One of the most influential professors I had in studying literature in younger days was Dr. Higgins. He was a master teacher. How so? Well, he was a master of clarity. His preferred way of teaching hinged upon the use of contrasts. He would put up a T-chart on the board that looked like this, for example:

Atheistic Writers (Secularists) vs. Theistic Writers (Biblical):

Crane, Stephen	vs.	Melville, Herman
Hemingway, Ernest	vs.	Faulkner, William
Sartre, Jean-Paul	vs.	Percy, Walker
Camus, Albert	vs.	O’Connor, Flannery

Then he would pose questions of us related to atheistic writers:

• What worldview is espoused in Crane’s short stories?
• How do Crane’s characters wind up?
• What emotions characterize Sartre’s protagonists?
• Why is the anti-hero part and parcel of the atheistic writers?

We students would discuss the novels and short stories and poems of said writers, and he’d ask still more questions, and force us to justify our responses based upon the many books we’d had to read. Then he would pose questions of the contrasting writers:

• What worldview is espoused in O’Connor’s stories?
• How do self-righteous people play out in her stories?
• What emotions characterize Percy’s protagonists?
• Why is nobility possible in Melville and Faulkner but not in Sartre’s fiction?

The hinge upon which his teaching turned was the inculcation of our understanding pattern recognition and contrasts. Not this, but that.

In Proverbs 19:1 Solomon writes, “Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.”

Do you see the contrast and recognize the pattern?

Solomon contrasts two types of people–those of integrity vs. those of duplicity. One is honorable; the other is dishonorable. One person is honest; the other is dishonest. One is put together and straight. The other is a fool and is up to no good.

All these years later, Dr. Higgins, I still thank God for his putting you in my life. I have reread all of those long novels and stories more than a few times now, and they were just as you said. Thank you for teaching me. I hope I made you proud. You have since gone to your reward, and I hope to learn from you again one day. Until then, just know you made a good difference and a difference for good.