The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1917-06-02

II to substitute for
li al the pastors adj
..ase9ls SsSssssasEsas& dress a brief
study of the books
of. the Bible, beginning with Genesis.
4 tried to give each book a character
istic name, for instance, Genesis is the
book of beginning, because it de.
scribes the beginning of the universe,
the beginning of this world, the be-
ginning of man, the beginning of Ian
guage, the beginning of the Sabbath,
1.-THE beginning of sin and the beginning
of grace.
Without going into the subject in an
exhaustive way, I tried to tell the
I story of creation in popular style and
Eat the same time to show how the pic
| ture accounts compared with the facts
of modern science.
The temptation and fall Of man
opened up the subject of origin of sin,
and the story shows the effect of sin,
mot only upon our first parents, but
lupon the race as a whole, and there
fore it has practical application to
everyone
Genesis.
AS the first two chapters of Genesis
deal with generation, the third chapter
takes up the subject of degeneration,
and the remainder of the Bible, as
lgsomeone has said, is devoted to the
subject of regeneration
! The story of the flood opens up a
new theme of exceeding interest, and
Noah's deliverance is splendid type
of salvation. Babel with its confu-
JeSon of tongues. suggests Pentecost,
where people of all tongues understood
Gods message, and the coming day
when all Gods people shall use the uni
Salf Rguage., Thus went on
gf0uching The points which had the
greatest practical value
Then briefly reviewing the book I
called attention to the three principal
characters-Adam,N Noah and Abraham.
From them we can learn three prac-
tical lessons, From Adam we can
learn to obey God; from Noah to talk
to God; from Abraham to trust God
AT the close of the service | gave
to each person in the audience four
page folder, containing brief outline
Of my address, including the principal
facts, dates and outline, together with
the Sunday school lessons drawn from
the study of the book.
asked the people to read the bool:
of Genesis through, and at our next
meeting to come prepared to pass an
examination upon the outline I had
given. At the next service | would
spend ten or fifteen minutes In ques-
tioning the congregation upon the book
of Genesis, briefly reviewing what we
had gone over before. Then took up
the book of Exodus and gave an adj
dress on that.
The Results.
At once there was percestible in
crease In the size of the congregation,
and In short time the attendance on
the night of the book study was the
largest during the whole month. Peo-
pie began to read their Bible more,
and to talk about it more, not only dur
Ing my social calls, but In the mid
week service, and young peoples
meeting. The young folks especially
were eager to get the monthly fold
er containing the outline Bible study,
and If obliged to be absent they were
sure to send by someone else to secure
copy. These they stitched together
rs the months went on, making them
into little book.
Fruit of Bible Reading Habit.
The habit of reading the Bible con-
stantly, however, proved of great
value. 1t kept me full of texts and
themes and Scriptural Illustrations.
had no trouble in finding topics for
sermons. My greatest difficulty was to
find opportunity to use the wealth of
material which was constantly accu-
mulating. Moreover in a few months
God gave us season of spiritual re-
freshing which increased the church
membership about 80 per cent.
Moving to another church later, I
began the same method of giving a
book study once month, asking the
congregation to read 1t in advance. |
began this time with the New Tesla
ment, and found the results to be prac-
tically the same as before. And again
In a few months there followed a re-
viyal which transformed the church,
ana added greatly to its usefulness and
power.
Doubtless have made as many
mistakes and blunders as the average
pastor, but as look back over long
and happy ministry I can see that my
| highest enjoyment and what little .serv-
lice / have been able to render to the
cause Of Christ. is largely due to the
book studies which began In my
early uinistry.