The teacher of truth can impart effectively only that which he himself knows by experience. Christ taught the truth because He was the truth. His own thought, His character, His life experience, were embodied in His teaching. So with His servants; those who teach the word must make it their own by personal experience. They must know what it is to have Christ made unto them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Every minister of Christ and every teacher should be able to say with the beloved John, “The life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.”1 John 1:2.
(CT 435.1)
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Often it will seem to the teacher that the word of God has little effect on the minds and hearts of many students; but if his work has been wrought in God, some lessons of divine truth will linger in the memory of the most careless. The Holy Spirit will water the seed sown, and it will spring up after many days and bear fruit to the glory of God.
(CT 435.2)
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Teachers may learn a lesson from the experience of the farmer who placed the food for his sheep in a crib so high that the young of the flock could not reach it. Some teachers present the truth to their students in a similar manner. They place the crib so high that those whom they teach cannot reach the food. They forget that the students have only a small part of the opportunity that they have had to gain a knowledge of God. They are too high up on the ladder to reach down a helping hand, warm with tenderness and love and deep, earnest interest. Let them step down and by their manner say to the students:
(CT 435.3)
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