(c) From the first, the disciples had regarded Jesus as a teacher, and whatever more He became to them as their intercourse with Him deepened, a teacher He remained to the end. Or, to speak more correctly, from being a teacher He became the Teacher ; and the greatest of teachers, measured by any proper standard. He certainly was and abides. The substance of His teaching is the truest, wisest, and best on the loftiest and weightiest of all topics— topics as to which all teadiers before Him were as men groping in the dark. He and He alone speaks with the confidence of personal knowledge regarding the nature of God and His relations to man. It is Miltlc iiiit for our present purpose to refer to tli.' imiuiahn-ss, the ease, the familiarity with wliirh .Iimi> sinjke con- cerning the Kingdom of God ; the character and intentions of the Father ; the righteousness He requires ; the conditions on which entrance into the Kingdom depends ; its history and its final issues ; the testimony borne by Jesus to Himself ; the place He assigns to His person and work. Never man so spake (Jn 7**). Yet He .speaks what He knows, and testifies of what He has seen (Jn 3"). Here, if anywhere, the entire religious experience of man-
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kind affirms the truth of the witness He bore. His message authenticates itself ; it bears the seal of its Divine origin upon it. Such views ne\er sprang up within the mind of man ; they descended out of heaven from God.
And this teaching was conveyed to the disciples and to tlie people according to definite methods and in language which forms an epoch in human speech. It is unlikely that our Lord ever reflected on tlie problems which form the science and art of teaching, or that He ever laid down rules for His own guidance ; but the essence of all that is best in the writings of the great educators is embodied in His practice. Let a reader come to the Gospels full of wliat he has learned regarding education from Plato and Aristotle and their successors, and he can perceive without difficulty, in the relations between our Lord and the Apostles ; in His attitude towards them ; in His modes of stimulating, en- larging, and enriching their minds ; in His tact, patience, and wisdom, — the signs of skill which is incomparable because so spontaneous, so flexible, and so fertile of resource. Never for a moment did He lose sight of His object, to qualify the Apostles to be His witnesses and representatives ; but He did not dwell on that purpose. He was aware that the power of personality is the strongest and most penetrating of all forces, and accordingly He separated the Apostles more and more, as the days went by, from their familiar scenes and labours, in order that they might, because of their complete intimacy with Him, breathe His spirit and share in His aims. They were ennobled, as it were, despite themselves. New ideals and motives took possession of them. He was so constantly before their eyes, so continually the subject of their speech, so much the centre of their interests and the goal of their hopes, that tliey grew into His image. Not less evident was His desire that the Apostles should not be mere echoes of Himself, but men of originality, courage, and resource. It was on this account that He delivered no systematic instruction ; that He caused nothing to be com- mitted to memory ; that He did not store the minds of the Apostles with rules, lists of duties, tables of the forbidden and the permissible. Hence He gave no dogmas in fixed shape even on the greatest of all subjects. Hence, too. He furnished no directory for the duties of the day, and made no attempt to prescribe the hours to be employed in devotion or the words to be used, or to determine the provision to be made for the sick and the poor. Again, He taught only as His disciples were able to receive. Not that He never went beyond their capacity. This He frequently did, and of set pur- pose. But He observed an order in what He said. The most obvious illustration of this fact is His teaching regarding His person. He did not begin to tell at once who He was, nor did He open His lips as to His death until He had evoked from Peter's lips as the spokesman of tlie Twelve the confession that He was the Messiah (Mk 8=", Mt 16", Lk 9=°). It is expressly stated that He kept back much from His disciples, leaving them to tlie enlightenment of the Spirit, because they were unprepared to receive what He had to com- municate (Jn W). If He spoke of what thev did not comprehend at once, it was either that their intellects might be quickened or tliat they might treasure in their memories the truth mentioned, in view of their future experience. His references to His death had as their chief aim to render the Apostles certain of the fact and, above all, that it was foreknown by Him. Nor was He impatient for results. He never forced growth. He knew that to build durably is to build slowly; and so He bore with ignorance, with misapprehension, with imperfect views, with partial and hasty