Chapter 4

The teacher's ideal will of course be modified as he learns more of his students' capacities and of the needs of the nation. In this way, as the years pass, the teacher may find himself far from the early ideals that at first gave him one-pointedness. Ideals will still guide him, but they will be more practical, and so his one-pointedness will be much keener and will produce larger results.

The Master quotes two sayings which seem to me to show very clearly the lines along which one-pointedness should work: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might"; and: "Whatsoever ye do, do it _heartily_, as to the Lord and not unto men." It must be done "as to the Lord." The Master says: "Every piece of work must be done religiously--done with the feeling that it is a sacred offering to be laid on the altar of the Lord. 'This do I, O Lord, in Thy name and for Thee.' Thinking this, can I offer to Him anything but my very best? Can I let _any_ piece of my work be done carelessly or inattentively, when I know that it is being done expressly for Him? Think how you would do your work if you knew that the Lord Himself were coming directly to see it; and then realise that He _does_ see it, for all is taking place within His consciousness. So will you do your duty 'as unto the Lord and not as unto men'."

The work must be done, too, according to the teacher's knowledge of the principles of evolution, and not merely out of regard to small and fleeting interests. The teacher must therefore gradually learn his own place in evolution, so that he may become one-pointed as to himself; unless he practises one-pointedness with regard to his own ideal for himself, he will not be able to bring it to bear on his surroundings. He must try to be in miniature the ideal towards which he hopes to lead his boys, and the application of the ideal to himself will enable him to see in it details which otherwise would escape his notice, or which he might neglect as unimportant.

The practical application, then, of one-pointedness lies in the endeavour to keep before the mind some dominant central ideal towards which the whole of the teachers' and boys' daily routine shall be directed, so that the small life may be vitalised by the larger, and all may become conscious parts of one great whole. The ideal of service, for instance, may be made so vivid that the whole of daily life shall be lived in the effort to serve.

6. _Confidence_. First among the qualifications for the teacher has been placed Love, and it is fitting that this little book should end with another qualification of almost equal importance--Confidence. Unless the teacher has confidence in his power to attain his goal, he will not be able to inspire a similar confidence in his boys, and self-confidence is an indispensable attribute for success in all departments of human activity. The Master has beautifully explained why we have the right to be confident.

"You must trust yourself. You say you know yourself too well? If you feel so, you do _not_ know yourself; you know only the weak outer husk, which has fallen often into the mire. But _you_--the real you--you are a spark of God's own fire, and God, Who is almighty, is in you, and because of that there is nothing that you cannot do if you will."

The teacher must feel that he has the power to teach his boys and to train them for their future work in the world. This power is born of his love for them and his desire to help them, and is drawn from the one spiritual life of which all partake. It is because the teacher and his boys are one in essence, make one little flame in "God's own fire," that the teacher has the right to be confident that every effort to help, growing out of his own share in the one life, will reach and stimulate that same life in the boys.

He will not always be able to see at once the effect he is producing. Indeed, the most important influence the teacher has shows itself in the growing characters of the boys. No success in examinations, in reports, in inspections can satisfy the real teacher as to the effect of his work. But when he feels that his own higher nature is strengthened and purified by his eagerness to serve his boys, when he has the joy of watching the divine life in them shining out in answer to that in himself, then his happiness is indeed great. Then he has the peace of knowing that he has awakened in his boys the knowledge of their own divinity, which, sooner or later, will bring them to perfection.

The teacher is justified in feeling confident because the divine life is in him and his boys, and they turn to him for inspiration and strength. Let him but send out to them all that is highest in himself, and he may be quite sure that there will not be one boy who will not to some extent respond in his own higher Self, however little the response may be seen by the teacher.

This constant interplay of the one life between teacher and students will draw them ever nearer to each other. They learn in the school to live together as elder and younger brothers of the one school family. By living a life of brotherhood within the small area of the school, they will be trained to live that life in the larger area of the nation. Then they will gradually learn that there is but one great brotherhood in all the world, one divine life in all. This life each separate member of the brotherhood is trying to express, consciously or unconsciously. The teacher is indeed happy who knows his own divinity; that knowledge of the divinity in man is the highest lesson it will ever be his privilege to teach.