1. He should be a church member in profession, giving to the church the benefit of his influence in the community, in return for all the benefits that the church gives to him.
2. He should be a church member in loyalty, holding an attachment, not to the church in general, but to that particular church whose doctrines, forms, methods and spirit are most nearly in accord with his own views, and best adapted to aid his growth in grace; devoted to it, laboring for it, and self-denying in behalf of it.
3. He should be a church member in work.—There are two classes of people in every church, the idle and the working, those who are carried, and those who carry. The teacher should be one of the working members, bearing the church upon his heart and its work in his hands.
III. The teacher’s work is with the Bible, and therefore the teacher should be a Bible student.
1. A Bible student in teachableness, going to the Word, not in the spirit of criticism, but of reverence; studying it not to inject into it his own opinions, but humbly to obtain truth which shall feed his own soul, and supply the needs of his class.
2. A Bible student in diligence.—The cursory glance at a book may answer for the careless reader, but he who has it as his work to teach the Word, must study it; not only the lesson, but the volume which contains the lesson, for unless he has knowledge of the book at large, he cannot understand the specific lesson for his class; therefore the teacher should be a constant, persevering, laborious student of the Bible.
IV. The teacher’s work has relation to living souls, and therefore he must be a friend.—No mere machine can teach living hearts; to influence souls there must be a soul, not by knowledge only, or by gifts of expression, but by the relation of heart more than by any other power can scholars be led upward to the best in thought and life.
1. He must be a friend in sympathy, that is, in capacity to feel with his scholars, which is very different from feeling for them. He must be able in thought and feeling, to put himself in his scholars’ place, to see the world through their eyes, and to have an appreciation of their nature.
2. He must be a friend in helpfulness.—Not the greatness of our doing for others, but the spirit of it, measures our friendship. By little kindnesses to his class the teacher can win their hearts, and by tying them to himself, tie them to his Master.
V. The teacher’s work is a teaching work, and he must therefore be a teacher.