Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-07-08

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ated faith from which to form your
own judgment. How much better
thus you can remove distrust, meet
) objections, answer questions, impart
information, utter comfort or rebuke
than if your lesson had not been out
to take an airing. Get living human
views upon it. Study it in the light
of to-day. Thus your Interpretation
of the Bible will be broad, humanita-
rian, sound and good to work by, as
we'll as Scriptural and spiritual.
Prayer should be increasingly connected
with the work of the teacher in prepare
ton for the Sunday School. prayerless
S. S. teacher is an anomaly indeed. And
study without prayer is but secular I'M
consecrated work. When David took
up his Bible for study he prayed, ''Lord
open thou mine eyes and I shall see won
drous things out of thy law Let the
faithful teacher first pray to his Heavenly
Father for light before he tries to know
what the holy oracles contain. Has not
God said, eff any man lack wisdom let
him ask of God who giveth literally to
every man and upbraideth not, and it
shall be given him?" He who comes to the
Bible without prayer puts it on par with
other books only. He maintains practi
cally that he can know all about it him
self. He does not sufficiently revere its
author. He will miss in this way its
spiritual significance, and his heart will
remain untouched To know and teach
the Bible Alright the mind must be opened
Godward. And prayer is the means to
this end. We need the Spirit to make
plain the things of the Book to our reason
and conscience. He who would teach the
Bible humbly, faithfully, must himself
have sat at the feet of the Master prayer
fully and lovingly. We should not go to
the Bible to learn ancient geography, or
history, or biography or astronomy. Jesus
said, ''The words that [ speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life" We
shall only find them SO in the spirit of
prayer.
That teacher will be successful whether
learned, brilliant, entertaining or not who
has a personal experience of the Bible.
There are teachers who talk about the BIZ
BILE in a full and pleasant way. But
question which might be asked them
properly and one which they would prob
ably hesitate to answer or would answer
| negatively is this Has the Bible been in
terpreted by your own experience? To
teach the Bible properly it must be a real
ity to US. Our preparation for imparting
| it's truths must surely be the conscious
ness in our own hearts that it is a true
book. We must be able to say that it has
found us and that we rejoice therefor
To teach God we must realize the God
depicted therein. We must be able to
say in deed and in truth that we have
found Jesus an answerer of prayer; that
we dc know that the promises of God are
yea and amen for we have found them
true in our own lives. The teacher VINO
is not a Christian or near that is GER
tainly an exception in the Sunday School,
or should be. The beginning of the call
to be a teacher is assuredly in regenera-
tion A mere aptness to teach other books
does not of itself qualify to do the true
sort of work as a teacher il the SIS. How
can he save others who is himself unsav-
ed? Sunday School teaching is peculiar
and holy business. OF those who are in
that work because they belong there by
divine and human efficiency it is true, and
they shall all be taught of God.
Whoever would be a model teacher
must be good listener. There is great
deal to be learned in this age of the world
ers and preachers who come within reach.
Let the teacher who is bent upon becom-
ing proficient in his work listen to other
public teachers not only for information,
but also to get at, as far as possible, the
ideas and methods of their teaching. Ev
cry prominent, successful teacher has
some good points about him. Get hold of |
those and make them your own by imita-
ton, adaptation, or Improvement. Is it |
logical, illustrative, argumentative? Does
he have particular skill in asking and get
ting answers to questions? Find out this
secret and profit by it yourself. Study
your own minister in his pulpit ministra-
tions. If you are away sometime, and
have the opportunity, take your seat in an
S. S. class and become the nearer of some
one else land notice how he does the work
of teaching. Attend a big teachers meet
ing if you can, like that in fremont Tenn
Pile, Boston, on Saturday afternoons.
Take heed how you hear if you would be
faithful and successful teachers, workmen
needing not to be ashamed, rightly divid-
ing the word of truth. Do not think that
your own way of teaching is the best that
can be until you have listened and learned
of others. Keep your ears open also
wherever you are, for facts, figures and
illustrations to open up your lessons with,
but do not deal in them too much.
If you would be good teachers consider
the meaning and dignity of your work.
Do not take it up prayerlessly, nor keep
on in it lightly. 1t is not matter that
stands on par with any and all other
teaching. 1t is not simply keeping school.
1t is a work in which the Information i'm
parted is not of SO much consequence as
the spiritual Impressions made. 1t is
well enough to tell scholars about Pales-
tory comes in to some extent, and natur-
ally, in the Bible. The great men of the
times, and the places referred to III the
Book, may well enough be commented
upon as to their characters and places in
the epochs of the past, both whether they
were or were not numbered among Gods
people. There are many collateral per-
sons and things that may be touched upon
often in teaching, nay. must be. But the
chief work of the teacher, and one that
he must never lose sight of, is upon the
soul of the scholar. The day schools are
for the mind, the Sunday schools for the
heart What dignity and meaning this
definition suggests in regard to the Sun
day School. By it lives are saved for
eternity. Children and youth are to be
shown how and why to choose the better
part, which shall not be taken away.
The church is to be recruited from the