And so the teacher who would become a converter must feel the truth of what he teaches so that a spirit of conviction extends from him to his class and so takes hold of the members that they, too, feel the truth of what he says.  In short, the real teacher must have a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He must be caught up by that same spirit that opened the heavens to the Prophet Joseph Smith—­only then can he really teach.  The Lord has so revealed: 

   “And they shall observe the covenants and church articles to do them,
   and these shall be their teaching, as they shall be directed by the
   Spirit;

   “And the Spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith, and
   if ye receive not the Spirit, ye shall not teach.” (Doc. & Cov., Sec.
   42:13, 14.)

   “Verily I say unto you, he that is ordained of me and sent forth to
   preach the word of truth by the Comforter, in the Spirit of Truth,
   doth he preach it by the Spirit of Truth or some other way?

   “And if it be by some other way, it is not of God.

   “And again, he that receiveth the word of truth, doth he receive it
   by the Spirit of Truth or some other way?

   “If it be some other way it be not of God: 

   “Therefore, why is it that ye cannot understand and know that he that
   receiveth the word by the Spirit of Truth, receiveth it as it is
   preached by the Spirit of Truth?

   “Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understandeth
   one another, and both are edified and rejoice together;

   “And that which doth not edify is not of God and is darkness;

“That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light and continueth in God, receiveth more light, and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.” (Doc. & Cov., Sec. 50:17-24.)

In the second place, the teacher’s belief must be translated into daily life.  “Come, follow me,” is the admonition that makes for conversion.  A young man recently, in characterizing the biggest failure among teachers that he had ever known, remarked, “He simply couldn’t teach us anything.  He started in by giving us a vigorous lecture against tobacco, but before a week had passed we all knew that he himself smoked.  He might just as well have given up teaching right there.  We couldn’t see any truth in him after that, for the ‘smoke’ of his own deception.”

Of course, he was not converted.  A similar experience is related of the principal of a school who, with his faculty of teachers, made it a school rule that there should be no playing of cards on the part of the students.  The rule recorded, however, the principal proceeded to participate in downtown card parties until he established a reputation, in the language of the boys, as a “card shark.”  Not only did that principal find it impossible thereafter to combat the evil of students cutting classes to play cards, he lost that confidence on the part of the student body without which school discipline cannot be achieved.  Lack of conversion—­such conversion as leads a man to practice what he preaches—­cost him his position.