The Bible as a Text-book - A.T Jones

I am to speak to you on the subject of the Bible as the basis of all education, the text-book in all studies. I speak to you on these subjects to persuade you, as far as possible, to give to the Bible the place which really belongs to it, and which Christians profess belongs to it. ARSH November 14, 1899, page 731.1

The Bible should be the first thing in every line of study, for the same reason that it must be the first thing with the child; and that reason is expressed in a saying familiar to all: First impressions are most lasting. The Bible should be the source of the first instruction that the child receives in the world; and, as everybody is a child in every line of study that is new to him, the Bible should be the first of all things in all studies. ARSH November 14, 1899, page 731.2

It is the truth that when a person lives, and a few do live, in such a way that the life simply fades out because of age, the last thing that such a person thinks of is the first thing that he ever learned. I say it again, for it is a principle of education: The first thing that is ever fixed upon a person’s mind, is the last thing that that mind dwells upon, if the life is completed, and simply fades out in old age. ARSH November 14, 1899, page 731.3

You all know of Gladstone, the great English statesman, who died only last year. He died a very old man. As his life was fading out indeed, it was noticed that he was saying over and over again the Lord’s prayer in French. That excited some query, as he was an Englishman. Why should he be saying the Lord’s prayer in French? Inquiries were made, because of the interest that was thus aroused; and it was learned that when he was a little child, he was in charge of a French nurse, and that the French nurse was a Christian, and had taught him the Lord’s prayer in her native language. And as that happened to be the first thing that was fixed upon his mind, it was the last thing that was dwelt upon by his mind as it faded out in death. ARSH November 14, 1899, page 731.4

Now, if that nurse had not been a Christian, and had taught that child, “Hi, diddle, diddle, the cat’s in the fiddle,” it would have worked precisely the same way, and that would have been the last thing that he would have spoken on his death-bed. If she had taught him Esop’s fables instead of the Lord’s prayer, they would have been the last things that he would have murmured as his mind faded away. Not long ago I knew of another person who died at a little past ninety-six years of age. The Lord’s prayer was also one of the things that that person repeated. Another thing she did in the last days of her life was to count—one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and so on up to ten, but not beyond—just as a little child learns to count. So that mind, in its last hours, was dwelling on things and upon scenes of her first hours of conscious memory—the things that were first fixed in her mind. How beautiful it is that the last thought of a mind fading out in death is thought of God in his word! How aptly in the resurrection will the first thought take up the connection! This is enough to illustrate the principle that is the basis of the philosophy of using the Bible as the first thin in all Christian education. ARSH November 14, 1899, page 731.5

This, you will all admit, is all well enough in the case of the child, the little infant who is learning the first things. But it is no more necessary there than it is everywhere else; for every one is a child, an infant, in the things that he is first learning. If you or I were to begin to study any new language, we would be altogether babes in that language. We know nothing at all there; there is not a thought in the language that is ours; not a word in the language that is ours; not a word in the language that can possibly convey a thought. That is the way it is with the child as he begins to learn in the world. He has to receive things to be impressed upon the mind, to give thought, to awake intelligence. All that you will ever know in that language must be learned from, and by, the language itself. You must learn the language first of all, in order to learn anything in the language. And whatever impressions are first made in your mind in that language will go with you through all your life in that language. Whatever it may be, it will cast its influence over everything that you ever learn in that language afterward where the same words are used. ARSH November 14, 1899, page 731.6

For instance, you begin to study the language that you may have chosen, with any part of the Bible—the first verses of Genesis, or the first of John. Suppose it be Greek. And as the book of John is about the simplest, easiest book in the New Testament, in Greek, suppose you begin with that. The first words are, as translated: “In the beginning was the Word.” There you have five words: en arche en ho logos—en arche en ho logos. The word arche means “the beginning,” and the word logos means “the word.” Now, if that is the first Greek that you ever learn, the thoughts in these words the first that you ever think in that language, then whenever afterward you meet, in the Greek language, that word arche, you will be reminded of the beginning of all things; and whenever you read the word logos, you will be reminded of the Word of God, which is God. And this even though the word arche or logos, which you may read elsewhere, may have no reference in its place to this beginning, or to the Word of God. Thus wherever you go in that language, your mind will carry the thought of God, and of Christ, the Word and the beginning of all things. ARSH November 14, 1899, page 731.7

Now suppose that, on the other hand, you begin the study of the Greek in some pagan authors; and the first word that you learn there should be this same word arche, referring to the beginning of some pagan project or mythological exploit. That is the first thought that you receive in Greek. Then suppose that afterward you come to the same word in the Bible, even this very word in the first of John,—as certainly as you do, that pagan thought and the scene connected with it, which you first received from that word, will cast their pagan shadow over the divine meaning of the same word when read in the word of God. It is impossible to be otherwise; for that is the only thought that you have in your mind in connection with that word. And whatever  other thought may afterward be attached to the word, that first one will forever remain. ARSH November 14, 1899, page 731.8

Now which is better: which affords the better prospect to the mind—to begin in such a way that wherever you go after that, the thought of God himself shall be with you, and accompany you in all your study in that language; or to begin in such a way that paganism will be first in all things, even to the overshadowing of the word of God, when you study that?—To ask the question is to answer it: you see that plainly enough. ARSH November 14, 1899, page 732.1

Now, in illustration, I will cite an actual occurrence: A few years ago I was passing through a high school, in which persons of another language were studying English. The book that lay open on the desk as I passed by, was their book of study in English; and it was opened at the subject of “The Mischievous Monkey.” Those students were taking their first lesson in a foreign language. The first and only thoughts they were getting in that language were thoughts about “a mischievous monkey.” When they had studied that short piece clear through, all that they knew in the English language, and the only thoughts that they could possibly think in English, were thoughts concerning a mischievous monkey. Now, in the account of that mischievous monkey, words were used that we frequently meet in the Bible: because they were common English words. ARSH November 14, 1899, page 732.2

Suppose, then, that these students should some day turn to the Bible in English, and meet some of those same words that were met in the lesson upon “The Mischievous Monkey;” every time they meet those words in the Bible, there will be that mischievous monkey obtruding himself upon, and rollicking among, the things of the word of God. That is as certain as that those students received such thoughts as their first thoughts in that language. But suppose that instead of the mischievous monkey, that teacher had given them the Bible, presenting to them the thoughts of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made,” and so on. Suppose that their minds had thus been filled first of all with the thoughts of God in English; then suppose that afterward they had read, for amusement, of a mischievous monkey. The thoughts of the words of God would accompany them in their reading, and would rob the reading of any of the mischief that might be gathered from it. ARSH November 14, 1899, page 732.3

This is the philosophy of learning from the Bible, and of using the Bible as the first thing, in every line of study. Now I ask again, and appeal to you: Which is better—to begin a language in such a way that the thoughts of God will go with that mind wherever the mind goes, even though it be into pagan literature; or to begin in such a way that the thoughts of the pagan literature, or of trifling things, will, in spite of everything, go with the mind into the word of God? It will go with the mind in spite of everything; because it is a law that first impressions are most lasting; that whatever is learned first, associates itself with everything in that connection that comes to our minds in all after-life. Now, that is enough to show you then, and to convince you, too, I think, of the justice of making the Bible the text-book, and the first of all things in all language study, in Seventh-day Adventist schools. ARSH November 14, 1899, page 732.4