p. 21 | We Teach What We Are by F. G.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Mar 29, 1906

We Teach What We Are

By F. G.

SOME one has said that what we are speaks so loudly that what we say can not be heard. This is no truer of any one than it is of the teacher. Every look and act of the teacher is made note of by his pupils. How necessary it is, then, that the fountain or mainspring of this look or act should be a pure and true one, and that kindness, courtesy, gentleness, and yet firmness should be always manifest. The most powerful influence we exert is the unconscious one. When we look forth upon a landscape, it is not any particular tree or building or any other single feature that most forcibly impresses us. It is the general effect made up of the whole that influences us most. So it is with our influence. The unconscious acts of our lives affect others more powerfully than do those words and acts which we study to perform. Our unconscious acts come as the result of our conscious ones, and show forth just what we are if we have learned of the true Teacher. His Spirit and acts and manners will influence us, and there will flow out from our lives a vigor and a power for righteousness which can never be measured. The radius of the atmosphere that we cast about us is indeed a long one, reaching into eternity. If, then, we are guarded in every conscious moment, we may depend upon the unconscious things of our lives casting an atmosphere about us reaching into the eternity of God's love.

F. G.