Chapter 3. The Teacher's Preparation
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Preparation is more than half; indeed, in many things, it is nearly all. Work for which preparation has not been well made, is scarcely worth while. One, who expects to make anything noble of his chosen calling, prepares for it with great diligence and painstaking. Men serve a long apprenticeship to be ready to do the work of their trade. Inadequate preparation results in incompetent workmanship, and that foredooms one to failure. No man can hope to succeed in business without a business training which will enable him to grapple with the problems of trade. No one can rise to distinction in a profession without laborious study and self discipline. Most of the failures in life may be traced directly to the lack of thorough preparation. Men are in haste to get into the field and do not take time to fit themselves for the responsibilities and duties which await them.
What is true in general of all callings and pursuits, is yet truer of work on mind and heart; most careful preparation should be made for it. Before a man is considered competent to be a physician, to be entrusted with the treatment of diseases and the performance of critical surgical operations, he must undergo a training of years under the best instructors. Can it be any less responsible work to be a physician of souls, — to be a teacher, for example, of a class of children or young people in a Sunday school?
We do not realize the criticalness of the work we have to do, when we sit down beside another to talk with him of spiritual things. His eternal destiny may depend on what we say to him in that very lesson. He may be at one of the turning points of his life, at the parting of the ways; and when we have taught our lesson the decision may have been made. It is always most serious work to teach others in spiritual things. We need wise and thorough preparation for it.
It is a fearful thing to do any work carelessly. Careless carpentering may result in insecurity in a building in which men and women are to live; and disaster may result. Careless metal-casting may lead to the putting of a flawed beam into the great bridge, and one night in the darkness a train filled with sleeping passengers is hurled into the waters to perish. Careless plumbing may result in typhoid fever or diphtheria. Carelessness in any kind of work leaves danger behind it. But negligence in spiritual work, in work for souls, may lead to the most far reaching evil consequences. Those who would do the Lord's work need the most careful training for it.
Two kinds of preparation are necessary. One is general, bearing upon the life and character of the teacher and running through many years. This preparation begins with personal devotement to Christ. This must always be first. We must come to Christ, before we can go forth for Christ. We must be Christians, before we are teachers. The Twelve were appointed "that they might be with him," and that, when they were trained, he "might send them forth." We are not ready to be entrusted with the care of the souls--until our own soul is saved and we are following Christ.
Preparation for teaching includes also, personal knowledge of Christ. It is not enough to know about him — we must know him. Teaching never can be effective which is only a retelling of what some other one has said. That was the weakness of the teaching of the scribes in our Lord's Day. They quoted what the rabbis have said. We must be able to tell what we ourselves know. Personal friendship with Christ is a necessary qualification for one who would be a teacher in the school of Christ.
Another element of preparation, is familiarity with the Scriptures. Of course, the Bible is such a vast treasure house that even a lifetime spent in researches in it cannot exhaust it; hence it cannot be said that one must know all about the Bible before he is prepared to be a teacher. One may begin with very little knowledge and yet be an efficient teacher, but he must be a diligent student of the Word, meanwhile, and all the while.
Another element of preparation in a teacher, is his own heart life. Miss Havergal used to say that a great deal of living must go to a very little writing. It is quite as true that a great deal of living must go to a very little teaching. Really, we can teach only what we have learned by experience. When the minister said he had been thirty years preparing the sermon which he had just delivered with such power, he spoke truly, although, perhaps, the immediate preparation of the discourse had required but a few hours. Thirty years' life, with its experiences, had gone into the sermon. Any sermon or lesson is valuable, just in proportion to the amount of life that has entered into it.
Another element in personal preparation, must be made in the teacher's character. If he is not a godly man, he is not fit to touch the souls of others. He should live so carefully and conscientiously that he will never be afraid to look any man in the face. He needs the preparation of attested character. His neighbors must be able to witness well for him. A doubtful reputation disqualifies one for effective teaching. The good work he may do through his lessons on Sundays, will be neutralized by the influence of his life on week days.
One of our Lord's most suggestive teachings is against hiding one's light under a bushel. Our spiritual life is a lamp burning in the heart and we are to make our character so crystalline and keep so clean that the shining will never be obscured. Any inconsistency in conduct will dim something of the brightness of the light. Anything that is not Christlike in our behavior or disposition will hinder the full, free shining out of the light within us. A beautiful life is a noble preparation for teaching. Those who sit before classes on Sunday should have white souls and untarnished names.
So much for the teacher's general preparation, the preparation which comes through Christian nurture. This is put first, because it is first in value and importance. One may be a successful teacher without being a great theologian; but one never can leave deep, heavenly impressions on other lives without being godly. One must have clean hands, in order to put touches of beauty on immortal lives.
But there is also a specific and definite preparation which every teacher needs to make. The lesson must be prepared. To a young minister who was in danger of trusting too much to mere glowing ardor to the neglect of painstaking preparation, an old minister wrote, "You are quite right to trust God with your work; but remember that it was beaten incense that was used for the service of the sanctuary." Love for Christ does not preclude the necessity for hard study, either in a minister or in a teacher. Previous to the class work on Sunday, should always be as many hours as the teacher can get during the week for the careful study of the lesson. It is wonderful, too, how much time even the busiest teacher can get by using merely the fragments of time that most people waste. Twenty minutes daily will make two whole hours in a week.
This is not the place to speak of the way to prepare a lesson, further than to say that it must be conscientiously done. No slovenly work will either please God or leave good results in the life and character of a pupil. We are builders. Paul loves to use the word "edify" of those who are engaged in Christian work. In one remarkable passage he speaks of two kinds of building materials which may be used even by good men, working, too, on the true foundation. One may build into the wall, wood, hay and stubble, or gold, silver and costly stones. The illustration is very suggestive, and never was the caution as to what we should build into others' life temples more needed than in these very days. There are countless materials ever close to our hand which we might use, which would be only wood, hay and stubble in the fabric.
It is easy to understand the consequences of carelessness or unfaithfulness in deciding what to give our pupils when we sit before them. To teach falsehood is to build into their lives that which will leave eternal marring. To teach mere trivial things, bits of sentiment, idle fancies, is to build wood, hay and stubble into the wall, amid the gold, silver and precious stones. The illustration suggests the unfitness of such materials in a temple in which every smallest fragment should be rich in its beauty and worth. In preparing our lessons we should take exceeding care that nothing unworthy shall ever be brought to give to the eager spirits that wait for us every Sunday. Nothing but truth is fit to build in the house we are rearing for God.
In all his preparation the teacher should work for the eye of God, never for man's eye. He should do just as carefully and painstakingly the things which only God shall see, as the things which human eyes may see and human lips commend and praise. An English dealer, interviewing Oka, the great modern Japanese carver of ivories, said to him: "Why do you waste your time in carving the under part which is never seen? You could work much quicker and make money far more rapidly if you were to leave that part plain." The carver answered, "God who gave me skill and taste, can see the under part; I dare not leave it uncarved." That is the spirit in which the work is done in Japan. Small wonder that it excels in the beauty and individuality!
Really all our work is for the eye of God. That which men never will see, God sees. We dare do nothing negligently, for we are doing our most obscure task work for the great Master's eye. Those who are to open God's Word on Sundays, interpreting to a class of children or young people the meaning of a passage of Holy Scriptures, should make most diligent preparation in patient, quiet study, so that they may give no mistaken instruction and that the teaching may be interesting and impressive.
It has been said that the words "That will do" have done more harm than any other sentence in the English language. Too many Sunday school teachers let this motto of easy going indolence rule them in their preparation of their lessons. They fail to realize the serious nature of the work they are set to do. They feel that anything will do for a class of boys or girls, forgetting that these young minds are most impressible and these young hearts open to influences which will shape their whole future. Nothing but the most careful and most thorough preparation the teacher can possible give to his lesson during the week, is worthy of the sacredness of his work or will satisfy the Master.
There is also a devotional preparation which every teacher should make before going to his class. He should go from the presence of God--to his place of duty. Then his own heart will be set on fire at the flame of God's altar, and, looking into the face of Christ, he will receive his commission for the work before him. Laying all his preparation at the Master's feet, the blessing of the Holy Spirit will come upon it, and he will be a man indeed sent from God, a prophet, to speak the words of God to those whom, he shall find waiting to listen to him. With such preparation as this, no teacher can ever fail in the work to which he has devoted himself.
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