Chapter 1

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TRAINING THE TEACHER

A. F. Schauffler, D.D. Antoinette Abernethy Lamoreaux Martin G. Brumbaugh, Ph.D., LL.D. Marion Lawrance

Supplementary chapters by Charles A. Oliver Ira Maurice Price, Ph.D.

Approved as a First Standard Course by the Committee on Education, International Sunday School Association

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES COMPANY PHILADELPHIA

CONTENTS

ORGANIZING AND CONDUCTING A TEACHER-TRAINING CLASS 5 CHARLES A. OLIVER

1. THE BOOK 11 A. F. SCHAUFFLER, D.D.

HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO US 123 IRA MAURICE PRICE, PH.D.

THE GIST OF THE BOOKS 129 COMPILED

2. THE PUPIL 139 ANTOINETTE ABERNETHY LAMOREAUX

3. THE TEACHER 181 MARTIN G. BRUMBAUGH, PH.D., LL.D.

4. THE SCHOOL 219 MARION LAWRANCE

APPENDIX TEACHING HINTS 259 PAUL'S JOURNEYS 266 THE TWELVE TRIBES, MAP 270 ASSYRIA AND CANAAN, MAP 270 EXODUS AND WANDERINGS, MAP 271

Organizing and Conducting the Teacher-training Class

CHARLES A. OLIVER

Teacher-Training Superintendent Pennsylvania State Sabbath School Association.

#Teacher-training Needed.#--No more serious problem faces the Sunday-school to-day than the question of securing more teachers and better teaching. We owe it to those who are called to teach the Word to see that means of thorough preparation be brought within their reach. The best teachers will welcome a better training for Christ's service and many good people who have not found their place in the work of the church will gladly engage in Sunday-school teaching after they have been specially instructed in the Bible and in the principles of teaching.

This book provides the essential elements for the teacher-training course in four sections: (1) The Bible material which is the basis for all Sunday-school instruction, under the title of "The Book," by Dr. Schauffler. (2) A study of the working of the mind at various ages and under differing conditions (a brief study of psychology), under the title of "The Pupil," by Mrs. Lamoreaux. (3) A study of teaching principles and the application of these principles (a brief study of pedagogy), under the title of "The Teacher," by Dr. Brumbaugh. (4) A study of the place in which this instruction should be given, that is, "The School," by Mr. Lawrance. Additional material for instruction will be found in the chapter "How the Bible came to Us" by Professor Ira Maurice Price, and "The Gist of the Books."

#Starting a Class.#--(1) No better beginning can be made than a prayerful conference between the pastor and the Sunday-school superintendent to determine the need and possibilities of teacher-training within the local school. (2) The nearest representative of organized Sunday-school work in your county or State will gladly furnish you with printed matter pointing out the teacher-training plans in successful use in your denomination. (3) Select your text-book and familiarize yourself with it. (4) Call the teachers and officers together. Have a half-hour social feature, to be followed with an earnest address on the need and the plan of teacher-training. Teach a sample lesson from the text-book. Endeavor in that meeting to secure at least a few persons who will agree to enter a class and will promise to do personal work to secure other members. But do not make the mistake of requiring a large class before beginning. A leader and two or more students will constitute a class.

#Who Should Enter the Class?#--Two general plans are now in operation. One provides for a training class for _present teachers_. This class should meet at a convenient time during the week to follow the course in a teacher-training text-book. A whole evening could profitably be given to class work. If this is not feasible the class may meet for study at the time of the weekly teachers'-meeting or before or after the mid-week prayer service.

A second plan provides for the training of _prospective teachers_, and this may be done in a class meeting at the time of the regular school session. These should be found in the senior and adult departments of the school and should be sixteen years of age or older. The most promising young people in the school should be sought for membership in this class. If possible, a separate room should be provided so that the time of the closing exercises of the school could be added to the lesson period of the class. This will enable the class to devote ten minutes to a brief study of the spiritual teachings of the general Bible lesson for the day and yet leave a half-hour or more for the training lesson.

It should not be overlooked that if a class for present teachers is established, the officers of the school will find the course invaluable and parents will secure very helpful instruction in the care and nurture of young children.

#Making the Class a Success.#--It is possible for one student to follow a teacher-training course alone, but it is very desirable for two or more to join and take the course in class. Several persons meeting for conference will bring better results than the same persons studying individually. The class should have a leader who is a sympathetic, patient, tactful Christian man or woman, who will inspire the members to continue in their work, and who will see that every session of the class is a conference and not a lecture. Indifferent work should be discouraged. The members of the class are more likely to continue to the end of the course if they have the consciousness of mastering the work. The question and answer method should be emphasized, and the entire period of the class should be given at frequent intervals to reviews. Illuminating essays and talks may be brought into the class, but these should be brief, and should deal in a simple way with side-lights on the lesson assigned for that period.

It is very desirable that the class should be enrolled with the denominational teacher-training department and with the State Sunday School Association. This enrolment will furnish the officers of these organizations with information which will enable them to keep in touch with the class and to send from time to time helpful and inspirational suggestions. The enrolment of the class will also cause the members to feel the importance of the course and will strengthen the sense of obligation to do thorough work.

The official examinations are of the greatest importance, and should be taken by every member of the class. These examination tests intensify interest, and help to hold the class together until the end of the course.

Great encouragement will be given to the members of the class if public recognition is made of their work from time to time. Brief words spoken in public commending the work which is being done will often tide some faltering member over the crisis of hesitation. The denominational Sunday-school leaders and officers of organized Sunday-school work frequently may be called upon to lend encouragement by their helpful presence at some public function of the class.

The diploma issued by the denominations or by the International Sunday School Association is a fitting recognition of work done, and gives the student a place in the enlarging fellowship of trained teachers. Alumni Associations are being formed in the States with annual reunions. Graduating exercises should be provided, and these should be impressive and dignified services that will show to the church and community the emphasis the Sunday-school is placing on high grade work.

The Sunday School Times Company does not offer any certificates or diplomas, nor does it conduct any teacher-training classes. All this is carried on by the denominations, or through the agency of the State Sunday School Associations.

THE BOOK

A. F. SCHAUFFLER, D.D.

PAGE The Bible 11

LESSON (OLD TESTAMENT) 1. The Old Testament Division 14 2. From Creation to Abraham 19 3. From Abraham to Jacob 23 4. Joseph 28 5. Moses 33 6. Joshua to Samson 39 7. Saul to Solomon 44 8. Rehoboam to Hoshea 49 9. Abijam to Zedekiah 54 10. Elijah 59 11. Return from Captivity 64

(NEW TESTAMENT) 1. New Testament Division 71 2. The Life of Jesus--Thirty Years of Preparation 76 3. The Year of Obscurity 82 4. The Year of Popularity 88 5. The Year of Opposition 94 6. The Closing Week 100 7. The Forty Days 106 8. The Early Church 110 9. The Life of Paul 116

How the Bible Came to Us 123 Ira Maurice Price, Ph.D.

The Gist of the Books 129 Compiled

Teaching Hints

Leaders of classes, and individuals pursuing these studies apart from classes, are urged to read the chapter entitled "Teaching Hints," on page 259, before beginning this section

The Bible

#1. Methods of Bible Study.#--Microscopic study of the Bible is the study of smaller portions, such as single verses, or parts of chapters. Many sermons adopt this method. It is good for many purposes. But it fails to give the larger views of Bible history that the teacher needs for effective work. The telescopic method takes in large sections of the Word, and considers them in their relation to the whole of revelation. This is the method that will be adopted in these studies.

#2. To assist in the study# of a general survey of Bible history, we give as a memory outline above a chart of the centuries between Adam and Christ. We use in this the chronology in our Bibles, not because it is correct, but because scholars have not yet agreed on a better, especially for the ages before Abraham.

All the names are well-known but that of Jared, and his is put in merely to mark the close of the first half-millennium. Memorize these names so that you can reproduce the chart without looking at the book. This exercise of memory will enable you to locate the chief events of Bible history roughly in their appropriate chronological environment. Are you reading about any event in the wanderings of Israel? Of course you are between the letters M. and S. Is it a story of Elijah that you are studying? Then the event must lie between the letters S. and Z. Or is it the biography of Nehemiah that forms your lesson? Then it must lie to the right of the letter Z.

#3. One peculiarity of the Bible narrative# is that at times it is quite diffuse, and covers much space on the sacred page, while at other times it is most highly condensed. For example, the first twelve chapters of Genesis cover over 2000 years at the lowest computation. All the rest of Genesis (thirty-eight chapters) covers the lives of four men, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. The first chapter of Exodus covers centuries while all the rest of Exodus, all of Leviticus, all of Numbers and all of Deuteronomy cover only forty years. Surely there must be some good reason for this. Again, two chapters in Matthew and two in Luke cover thirty years of our Lord's life, while all the rest of the four Gospels cover only three and a half years.

#4. Another peculiarity# of the Word is that the miraculous element is very unevenly distributed. At times miracles abound, and at other times they are but few in number. In the first eleven chapters of Genesis, covering more than 2000 years, there are few miracles, outside of those of the creation. But in the period after that, covered by the four great Patriarchs, we find more miracles than before.

During the Mosaic period, beginning with Exodus 2, we find that miracles begin to multiply as never before. For instance, God fed his people for forty years (except on the Sabbath) with manna. Again, in the times of Elijah and Elisha, the narrative amplifies, and the miracles multiply. And once more when we come to the Messianic period, as exemplified in the story of Christ, the narrative becomes fourfold, and the miracles multiply as never before. What is the reason for this amplification of narrative and simultaneous multiplication of the miraculous? It is because these periods were exceptionally significant. In them God was trying to teach men lessons of peculiar importance. So he led the writers to tell the story more in full, and he himself emphasized the teaching by his own Divine interposition.

#5. In the Patriarchal period# God was calling out him who was to be the founder of that people which was to preserve God's law through the ages, and from whom at last was to come Jesus, the Redeemer of the world. This was a most important period, and one with which we might well become acquainted.

#6. In the Mosaic period# God was bringing out his people from bondage and was giving to them laws that were to shape their national life for all time. He was also giving to them a typology in high priest, tabernacle, and sacrifice that was to lead them in the way of truth until, in the fulness of the time, he was to come who was the fulfilment of both law and type, Jesus of Nazareth, the Lamb of God, and the Son of God.

#7. In the period of Elijah# and his great pupil, Elisha, God was making a great effort to call back to himself Israel, or the Northern Kingdom, which had been led into gross idolatry by Jeroboam, and later by Ahab.

#8. In the Messianic period# God was fulfilling all that he had promised from the beginning as to a Redeemer who was to come. He who had spoken to the fathers through the prophets, and the various types, was now to speak to men through the person of his Son. Good reason then why, at the four periods to which we have called attention, God should provide that the narrative should be more full than at other times, and that simultaneously there should be the marked intervention of the miraculous, to prove that God was truly speaking to men, and giving them divine directions as to how to act, and what to believe.

#9. It follows, then,# that there are four periods to which we should pay especial attention, as being of unusual importance, and these are the Patriarchal period, the Mosaic period, the period of Elijah and Elisha, and the period of the Messiah. If the student be well posted as to the occurrences during these periods, and their teaching, he will have at least a good working outline of the whole of the Bible history in its most important developments. To emphasize these periods we have added on the chart in the Memory Outline the dots that will be seen, multiplying them at each period somewhat in proportion to the multiplication of the miraculous element in the narrative.

Test Questions

What two ways are there of studying the Bible?

What advantage is there for our purposes in the second method?

Give the nine names that divide the Old Testament times into periods of five centuries each.

What chronological peculiarity do we find in the Bible narrative?

Give some examples of this. (Pick out other instances of this yourself.)

What peculiarity do we find in the distribution of the miracles?

Name the four periods in which the narrative amplifies and at the same time the miracles multiply.

Lesson 1

The Old Testament Division

PRINCIPAL EVENTS

#Prelude.#--The story of creation (Gen. 1, 2). God was the author of all and no idolatry was to be permitted.

#First Period.#--Adam, the first man; sinned and fell (Gen. 3).

#Second Period.#--Noah, the head of a family, saved in the ark from a devastating flood; a new beginning for the human race, followed by another failure (Gen. 6, 7, 8). The tower of Babel (Gen. 11:4). Confusion of tongues (Gen. 11:5-9).

#Third Period.#--The chosen family, under Abraham, broadens to tribal life. The descent to Egypt (Gen. 46). Prosperity (Gen. 47:11), followed by oppression (Exod. 1:8-22). Moses the deliverer (Exod. 3:1-11). The march out of Egypt (Exod. 12). Legislation at Mount Sinai (Exod. 20). Entry into Canaan (Josh. 1-4). Times of the Judges. (Judg. 1 to 21).

#Fourth Period.#--Three kings in all Israel--Saul, David, Solomon (1 Sam. 10 to 1 Kings 12). The divided kingdom.

#Fifth Period.#--The captivity (2 Kings 25). The return. Ezra and Nehemiah.

#Leading Names.#--First and Second periods--Adam, Noah; Third period--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel; Fourth period--Saul, David, Hezekiah, Josiah, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Hosea; Fifth period--Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

#TIME.#--From an unknown time to about 400 B. C.

#LANDS.#--Armenia, Chaldea, Palestine, Egypt, Persia.

#SIGNIFICANCE OF EVENTS.#--The Old Testament begins with a statement of the creation; tells of the introduction of man, "made in the image of God;" records the downfall of man and God's many efforts to redeem him; recites the incidents of God's dealings with chosen individuals, selected families and a particular nation; continues with this nation separated into two parts and held captive by a foreign power, and closes with the return of a part of Judah. With the entrance of sin came the promise of salvation through one who should come out of the chosen (Jewish) nation.

The Old Testament Preview

NOTE.--The Chronology used throughout is based on "The Dated Events of the Old Testament," by Willis Judson Beecher.

#1. Two Great Divisions.#--In biblical history here are two great divisions, that of the Old Testament and that of the New Testament. It is well to have clear outlines in our minds with regard to the great outstanding characteristics of these periods. In making these divisions into the periods that follow we have no "Thus saith the Lord" for our guidance, but use the best common sense that we have. Others might make a different division, but we give that below as at the least suggestive.

#2. Prelude.#--The great prelude of creation. Here we are told that all things find their origin in God. This teaching is in contradistinction to the claim that matter is eternal. It also denies the doctrine that the world was made by chance. It places the beginning of all things seen in the power of One who is from eternity to eternity. This satisfies the cravings of the human heart as no other teaching does.

#3. First Period.--Adam to Noah.# Here we have the first stage in the drama of human history. In it we find the beginnings of the human race, of sin, and of redemption. Three most important beginnings. It is covered by Genesis 2 to 5 inclusive. It is marked by total failure on the part of man. "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5). Man proved himself recreant to God's holy law.

#4. Second Period.--Noah to Abraham.# Chapters 6 to 12. God makes a new beginning with the family of Noah. But, as before, man proves himself disobedient and faithless to his God. We find a great civilization, but little godliness. For the second time man proves a failure, so far as obedience to God's law is concerned. Man in his pride says, "Come, let us build," while God on his part says, "Come, let us confound" (Gen. 11:4 and 7).

But little space is given in the Bible to these two periods, for they are in reality preliminary to the third, which is of vastly more importance than the two put together.

#5. Third Period.--Abraham to Kings.# Genesis 12 through to 1 Samuel 9. This is a most important period. Here God changes his method of treating man. From henceforth he will chiefly communicate truth to mankind through a chosen family and nation. Not that no man outside of this circle can know God's will, but that especially through Abraham and his seed God chooses to make his will known, until, in the fulness of time, Jesus, the son of Abraham according to the flesh, shall come and reveal clearly God's love and redemption to men.

In this section we have the story of the patriarchal family, first coming out of Ur of the Chaldees, and living for a while in Canaan. Then they go down to Egypt, and at last are oppressed. After being welded together in the furnace of affliction they are brought out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and in the wilderness they receive the law of God through their great leader, Moses. Here too they learn the way of acceptable worship, and are prepared for entry into the Land of Promise. Then follows the conquest of the land under Moses' successor, Joshua. Now comes the period of the Judges, when God rules his people directly through these divinely called men. This is easily seen to be a most important period. All this time Israel only is monotheistic (believing in one God), but all the other nations of the earth are grossly idolatrous. During this period we see that so long as God's chosen people obey him they prosper, while as soon as they disobey disasters begin to multiply.

In this period, too, was given that legislation which has been the foundation of all the legislation of civilized nations from that time to this. Here also we have the foundations of that system of types that culminated in Jesus, great David's greater Son. Sacrifice, high priest, tabernacle, here have their origin or their development. In all the history of the world up to that time there was no period so fraught with blessings for mankind as was this period.

#6. Fourth Period.--Kings to captivity.# 1 Samuel 9 to 2 Kings 25. This may be divided into two parts:

(1) The united monarchy. This lasted one hundred and twenty years, and had three kings, Saul, David, Solomon. Saul brought something of order out of national chaos. David carried this still farther and made Israel truly a great nation. Solomon, however, through too much luxury and many political alliances, sowed the seeds of national decay.