Editorial by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 15, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 27.

Editorial

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Christ as Teacher.—"And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done? The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him." John 7:31, 32.

"Never man spake like this man." "He taught them as one having authority." "And they were astonished at His teaching; for His word was with power."

The trouble with the Pharisees and the chief priests was that their character and teaching suffered by comparison with that of Jesus. "Never man spake like this man," was the testimony of the officers who were sent to seize him. "He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." The people listened to him more readily than to them, and this aroused their jealousy. And the people knew that the priests sought his life.

Yet the priests and rulers might have retained the confidence of the people, even in the presence of Jesus, if they had only been willing to learn of him, and accept his Spirit and the wisdom that filled him. For that, however, they were too proud, and so they took away the key of knowledge; they entered not in themselves, and those that would enter in, they hindered by every means in their power. Luke 11:52.

There was another reason why the wrath of the leaders of the Jews was aroused against Jesus. It was that the people who heard his living words of truth, not only lost relish for the old traditions that the elders retailed, but they actually came to know more than the leaders themselves. "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." The rulers were not willing to do, and therefore they did not know; while the poor people who desired to do God's will knew the truth. David said, "I understand more than the aged, because I have kept thy precepts." Ps. 119:100.

It is the earnest desire of every true teacher that the people shall learn, and the more they learn, the better he is pleased. If in time they surpass him in knowledge, then he will be but the more pleased. Even that is a testimony to the value of his teaching. This will often be the case when one leads his hearers to the Word. If he does not limit it by his own construction, but opens it, and allows the people to see for themselves, it will often be that souls will see more than he does. He who is not willing that this should happen, seeks his own glory, and not that of God; he preaches himself, and not the Word. E. J. W.