The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-03-31
TO CONCLUDE HIS
LECTURES TODAY
Last Night Mathews Discussed
Methods of Jesus
NOTES ON LITERARY FORM
The Speaker Points out Certain Facts
About Style That Seem to Throw
Light on the Words
of Jeseus.

DR.. Smaller Mathews in his lecture at
the First Baptist church last night had
for his theme "The Methods of Jesus .
Jesus, said the speaker, had method
in his teaching. The seeming absence of
orderly method in the gospels was due
to the way in which they were compiled
as memorabilia. They We're not ehron-
illogical but were more or less "scrappy'
Jesus got his methods in part, said DR..
Mathews, from those current In Ills day.
We teach knowing that none Will re-
member our exact words but only the
general resultant When we want to be
remembered in our exact world we make
books.
But In the time of Jesus the rabbis
taught so that their individual sentences
could be remembered But even our books
cannot be memorized, but the Bible can
be for It's words have little burrs that
stick in our memories. We see this same
style in the Talmud.
1T has been shown that the element
common to all three of the synoptc gos-
pels consists largely of these catch words.
Jesus taught so that His sentences could
be carried in memory. These are FOUND
in Hebrew poetry One of them Is the
principle of ALTERATION In the one nun
dred and nineteenth Psalm one feels good
in alphabetical order and in Lamenta-
lions one feels bad in alphabetical order.
Jesus adopted the method best calculated
to carry great principles rather thah
minute details He was poetical not only
in the substance but in the form of His
teaching-a form we meet with In the
Psalms and Wisdom literature. Its meter
was strophic In both sense and literary
form After the manner of Hebrew
parallelsms in Old Testament poetry His
style was often gnomlc poetry and II
this Is kept in mind 1t will greatly aid in
experimenting His meaning
Fluuratlve and Poetic.
It is highly hgurative and poetieal and
hence impossible to put literally into
practice. The church has never tried very
much to do so. Poetry carries principles
not precepts The proverb is capsule
way of administering truth. Jesus MADE
them and they carry ethical teaching
rather than theology. The sermon on the
Mount is gnomic and, like proverbs and
James epistle. is experience condensed
into proverbs. He also adopted, said Dr.
Mathews. the method of story or parable.
each parable is designed to teach one
great truth, and we are not warranted
to use ii for any other than the truth
intended. Much folly has grown out of
the perversion of parallels for other teach
ing than that intended by its author.
Pedagogic Device.
The parable is a great pedagogical de-
vice putting great principles into concrete
form so as to get hold of the experience
of men, 1t also leaves the truth in
mans mind even when he does not under
stand 1t. It is a kind of an envelope In
which the truth is put and kept until he
= aatnA m
use 1t.
Jesus also spoke in the experiences of
men. The simplest could understand and
yet the most profound could not exhaust
His meaning. He put His teaching in
terms of the generally human. He also
had regard to the laws of progressive and
accumulative process in learning He
recognized that whit has been heard de-
termines largely what they will be able
to hear and told men to take heed how
they heard He also observed progress
starting with the simple and moving to
the profound and spiritual.
His teaching was developed In an at
mosphere of opposition and hence is
polemieal. 1t Is easy to be optimistic
when everything goes easy and to teach
people who are in sympathy with you as
is usual in our preaching and when they
are sympathetically familiar with your
when engaged in fighting. He was severe
ON tnose who ought to have understood
Him as when he warned the twelve to
beware of the leaven of the pharisees
which they interpreted to mean that they
should not buy bread from Them He
rebuked them for not understanding Him.
They would not let Him teach them con-
corning His death and resurrection so
we have very little from Jesus Himself
10 ha1 n IN
say unto them but they could not re-
ceve them.
Objective and Subjective.
But Jesus was no mere teacher OF OBJ
jeetive truth. He lived His teaching and
spoke out of His own experience. He
taught how to live because He lived so
as to teach He was no dreamer His
words were spirit, they were life. The
truths were first tested in the labora tory
of His own soul before being put forth
for the others. Living the truth before
teaching is the great biological pedagogi-
cal method. We see 1t in all great teach
ers. such as Epictetus, Augustine, Wesley
Maurice and f. w. Robertson. III you
first hear the siren voice of temptation
yourself you will the better be able to
teach others. So Jesus first tested His
teaching In His own life.
Concluding Lectures.
DR.. Mathews will conclude his lectures
today on the "Social Teachings of Jesus
by discussing His teachings as regards
social regeneration" and will close his
engagement tonight with his lecture on
the Message of Jesus"
The morning lecture will be at 1890
and the evening lecture at 7:3O Mr.. Ma
thews will leave on the 9.15 p. IN. train
for Chicago. The Rev. DIR. Dickinson.
pastor of the First Baptist church, re-
marked last night that probably never
before in the history of Birmingham has
there been such n scholarly and delight
full intellectual treat as has been enjoyed
in these lectures during this week. In
spite of the inclement weather many per-
sons have availed themselves of this OPP