Page 323 - Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students (1913)

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Knowledge that Endures
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A thorough education, which will fit young men and women for
service, is to be given in our schools. In order to secure such an
education the wisdom that comes from God must be made first and
most important. All who engage in the acquisition of knowledge
should strive to reach the highest round of the ladder. Let students
advance as fast and as far as they can; let the field of their study be
as broad as their powers can compass; but let them make God their
wisdom, clinging to Him who is infinite in knowledge, who can
reveal secrets hidden for ages, and who can solve the most difficult
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problems for minds that believe in Him.
We commend to every student the Book of books as the grandest
study for human intelligence, the book that contains the knowledge
essential for this life and for the life to come. But I do not encourage
a letting down of the educational standard in the study of the sciences.
The light that has been given on this subject is clear and should in
no case be disregarded.
Putting the Bible First
In the instruction given in our schools, the natural and the spir-
itual are to be combined. The laws obeyed by the earth reveal the
fact that it is under the masterly power of an infinite God. The same
principles run through the spiritual and the natural world. Divorce
God from the acquisition of knowledge, and you have a lame, one-
sided education, dead to all the saving qualities that give true power
to man. The Author of nature is the Author of the Bible. Creation
and Christianity have one God. God is revealed in nature, and God
is revealed in His word. In clear rays the light shines from the sacred
page, showing us the living God, as represented in the laws of His
government, in the creation of the world, in the heavens that He
has garnished. His power is to be recognized as the only means of
redeeming the world from the degrading superstitions that are so
dishonoring to God and man.
The student who in his school life becomes familiar with the
truths of God’s word and feels their transforming power upon his
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heart will represent the character of Christ to the world in a well-
ordered life and a godly conversation. God will do great things for
those who will open the heart to His word and let it take possession of