Article November 27, 1948 Issue

Using Similitudes

The great Teacher, Christ Jesus, reached his students in a most direct and appealing way. An outstanding example of this is recorded in the first chapter of Mark's Gospel, where we read that as he walked along the seashore he saw two fishermen, Simon (whom later he surnamed Peter) and his brother Andrew. He said to them, "Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." What more direct method could he have used with these simple fishermen, deeply engrossed in their occupation, than to meet them as he did on their own plane of experience, and thence point to a higher calling? He appealed to these potential disciples from the point of view of their human interest—the business of fishing.

This was ever the Master's way. He mingled with the people. He observed their activities and their trend of thought that he might winningly present the great truths of spiritual being. He drew his parables and similes from familiar sights and well-known occurrences. He spoke the language of the people, but spoke with such depth of spiritual meaning that his teachings came to be known as "the new tongue."

In like manner the Sunday School teacher, entering in thought the realm of the pupils' everyday experience, is able by familiar allusions to talk, not down to the children, but with them in a way that wins them to the truth. Not infrequently a child comes to Sunday School intent upon talking about some recent occurrence or perhaps unduly conscious of some new wearing apparel—new shoes or a new dress or new suit. Although the child may seem to be interested in nothing else, the teacher may in line with that very subject direct the thought of the class to some part of the lesson.

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