3. This the natural man can not understand, for it is spiritually discerned. As well might I try to explain it to you, Nicodemus, as to explain the blowing of the winds; you can see the results, but the truth can not be grasped by the senses. Do you pose as a teacher in Israel, and know not these things? “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” I have but begun to tell you of the plan of the Father. There are yet many things, “but ye can not bear them now.”
4. The things I teach are as light in the darkness. “Every one that doeth evil hateth the light, ... but he that doeth truth cometh to the light.” It is thus that I distinguish true scholars from the false. When truth is offered, some believe, and whosoever believes in the Son of man shall have eternal life.
Nicodemus said: “How can these things be?” He longed for proof, for demonstration. “Proof is indeed the method of science, including theology; it has, no doubt, a function in religious teaching; but it is not the method of the highest form of religious teaching. The fundamental truths of religion are directly revealed to the human consciousness, and are not argued out or logically established.... The greatest religious truths lie deeper than formal reasoning. This is the reason why the greatest religious teachers have worked below the proposition-and-proof level; as said before, they have something of the prophetic gift. It may be added that no preacher [or teacher] who works mainly on this line will attract the most religious minds; he will not attract even those who have the piety of the intellect, to say nothing of the piety of the affections and the will. He may develop logical acumen, critical ability, and controversial power, but he will prove unequal to the generation of spirituality.... Such a minister will be sure to lead his flock into the error that is now far too common,—of assigning a disproportionate place in religious faith and life to the understanding, to the partial exclusion of the heart.”[49]
His pupils
His actual work as a teacher is seen in His dealings, first, with the apostles, His immediate followers, who were in training that they in turn might become teachers; second, with the multitudes who thronged His way; third, with the children who were brought to Him by mothers, and who were taught by Him, that mothers and apostles might the better know how to deal with youthful minds. Primarily, His was a training-school for workers, and His pupils represented every phase of human disposition. He chose humble fishermen, because their minds were unprejudiced, and they had less to unlearn before accepting the truth. “He knew what was in man.” That is, He had insight into the minds and hearts, and knew just what was needed to awaken the soul-life of each student. This is a necessary gift in the successful teacher. How much that is now taught would be dispensed with if teachers could read the soul conditions of pupils, and then feed them with only such food as would nourish. This, too, is Christian education. Before the teacher can have such an experience, however, he must have soul culture, and be in such close touch with the fountain of truth that he can draw whatever is needed. The well is deep, and faith alone can bring the water of life to the surface.[50]
His schoolroom the country.
With His chosen apostles, Christ “withdrew from the confusion of the city to the quiet of the fields and hills as more in harmony with the lessons of self-abnegation he desired to teach them.... Here, surrounded by the works of his own creation, he could turn the thoughts of his hearers from the artificial to the natural.” Those schools to-day which are located in some quiet country place afford the best opportunities for education.
Text-books
The books used seem to be two, and only two: the writings of the prophets and the great book of nature. Hinsdale says: “Scripture furnishes the basis of His teaching.... It is impossible to say how many distinct recognitions of Scripture are found in His teachings, but the number and range are both large.... One of the most interesting of these [methods] is his constant habit of expanding Scripture, or, as we might say, of reading into it new meanings. He thus treats not merely prophetic passages, but also dogmatic passages; moreover, His meanings are sometimes new, not merely to the Jewish teachers, but also to the authors of the passages themselves.”[51] This was because the teacher was led by the Spirit of truth, which guides into all truth.