Teaching by Our Lives by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 3, 1911

Teaching by Our Lives

By C. M. S.

We are all teachers, and our school is larger than many of us have thought. We are teaching more individuals in that school than many of us will be willing to give account for in the day of judgment.

The apt pupil looks through the veneer of our words, and takes us for what we are, rather than for what we say—for what we do, rather than for what we tell him to do.

We do but a small part of our teaching with our organs of speech. The tongue is a swift racer, but it is a tardy teacher when pitted against the real life and character of the one who uses it. We can not live one thing and teach another. The ones whom we attempt thus to teach will suffer in their own souls for our useless, thoughtless, harmful vivisection and experimentation. The Saviour’s query, “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” gives an inspired exposition of the same idea; and he further says: “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” We can not raise wheat from thistle-down, nor corn from mustard seed. We can not expect a harvest of souls if there is mildew in the heart of the seed we sow. The lamp whose wick is too short to touch the oil will never light the benighted wanderer home. He whose prayers do not take hold of the throne of the Infinite need not expect to guide lost souls through the wilderness of sin.

On the other hand, rain-drops are bound to show the seven primary colors when the sun’s rays fall upon them. That is just as true of the obscure dew-drop on a lowly grass-blade as of the mighty, cloud-fringing rainbow arching the sky. It is true in nature—it is just as true in the life of a human being. We do not have to sit in the clouds in order that God may reveal his glory in us. Even so the true Christian, though living in seeming isolation and obscurity, is bound to teach Christ in his acts as well as in his words. He can not help doing so as long as he remains a Christian.

When we cease to live Christ, then we lose connection with the Teacher of all teachers. Then we begin to look for grapes on the thorn-bush, and for figs among the thistle-down. This is contrary to nature; and all oral profession or teaching that is out of harmony with the life of the teacher is an attempt to do that very thing, and is out of harmony with both nature and the Author of nature.

Why is it that so many who have had supposedly Christian instruction have become worldlings, and the shuttles of their lives are being manipulated by Satan to weave webs of sin?—In too many cases the life of the teacher gave the lie direct to his oral instruction. His

pupils were reading “untrue, untrue,” between the words that fell from his lips.

This teaching-life that we live is a terribly responsible one. But if unreserved consecration and submission are given to God, if the heart is right, God will look after the result. If we would teach the love of God, we must have it in our hearts. If we would teach Christ, we must cherish his indwelling presence. If we would teach what salvation is, we must ourselves know what it is. If we would lead the souls of others to ruin, we have only to attempt to teach with our lips what our lives do not express. Then our pupils will come to look upon the fall of man as a fable, upon Christ as a myth, and upon the plan of redemption as a clever scheme of the superstitious; whereas, if the life itself has showed a personal experience in the things of God, the deeds and the words in harmony, and both testifying for God, that life-teaching will be a power for good, and souls will be the harvest. Such living is the most important business in the world; for it has the very message of God in it and the power of God permeating it, and that can not fail.

C. M. S.