PART II. Teacher's SECTION I. Influence. the pattern, in wood or metal or glass, is a cross, the Other Work, deposit on it forms accordingly, and it is taken out as a cross of stone. If a plaster copy of an elaborately and Using wrought piece of carving or sculpture is the pattern, the result is a similar work in stone; each figure and outline of the copy being so covered with the mineral deposit that it becomes a stone reproduction of the original carving or sculpture. So, under the running water at the springs at Vichy grow forms of beauty in enduring rock, just according to the patterns placed there. Like makes like. What is the pattern? Nor is it alone at Vichy that the inflowing stream shapes itself in stone by the models over which it passes. The same process goes on continually in the sphere of every Sunday-school teacher. The current of his influence may seem colorless and inoperative. It may pass on so quietly over his scholar's mind that it seems likely to leave no impression there. Yet it surely deposits, atom by atom, from its substance and possessions, that which hardens into stone on the scholar's inner life, in conformity with the patterns which the teacher has selected, or which he has unconsciously presented to the scholar's mind. Every act, every word, every thought of the teacher which enters into the stream of his personal character and influence contributes its mite to the forming rock in his scholar's heart and soul. The teacher selects and places the model by which this rock is shaped. The seemingly unim The Perfect Pattern. portant trickling of the minor streams of personal 66 283 PART II. The Teacher's Other work. SECTION I. Having and Using Influence. His image. PART II. Other Work. SECTION II. Loving, and Winning Love. II. LOVING, AND WINNING LOVE. What Love Is; No Power Like Love; Love in a Garret; Every Man "LOVING" one's scholars, and "influencing" one's Teacher's scholars, are by no means identical; although the two things very often go together. A teacher who loves his scholars and who is loved by his scholars is pretty sure to influence his scholars; but a teacher may influence his scholars without either loving them or being loved by them. A teacher may have and exert an influence by the purity of his life, by the strength of his character, by the positiveness of his convictions, by the earnestness of his nature, by the persuasiveness of his words and manner, and yet be unloving and unloved as a teacher. But loving is as clearly a duty as influencing, on the part of a Sunday-school teacher. Loving and winning are an inseparable portion of the obligations resting on every disciple of Christ, who goes in the name of Christ to those for whom Christ died. Unloving and unloved. PART II. The Teacher's Other Work. Loving, and Love. involves. Love, be it understood,-the love which is here spoken of,-is not a matter of emotion; it is not a drawing of the affectious in strong feeling toward SECTION II. one who is in himself attractive. If it were that which were looked upon as, in all cases, a duty, there would indeed seem to be insuperable obstacles to its uniform exercise; and its very existence might fairly be counted beyond the scope of the teacher's will. The love which is a duty, is a recognition of every child as a fellow-creature, a fellow immortal with ourselves, a personal object of the love of God, What love and one who is dear to Jesus our Saviour. It involves a recognition of the peculiar needs of that one whom Jesus loves, and whom he asks us to care for for his sake. Such a recognition in its fullness will inevitably bring us to a sense of tender interest in the condition of him who represents so much; it cannot but create in us a desire to be of service to this possessor of an immortal soul for whom Jesus died; and that desire will be sure to show itself in all that we say or do, in our intercourse with that personality. chief Love is, after all, the chief attraction in the Sunday-school. It is the only power which reaches every scholar alike. Every heart is human, and every human heart is open to the influence of genu- The chi ine sympathy and affection. There are those who can be attracted to a Sunday-school by its showy appointments, its spacious rooms, its furnishing and power. PART II. Other Work. Loving, and Every one loves to be loved. A new convert. adornments. Others are won by its fine singing, or by its library and its picture-papers. Yet others enjoy its companionships, and the anticipation of its festivals and picnics. Some, it may be, think more of the instruction they receive there, and of the gain to their minds and hearts as Bible students. But no one of these attractions is alike for all. There are those who care nothing for singing, and who lack good taste and an appreciation of the beautiful. Many have no interest in books and papers, and many more have no enjoyment in mere Bible study. But every one loves to be loved, and finds pleasure in being where the very atmosphere of the place is redolent with sympathy and affection. That Sunday-school where love is most prominent-most apparent in desk and class-is surest of being always attractive, always potent for good to its scholars. My earliest experience in the mission-school work gave me a lesson on this point which I have never forgotten. While I was yet a new comer into the fold of Christ, my heart brimming and burning with love for Him who loved me, and I desirous of showing that love in any way in my power, I was asked to have a part in a mission-school movement just beginning in a needy portion of our city, and I gladly assented. Finding my way to the place designated, on a Sunday noon, I groped along, up rickety staircases, and through dark passage-ways, dimly lighted by burning candles at mid-day, in a dilapidated pile |