# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1862_S357
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the Evangelical Conduct of a Christian-minded Parish Schoolteacher, Etc. 357

answer are contained, it will not be unhelpful to cast a glance beforehand
at what such a schoolteacher constantly needs, in order to be able to
show himself toward his pupils in this teaching and educating love. This
is, however, nothing other than that he himself, as an obedient pupil
and humble disciple, remains sitting at the feet of the Lord; that he
daily begs grace and wisdom for his schoolwork; that he diligently
occupies himself with God's Word for his own soul's sake and grows in
the knowledge of it; that he makes faithful and earnest intercession for
his pupils; that against his own temperamental faults he diligently calls
upon the Holy Spirit for help and assistance, at the same time arming
himself against them with God's Word; and that he remains as mindful
as possible of his calling, noble and precious before God.

And that, alongside such spiritual preparation and disposing of his
whole person, the conscientious preparation for his lessons will likewise
not be lacking goes without saying.

After this digression and preliminary remark, we now take up again
that summary answer given above, by pointing out the individual points
contained in it.

Wherein, then, will the love of Christ show itself in the teacher's
fatherly teaching and upbringing of his pupils?

First, in the prevailing bearing of as even-tempered and friendly a
seriousness as possible in all the individual expressions of his fatherly
teaching and upbringing — a bearing which, as to its seriousness, flows
from the fear of God, in whose most holy presence the teacher attends
to his calling, and which, as to its friendliness, stems from the love of
Christ, which opens his heart and mouth toward his children.

In an unchristian teacher, this manner is impossible precisely because
of his prevailing unbelief. His seriousness is either a natural, legalistic
severity — if not indeed a moody harshness and sullen disposition — or
a self-made official dignity, an artificially contrived official grandeur;
and neither of these proves wholesome for the hearts of the children.
For just as, through that severity by which the father turns himself
merely into a disciplinarian and taskmaster, at most a forced obedience
out of fear of punishment is produced, so the inward hollowness of this
affected official authority is very soon felt through, instinctively, by the
children, and naturally no true reverence is thereby brought about in
their hearts. The friendliness, too, in an unconverted teacher, is either
the outflow of a natural good nature, or likewise more artificially
assumed; but since, in either case, it lacks true, that is, Christian, love,
it is not able to awaken in the children a mutual love bound up with
reverence; rather, it gives them only the occasion to place themselves
pretty much on the same level as the teacher, and to regard whatever
obedience they may show him merely as a kind of favor and courtesy.

Where, on the other hand, in a Christian-minded teacher that friendly
seriousness