Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

cases"you."you."go!"sin.'The First Requirement for a Sabbath School Teacher"God so loved the world,. . .The most obvious requirement for aSabbath School teacher or any otherworker is that he be a genuine Christianand in this instance, developed to thepoint of being able to teach others also.But what makes him able? What pointabout beinga Christian, and what lineof development, is most needed?Theanswer is in the most famous text inthe Bible, the text which sums up thewhole Bible as far as that can be donein one verse.A Sabbath School teacher who is notmerely to go through the form of beinga teacher, but who will convert thosetaught and bring them into the Churchto stay and to work, must love eachmember of his Sabbath School class. Itis true that sometimes a teacher doesless than that, yet good results come.But that is possible only because, whilehe fails in part, some person in the class,or in the Church, mayadd for someclass-member what the teacher hasfailed to give. But if a teacher makes hisown lack of love manifest enough, noone else can cancel the bad impressionmade.Little children, or older persons in advanced classes, usually are able to learnon one point, how the teacher feelstoward them. People are, that far, likea dog, which does not understand language, at least not very many words.But that dog all the more catches thetone in which he is spoken to; and hedecides promptly what kind of thing toexpect, from his master's attitude. People may not learn much in SabbathSchool, as is often remarked. But they dolearn the tone of their teacher towardthem. And no one is easily to be excluded from being loved by that teacher,when the whole Bible backs what John3:16 asserts: "God so loved the world,that . . He did what we should follow.The Practical Form of This RequirementSome of us remember what we weretold when we were talked to as possibleteachers in the Mission Sabbath School.The declaration made was very practical, not theoretical in form. We weretold that we must visit every memberof the class and know their homes; andwe must entertain them in our home.That was the preparation to know howto say what we had to teach, so thatthose particular children would be likely to understand and to feel the appealof the things taught. It was also thepreparation to soften the hearts of theones taught, so that there would be168less resistance to the truth, consideringhow they felt about the person who toldthem that truth. The less such personshad at home, the fewer parties they hadever been invited to, the slighter thesocial training they had on how to actwith other folks, the more they neededto be loved and to know that they wereloved.B'ut such people may be unlovely andtherefore unlovable. That is where theChristianity of the teacher goes to work.They may be unlovable as they are,but not as wonder-working Christianity can make them. The teacher, ifa Christian, thinks back over howmuch of a burden he has been himselfto the people who have taken care ofhim, when he was certainly not always acharming child. He thinks of how muchhe has been saved from, as a sinnerhimself. He remembers what he oftenstarted to do. He can imagine what hewould probably have become, if fatherand mother, brothers and sisters, friendsand acquaintances, had not done somuch for him. He considers why theydid all this, plainly more patient becausethey were under Church influence, wererestrained by Christian principles, wereurged on to be kind and generous by theexample of Jesus Christ.What about "Hopeless Cases"?If a child seems a hopeless case, agood teacher knows his Bible wellenough to know of other "hopelessin the great Book. Those veryones may especially interest that child.A good teacher looks around him; andsees cases of changed lives, to strengthen his faith. Most of all he thinks ofhow hopeless his case could easily be,if all Christian helps were taken away.How does it come that he himself issaved, if he is?He does not have a very high knowledge of God's revelation of a truly goodlife, if he is not conscious of the dailyneed to gather strength "to press towardthemark."It takes an inward miracle tokeep "reachingforth unto those thingswhich are before." Why not a miraclefor this pupil?Is the teacher a hopeless case himself?Does he wish God to give him, himself,up? He does not pray much if he doesnot offer, honestly and earnestly, thatfamous prayer for "daily bread"; whichis followed by the more important petition, "and forgive us our debts" or "ourtrespasses,"evidently a daily petition,next to the other. If one thinks he reallydoes not need that part for very greatsin, let him think of that verse, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, anddoeth it not, to him it isMostChristians have great sins of omission.Then there is that daring expression,"as we forgive our debtors." Now thatis not put there as supposed pay for being forgiven, but as evidence that wehave repented, without which actionthere is no forgiveness. Seeing our ownsins enough to repent, thoroughly prepares us to take a very much less condemningview of the one who offendedus. Who are we, to become so angry?But we had a right to expect betterthings from that person. But rememberhow much God has a right to expectfrom us. Yet we sin. Sometimes one istempted to consider himself a "hopelesscase"; but we hang on, because Christis our only hope. Considering ourselves,we should not be quick to count any onea hopeless case.Look at that pupil again. Consider hishome. A teacher once visited a homewhere he stood in the little hall at thestreet door, at the head of a stairwayleading to a basement, where the family had some, if not all, their rooms. Athick voice called, "Come on down. Iwon't hurtA charming invitation!Then the youngster standing by said,needlessly, "Don't you What a placefor that child to live! Why complainthat the child was not too good, whenthat was home for her?But there are homes more likely toproduce difficult cases than that, respectable, comfortable, selfish homes.There are so many where evil is notopen and raging, ones where the fadinginfluence of old religious training stillmaintains some good, but where oftenthe best sign is the desire, or at leastthe willingness, that though they themselves lazily, or indifferently, or rebelliously,stay home, at least their childshall go to "Sunday School." and youyou are the Sabbath School teacher, thecenter of hope for life, eternal life, forthat child!What will you give for this bit of thatworld which God so loved? You mustlove the child, if you are going to helpit to know the new life which shall beeternal. You count, before any of the"lessons."Go to the child's home; bringhim to yours; reach him. A teacher toldof inviting her class to a picnic. Onlyone girl came; and she said that herteacher did not need to go just for her.But the teacher said, "I would do anything for They went, just the two.(Continued on next page)COVENANTER WITNESS