Testimonies on Sabbath-School Work

Chapter 9—Need of Genuine Religion in Our Sabbath-Schools

Our Sabbath-schools are not what the Lord would have them to be, for there is altogether too much dependence placed upon form and machinery, while the life-giving power of God is not manifested for the conversion of souls, for whom Christ died. This order of things must be changed if our Sabbath-schools meet the purpose for which they exist. We must have consecrated teachers, who love God supremely and their neighbors as themselves. The Lord has made ample provision that teachers may have increased ability from Sabbath to Sabbath, that they may teach to some purpose, working as for time and eternity. We need in our schools young men and women who have vital godliness, not a cheap, superficial experience, but a deep inward piety that results from learning daily in the school of Christ, that they may impart to others the precious lessons which Christ has taught them. TSS 41.1

Those who are satisfied with following a certain dry order, of going through a round, will miss the mark, and fail of the work that should be done by a Sabbath-school teacher; but if those who engage in this important branch of God's cause are Christians in the full sense of the word, doing the work given them of God in His fear, working with love for souls, for whom Christ died, they will be laborers together with God. When superintendents and teachers give themselves without reserve to God, they will not only resolve, but put their resolutions into effect. As soon as the workers in Sabbath and day schools enter upon their proper work, with a full realization of their dependence upon God, the grace of Christ will be supplied to unite with their human effort. It is important that every worker should understand that conviction and conversion of souls follow the co-operation of the human effort with the divine power. Entire consecration of soul must be maintained as much by the teachers and superintendents of our Sabbath-schools as by the ministers in our pulpits, for all alike are engaged in the work of bringing souls to Christ. Each in his place is to work, as did Christ, in the spirit of love, for the erring and impenitent. This is what Christ would see in the Sabbath-school work. TSS 41.2