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Fundamentals of Christian Education
will qualify the students for practical missionary work, by teaching
them to bring every faculty under the control of the Spirit of God. The
study book which is of the highest value is that which contains the
instruction of Christ, the Teacher of teachers.
The Lord expects our teachers to expel from our schools those
books that teach sentiments which are not in accordance with His
word, and to give place to those books that are of the highest value.
The Lord designs that the teachers in our schools shall excel in wisdom
the wisdom of the world, because they study His wisdom. God will
be honored when the teachers in our schools, from the highest grades
to the lowest, show to the world that a more than human wisdom is
theirs, because the Master Teacher is standing at their head.
Our teachers need to be constant learners. All reformers need to
place themselves under discipline to God. Their own lives need to
be reformed, their own hearts subdued by the grace of Christ. Every
worldly habit and idea that is not in harmony with the mind of God
should be renounced.
When Nicodemus, a learned teacher in Israel, came to Jesus to
inquire of Him, Christ laid before him the first principles. Nicodemus,
though holding an honorable position in Israel, had not a true concep-
tion of what a teacher in Israel should be. He needed instruction in
the very first principles of the divine life, for he had not learned the
alphabet of true Christian experience.
In response to Christ’s instruction Nicodemus said, “How can these
things be?” Christ answered, “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest
not these things?” The same question might be asked of many who are
holding responsible positions as teachers, physicians, and ministers
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of the gospel, but who have neglected the most essential part of their
education, that which would fit them to deal in a Christlike manner
with human minds.
In the instruction that Christ gave to His disciples, and to the people
of all classes who came to hear His words, there was that which lifted
them to a high plane of thought and action. If the words of Christ,
instead of the words of men, were given to the learner today, we
would see evidences of higher intelligence, a clearer comprehension
of heavenly things, a deeper knowledge of God, a purer and more
vigorous Christian life. “Verily, verily, I say unto you,” Christ said,
“he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life.