OUTLINES FOR BIBLE-CLASS INSTRUCTION.
The following plan was originally drawn up by the Rev. Dr. Romeyn, of New York, and recommended by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America : it has been revised for this work.
I. Observe the historical part of the scripture lessons, relating to the two great divisions of mankind — the church and the world.
II. The biographical part, embracing the two distinct classes, believers and unbelievers; with the different effects which their good and bad example have had upon the church and the world.
III. The doctrinal part, teaching the nature and perfections of God; the character, person, offices, and work of Christ; the influences of the Holy Spirit; the actual state of man by the fall, and his renovated character by grace, marking distinctly the gradual increase of knowledge on these points from age to age, through the patriarchal and levitical dispensations, till the christian revelation furnished mankind with the clear and full developement of God's merciful purposes towards our world.
IV. The preceptive part, including the whole range of our duties agreeably to the moral law.
V. The positive ordinances, comprising the sacrifices, types, the priesthood, the temple-service, and the sacraments; distinguishing between these positive institutions and moral duties,— the first dependent on the will of God, and therefore mutable; the last on his nature, and therefore immutable: marking the changes of the first from time to time, with the reasons for the change, and unfolding the influence which they were obviously intended to have upon the spiritual exercises of our hearts, and our obedience to the moral law.
VI. The practical lessons which the historical and biographical parts furnish for the regulation of human conduct, in all the relations of life.
In these outlines it will be understood, that general questions, under each division, should be proposed to the pupils, and full instruction given by the teacher.
