Holy Spirit in our Schools
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Without the divine working, man could do no good thing. God
calls every man to repentance, yet man cannot even repent unless the
Holy Spirit works upon his heart. But the Lord wants no man to wait
until he thinks that he has repented before he takes steps toward Jesus.
The Saviour is continually drawing men to repentance; they need only
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to submit to be drawn, and their hearts will be melted in penitence.
Man is allotted a part in this great struggle for everlasting life;
he must respond to the working of the Holy Spirit. It will require a
struggle to break through the powers of darkness, and the Spirit works
in him to accomplish this. But man is no passive being, to be saved in
indolence. He is called upon to strain every muscle and exercise every
faculty in the struggle for immortality; yet it is God that supplies the
efficiency. No human being can be saved in indolence. The Lord bids
us: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will
seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” “Wide is the gate, and broad
is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth
unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Luke 13:24
;
Matthew 7:13, 14
.
Working Against the Holy Spirit
I entreat the students in our schools to be sober-minded. The
frivolity of the young is not pleasing to God. Their sports and games
open the door to a flood of temptation. In your intellectual faculties
you are in possession of God’s heavenly endowment, and you should
not allow your thoughts to be cheap and low. A character formed
in accordance with the precepts of God’s word will reveal steadfast
principles, pure, noble aspirations. When the Holy Spirit co-operates
with the powers of the human mind, high, holy impulses are the sure
result....
God sees that which the blind eyes of educators cannot discern,
that immorality of every kind and degree is striving for the mastery,
working against the manifestations of the power of the Holy Spirit.
The commonest of conversation, and cheap, perverted ideas, are woven
into the texture of the character.
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Parties for frivolous, worldly pleasure, gatherings for eating, drink-
ing, and singing, are inspired by a spirit that is from beneath. They
are an oblation to Satan. The exhibitions in the bicycle craze are an