The Christian Educator Article (1897)

The Christian Educator, Vol. 1 (1897)

July 1897

"The Teacher and the Text-book" The Christian Educator 1, 1 , pp. 7, 8.

GOD has revealed himself to the world as a teacher. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself; and in him he says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me." When he thus calls us to take the place of learners, in that very call he himself occupies the place of teacher.

Again he says, "They shall be all taught of God." In this also he reveals himself as occupying the place of the teacher of men. "I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit." And it is written that "none teacheth like him."

How could any teach like him? Is he not God? And as certainly as he is God, so certainly is he the greatest and best teacher there can possibly be. He is truly the Teacher of all true teachers.

How could any teach us can he who is "perfect in knowledge?" And again it is written: "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." "He that is perfect in knowledge is with thee; he is with thee to teach, he is with thee evermore." Nothing but unbelief, then, can ever hinder anybody from being taught always in the perfection of knowledge.

God teaches by his Spirit. Therefore it is written, "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things."

He teaches by his Spirit through his word. "The Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself; but what he shall hear that shall he speak. . . . He shall take of mine and show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore I said, he shall take of mine and show it unto you."

God teaching, in Jesus Christ, by his Holy Spirit through his word–this is Christianity, this is true education, this is Christian education.

The Bible is the book of Christianity. It is the book of wisdom and knowledge of God, by which men are to be restored and made that which man was made to be. It is the book of revelation of Jesus Christ, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;" and in whom alone men can ever be complete.

As in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and as the Bible is the revelation of Christ, it is perfectly plain that in the Bible are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

8

In Christian education, then, the eternal Spirit is the great teacher; and the Bible is the great text-book.

Who that believes at all in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, can ever choose any other teacher in anything? Who that believes the Bible to be his word, can ever allow it to be second to any other book in any line of study?

How can any education, how can any school, be recognized as Christian, in which the Spirit of God as the one great teacher is not courted and deferred to by a living faith in Jesus Christ, and in which the Bible is not given the leading place in every subject and line of study?
A. T. JONES.