'They Are They Which Testify"

The problem of proper Sabbath observance is acute in our educational centers and also in our large cities. Church leaders must continue to study how to direct the restlessness of modern youth into profitable Sab­bath activity. Guidance must be Positive and not neg­ative. It is more than a Missionary Volunteer depart­mental responsibility. Ministers and Bible instructors should know how to help our young people in a prac­tical way.

Recently we had the privilege of observing Brother Durham lead out at one of our college centers in a Sabbath afternoon nature walk. His influence in. the Chicago area has meant much to our young people in other sections of the States. Personalty, we cannot forget that he helped some years ago in launching a timely and sensible nature interest in our eastern cities. Just how materially this affected the Sabbath-keeping of our youth in that section, only eternity may reveal. This matter of our young people living in crowded cities is a vastly different problem from living conditions in, the early days of our message. It therefore, afforded us keen satisfaction to meet Brother Durham again, and to observe that his fine influence in this respect is continuing. 

L. C. K.

In a much neglected volume a certain prophet has spoken of the good things on this wise: "Nature and revelation alike testify of God's love." Two witnesses to the same uni­versal truth.

"God is love," triumphantly declares the New Testament. "God is love," agrees the Old Tes­tament, but in slightly different phraseology. "God is love," testifies every leaf and flower, and the delicious red raspberry on the bushes in a corner of my garden. Indeed the ancestors of my raspberries said it first—a long-time first.

But in spite of these worthy witnesses, there are some preachers who in seeking spiritual food for themselves, their children, and their hungry flocks rely entirely on the New Testa­ment and reject the Old. Others, who gladly accept both the New and the Old, reject or completely ignore the oldest testament, pub­lished originally in the Garden of Eden, be­cause the pages are larger, the margins wider, and the language one with which they do not happen to be familiar. Nature, we must admit, is a tightly sealed book to far too many earnest Bible students, leaders as well as laymen.

A minister of wide experience, a college Bible teacher, once frankly confessed to an in­structor in astronomy, "The heavens are sup­posed to declare the glory of God, but they don't say anything to me." (Imagine how shocked he would have been if the astronomy teacher had replied, "And I never have been able to make anything out of the Bible.") Later, suspecting that the fault might be his own and not that of the stars, he welcomed what he re­garded as his first opportunity to learn his heavenly A, B, C's and is succeeding—out under  the open sky in God's own theological labora­tory. I am sure that he is already a better preacher for it.

All of which encourages us to offer a nature class for advanced Bible students, for those who know more or less Greek, Latin, and Hebrew but not the language of the lilies or the leaf hoppers; those who know the answers to the Eastern Question, but have never questioned an eastern meadow lark; who can repeat letter perfect the nineteenth Psalm, but have never in their whole lives yielded themselves to the sweet influences of the Pleiades. Those who read beyond this paragraph may regard themselves as charter members of such a class. With a group of this kind, interest should be keen and individual progress rapid, for each member brings to the class a rich background of Bible knowledge and practical experience in minis­tering the Word.

Let us go outside together. Yes, by all means bring your Bibles. Shall we form a circle here in my back yard, and properly approach this important and thoroughly interesting book, by a word of prayer? "We always pray when we. open our Bibles for study," responds Elder Jones, and straightway heads are bowed all around the circle.

"Our Father, we thank Thee for Thy great and beautiful gift to us. We come as a group of little chil­dren to read in Thy great book of knowledge. Open Thou our eyes that we may see, and our hearts that we may appreciate, wondrous things out of this sa­cred work, for we ask it in the name of the Master who observed and taught, out of doors, in Galilee. Amen." So say we all.

Nature's Table of Contents

"The extensive table of contents, if you please," begins the leader, "will be found under your feet, also in the park at the end of the yard, and up over______

"Look at that !" interrupts dignified Pastor Barton, whose position in the circle allows him to face the house, "a squirrel running right up the wall." All eyes follow the gray squirrel as he travels up the brick wall with almost as much ease as if it were the trunk of a tree. Carelessly he rounds a corner, and the class loses no time in following. Up at a second floor window ledge he stops for a nibble, but finds that we have forgotten to set out his lunch. After pondering the matter for a moment, he uses the downspout as a ladder to the roof. There he is joined by a companion, who has dropped down from an overhanging limb of the big elm. Together they examine the ridgepole as if a business errand had brought them here by appointment. Happily they scamper nimbly over the dormers.

"Such grace!" exclaims Elder Barnes. "If my pulpit gestures_____

"Let's give him a hand," urges Evangelist Curry, forgetting for the moment that he is supposed to be in a sort of Bible class. The naturalist joins in the applause, and suggests with feigned impatience that we must proceed with our business, indicating a shift to the back of the lawn. But he no more than opens his mouth when keen-eyed Miss Dennis, the Bible instructor, gives a signal for quiet. She has dis­covered another squirrel, this time in the rasp­berry patch. Everyone instantly freezes in his tracks while we watch the sleek little rascal climb up a thorny stem and reach with his left paw for a ripe berry. What could any teacher do under such circumstances but resign in favor of the squirrel and watch him take his booty up into a white oak, there with great dignity to sit on a comfortable limb and make the most of his prize? Time means nothing to a gray squirrel, and time forthwith ceases to have any meaning to this group of busy people as they stand stock still watching the rapid movements of little jaws, the cautious glances of glistening eyes, the dexterity of front paws used as hands.

^-"I wish my little Arthur could see that." Pas­tor Edwards seems to be speaking for all par­ents in the group. "It must be a great privilege to live here by this little park."

"Now I shall have a good pre-sermon story for the children next Sabbath," remarks young Elder Smith. "I never told a nature story in my life, but this is really good."

"It's better than the funnies—I mean—ought to appeal to young people more than the colored comics," blunders Brother Gates. "It would be all right for Sabbath too, wouldn't it ?"

"Perhaps one might even use such an inci­dent in a real sermon."

"Of course you have watched them bury acorns and walnuts," says one.

"And meditated meanwhile on the service rendered to the oaks and walnuts and to man­kind in planting valuable trees," adds another.

"But the squirrel doesn't actually intend to plant---."

"Nuts and fruits," muses practical Miss Den­nis. "What other good foods does the wise lit­tle creature select for himself?" The question is directed to the leader.

"Golden bantam corn on the cob," comes the ready answer. "While washing dishes my wife frequently observes her morning nature watch out of the north kitchen window. One morning last summer she saw something white going up the trunk of that elm tree yonder by the neigh­bor's garden. It was too far away for her to be sure what it was, but next morning she saw a similar white object in the same tree. A squirrel seemed to be struggling with a pocket handker­chief. She reached for her binoculars, and found that Mr. Bushytail was busily stripping the shucks from an ear of green corn which he had evidently taken from the little corn patch there below the tree. How he got it off the stalk is anybody's guess, but you can be sure that our breakfast dishes waited until breakfast in the elm tree was over."

"How do you suppose he knew there was food inside the wrapper ?" The naturalist is not at all embarrassed at being unable to answer.

"Anyhow, I wish I had those antics in a motion picture," persists the conference M.V. leader, "to use in my work with young people."

"Why not bring the young people out here to see it firsthand?" questions the leader.

"But what if the squirrel didn't show up?"

"Well, of course you should have something else up your sleeve. In the honeysuckle yonder is a catbird nest, and in the bur oak yonder is a family of screech owls.

Bringing the Lesson into Focus

"Time to brill.^- this to a focus now. Suppose we all sit down here on the grass, and think this lesson over. I had planned to let the screech owls conduct the class today, but the squirrels took matters in their own hands, as you see. Brother Barnes has been impressed with the grace and beauty of these creatures, Brother-Curry with their courage and energy. Another has seen a lesson on the power of example, still another is impressed with the value of play, and several have suggested bringing this experi­ence into the home or pulpit. You have all been surprised and pleased, and you have all been thinking, because you are used to thinking.

"So the class has been very much in session ever since we stepped outside, and you can see as well as I that we have not begun to exhaust our topic. But let us hold fast to these things while we make sure about our attitude and ap­proach to nature study. We have started out correctly, in a spirit of reverence. Paul thanked God that the Thessalonians had received the word which he had preached to them, 'not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.' So with the Word revealed in creation. The squirrel is not an accident or an invention of man, but a living expression of the truth of God—the power, wisdom, skill, and infinite love of God. If we regard him thus, he preaches to us as readily as a text in the Bible.

"If we are truly reverent, we shall also be humble. Wise men may boast as long as they stay indoors, but let them hold their tongues when they go outside. I am quoting: 'He who studies most deeply into the mysteries of nature will realize most fully his own ignorance and weakness. He will realize that there are depths and heights which he cannot reach, secrets which he cannot penetrate, vast fields of truth lying before him unentered. He will be ready to say with Newton, "I seem to myself to have been like a child on a seashore finding pebbles and shells, while the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before me."'