Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/443

 the student to himself, to throw the student on his own resources, Dr. Miller believed in direct, detailed teaching, even in the highest classes. He had an instinctive perception of the real requirements and the true interests of the average Indian student. Was the subject a section of the Bible for the Scripture lesson, or a play of Shakespeare for the University studies, the teacher and the taught were en rapport—reciprocally absorbed and enraptured. Dr. Miller held, it Would s^em, that in a 'Classic' there would be no aimless superfluities, no negligible commonplaces-every phrase and every sentence had an import and a purpose. If I might dwell just a little on my own expedience, I shall venture to retail my reminiscences of two of the lessons. In the first year class, we had for the scripture work one book of The Kings. Would it be grave mis-judgment to say that to most non-Christian readers that book would appear to be nothing much better than a compendium, in the main, of prosaic fact and romantin fiction?