p. 209 | The Sabbath-School

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 4, 1882

The Sabbath-School.

Teachers' Attendance at Church.

No TEACHER is fit for Sabbath-school service who cuts church service. Both the spirit and example of such a teacher kills his influence in the class. Pupils will reason that if their teacher loves God and his house, he will be there, and practice what he teaches. If the teacher does not attend the service, he cannot draw his pupils there, and so loses one of his very greatest helps, in leading the pupil to Christ, and unfolding the Christian life.

No one thing adds more to the spiritual influence of a teacher over the class, or to the general good of the class, than the religious quickening and spiritual warmth of the soul gained in the church service. How otherwise can the teacher be in sympathy with the spiritual power of the church, and in line with its aims and efforts?

The highest and most permanent work for all concerned, parents and pupils and teachers, for the home and for the church, is done when teacher and pupils are present by appointment and mutual understanding at the house of the Lord, both for worship and Bible study. I never see a teacher absent from worship but that I feel he has lost power in the eyes of the pupils who are present, and lessened his influence in the class. His pupils will either mark him down as a cold Christian, or will follow his example and think their work done when they go to Sabbath-school, and will thus, in many cases, drift away from the house of God altogether. The Sabbath-school teacher is set to shape, with the parent, the whole character, as far as possible, to bring the child to Christ, and to the regular worship of the sanctuary, and the beginnings of all Christian duty.—Advance.