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Some Of The Christian Teacher’s Needs
To the teacher is committed a most important work—a work upon
which he should not enter without careful and thorough preparation.
He should feel the sacredness of his calling and give himself to it
with zeal and devotion. The more of true knowledge a teacher has,
the better will be his work. The schoolroom is no place for surface
work. No teacher who is satisfied with superficial knowledge will
attain a high degree of efficiency.
But it is not enough that the teacher possess natural ability and
intellectual culture. These are indispensable, but without a spiritual
fitness for the work he is not prepared to engage in it. He should
see in every pupil the handiwork of God—a candidate for immortal
honors. He should seek so to educate, train, and discipline the youth
that each may reach the high standard of excellence to which God
calls him.
The purpose of education is to glorify God; to enable men and
women to answer the prayer, “Thy kingdom come. They will be
done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:10
. God invites teachers
to be His helping hand in carrying out this purpose. He asks them
to bring into their work the principles of heaven, the A B C of true
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education. The teacher who has not yet learned these principles
should begin now to study them. And as he learns, he will develop a
fitness to teach others.
A Personal Knowledge of Christ
Every Christian teacher should have an intelligent understanding
of what Christ is to him individually. He should know how to make
the Lord his strength and efficiency, how to commit the keeping of
his soul to God as unto a faithful Creator. From Christ proceeds all
the knowledge essential to enable teachers to be workers together
with God—knowledge which opens to them the widest fields of
usefulness.
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