The Serious Teacher by Dr. Steel

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

The Serious Teacher.

By Dr. Steel

SERIOUSNESS is a requisite to successful teaching. This is necessary for the proper effect of the exercise. The interest in the work may lead the minds of the youth away from the object of it. Their desire to acquire information and to answer correctly is different from the desire to be seriously impressed. An undevout teacher may have a smart class, but the impression he leaves upon their minds is not salutary. And the more successful he is, the more dangerous does he become. His indifference is as infectious as his intelligence.

Mere information and mental culture the children get at the day-schools. To conduct your class similarly detracts no less from the sacredness of the exercise than from the sanctity of the day. It makes the Sabbath-school secular. It hardens rather than melts the heart, and sometimes deadens the conscience. Seriousness in the teacher is, therefore, vitally important. It gives weight to what he says. It impresses his pupils' minds. The very manner of a serious teacher is a lesson not soon nor easily forgotten. There is a solemnity attached to the exercise. It is felt to be no common thing. Responsibility is realized, and even devoutness is manifested by the taught.

Children very readily observe seriousness, or the want of it, in a teacher. And the more intelligent they are, the more quickly do they notice their teacher's bearing and conduct. My dear brethren, bear with me while I insist on this requisite. Do you possess it? Do you realize its influence? Do you evince it? Are your scholars solemnized while engaged with you? Is there a growing solemnity in you and them as you meet, from week to week? The Lord in his mercy grant that this may be so increasingly.—Dr. Steel.