A Conservative Speaks

Abstract

HE subject for this symposium was, I must confess, somewhat disturbing when first placed in my hands. Though for over a quarter of a century I have been preaching from, teaching, and commending the study of the Holy Scriptures, I do not know that I ever deliberately sat down to determine what my general objectives were in such a holy work as that in which you and I find ourselves engaged. This has been a wholesome experience, to clarify my own thinking, and, at my time of life, it is rather overdue. Just because teaching the Word of God is my life work, as it is yours, and will continue to be, I trust, for the years that remain, what I say must be more or less the laying bare of my own heart's deepest convictions and hopes. To begin with, is it not true that every teacher's objectives in teaching the Bible must be determined by two fundamental factors: the kind of students we are attempting to teach, and what we ourselves think of the Bible, as we teach it? If I were teaching the Bible to Chinese young men, in Chungking, or Chefoo, I would try continually, with as much conviction as I could command, first of all to persuade them from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. But teaching the Bible for most of us, certainly in my school, and in most of your schools, means speaking of the Scriptures to those who are already followers of Christ, and who are seeking, in our respective institutions, a broader, more thorough knowledge of the entire Word of God. My objective in teaching the Bible in Lake View High School would be altogether different from that of teaching it in the Moody Bible Institute. In the one place I would emphasize its literary as well as its spiritual values, but where I am, and where many of you are, we must strive to equip men for the great work of preaching and teaching these same Scriptures, which we would not be doing to a high school group. What we think of this remarkable book will