1907

October 1, 1907

A Message to Teachers

EGW 

To our workers among the colored people, and especially to those who are teaching the children and the youth, I would say, Hold fast. Do not lose courage. We shall all be tried, to see of what material we are made. Work with an eye single to the glory of God. Labor to uplift and ennoble your students. They will be what you make them, largely. Teach them that their souls can be made clean in the blood of the Lamb. Hold up before them the hope that they can be Christians in thought, in word, in deed. Thus souls will be won to Christ. Tell them, oh, tell them of the love of Jesus, who taketh away the sin of the world. GH October 1, 1907, par. 1

Keep ever before your students the thought that they are in school to be fitted to act their part in helping others to prepare for a place in the family above. The Lord desires them to act kindly and courteously, because they are members of his family. Keep this before them always. Doing this, you cannot speak harshly to them, neither can you be coarse or rough, because this would not harmonize with the Bible principles that you are trying to teach them. GH October 1, 1907, par. 2

Teachers, keep heaven and the Saviour before your students. Impress their minds with the thought that they must do their very best; for God's eye is upon them. This teaching you may certainly class as a branch of higher education. GH October 1, 1907, par. 3

Teachers are to bring into the schoolroom a softening, subduing influence. In their daily habits they are to be an example of propriety. In their dress they are always to be neat and tidy. Children are naturally quick to imitate; and as they see habits of order and cleanliness, industry and Christian integrity, exemplified in the daily life of their teacher, their own lives will be powerfully influenced for good. Excellent results will appear. GH October 1, 1907, par. 4

The work done in the Huntsville school is to be an object-lesson of what can be done for the colored youth and children in every school, small or large, in providing advantages and surroundings that will tend to uplift and ennoble those who attend. The Huntsville school is to be a place where the standard is kept high. The teachers must be filled with a determination to teach the students, in connection with book-knowledge, practical lessons of neatness and refinement. Nothing coarse or slovenly is to be allowed in the dress of the students. Their deportment is to be above reproach. They are to be taught to be neat in their habits. And in all that pertains to the premises of the school, both inside the various buildings, and on the school-grounds and the farm, an object-lesson of orderliness and thrift is to be taught. GH October 1, 1907, par. 5

The Huntsville school is to exert a far-reaching influence for good. To the teachers in this school I am instructed to say, Encourage the students. Inspire them with the hope that they can work successfully for the Master. And as you labor, remember that your school is to be an example of what all other colored schools should be, with respect to carefulness of deportment and thoroughness of work. GH October 1, 1907, par. 6

In the smaller schools for colored pupils, there are promising youth who can be trained to enter the field as teachers. As these attend school, let them see that their teachers have confidence that they will become workers who will fill their appointed places in God's great plan. And let efforts be made to give those who have done faithful work, an opportunity to secure further training, if need be, at Huntsville. GH October 1, 1907, par. 7

Men and women from the colored race are to be educated to work as missionaries for their own people. This education and training is to be given them within their own borders. They are to be taught line upon line, precept upon precept: here a little, and there a little. This will require patient, earnest, persevering, judicious effort. But such effort is richly rewarded. GH October 1, 1907, par. 8

Schools for colored children and youth are to be established in many different places in the Southern field. I am deeply interested in the maintenance of these schools. I have often spoken on the importance of this work. I desire to do my part in helping this branch of the Lord's cause in the Southern field. And I am calling upon my brethren and sisters in America to act their part. I am pleading with them to show by their works a firm faith in the power of God to gather out from the Southland a people who shall be a praise to his name, and who shall finally unite with the redeemed from among men in singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. GH October 1, 1907, par. 9

Ellen G. White.