The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-09-27

these words should ever be seen by your
 eye or repeated to your ear, the first step
 Tor you 10 take is to accept Jesus as the
 DiFlne Teacher. You are not to accept
 nm as did Joseph Ernest Renan, "as q
 good man. You must not accept him as
 ae many, as a religious leader like Mo-
 hammed or Buddha or Zoroaster or Con-
 Iuelns. You are not to accept him as a
 seer or prophet. a John the Baptist, an
 Elias or Jeremiah. You are to accept
 him as did Simon Peter when he turned
 and said, Thou art Christ, the Son of the
 Living God" Are you ready to accept the
 authoritative Jesus as divine?
 Oh the credentials of the teacher.
 Christ! In the prophecies of Scripture we
 can read them. In the miracles which he
 performed we can verify them. In the
 testimony of John the Baptist and in the
 Heavenly Fathers voice. which sound
 ed over the dripping locks of the Son of
 God when Christ was baptized, we can
 prove them. Christs credentials are of
 the highest authority. They must be &C.,
 cepted
 Napoleon was one day riding along the
 lines Of the French army, when his horse
 shled. Instantly a common soldier leaped
 forth from the ranks and saved his com
 mander from being thrown. Napoleon
 smiled at his rescuer and said Thank
 you, captain" Quick as a flash the sol
 dier saluted and asked his chief. "Of
 what regiment, sire2' The delighted em-
 peror replied, "Of my own guards" He
 then rode on. With that the soldier threw
 away his gun and stepped over to where the staff officers of the guards were col- 1 lected. Indignantly those officers ordered
 him back to the ranks. With that the
 new made captain raised his head as he answered, "I am no longer a private so- dier; l am captain of the emperor's guards, By what authority do you make
 such statement2' asked the colonel. | Then the soldier pointed toward the re- l treating form of his ruler as he answered, 1 Napoleon said it!' An, after that there was no further criticism. Napoleon was
 the authority. Napoleon was to give him l his credentials. So Christ, as the author l itative teacher. comes to us with his l dentials The Father, the Heavenly Fa- | ther, hath spoken it. Witness the Jor-
 danic revelation: "Behold a light cloud
 overshadowed them, and behold a voice
 out of the cloud which said This Is my l Son in whom l am well pleased. Hear ye
 him. Authortativey! Christ always l speaks authoritatively.
 | The gospel classroom. in the next place, l has a self-sacrincing teacher. The word "self-sacrificing can well be applied to
 all true men and women who follow the noble profession of teaching. I care not | whether those men and women are filling
 conspicuous professional chairs. as did William Graham Sumner. and John Rus | sell Bartlett, and Julius H. Seeley' and i Joseph Storey and Theodore w. Dwight,
 and Mrs Mary Somerville, and Elizabeth , Stewart Phelps and Alice Freeman Pal l mer, and Mary Lyon whether they are
 teaching in humble district schools; they are all people who sacrifice themselves | for the good of others. There Is no bus mess or profession on earth in which 1 there IS more wear and tear upon the
 nervous system than upon those con
 scientlous men and women who week in
 and week out, spend their lives expound-
 ing and explaining and eateehising be- | hind a teachers desk.
 Just think of the fractious human colts ] the average public school teacher has to | train. great many parents send their
 children to school in order to get rid of | them as well as to have their brain de-
 veloped They cannot stand the boys
 racket at home. so they expect the public 1 teacher to supply the neglected maternal 1 discipline God pity the young graduate
 of the normal school, who herself is hard 1 ly old enough to be a mother. and yet has | to keep in line every day thirty or forty | boys and girls, most of whom have not
 yet learned what the word Obedience l meansi
 1 Then estimate the thickness of the skull 1 which every year the teacher has to pry | open to let in the intellectual light. It
 must be great pleasure for the teacher, | WHO IS q BtnltISs lO ueNelOD Il BtlluS' ioI Lord Chatham to have for his disciple a William Pitt: for a Franz Iiszt to guide 1 the fingers of an Anton Rubinstein over | the ivory keys; for an 1gnatius Loyola to mold Francis Xavier; for a Peter Paul Rubens to have for his pupil an Anthony 1 Vandyke. One day, after having ex- 1 amined some of his famous students work the great Flemish master delighted 1 ly turned to his class and said: "A greater 1 than Rubens is herel The young man
 whose brush has done this will some day | outmaster his master" But, though it
 may be great pleasure for a genius to | develop a genius. yet ninety-nne hun dredths of all scholars in all public school
 classrooms are geniuses. They are not | only children of ordinary intelligence, but 1 boys and girls many of them below the
 ordinary. All of those scholars must be
 developed. This accounts for the teach | CTS exhaustion Then the strain. Then l often complete nervous collapse.
 1 But, oh. my brother, what is the sacri-
 flee of an earthly teacher for her pupils l compared to that which the Divine Teach 1 CT has made for us? Is there any patience
 like unto his patience? Any forgiveness | greater than his forgiveness? Any mar 1 tyrdom like unto his martyrdom? During l the life of the late Thomas Galaudet, 1 that noble Chrst-like teacher sent by God 1 to serve the American deaf mutes he of l ten spent days and weeks and months
 over one pupil teaching him how to pro- 1 nounce single vowel sound. But great l as Dr. Gallaudet's sacrifices were can his l patience be compared to my Lords? As
 Divine Teacher has not Christ spent l years and years and years trying to teach us how to speak just two words in the l right way. Our Father" We read how
 the missionary teachers have been mar | tyred 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 life has he not sacrificed
 for us in his wounded hands and wounded | feet and wounded head and gaping side, l into which the Roman soldier thrust his 1 spear? Yes my Lord and my God is a l self-sacrifong 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 l far great purpose than to merely save his gospel students. He teaches his disciples, | who sit at his feet in order that they may l become like him. how they in turn may l carry his message and truth to the farth
 ermost parts of the earth He looks upon l his students with respect to their fu- | ture, as every true instructor ought to | do. I once read of a famous teacher who | never entered his classroom but he al- l ways took off his hat and bowed before 1 his scholars as though he was coming into
 fAPn caaf,.ea sNf 1~tr tnf.