To Teachers
215
dom to deal with these poor children, whom they have made what they
are. They fail to trace back the cause of these discouraging develop-
ments which are a trial to them. But Jesus looks upon these children
with pity and with love, for He sees, He understands from cause to
effect.
The teacher may bind these children to his or her heart by the love
of Christ abiding in the soul-temple as a sweet fragrance, a savor of life
unto life. The teachers may, through the grace of Christ imparted to
them, be the living human agency—be laborers together with God—to
enlighten, lift up, encourage, and help to purify the soul from its moral
defilement; and the image of God shall be revealed in the soul of the
child, and the character become transformed by the grace of Christ.
The gospel is the power and wisdom of God, if it is correctly
represented by those who claim to be Christians. Christ crucified for
our sins should humble every soul before God in his own estimation.
Christ risen from the dead, ascended on high, our living Intercessor
in the presence of God, is the science of salvation which we need to
learn and teach to children and youth. Said Christ, “I sanctify Myself,
that they also might be sanctified.” This is the work that ever devolves
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upon every teacher. There must not be any haphazard work in this
matter, for even the work of educating the children in the day schools
requires very much of the grace of Christ and the subduing of self.
Those who naturally are fretful, easily provoked, and have cherished
the habit of criticism, of thinking evil, should find some other kind of
work that will not reproduce any of their unlovely traits of character
in the children and youth, for they have cost too much. Heaven sees
in the child, the undeveloped man or woman, with capabilities and
powers that, if correctly guided and developed with heavenly wisdom,
will become the human agencies through whom the divine influences
can co-operate to be laborers together with God. Sharp words, and
continual censure bewilder the child, but never reform him. Keep back
that pettish word; keep your own spirit under discipline to Jesus Christ;
then will you learn how to pity and sympathize with those brought
under your influence. Do not exhibit impatience and harshness, for
if these children did not need educating, they would not need the
advantages of the school. They are to be patiently, kindly, and in love
brought up the ladder of progress, climbing step by step in obtaining
knowledge.