Basic HTML Version
160
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students
children with pity and love. He understands; for He reasons from
cause to effect.
Sharp words and continual censure bewilder the child, but do not
reform him. Keep back the pettish word; keep your own spirit under
discipline to Christ. Then you will learn to pity and to sympathize
with those who are brought under your influence. Do not show im-
patience or harshness. If these children did not need educating, they
would not be in school. They are to be patiently, kindly helped up
the ladder of progress, climbing step by step in obtaining knowledge.
Take your stand by the side of Jesus. Possessing His attributes, you
will be the possessor of keen, tender sensibilities and will make the
cause of the erring your own.
The religious life of a large number of teachers who profess
to be Christians is such as to show that they are not Christians.
They are constantly misrepresenting Christ. They have a religion
that is subject to and controlled by circumstances. If everything
[196]
happens to move in a way that pleases them, if there are no irritating
circumstances to call out their unsubdued, un-Christlike natures,
they are condescending and pleasant and very attractive. But the
truth is not to be practiced only when we feel like it, but at all times
and in all places. The Lord is not served by a man’s hasty impulse,
his fitful performances. If, when things occur in the family or in
association with others, which ruffle their peace and provoke the
temper, teachers would lay everything before God, asking for His
grace before they engage in their daily work; if they would know
for themselves that the love and power and grace of God are in their
own hearts, angels of God would go with them into the schoolroom.
It means much to bring children under the direct influence of the
Spirit of God, to train and discipline them, to bring them up in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord. The formation of right habits,
the inculcation of a right spirit, will call for earnest efforts in the
name and strength of Jesus.
“Every high priest ... 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 5:1, 2
. This truth can in the highest sense
be exemplified before the children. Let teachers bear it in mind when
they are tempted to be impatient and angry with the children because
of misbehavior. Let them remember that angels of God are looking