The Teacher's Knot

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 26, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 25.

The Teacher's Knot.

"The constant habit of reviewing," upon which good Dr. John Todd insisted half a century ago, in the "Student's Manual," is not yet estimated at its full value by teachers generally. Especially are Bible students slow to secure its benefits; wise men, however, are finding new ways of doing it, and are demonstrating its importance and usefulness. A method which a Connecticut school has recently adopted, is that of having monthly review concerts. On these occasions, the titles, golden texts, and central thoughts are repeated by the school, or by classes, and this exercise is interspersed with the reading of more or less elaborate articles on special topics, in the line of the lessons, by the more capable pupils. In the same State there is at least one pastor who devotes a Sunday evening in each quarter to a review sermon,—a sermon reviewing not the Sunday-school lessons, but his sermons. He places on the blackboard such points, from his sermons of the preceding three months, as he feels to be important, and calls attention to them in a review discourse. On that evening he is always sure of a large and interested audience. Not less sure are his people to gain a clearer view of truth in its relations, and to get a better hold on it for their memories. There is an old story of a sick tailor who sent word to his craftsmen that he wanted them all to be present when he should die, as he had a message for them. With his last breath, he gasped to the eager group, "Put a knot in your thread." For want of the knot which only reviewing can put in the thread of teaching, a vast amount of work is wasted. Dry and distasteful reviews do more harm than good; but of wise reviewing it is difficult to have too much. The more careful the "preview," the more interesting and practical may be the review. But reviews there should be, in the pulpit, at the superintendent's desk, in the class. Certainly every one who would have the truth at command must often recall what he has been studying, that it may be labeled, classified, and, so to speak, filed away, where one can put his hand upon it at a moment's warning. "The constant habit of reviewing" is a capital habit to form.—Sel.