Season of 1884.

LESSON VI.—BIBLE SECTION.

The Land of The Bible.

By Rev. J. L. HURLBUT, D.D., and R. S. HOLMES, A.M.

1. It is an ancient land.—Before Rome was cradled by Tiber—before the storied strifes of the Gods in Hellas, before Troy and the great glory of the Trojans were, even before history was this wonderful land.

2. It is an historic land.—Much of the world’s destiny has been decided in this little strip of coast and mountain land, between the Jordan and the sea. Here armies have camped and battles have been fought. The restless feet of merchant traders have beaten its highways, the white wings of merchant vessels have flitted to and from its ports with the wealth of the world.

3. It is a diminutive land.—A little triangle bounded by the sea, the Jordan and her mountains, and the desert, it seems hardly large enough for all the mighty events that have occurred within it; 180 miles from farthest north to south, and 90 miles for its greatest breadth from west to east, measures the country in all its extent.

4. It is a storied land.—Where such a treasure house of tales as in that old Bible? The land and its book have figured in all the literatures of the Occidental ages. Knights and paladins have trod its vales and mountains; saint and crusader have watched at night beneath its stars.

5. It is a land of famous mountains.—Ebal and Gerizim, Hor and Nebo, Olivet and Tabor, Gilboa and Hermon. What scenes rise to the mind as we name them! Carmel and Quarantania; struggle and victory; Elijah, Immanuel.

6. It is a land of remarkable waters.—A single river—the Jordan, from north to south—rising in the extreme north from springs so hidden as to have long been unknown, loses itself in that sea of desolation, Lake Asphaltites, the Dead Sea. The mid-world sea, the mother sea of great nations, washes the western shores, and Galilee shines like a diadem in her mountain setting.

7. It is a land of many names.—The land of Canaan, the land of the children of Heth, Philistia, Palestine, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, the land of Judah, Immanuel’s Land.

8. It is an impregnable land.—Its hills, rock-ribbed, rise one upon another, covering the whole face of the land, and forcing all travel of army or caravan through the few passes in which the great northern plain terminates. Hence Esdrelon became of necessity the country’s battle ground. A united people made the country a fear to its force.

9. It was a populous land.—Beyond belief almost are the records of the people who lived within these few square miles. Cities and villages laid so close to each other that their environs almost met. The people thronged in them, and in the well tilled country about them, so that centuries of war, foreign and civil, and repeated depletions left them still in their decadence a troublesome foe to the veterans of Rome.

10. It was a productive land.—Shrubs and trees were in abundance. Pine, oak, elder, dogwood, walnut, maple, willow, ash, carob, sycamore, fig, olive and palm. Fruits in great variety were ripened beneath its sun; grapes, apples, pears, apricots, quinces, plums, mulberries, dates, pomegranates, oranges, limes, bananas, almonds, and pistachios. Many kinds of grains were cultivated, such as wheat, barley, rice, sesamum, millet and maize.

11. It was a land of a remarkable climate.—Thirty degrees variation from mountain to plain was its daily range. With the isothermal lines of our Florida and California, it yet had snow and ice as in our northern climates. Heavy rainfalls were characteristic; so were long periods of drought. Heavy dews, fierce siroccos, cloudless skies, oppressive heat, steady sea breezes, burning valleys, cool mountain summits were all characteristics of this land of the Bible.

Under the headings now given let the student give:

1. Ten dates which cover its history, and mark its principal events.

2. Give five events which have occurred in this land, that have direct bearing in the world’s history.

3. Give its geographical dimensions and natural features which mark its boundaries.

4. Give ten events in its history which have made it an enchanted land.

5. Give the event which has made the mountains mentioned memorable.

6. Give the event which makes each of the waters of the Bible memorable; Galilee, Jordan, Kishon, the Salt Sea.

7. Give the origin of the names by which the land is known.

8. Give the principal routes of travel through this land; and name the defensible passes.

9. Give its ten principal cities.

10. Give the Bible references which mention any of the trees, shrubs, fruits or grains here specified.

11. Give reasons why the climate should be as described.

SUNDAY-SCHOOL SECTION.

LESSON VI.—THE TEACHER’S MISTAKES.

That they are possible is assumed. That they are probable is likewise assumed. That they are real is a fact of personal experience. Mistakes anywhere are mischievous. In Sunday-school they are often ruinous. Let us classify them. They are first, mistakes of manner and method; second, mistakes of purpose and expectation; third, mistakes of thought and action. Let us examine our classification:

I. Manner and Method.

It is a mistake (a) to recognize differences in social position or station between members of a class. In the Sunday-school all meet on a common level. There is no rank in the Christian kingdom. All are peers of the realm, and Jesus Christ is the only Lord.

(b) To be in any degree partial to any scholar. All should be favorite scholars in this school.

(c) To seem uninterested in anything pertaining to the general interest of the school. If the teacher is devoid of interest the scholar will be.

(d) To scold or threaten in the class, even under provocations such as do occur in Sunday-school. Scolding always exercises an ill effect, and a threat is but a challenge.

(e) To pretend to be wiser or better versed in Bible lore than one really is. In Bible teaching, real knowledge is real power—but a manner that assumes to know what it does not is only the lion’s skin on the ass’ head.

(f) To neglect thorough study. Wherever there is good teaching there will be at least two students. One will be the teacher. Witness Dr. Arnold, of Rugby.

(g) To neglect private prayer in the teacher’s preparation. Said old Martin Luther, “Bene arÂsse est bene studuisse.”

(h) To depend upon lesson-helps in the class. Crutches are not becoming to an able bodied man. But some teachers bring out the lesson crutches on Sunday morning and hobble through Sunday-school on them.

(i) To expect the superintendent to discipline each class. He is no more responsible for class order than a commanding general for the order of a corporal’s guard.

(j) To use the lesson verse by verse, ending each with the Æsopian interrogation, “HÆc fabula docet?”

II. Purpose and Expectation.

It is a mistake (a) to seek only for a scholar’s conversion. If growth does not follow birth, death will. Upbuilding in Christ is one great purpose of the school.

(b) To seek only to create interest in the lesson. There may be deep intellectual interest created, and no spiritual interest.

(c) To teach for the purpose of performing duty. That robs the teacher of one chief essential to success—heartiness.

(d) To teach for the purpose of inculcating one’s own peculiar religious views. Paul’s purpose was the right one—“to know nothing save Christ and him crucified.”

(e) For the teacher to expect the pupil’s interest in the Gospel theme to equal his own. It is contrary to sinful nature.

(f) To expect home work by pupils, unless it has been prepared for by patient effort.

(g) To expect conversion as the immediate result of teaching, and to grow discouraged and abandon the work because the expectation is not at once realized. God’s way and time are his own.

(h) Not to expect conversion as the ultimate result of teaching; and hence to fail to direct every effort to that end.—“In the morning sow thy seed,” etc.

III. Thought and Action.

It is a mistake (a) to think teaching easy. It has taxed the noblest powers of the noblest men.

(b) To think it an insignificant or puerile employment. The two greatest names of the ages, heathen and Christian, were nothing if not teachers: Socrates—Immanuel.

(c) To think the Sunday-school a children’s institution only. The three great Christian institutions are the home, the church, the Sunday-school, and the constituency of each is the same.

(d) To be irregular in attendance at Sunday-school.

(e) To be unpunctual.

(f) To be lax in discipline.

(g) To fail in example, whether in connection with school work or daily life.