting of giv ing each other gold ring on~the in- side of which was engraved "Mizpah." You recall the 18th verse of the 3lSt chapter of Genesis "And Mizpah: for he said, The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from anOther."
 Follow up the text and you will find this is not what the word "Mizpah" meant to Laban and Jacob. You re- member Jacob had served Laban, they had quarreled, separated and builded a boundary tower, which was called, "Mizpah" and this pile of stone meant the Lord be between us to keep us apart to keep us from fighting.
 Intelligence does not mean that we shall be less devout. A scientific method in studying the Bible is just as necessary as in other things. 1 am connected as you know with a univers- ity. When young man comes to us in mathematics or geology he has faith that certain principles given him to learnat the outset are true. He buys book and begins by learning something, just as in Arithmetic the child learns that 7x7 makes 49. He does not question it. He learns that fact and uses it to acquire more knowledge. Later on the student be- gins to see the why and wherefore and discovers perhaps as he grows in knowledge that other men have made mistakes.
 When we teach physics we do not allow the student to begin by comput- ing attitudes. He must learn to weigh pound. It is always faith fol- lowed by practice. Now you didn't know that l had text? It is 2d Peter l f<,x fni !, i1 nvxr1n nI,rn
 Now how are we going to get the most knowledge in the shortest way. We go to Sunday school and follow a course of instruction year after year. Some of these courses are ex client, too. Disjointed pieces of text are placed before us and we dissipate the Word of Faith. It is as if we tried to take our dinner in the form of pills. We have forgotten the very founda tion of knowledge, memory. Memory is the difference between a man and brute. A kitten or a puppy may reas- on, perhaps better than baby, but the memory of babes is sometimes re- markable.
 Printing has killed memory. Pre- cision is dying out among a people who are crammed with information. If you would have child learn arith- metic imprint the multiplication ta- ble on him before he knows what he is learning. Just so with the Bible, teach him the 23d Psalm, the Lords Prayer, and the Ten Commandments and other portions Ot Holy Scripture.
 During my stay in western mining camp, a poor old woman, in fact the only woman in camp, who had nursed the miners for miles around, fell ill and died during a short absence. An Eastern mining man told me when returned that he had been called upon for some sort of burial service. In the words of the men, they wished to give "old Sal" a proper send off. He said II began with the Lords prayer and got stuck in the middle of it and I would have given all I had, Doctor if you had been here to have helped me out." Take heed, learn little of the Bible in the old-fashioned way, so that if you are ever called on for words of comfort at an open grave you may be able to say something.
 A prominent preacher recently com plained of the ignorance> of his con- gregatiOn concerning Scripture. The simplest Bible references were Greek to them. I mean, for example, the story of Hezekiah and the Sundial or
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