How to Teach Religion | Page 4

person of Jesus of Nazareth that man
began to understand.
The first and most difficult requirement of the teacher, therefore,
is--himself, his personality. He must combine in himself the qualities of
life and character he seeks to develop in his pupils. He must look to his
personality as the source of his influence and the measure of his power.
He must be the living embodiment of what he would lead his pupils to
become. He must live the religion he would teach them. He must
possess the vital religious experience he would have them attain.
The building of personality.--Personality is not born, it is made. A
strong, inspiring personality is not a gift of the gods, nor is a weak and

ineffective personality a visitation of Providence. Things do not happen
in the realm of the spiritual any more than in the realm of nature.
Everything is caused. Personality grows. It takes its form in the thick of
the day's work and its play. It is shaped in the crush and stress of life's
problems and its duties. It gains its quality from the character of the
thoughts and acts that make up the common round of experience. It
bears the marks of whatever spiritual fellowship and communion we
keep with the Divine.
Professor Dewey tells us that character is largely dependent on the
mode of assembling its parts. A teacher may have a splendid native
inheritance, a fine education, and may move in the best social circles,
and yet not come to his best in personality. It requires some high and
exalted task in order to assemble the powers and organize them to their
full efficiency. The urge of a great work is needed to make potential
ability actual. Paul did not become the giant of his latter years until he
took upon himself the great task of carrying the gospel to the Gentiles.
Our own responsibility.--It follows then that the building of our
personalities is largely in our own hands. True, the influence of
heredity is not to be overlooked. It is easier for some to develop
attractive, compelling qualities than for others. The raw material of our
nature comes with us; is what heredity decrees. But the finished
product bears the stamp of our training and development. Fate or
destiny never takes the reins from our hands. We are free to shape
ourselves largely as we will.
Our inner life will daily grow by what it feeds upon. This is the great
secret of personality-building. What to-day we build into thought and
action to-morrow becomes character and personality. Let us cultivate
our interests, think high thoughts, and give ourselves to worthy deeds,
and these have soon become a life habit. Let our hearts go out in
helpfulness to those about us, and sympathy for human kind becomes a
compelling motive in our lives before we are aware. Let us consciously
listen to the still small voice speaking to the soul, and we will find our
souls expanding to meet the Infinite.
The secret.--He who would develop his personality into the full

measure of its strength and power must, then, set his goal at living
constantly in the presence of the BEST. This will include the best in
thought and memory and anticipation. It will permit none but cheerful
moods, nor allow us to dwell with bitterness upon petty wrongs and
grievances. It will control the tongue, and check the unkind word or
needless criticism. It will cause us to seek for the strong and beautiful
qualities in our friends and associates, and not allow us to point out
their faults nor magnify their failings. It will cure us of small jealousies
and suppress all spirit of revenge. It will save us from idle worry and
fruitless rebellion against such ills as cannot be cured. In short, it will
free our lives from the crippling influence of negative moods and
critical attitudes. It will teach us to be ruled by our admirations rather
than by our aversions.
Above all, he who would build a personality fitted to serve as the
teacher of the child in his religion must constantly live in the presence
of the best he can attain in God. There is no substitute for this. No
fullness of intellectual power and grasp, no richness of knowledge
gleaned, and no degree of skill in instruction can take the place of a
vibrant, immediate, Spirit-filled consciousness of God in the heart. For
religion is life, and the best definition of religion we can present to the
child is the example and warmth of a life inspired and vivified by
contact with the Source of all spiritual being. The authority of the
teacher should rest on his own religious experience, rather than on the
spiritual experience of others.
A character chart.--There