p. 26 | Christ as a Disciplinarian by W. C. MATHEWSON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 7, 1908

Christ as a Disciplinarian

By W. C. MATHEWSON

Good schools can not be maintained without order. Order can not be secured without discipline. Discipline is not effective without authority, and there can be no authority without influence.

Position can not create authority. Christ upon this earth had no position, but he spoke “as one having authority.” His authority was sufficient to dismiss great multitudes of people, much against their own wishes, when they were already advancing to seize him by force and make him king. “His manner is so decisive that they dare not disobey. . . . In that throng are men of strong mind and firm determination; but the kingly bearing of Jesus, and his few quiet words of command, quell the tumult, and frustrate their designs.”—“Desire of Ages,” page 378. Twice he drove hundreds of people from the temple by means of his authority. Such authority in our schools would mean the best of order and discipline. But let us not imagine for a moment that Christ as a teacher in our schools would walk up and down the aisles, displaying a “scourge of small cords,” or would try to preserve order by means of stern commands or angry looks. His pupils would not be afraid of him, and he would not try to make them afraid. On the contrary, they would show him great respect, and cheerfully comply with his wishes and requirements.

Possibly there might be a Judas in the school, a headstrong, impulsive Peter, and some outspoken, quick-tempered sons of Zebedee. The whole school might be very ambitious for promotion, disputing about who should be the first

to graduate, etc. They might become very discontented at times, and secretly find fault concerning his management.

Do you think that he would get angry, losing all self-control, and give a public exhibition of the powers of the “unruly member?” Would he spend the greater part of his time in complaining, fretting, and scolding? He is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” That being so, he would manifest the same patience, the same compassionate, long-suffering spirit, in disciplining his school, as he manifested toward his disciples. He might, of course, find it necessary to enact rules he did not need in governing the twelve. He might need to adjust his management to change of circumstances and conditions, but in principle he would be the same kind of disciplinarian in 1908 that he was in A. D. 28. He would have the courage and tact to deal successfully with the most incorrigible, disorderly, and insubordinate pupils. Beholding kindness blended with firmness, mercy with justice, his pupils would love him. They would unconsciously imbibe the same spirit; for “like begets like.” After a few years of such discipline, although he might lose a Judas, the school as a whole would be reformed.

All teachers desiring to become better disciplinarians can profitably study his methods. W. C. MATHEWSON.