Article August 14, 1915 ISSUE

The Lesson-Sermon

KATE HOLT

For some years past it has been a daily practice with a certain mother and daughter for the former to read aloud to the latter while she had her breakfast and dressed for business, the books being confined to admitted classics. Recently the selection was from Herbert Spencer on self-dependence, from "Essays, Moral, Political, and Esthetic," in which occurred the following: "The teacher of the old school who showed his pupil the way out of every difficulty did not perceive that he was generating an attitude of mind greatly militating against success in life. The modern instructor, however, who induces his pupil to solve his difficulties himself, believes that in so doing he is preparing him to meet the difficulties which, when he goes into the world, there will be no one to help him through."

On reading this passage an overwhelming sense of gratitude was felt for our Leader's wisdom in preparing the Lesson-Sermons. It would have been a small matter to have had the Scriptural references with their correlative passages from our text-book printed in the Sentinel each week, and this would have made the reading and study of the Lesson very easy indeed. Such an arrangement would render the constant use of the Bible entirely unnecessary. Each of the six sections of the Lesson brings out a distinctive thought, and these too could have been given; but it was not so ordered by our Leader. Wisdom guided her in this as certainly as in the writing of her great book.

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