p. 137 | Teaching to Profit by Inglis

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 23, 1882

Teaching to Profit.

By Inglis

1. In the first place, teachers should endeavor to convince their scholars that religion is a practical thing; so that they must be doers as well as hearers of the word. A child will very soon learn to be content with a form of religion. Formalism is the religion of human nature, and is easily taught. To drive it from the minds of our classes must, therefore, be one of our great duties. Let us teach them that reading the Bible, or learning lessons, or attending school and church, or saying prayers, is not religion, but only guides or helps to religion; that religion is of the heart, and manifests itself in a holy life; that it is like life in a tree, showing itself in leaves, and blossoms, and fruit; that it is not of such a nature as to be able to be taken apart, so that we can say, this is religion, or, that is religion; but that like fire it warms whatever it approaches, and makes a person in everything, in public and private, do all to the glory of God.

For this purpose we must map out, as it were, a child's daily life, and show him how he will act if he obeys the Scriptures. Our text, for example, is the parable of the leaven. Were we to describe the sanctifying influence of the gospel, how it has abolished slavery, mitigated the horrors of war, established just laws, and diffused a knowledge of God and salvation to millions untold, we should not have shown the children how the gospel was leaven to them. We must deal more closely with them, and show how, if they have this leaven in their hearts, it will make them honest, truthful, obliging, amiable, prayerful, and obedient. When we teach the fourth commandment, let us not only say, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; but, Remember this Sabbath day: not only, Thou shalt not steal; but, Thou shalt not steal from your mother, your brother, your companions: not only, Render to no man evil for evil; but, Do not give blow for blow, bad words for bad words. See how our Lord sets us an example. "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment."

2. Seek to convince the scholars that they themselves guilty. Aim at conviction by direct addresses to the conscience. All teachers must have experienced the difficulty of convincing a child that he is a sinner, and of making him understand the difference between doing good as the means of salvation, and doing good from love to God, and as the fruits of faith—between being saved by works, and working because we are saved. Though we tell them ever so plainly that they cannot be saved by their own doings, the persuasion remains very deep-seated, that if they are good boys and girls, all must be well. It is one powerful means of counteracting this delusion to hold up before them the perfect standard of God's word, and show how miserably they have fallen short of its requirements. We may tell them that God said they were to love their neighbors as themselves, and then enumerate various instances of ill-will, envy, hatred, and revenge, which we know children are usually guilty; or, we may set before them the commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," and then show how, in going prayerless to bed, in forgetting to thank Him for a quiet night's repose, and in living whole days without one thought of Jesus Christ the Saviour of sinners, they manifested that they did not love God with all their heart. In short, let us make the law a mirror in which they may see their faces all disfigured with sin, and in this way awaken the voice of conscience, God's vicegerent in the soul.

Care must be taken not to mistake an appeal to the feelings for an appeal to the conscience. The more earnest teachers are in danger of falling into this error, and thus to mistake the impressions which their address has made. A child may take great pleasure in his religious lessons, never absent himself from the school, and listen with eagerness to every word the teacher utters, and yet be indifferent to true religion. He may be deeply moved even to sobbing and tears, yet have no sorrow for his own sins.—Bible Teaching, by Inglis.