out that teaching is a complex art proficiency in which is the result of a long, painstaking process.  But success in teaching as in all other pursuits is possible of achievement.  We have heard so frequently that teachers must be born, not made, that many prospective teachers, feeling that they have been denied this pedagogical birthright, give up in despair.  Of course, it is naturally easy for some individuals to teach—­they do seem born possessed of a teaching personality, but they are not given a monopoly on the profession.

The Lord has too many children to be taught to leave their instruction to a few favored ones.  The qualities listed in chapter five may be developed, in varying degrees, of course, by any normal person anxious to serve his fellows.  The “will to do” is the great key to success.

To him who would develop spiritually, these five suggestions may be helpful: 

First, cultivate the spirit of prayer.  The president of one of our stakes made the remark once that he believed only a few of the men and women of his stake really pray.  “They go through the form, all right,” he said; “they repeat the words—­but they do not enter into the spirit of the prayer.  If the Lord doesn’t draw nearer to them than they do to Him I doubt that their prayers are really of very great force.”

The ability to pray is the great test of a spiritual life.  “The faith to pray” is a gift to be cultivated through devoted practice.  The teacher who would have his pupils draw nearer to him must himself draw near to the Lord.  The promise, “Ask, and ye shall receive, seek, and ye shall find,” was given only to those who ask in faith.  This constant prayer of faith, then is the first great guarantee of the Spirit.

The second is a clean life.  Just as it is impossible for water to make its way through a dirty, clogged pipe, so it is for the Spirit to flow through a channel of unrighteous desires.  A visitor was interested a short time ago in Canada in attempting to get a drink out of a pipe that had been installed to carry water from a spring in the side of a mountain to a pool at the side of the road.  Due to neglect, moss and filth had been allowed to collect about the bottom of the pipe, until it was nearly choked up.  Getting a drink was out of the question.  And yet there was plenty of water in the spring above—­just as fine water as had ever flowed from that source.  It was simply denied passage down to those who would drink.  And so with the Spirit.  The Lord is still able to bless—­all too frequently, we so live that “the passage is clogged.”  The Word of Wisdom is not only a guarantee of health—­it is the key to communication with the Spirit.  And what is true of the body applies with even greater force to cleanliness of mind.  The teacher might well adopt this prayer: 

   “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within
   me.”

The third great guarantee of the Spirit is an unswerving obedience to all principles of the Gospel.  To teach belief a man must believe.  Firmly grounded in all the cardinal principles the teacher may well inspire a spirit of the Gospel, but not otherwise.  Doubt and uncertainty will keep the teacher from the position of counsel and leadership.