Soul-winning Agency
49
Spirit to those under their care, and lead their pupils to seek for truth
as for hidden treasure. We do not want our Sabbath schools conducted
in such a way as to make hypocrites of the pupils; for such cannot
advance the interests of true religion. Then let there be more attention
given to seeking God, that the Spirit of the Lord may be in your school,
than that you may have every mechanical arrangement you desire.
High pretensions of any kind are out of place in the Sabbath school
work, and the mechanical working of the school is of little value if
the Spirit of God does not soften and mold the hearts of teachers and
pupils.—
Testimonies on Sabbath-School Work, 76
.
Study Each Individual
In all true teaching the personal element is essential. Christ in
His teaching dealt with men individually. It was by personal contact
and association that He trained the twelve. It was in private, often to
but one listener, that He gave His most precious instruction. To the
honored rabbi at the night conference on the Mount of Olives, to the
despised woman at the well of Sychar, He opened His richest treasures;
[74]
for in these hearers He discerned the impressible heart, the open mind,
the receptive spirit. Even the crowd that so often thronged His steps
was not to Christ an indiscriminate mass of human beings. He spoke
directly to every mind and appealed to every heart. He watched the
faces of His hearers, marked the lighting up of the countenance, the
quick, responsive glance, which told that truth had reached the soul;
and there vibrated in His heart the answering chord of sympathetic
joy....
The same personal interest, the same attention to individual de-
velopment, are needed in educational work today. Many apparently
unpromising youth are richly endowed with talents that are put to
no use. Their faculties lie hidden because of a lack of discernment
on the part of their educators. In many a boy or girl outwardly as
unattractive as a rough-hewn stone, may be found precious material
that will stand the test of heat and storm and pressure. The true ed-
ucator, keeping in view what his pupils may become, will recognize
the value of the material upon which he is working. He will take a
personal interest in each pupil, and will seek to develop all his powers.