LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1870- 



The Old Testament believers had but vague views of 

 future life, but little apprehension of abstract doctrines. 

 But they had the most intense, child-like faith in God s 

 ever-present hand that can be conceived. In the whole 

 Old Testament history, God appears as in no other 

 history, as direct chief actor, ever near to His people ; 

 and so that history is indispensable for the religious 

 teaching of the young. 



This sense of God s immediate presence to all our 

 lives, which inspires the whole of the Old Testament, 

 appears in various shapes. In the history, we have the 

 actual proof of God s redeeming providence. To give 

 this proof full weight, the narrative must be taught 

 continuously and vividly, not made a text for abstract 

 doctrine, but just allowed to impress its own lesson, on 

 the principle that what God was in Old Testament 

 times that He is now. Then, again, we have the Psalms 

 those inimitable answers of the believing heart to God. 

 The Psalms are best explained by the history which 

 shows the circumstances in which the prayers and praises 

 they contain arose, and so at once gives their application 

 to our case. Moreover, they are an indispensable com 

 panion to the history, for side by side with God s message 

 to us, they show us how we shall answer to God. With 

 the Psalms, as with the histories, nothing is more to be 

 avoided than a fragmentary treatment. Let children 

 begin with short Psalms, or with Psalms like cxix., where 

 each verse is independent, and then, as they grow older, 

 let them learn to enjoy the beautiful unity of thought in 

 longer Psalms. The Prophetical and Didactic Books are 

 only in part suitable for elementary instruction. The 

 Proverbs, indeed, as the maxims of a wisdom resting on 

 the fear of God, have an obvious and easy use. Books 

 like Job and the Preacher will be admired for their 

 poetry before they are understood in their argument. 

 Parts of the prophets are easily understood, especially in 

 the New Testament development of the truths they 



