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Quotes by J. Clement French
One of the brighest and most touching pictures in the whole gospel narratives is that of Jesus taking the little children up and folding His arms about them, putting His hands upon them and blessing them. This is the warrant and the best inspiration of Sunday-school work, and this suggests the secret of success. We must take up the children, and fold them in our arms, in an embrace of tenderness and Christly love, then we shall win them to Christ and heaven. The conditions of success in teaching are these: First, devotion to Christ; second, love for souls; third, earnest work; fourth, concentration; fifth, importunate prayer; sixth, fitness; seventh, the Holy Spirit's influences. It is a grand thing to train the human mind in the academy and in the college and university to great intellectual achievements. It is a grand thing for you to leap, as it were, by the lightning of your thought, from crag to crag of discovery. It is well to make paths for tender feet through the morasses and over the mountains of study. These bring honor and power. But it is also well to remember that the diplomas of colleges and universities can never bring pardon for sin; that all the scholarships and all the titles in the world can never bring peace to the dying. Oh, brethren, it is this discipleship with the Man of Galilee who trod the wine-press alone, and carried His cross up Calvary's hill; this discipleship with the man Christ Jesus, that constitutes the moral and spiritual power in our work. That power it is yours to impart to the children under your care. Aye, this is grander than all human achievements.— filed under Sunday-School