The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1903-09-25

for a genius to develop a genius, YET
ninety-nine hundredths of all scholars
in all public school classrooms are gen
fuses. They are not only children OF
ordinary intelligence, but boys and
girls, many of them below the ordinary
All of those scholars must be develop
ed. This accounts for the teachers eX
haustlon. Then the strain. Then often
complete nervous collapse.
But, oh, my brother, what is the sac
rifice of an earthly teacher for her pu
pills compared to that which the Divine
Teacher has made for us? Is there any
patience like unto his patience? Any
forgiveness greater than his forgive
ness? Any martyrdom like unto his
martyrdom? During the life of the late
Thomas Gallaudet, that noble Christ
like teacher sent by God to serve the
American deaf mutes, he often spent
DAYS and weeks and months over one
pupil teaching him how to pronounce a
single vowel sound But great as Dr.
Gallaudet's sacrifices were can his pa
thence be compared to my Lords! AS
a Divine Teacher has not Christ spent
years and years and years trying to
teach us how to speak just two words
in the right way, "Our Father we
read how the missionary teachers have
been martyred in China in the defense
of their pupils. But was there ever a
death of a teacher like unto that of the
martyrdom of my Christ? In order to
teach us how to attain eternal lire has
he not sacrificed for US in his wounded
hands and wounded feet and wounded
head and gaping side, into which the
Roman soldier thrust his spear? Yes.
My Lord and my God is a self sacrit1c-
ing teacher. He gave his life for his
gospel students. He died that we might
live.
Christ's Greater Purpose.
But the Divine Teacher Christ has a
far greater purpose than to merely
save his gospel students. He teaches
his disciples, who sit at his feet in or
der that they may become like him,
how they in turn may carry his mes
sage and truth to the farthermOst parts
of the earth. He looks upon his stu
dents with respect to their future as
every true instructor ought to do. L
once read of a famous teacher who
never entered his classroom but he al
ways took off his hat and bowed be-
fore his scholars as though he was
coming into the presence of king,
"for," he said, mo one knows what
future ruler or leader of the people
may be developing under my touch.
Therefore I wish to show my students
proper respect" Christ in the same
way is looking at his gospel students
through the eyes of prophecy. He is
the Divine Instructor, who teaches his
disciples that through them we may
learn the way of life. He is teaching
his disciples in order that the count
less multitudes, cropping about in the
darkness of heathendom, may through
us be brought into saving touch with
the cross.
To duplicate the teachers knowledge
and life in the lives of his students is
always the far reaching purpose of true
teaching. Why did General Samuel
Chapman Armstrong found the Hamp-
ton school near Old Point Comfort, and
why was that other Indian school es-
tablished in Carlisle, Pa? 1t was in
order to take the Indian boys and girls
from the far west to the east, there to
bring them into touch with the white
mans teachers and the white mans
ways and then to send those Indian
boys back to their tribes in the hope
that the civilized red man would in
turn civilize his brothers and sisters.
Why does Booker T. Washington's work
have the hearty support of the white
men both of the north and the south?
Because he is trying to duplicate his
plain, common sense, practical life in
the lives of his students. He is not
trying to teach the doctrine that the
white and the black races should in
that life means work; that the black
race will never lift itself by political
agitations, but only by its members be-
ing good walters and cOachmen and
honest laborers and provident farmers
md intelligent wives and mothers. He
Is preaching ''the gospel Of the tooth
brush" He does not believe man,
colored or white, can be respectable
and be chronically dirty. Such is the
purpose of Alabama's fore
most negro educator. Now, my friends,
Jesus Christ as a divine teacher should
have a duplicating power in the lives
Of his students. 1t should be found in
the lives of his protesting disciples, in
the lives of some of us who have been
the gospel classroom for the
last ten, twenty-yes, even thirty and
forty years. Christ's duplicating pow
er should be found in us, because
through us the gospel must be sent to
some sinful and some lost soul to whom
otherwise it may never be sent at all.
For the Weak and Helpless.
We have often read how heroic deeds
in martial life have saved an army for
an earthly king. Can we not realize
how our deeds as the representatives
of Christ can draw men to or drive
them away from the cross? Many
years ago a French army was battling
under the hot and blasting Algerian
sun. The forced marches and the coun-
ter marches which that army was com
PEELED to take were enough to kill an
African negro, let alone a European.
Then in order to increase the horror
fatal cholera broke out in one regi-
ment. Man after man died. The army
became panic stricken, and all seemed
to be lost But one night Colonel Gar
darens wanted to prove that this
dreaded disease was contagious ''whol-
ly through food and drink and in no
other way" So he himself lifted one of
the cholera corpses out of its bed.
Then he turned TO his men and said: