struggles the record is silent. There came a period, however, when He might have posed as an intellectual leader, but His earlier decision led Him to pass this temptation unsullied. To prove this true, we need only to study the nature of the temptations presented in the wilderness. That He remained true to His mission is due to early training. This will not be controverted, for it is a divine law seen everywhere in nature.[47] II. THE MINISTRY OF THE GOD-MAN. [Sidenote: Jesus as a teacher] One of the gifts of the Spirit is that of teaching, and Christ was a born teacher. Acquired ability amounts to but little where the spirit of teaching is wanting. Christ was a teacher both by virtue of His nationality, since all Jews were called to be teachers, and also by direct appointment; for He had to accomplish in His own life what the nation had refused to accomplish. He carried with Him no credentials, no statement of scholarship signed by the doctors of Israel, for none of these schools had known Him as a pupil; yet Nicodemus, a master teacher in Jerusalem, after listening to His words, sought Him in the quiet evening hours, and addressed Him as _Rabbi_,—TEACHER. In the course of the conversation this learned man said, “We know that thou art a divine teacher, for no man can do as Thou except God be with him.” It was as a teacher, and more, as a divine teacher, that He was known from the very beginning of His ministry. His ministry was a ministry of _teaching_. He was known as a teacher, not so much by the words He spoke as by the _life He lived_, and the works He did. [Sidenote: As a teacher, success depended upon the life] The words of Bushnell are true: “We can see for ourselves in the simple directions and freedom of His teachings, that whatever He advances is from Himself.” He was giving Himself, and that He had a self, a divine self, to give is _due to the education of the child and youth_. God’s image was perfect in Him, and when the time of ministry came, there shone from Him what previous years had been developing in Him. THIS IS THE OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. The same author further says: “He is the high-priest ... of the divine nature, speaking as one that has come out from God, and _has nothing to borrow from the world_. It is not to be detected ... that the _human sphere in which He moved imparted anything to Him_. His teachings are just as full of _divine nature_, as Shakespeare’s of human.” What a commentary on the two systems of education, the one choosing _inspiration_ as a basis; the other, the product of the human brain! [Sidenote: He taught as one having authority]