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Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students
will give clear, definite instruction, illustrating spiritual things by the
things of nature and by the familiar events of everyday experience.
The Bible reveals Christ to us as the Good Shepherd, seeking
with unwearied feet for the lost sheep. By methods peculiarly His
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own He helped all who were in need of help. With tender, courteous
grace He ministered to sin-sick souls, bringing healing and strength.
The simplicity and earnestness with which He addressed those in
need hallowed every word. He proclaimed His message from the
mountainside, from the fisherman’s boat, in the desert, in the great
thoroughfares of travel. Wherever He found those ready to listen He
was ready to open to them the treasure house of truth. He attended
the yearly festivals of the Jewish nation, and to the multitudes, ab-
sorbed in outward ceremony, He spoke of heavenly things, bringing
eternity within their view.
The Saviour’s entire life was characterized by disinterested
benevolence and the beauty of holiness. He is our pattern of good-
ness. From the beginning of His ministry, men began to comprehend
more clearly the character of God. He carried out His teachings in
His own life. He showed consistency without obstinacy, benevolence
without weakness, tenderness and sympathy without sentimentalism.
He was highly social, yet He possessed a reserve that discouraged
any familiarity. His temperance never led to bigotry or austerity. He
was not conformed to the world, yet He was attentive to the wants
of the least among men.
“Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from
Bozrah? this that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness
of His strength?”
Isaiah 63:1
. With assurance comes the answer:
“Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was
manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
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1 Timothy 3:16
. “Being in the form of God,” He “thought it not
robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation,
and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled
Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him
a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things