We need now to give special attention to the cultivation of character. Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, that it may elevate and ennoble the highest as also the lowest worker in our Sabbath schools, so that Jesus will not be ashamed to acknowledge them as His colaborers. All spiritual culture Christ has provided for His children. If Jesus is abiding in the soul, the heart is filled with the holy graces of His Spirit, which makes itself manifest in the transforming of the features. If you would have beauty and loveliness of character, the divine law must be written upon the heart and carried out in the life.—Testimonies on Sabbath-School Work, 20-22.
(CSW 113.1)
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VC
Let the teachers enter, heart and soul, into the subject matter of the lesson. Let them lay plans to make a practical application of the lesson, and awaken an interest in the minds and hearts of the children under their charge. Let the activities of the scholars find scope in solving the problems of Bible truth. The teachers may give character to the work, so that the exercises will not be dry and uninteresting.
(CSW 113.2)
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VC
Teachers do not make as earnest work as they should of the Sabbath school exercises; they should come close to the hearts of the scholars, by aptness, by sympathy, by patient and determined effort to interest every scholar in regard to the salvation of the soul. These exercises should become altogether what the Lord would have them,—seasons of deep conviction of sin, of heart reformation. If the right work is done, in a skillful, Christlike manner, souls will be convicted, and the inquiry will be, “What shall I do to be saved?”(Acts 16:30)—Testimonies on Sabbath-School Work, 12, 13.
(CSW 114.1)
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VC
Some efforts have been made to interest children in the cause, but not enough. Our Sabbath schools should be made more interesting. The public schools have of late years greatly improved their methods of teaching. Object lessons, pictures, and blackboards are used to make difficult lessons clear to the youthful mind. Just so may present truth be simplified and made intensely interesting to the active minds of the children.
(CSW 114.2)
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VC
Parents who can be approached in no other way are frequently reached through their children. Sabbath school teachers can instruct the children in the truth, and they will, in turn, take it into the home circle. But few teachers seem to understand the importance of this branch of the work. The modes of teaching which have been adopted with such success in the public schools could be employed with similar results in the Sabbath schools, and be the means of bringing children to Jesus and educating them in Bible truth. This will do far more good than religious excitement of an emotional character, that passes off as rapidly as it comes.
(CSW 114.3)
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VC