It seems to me that the greatest ill that afflicts the American church to-day is none other than the neglect of the Scriptures. This should cause us to take hold of the word of God, and this the teacher-training class has helped to do.

      Let us imagine, now, a large class, or a small one for that matter, one that is enthusiastic, one that has a live wire hold of it. Let us look into the homes of those who are members of that class, and you will find that many of the members of the class have the Book in a convenient place where they can turn to the page, and they study it as they work. You have doubtless gone into homes where the mother has been studying that Book while she was rocking her baby to sleep. I have been told by some that "we have teacher-training for dinner, supper and breakfast;" and one young man said that "our evening conversation has largely dwelt upon teacher-training work." It seems to me, now, that if we have got into the homes with this Book, if we want to get hold of the young and the old in making the Book clearer to the families, it has certainly helped.

      Now, when we get hold of the Scriptures and try to do what they tell us, and try to find out what they are, we'll see that there is stirred up an interest in other things--all church activity, as well as in the study of the Scriptures. And that has helped. We find people oftentimes who are indifferent. The teacher-training class will cause the indifference to vanish. This has helped to make our teachers more efficient. It has helped them to catch a vision of the Christ. We have taken not the first standard of the course, only the outline, the surface of it, as it were, but we have caught a vision. Brethren, I was in the university for two whole years before I caught a vision of the Scriptures, before I felt that I had a grasp upon them, and it seems to me that when we have presented something in its simplicity that causes the members of the church to take hold of this and grasp it, they have caught a vision that will cause them ever to know more about the word of God.

      Then, here is another ill. I attended the session this morning, and there the superintendents were telling about their difficulties. One of the ailments that has caused groanings before this is the lack of teachers, qualified supply teachers and new teachers. But when we can go to the teacher-training class and know just where to place our hands upon one who has been studying how, learning how, qualifying, it has solved one of the ills of the Bible school. It was Brother McLean who said in one of his works that it is believed that those who know will pray and give and go. When we have a call for missions, when we have a call for helpers, calls for those who are needed to do the work of the church, we must go to those who know something of the Scriptures, those who are willing to pray, to give and to go. A knowledge of the Scriptures will cause a man to pray, and pray intelligently, and, as Brother [547] McGarvey used to tell us, "Study your prayer, study your prayer." Jesus has told us how to pray, the apostles have given us examples of how to pray, and we want to find out how it is done. Then, the giving; those who are interested in the Scriptures, those who have learned about them, we will find are the ones who give themselves, their time and their money. And the going; would you call upon some one who did not know these Scriptures, who did not know the Bible, to go? The president of Kentucky University once said that the best, the freshest, the least known illustrations that the ministerial students before him could find would be in the Scriptures. Since that day the teacher-training class has come along, and I believe Brother McGarvey would not say that. I believe he would say, "Use illustrations. If you want some that will cause people to know better what you are trying to drive at, use the illustrations from the Bible, because they are not the least known, because people will understand what it is that you are driving at."

      Where is it that the teacher-training class has not helped? I say the training-class will permeate the entire church and the entire county. Has it completed its work when it has cured some of the ills to which our churches are heir? Has its work been finished? Why, my friends, we know that one of the greatest mines that God has ever planted is in these Scriptures, and when we go on the second or third courses of the teacher-training work we are getting down into the depths of the mine that God has planted, and this has made it possible to bring forth riches which the treasury of the world has never known.

[CCR 547-548]