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Under Discipline to Christ
159
When a teacher manifests impatience or fretfulness toward a
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child, the fault may not be with the child one half so much as with
the teacher. Teachers become tired with their work, and something
the children say or do does not accord with their feelings. Will they
at such times, through a failure to exercise tact and wisdom, let
Satan’s spirit enter and lead them to arouse in the children feelings
that are disagreeable and unpleasant? The teacher who loves Jesus,
and who appreciates the saving power of His grace, cannot, dare
not, let Satan control his spirit. Everything will be put away that
would corrupt his influence, because it opposes the will of God and
endangers the souls of the precious sheep and lambs.
When Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, then the truth of
God will so act upon the natural temperament that its transforming
power will be seen in changed characters. You will not then, by
revealing an unsanctified heart and temper, turn the truth of God
into a lie before any of your pupils. Nor will you, by manifesting
a selfish, un-Christlike spirit, give the impression that the grace of
Christ is not sufficient for you at all times and in all places. You will
show that the authority of God over you is not in name only, but in
reality and truth.
Let every teacher who accepts the responsibility of teaching the
children and youth, examine himself. Let him ask himself, Has the
truth of God taken possession of my soul? Has the wisdom which
comes from Jesus Christ, which is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle,
and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without
partiality, and without hypocrisy,” been brought into my character?
Do I cherish the principle that “the fruit of righteousness is sown in
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peace of them that make peace”?
James 3:17, 18
.
Teachers, Jesus is in your school every day. His great heart of
infinite love is drawn out, not only for the best-behaved children,
who have the most favorable surroundings, but for the children who
have by inheritance objectionable traits of character. Even parents
have not understood how much they are responsible for the qualities
developed in their children, and they have not had the tenderness
and wisdom to deal with them, whom they have made what they
are. They have failed to trace back to the cause of the discouraging
developments that are a trial to them. But Jesus looks upon these