Teachers and Teaching
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Those who undertake this work should possess well-balanced, sym-
metrical characters. They should be refined in manner, neat in dress,
careful in all their habits; and they should have that true Christian cour-
tesy that wins confidence and respect. The teacher should be himself
what he wishes his students to become.
Teachers are to watch over their students, as the shepherd watches
over the flock entrusted to his charge. They should care for souls as
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they that must give account.
The teacher may understand many things in regard to the physical
universe; he may know all about the structure of animal life, the
discoveries of natural science, the inventions of mechanical art; but he
cannot be called educated, he is not fitted for his work as an instructor
of youth, unless he has in his own soul a knowledge of God and of
Christ. He cannot be a true educator until he is himself a learner in the
school of Christ, receiving an education from the divine Instructor.
God is the source of all wisdom. He is infinitely wise, and just, and
good. The wisest men that ever lived cannot comprehend him. They
may profess to be wise; they may glory in their great attainments; but
mere intellectual knowledge, aside from the great truths that center
in Christ, is as nothingness. “Let not the wise man glory in his wis-
dom; ... but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth
and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness,
judgment, and righteousness, in the earth.”
If men could see for a moment beyond the finite vision, if they
could catch a glimpse of the Eternal, every mouth would be stopped
in its boasting. Men, living in this little atom of a world, are finite;
God has unnumbered worlds that are obedient to his laws, and are
conducted with reference to his glory. When men have gone as far in
scientific research as their limited powers will permit, there is still an
infinity beyond what they can apprehend.
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Before men can be truly wise, they must realize their dependence
upon God, and be filled with his wisdom. God is the source of intel-
lectual as well as spiritual power. The greatest men, who have reached
what the world regards as wonderful heights in science, are not to be
compared with the beloved John or the great apostle Paul. It is when
intellectual and moral power are combined that the greatest standard of
manhood is reached. God will accept such a man as a worker together
with himself in the training of minds.