The greatest power of the teacher is that of beckoning to the pupil
that he may follow, helping him to climb the little hills, that he may
open his eyes and _see_. The mental questions must be answered as far
as possible. The difficulty in the way must be surmounted. The hill
must be climbed. If the teacher feels that she can not meet the task
herself, friends and books may help. The girl usually doubts the
miracles; doubts the deity of Christ, thinks the Bible is not
different from other books, asks the old, old question, “If a man die,
how can he live again?” She questions the existence of a God of power
in a world where so much evil and misery abound; says the foundation
of everything is gone, and that she is wretched and unhappy.
It seems to me a most helpful thing to make her feel that all
thoughtful men and women have at some time in their experience asked
these questions. Both the teacher and the girl must accept the fact of
mystery,—that there is much that we cannot hope to know, many laws of
mind and matter of which we know just a little, and many more of which
we know nothing. Mystery is a fact. That the spiritual sense can reach
into a realm where the mental faculties cannot follow, and that the
spirit of man can perceive what the mind alone cannot comprehend, we
have a right to believe.
When so much has been acknowledged the teacher may tell her pupil what
she personally believes about the disputed questions, and what the
scholars of the world believe on both sides of the question. The
teacher’s belief is often the strongest argument, especially if she
has met the questions, found an answer, and her own faith is positive,
sane and strong. But if the teacher meets the troubled, anxious mental
state of the girl with dogmatic argument, insisting upon the definite
phraseology of some creed, she will most certainly fail to help. What
we want to do is not to inculcate a creed, but to help a girl to come
into living, vital touch with her Maker, that she may live with
confidence and be a help in the world.
In time she will find the creed that expresses for her in the most
satisfactory way what she has come to believe.
One of the most keen and interesting girls I have ever met, a junior
in college at nineteen, said to me after stating all that she could
not believe and why,—“Can’t I believe that Christ was the finest man
that ever lived, and try to live and work in the world as he did? I
can’t believe anything else.” “Yes,” I said, “that is true, believe
that. I think he was _more_, but start there. Do all you have planned
to help the needy, but don’t forget to read again and again what he
said about himself and what those who have served the world most
fearlessly and faithfully say of him.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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