Discipline
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Many youth who are thought incorrigible are not at heart so hard
as they appear. Many who are regarded as hopeless may be reclaimed
by wise discipline. These are often the ones who most readily melt
under kindness. Let the teacher gain the confidence of the tempted
one, and by recognizing and developing the good in his character, he
can, in many cases, correct the evil without calling attention to it.
The divine Teacher bears with the erring through all their perversity.
His love does not grow cold; His efforts to win them do not cease.
With outstretched arms He waits to welcome again and again the
erring, the rebellious, and even the apostate. His heart is touched with
the helplessness of the little child subject to rough usage. The cry of
human suffering never reaches His ear in vain. Though all are precious
in His sight, the rough, sullen, stubborn dispositions draw most heavily
upon His sympathy and love; for He traces from cause to effect. The
one who is most easily tempted, and is most inclined to err, is the
special object of His solicitude.
Every parent and every teacher should cherish the attributes of Him
who makes the cause of the afflicted, the suffering, and the tempted His
own. He should be one who can have “compassion on the ignorant, and
on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed
with infirmity.”
Hebrews 5:2
. Jesus treats us far better than we deserve;
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and as He has treated us, so we are to treat others. The course of no
parent or teacher is justifiable if it is unlike that which under similar
circumstances the Saviour would pursue.
Meeting Life’s Discipline
Beyond the discipline of the home and the school, all have to meet
the stern discipline of life. How to meet this wisely is a lesson that
should be made plain to every child and to every youth. It is true that
God loves us, that He is working for our happiness, and that, if His
law had always been obeyed, we should never have known suffering;
and it is no less true that, in this world, as the result of sin, suffering,
trouble, burdens, come to every life. We may do the children and the
youth a lifelong good by teaching them to meet bravely these troubles
and burdens. While we should give them sympathy, let it never be
such as to foster self-pity. What they need is that which stimulates and
strengthens rather than weakens.