THE

Sabbath School Magazine.

NO. IV.]

APRIL 1, 1884.

[VOL. XXXVI.

How to become a Good Sabbath School Teacher.

By the REV. CHARLES I. GRAHAM, B.D., Rector of Celbridge.

READERS of Æsop's Fables will remember how that author, by many a story drawn from animal life, teaches the important lesson, that man cannot become that which by nature he is not. From first to last in that deeply philosophic volume dismal failure is represented as ever attending the efforts of ambitious jackdaws to occupy superior posts for which they were naturally unfitted.

So there are some who, were they to teach from "sunny morn till dewy eve,” would never become teachers in any true sense of the word. True teachers, like true poets, are born, not made. If you find that you have not the gift of teaching, do not aspire to become a teacher. And yet, do not murmur or complain. There is work for which you are fitted naturally; be content if you can do it honestly and well. Even our friends the jackdaws can do useful and important work if they only elect to live as simple-minded, industrious jackdaws should, fulfilling the proper functions of the nature which they possess.

This paper, then, is addressed not to every one who would wish to be a teacher, but to those to whom God has given a real gift of teaching, no matter how small or weak. How best to trade with our one talent or two-how best to foster and develop "a seed in weakness sown"-how best to help the feeble teacher to become strong, this will be the scope of the remarks which follow. The subject, however, is a wide one, and it would be worse than useless to attempt to travel through all its branches. Let our thoughts, then, gather around the position of the Sabbath school teacher, as it differs from that of the teacher of a Daily Primary School. In other words, assuming that our Sabbath school teacher has the same gifts which would fit him to be an excellent teacher of a daily school, let us try and see what are the gifts and acquirements which his special position as a Sabbath school teacher demands.

First-The Sabbath school teacher's work is voluntary. He is not bound by any legal tie to those in authority over him. His work is not

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the profession of his life, so that by attaining excellence in it he can add to his material prosperity. His teaching is not closely scrutinized, or its results tested, so as to benefit or injure himself. And-what is not unimportant no recognised certificate of qualification and training is required of him before he can commence his work.

Secondly-The subject-matter of his teaching differs vastly from that of the daily school teacher. He has not only to teach history, geography, grammar, and arithmetic (for these things are found in the Bible, and in any teaching worthy of the name of thorough, they cannot be shirked); but he has also to gather the love and devotion and enthusiasm of his pupils around a Life and a Death, so that loyalty to Him who lived and died may become the mainspring of their thoughts and actions.

Lastly-One short hour, once in seven days, is the time given to him in which to accomplish all this.

Now, it by no means follows that these differences (and many more not here indicated) make for the daily and against the Sabbath school teacher. Some of them are distinctly helpful to the latter. Some of them, we must admit, are full of suggestive warning.

Your time for work is an hour on Sabbaths. Give heed to the warning which that implies. Will you listen to a professional secret shamelessly exposed? That long extempore sermon which wearied you by its repetition, made you yawn frequently, and left nothing of itself impressed upon your mind-it was, we cannot say prepared-it was embodied just half an hour previous to its delivery; while that short, telling address, sparkling with illustrations, bristling with points, every sentence of which made its mark upon you, took a whole week to prepare, and was all carefully written out at least a day before it was spoken. So, if your time for speaking or teaching is short, you must prepare the more, if you want to do it effectively. Even the shortness of the time allowed may be a help and not a hindrance, if only due preparation is made.

Preparation not only in the way of knowledge acquired—that will be dealt with presently-but also in the way of how to teach what we have resolved to teach. Given our subject-matter, why do we fail to bring it before our class, sharply, crisply, clearly, so that our arrow hits ? Just because we were careless about deciding beforehand the method which we would follow. And having no method, enlivening questions, bright illustrations, earnest appeals did not suggest themselves. When we know that our aim is sure, we take care that our arrows shall be sharp. Two suggestions are timidly offered here.

1. In preparation, the study of meaning must precede the study of method. Method often unfolds itself by the very effort to ascertain meaning. And it goes without saying that a faultlessly constructed lesson, which is based on the hypothesis of a wrong or doubtful interpretation, if not something worse, is at least no lesson at all, For instance, that God should bury our dead selves out of sight; that He should cover self up, fasten it down, put it underground, and play towards it the part which an undertaker plays towards our dead bodies, is a valuable lesson. But does it not cease almost to be a lesson when deduced, as a wellknown layman once deduced it, from a too literal reading of the text, "O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me"?

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2. That, in the construction of a lesson, one, or at the most, two leading thoughts are all that you should seek to bring out. "Heads" (as they are called) when multiplied to half a dozen, are apt to become separated from their bodies, and when so separated, they only present a ghastly and revolting spectacle. Therefore, do not make the steps of the staircase of knowledge up which you lead your little ones, either so high that they cannot of themselves walk gently from the one to the other, or so numerous that the tender feet grow weary and pained ere the top is reached.

Helps towards clear, telling method in Sabbath school teaching, such as make an hour's work on Sabbaths really influential to the class, are to be found—(1.) In attendance at as many Training Lessons as possible, where you can see and study the living teacher in contact with the living class. (2.) In the careful study of good Lesson Notes, such as many of those published by the Church of England Sunday School Institute. (3.) In the constant use of your pen in writing out plans of your lessons, and all your leading questions. (4.) In never bringing into class more than the tinniest abstract of what you have written, and not even that if you can possibly do without it.

But to hasten on. The Sabbath school teacher's work, as compared with that of the daily school teacher, is a voluntary one-for the most part a by-work of his life-a toil for the good of others, generously added to the many toils of daily life. It is this which constitutes the glory and the strength of Sabbath school teaching. The free assumption of service for the Master at the loving invitation of the pastor, this is an element in Church life capable of endless possibilities for good. The Sabbath school teacher, though bound by no legal tie to his pastor or superintendent, is bound to them by a tie stronger than that of law-the tie of common love to the Chief Pastor, and common desire to lead in the footsteps of that Pastor those souls whom He died to save. His work, too, though it lack the stimulus of material rewards for increasing diligence and success, yet finds its best and truest encouragement in the awaited reward hereafter,-"Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Yes; and he has the stimulus of result-fees even here-in Christian men and Christian women fighting manfully around him as faithful soldiers of Jesus Christ, whose hands were first taught to war, and whose fingers to fight in this great warfare, as little boys and girls in his Sabbath school class; and who, though he may never know it, at times rise up and call him blessed.

At the same time we must not disguise the fact, that the voluntariness and freedom of Sabbath school work have another voice for the teacher. As a rule he enters on his work with little previous training or study. He feels within him the love, the desire to teach; and when the invitation comes he cannot refuse it. And so, generally speaking, the Sabbath -school teacher is only drilled when already he has taken his place in the ranks of the fighting men, and is engaged in actual warfare. But why should he not have been drilled previously? What sound objection can any urge to an examination being held of candidate Sabbath school teachers, and Sabbath school teachers themselves? Every day more

pains are being taken with the training and testing of our daily school teachers in things secular. Are ignorance and want of skill the best preparation for teaching things spiritual? Though some may be found to say so, no one believes it at heart. But many good and pious people have a great dislike to taking pains with respect to teaching, or speaking for God. They have an inward feeling that God the Holy Spirit will change their weakness into strength, their ignorance into knowledge, without thought or care on their part. What right have we, however, in an age which is certainly not one of miracles, to expect special miracles to be wrought on our behalf? For this is what such a feeling really amounts to. God the Holy Spirit works now, as a rule, through means, through slow human processes; and just as really now through these, as once without them. I believe this feeling about the needlessness of study and training and preparation where work for God is concerned, is at bottom but a breaking out of the old man. It is the demon of laziness assuming for the time the robes of an angel of light. Surely the same spirit of self-sacrifice which leads the young man, in the first instance, to take upon himself the office of Sabbath school teacher, ought also lead him to take what pains he can to fit himself in every respect for the work. When he has done his part faithfully, he may then, with confidence, trust God to do the rest. Had we some training classes for candidate Sabbath school teachers, where the science of teaching, as well as the Bible and Prayer Book would be taught, with an examination say at the end of a year's study, and then an examination at the end of the first year as teacher, many who think their knowledge of the Bible perfect would have their eyes wonderfully opened. And many who think they can teach like St. Paul, would find how unlike any of St. Paul's Epistles was the sketch of a lesson which they wrote in the Examination Hall. Though pride might be hurt thereby, and possibly dethroned, the better ruler humility would take its place, and clergymen would be saved from hearing of episodes such as the following:-In a certain Sabbath school a class of boys were reading the chapter which records how David walked on the roof of his house. One of the boys, looking through the schoolroom window at the steep roof opposite, after a pause and some moments of anxious thought, said—“ But, teacher, how could David walk on the roof of his house?" The teacher, on this point as ignorant as his scholars, at once checked all inquiry by saying "Don't grumble at the Bible, boy." Meanwhile, the teacher of the next class had overheard the conversation, and turning to his fellow-teacher, whispered-" The answer to the difficulty is, 'With men it is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible.'

And now, whether examinations of Sabbath school teachers and candidate teachers should ever become a recognised part of our machinery, or whether they should only remain in the category of things voluntary, the Sabbath school teacher will find no greater help towards becoming all that he can become, than that which is afforded him by the preparation for, and the passing of such examinations. One thing is certain : his not making use of such a help distinctly puts him at a disadvantage as compared with his fellow-worker in the daily school.

(To be continued.)