TO FIRST EDITION

The Bible is a Lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway.  To know it thoroughly is to be kept from stumbling, and to walk in the light is fellowship with Him who is the heart of the Book.

The Bible is a Rock; to be familiar with its pages is to be established in character, in hope and in faith, and while we may sometimes tremble, the rock is immovable.  The Bible is the true water of life.  Mr. Moody used to say that it comes down from on high and rises again in mighty power to the throne on the principle that water seeks its own level.  To know the Bible is, therefore, to live a heavenly life and to be filled with all the fullness of the spirit of Christ.

The author of this text book knows his Bible thoroughly and he has the God-given ability of making it plain to others.  What is here presented he has worked out in the class room and in his own rich Christian experience.  I count it a privilege to write this line of introduction.  The members of the Young People’s Societies in the churches, Christian Associations, Bible study classes and Christian workers generally will find it most helpful.  A busy business man by means of it could think his way through much of God’s Word.  It is a timely presentation of a great subject.  I am sure that God will bless it richly to all who attempt to study it.

J. Wilbur Chapman.

PREFACE TO THE SERIES

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Search Series of Bible Study Text Books

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"Be Ye Explorers of the Writings."—­John 5:39

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Teachers of the Scriptures are issuing many valuable aids to Bible study.  This series of text books is based upon the “Search” idea.  We believe this idea is fundamental.  It is commended to the student public for the following reasons: 

It is the Divine Method.

“Seek ye out of the book of Jehovah” is the God-given command in Isaiah 34:16 “Search ye the Scriptures” is the command of the God-man in John 5:39.  The God who wrote the Book and the God who knows man will prescribe the best method by which man shall become acquainted with the Book.

It is the Pedagogic Method.

“What seest thou?” One basic pedagogic principle is to train the pupil’s physical and mental eyes to see things for himself.  The first and largest gate to knowledge is the eye gate.

It is the Scientific Method.

The scientist searches for facts.  He hunts for facts in the stars, in the rocks, in the plants, in the animals.  From these facts he deduces principles.  “What saith the Scriptures?”

It is the Interesting Method.

The search of the hunter, the explorer, the experimenter, the excavator, the student, is a joyous labor.  Every sense is alert There is no drudgery, no fatigue.  The “eureka” stirs a song of gladness.  There is much joy in bearing this testimony:  “I have found Micah 6:8, or Isaiah 12, or Jeremiah 45:5, or Philippians 4:19,” etc.