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THE PRINCE OF TEACHERS

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 16, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 45.

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THE PRINCE OF TEACHERS

By Ellen G. White

The Prince of Peace Was Also the Greatest Teacher—He Understood and Came Close to Humanity—He Brought to Earth the Stored Up Love of Heaven—Men Saw Creation in a New Light
By the late MRS. E. G. WHITE
“His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of peace.”
In the Teacher sent from God, heaven gave to men its best and greatest. He who had stood in the councils of the Most High, who had dwelt in the innermost sanctuary of the Eternal, was the One chosen to reveal in person to humanity the knowledge of God.

GLEAMS FROM HIS GLORY

Through Christ had been communicated every ray of divine light that had ever reached our fallen world. It was He who had spoken through every one that throughout the ages had declared God’s word to man. Of Him all the excellences manifest in the earth’s greatest and noblest souls were reflections. The purity and beneficence of Joseph, the faith and meekness and long-suffering of Moses, the steadfastness of Elisha, the noble integrity and firmness of Daniel, the ardor and self-sacrifice of Paul, the mental and spiritual power manifest in all these men, and in all others who had ever dwelt on the earth, were but gleams from the shining of His glory. In Him was found the perfect ideal.
To reveal this ideal was the only true standard for attainment; to show what every human being might become; what, through the indwelling of humanity by divinity, all who received Him would become,—for this, Christ came to the world. He came to show how men are to be trained as befits the sons of God; how on earth they are to practice the principles and to live the life of heaven.

GREATEST GIFT FOR GREATEST NEED

God’s greatest gift was bestowed to meet man’s greatest need. Through false teaching, the minds of men had long been turned away from God. In the prevailing systems of education, human philosophy had taken the place of divine revelation. Instead of the heaven-given standard of truth, men had accepted a standard of their own devising. From the Light of life they had turned aside to walk in the sparks of the fire which they had kindled. Having separated from God, their only dependence being the power of humanity, their strength was but weakness. Even the standard set up by themselves they were incapable of reaching. The want of true excellence was supplied by appearance and profession. Semblance took the place of reality.

LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT

From time to time, teachers arose who pointed men to the Source of truth. Right principles were enunciated, and human lives witnessed to their power. But these efforts made no lasting impression. There was a brief check in the current of evil, but its downward course was not stayed. The reformers were as lights that shone in the darkness; but they could not dispel it. The world “loved darkness rather than light.” John 3: 19.
When Christ came to the earth, humanity seemed to be fast reaching its lowest point. The very foundations of society were undermined. Life had become false and artificial. The worship of God “in Spirit and in truth,” had been supplanted by the glorification of men in an endless round of man-made ceremonies. Throughout the world, all systems of religion were losing their hold on mind and soul. Disgusted with fable and falsehood, seeking to drown thought, men turned to infidelity and materialism. Leaving eternity out of their reckoning, they lived for the present.

PRODUCED UNIVERSAL DISTRUST

As they ceased to recognize the divine, they ceased to regard the human. Truth, honor, integrity, confidence, compassion, were departing from the earth. Relentless greed and absorbing ambition gave birth to universal distrust. The idea of duty, of the obligation of strength to weakness, of human dignity and human rights, was cast aside as a dream or a fable.
As the evil passions and purposes of men banished God from their thoughts, so forgetfulness of Him inclined them more strongly to evil. The heart in love with sin clothed Him with its own attributes, and this conception strengthened the power of sin.

BUT ONE HOPE LEFT

There was but one hope for the human race,—that into this mass of discordant and corrupting elements might be cast a new leaven; that there might be brought to mankind the power of a new life; that the knowledge of God might be restored to the world.
Christ came to restore this knowledge. He came to set aside the false teaching by which those who claimed to know God had misrepresented Him. He came to manifest the nature of His law, to reveal in His own character the beauty of holiness.

BROUGHT THE ACCUMULATED LOVE OF ETERNITY

Christ came to the world with the accumulated love of eternity. Sweeping away the exactions which had encumbered the law of God, He showed that the law is a law of love, an expression of the divine goodness. He showed that in obedience to its principles is involved the happiness of mankind, and with it the stability, the very foundation and framework, of human society.
With the people of that age, the value of all things was determined by outward show. As religion had declined in power it had increased in pomp. The educators of the time sought to command respect by display and ostentation.
To all this the life of Jesus presented a marked contrast. He followed the divine plan of education. The schools of His time, with their magnifying of things small and their belittling of things great, He did not seek. His education was gained directly from the heaven-appointed sources,—from useful work, from the study of the Scriptures and of nature, and from the experiences of life,—God’s lesson books, full of instruction to all who bring to them the willing hand, the seeing eye, and the understanding heart.

MUST UNDERSTAND HUMANITY

He who seeks to transform humanity must himself understand humanity. Only through sympathy, faith, and love can men be reached and uplifted. Here Christ stands revealed as the master teacher; of all that ever dwelt on the earth, He alone has perfect understanding of the human soul.
What He taught, He lived. “I have given you an example,” He said to His disciples; “that ye should do as I have done.” “I have kept My Father’s commandment.” John 13: 15; 15: 10. Thus in His life Christ’s words had perfect illustration and support. And more than this: what He taught, He was. His words were the expression, not only of His own life experience, but of His own character. Not only did He teach the truth, but He was the truth. It was this that gave His teaching power.

HIS VERY PRESENCE A REBUKE, YET HE DREW MEN

Christ was a faithful reprover. Never lived there another who so hated evil; never another whose denunciation of it was so fearless. To all things untrue and base His very presence was a rebuke. In the light of His purity, men saw themselves unclean, their life’s aims mean and false. Yet He drew them. He who had created man, understood the value of humanity. Evil He denounced as the foe of those whom He was seeking to bless and to save. In every human being, however fallen, He beheld a son of God, one who might be restored to the privilege of his divine relationship.
“God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3: 17. Looking upon men in their suffering and degradation, Christ perceived ground for hope where appeared only despair and ruin. Wherever there existed a sense of need, there He saw opportunity for uplifting. Souls tempted, defeated, feeling themselves lost, ready to perish, He met, not with denunciation, but with blessing.

GREETING TO THE HUMAN FAMILY

The beatitudes were His greeting to the whole human family. Looking upon the vast throng gathered to listen to the Sermon on the Mount, He seemed for the moment to have forgotten that He was not in heaven, and He used the familiar salutation of the world of light. From His lips flowed blessings as the gushing forth of a long sealed fountain.

HE OPENED POSSIBILITIES TO THE DESPAIRING

In every human being He discerned infinite possibilities. He saw men as they might be, transfigured by His grace,—in “the beauty of the Lord our God.” Looking upon them with hope, He inspired hope. Meeting them with confidence, He inspired trust. Revealing in Himself man’s true ideal, He awakened, for its attainment, both desire and faith. In His presence, souls despised and fallen realized that they still were men, and they longed to prove themselves worthy of His regard. In many a heart that seemed dead to all things holy, were awakened new impulses. To many a despairing one, there opened the possibility of a new life.
Christ bound men to His heart by the ties of love and devotion; and by the same ties, He bound them to their fellow men. With Him, love was life, and life was service. “Freely ye have received,” He said, “freely give.” Matt. 10: 8.

MIGHT HAVE OPENED THE SCIENCES

“Never man spake like this Man,” would have been true of Christ had He taught only in the realm of the physical and the intellectual, or in matters of theory and speculation solely. He might have unlocked mysteries that have required centuries of toil and study to penetrate. He might have made suggestions in scientific lines that, till the close of time, would have afforded food for thought and stimulus for invention. But He did not do this. He said nothing to gratify curiosity or to stimulate selfish ambition. He did not deal in abstract theories, but in that which is essential to the development of character; that which will enlarge man’s capacity for knowing God, and increase his power to do good. He spoke of those truths that relate to the conduct of life, and that unite man with eternity.
Instead of directing the people to study men’s theories about God, His word, or His works, He taught them to behold Him as manifested in His works, in His word, and by His providences. He brought their minds in contact with the mind of the Infinite.

POWERFULLY KINDLED ASPIRATION

The people “were astonished at His teaching”; “for His word was with power.” Never before spoke one who had such power to awaken thought, to kindle aspiration, to arouse every capability of body, mind, and soul.
Christ’s teaching, like His sympathies, embraced the world. Never can there be a circumstance of life, a crisis in human experience, which has not been anticipated in His teaching, and for which its principles have not a lesson. The Prince of teachers, His words will be found a guide to His coworkers till the end of time.

SAW CREATION IN A NEW LIGHT

From His lips, the word of God came home to men’s hearts with new power and new meaning. His teaching caused the things of creation to stand out in new light. Upon the face of nature once more rested gleams of that brightness which sin had banished. In all the facts and experiences of life were revealed a divine lesson and the possibility of divine companionship. Again God dwelt on earth; human hearts became conscious of His presence; the world was encompassed with His love. Heaven came down to men. In Christ their hearts acknowledged Him who had opened to them the science of eternity,—“Immanuel, God with us.”