To S. S. Teachers—Don’t Preach.
A LOOK was enough! There the teacher sat in the middle of a large class of half-grown young men. He was one of the truest and best-informed Christian men in our congregation—everybody respected and loved him. But he could not keep a scholar for more than two successive Sabbaths. They disappeared like the wicked, and could nowhere be found. At every session some new faces were added to the circle, but it never grew in circumference. What could be the difficulty? It puzzled the pastor. The superintendent was hopeless. In any other class it would have been less important, but these young men ought to be retained. At last it was determined that we should investigate the difficulty in person. We opened the door, and a look was enough! The man was a preacher. He took the sermon as his pattern. He had a congregation, not a class—and a congregation of youths like Eutychus at that. A more drowsy collection of bright, shrewd, jolly young men could hardly be conceived. He had gone through his introduction, announced his plan, developed his points, and, just at the moment when we took our look, was making his application and appeal. From that moment, we did not blame the truant scholars. They had done just what we would have done under similar circumstances. They had been cheated, and as soon as they found out the deception, they ceased to be its victims. They supposed that they were joining a Bible-class, but beheld a little church. They expected to study, but they were compelled to listen. They looked for a teacher, but found a preacher. And yet, this good man was unaware of the true difficulty. He mourned over his unspirituality, when the trouble was in his method. He prayed over the perversity of the unregenerate souls who rejected his ministry, but his own pride of preaching was greater than their lack of interest. He wondered at his failure to interest, and gave more time and effort to preparation; but the reservoir was full enough, the trouble was in the pipes. He tried to fill narrow-necked bottles with dashes of water, rather than drop by drop. MORAL—Don’t preach. Question the lesson into the scholar’s mind and then question it out. Make the class do the greater part of the work. Be suggestive rather than declamatory. In so doing you will not only attract, but truly instruct and permanently retain, the members of your classes.