The Teacher's Duty

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 5, 1882

The Teacher's Duty.

A TEACHER has a duty not only to be at Sabbath-school himself, but to see that his scholars are there. It is a comparatively easy matter to take care of scholars who want to be taken care of. The real trouble is in attending to those who don't want any attention. A young man applied to a Boston merchant for a situation as salesman. "Can you sell goods to a customer?" asked the merchant. "I think I could sell to any man who wanted to buy," was the young man's answer. "Oh, that's nothing to the purpose!" said the merchant. "Any fool can sell to a man who does want to buy. I want clerks who can sell to the men who don't want to buy." It is still true that "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." There is a thought worthy of attention in that Boston merchant's idea of a good salesman. The angels had to "lay hold" on Lot, to induce him to leave Sodom, when he was inclined to stay there at the risk of the city's doom. And many a teacher has to do a similar work for scholars who would sooner be in Sodom than in Sabbath-school.—S. S. Times.