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Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students
room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon their hearts, and live
lives wholly consecrated to God, enduring the necessary discipline
imposed by the Lord without complaining or fainting by the way. If
they will not faint at the rebuke of the Lord, and become hardhearted
and stubborn, the Lord will teach both old and young, hour by hour,
day by day. He longs to reveal His salvation to the children of men;
and if His chosen people will remove the obstructions, He will pour
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forth the waters of salvation in abundant streams through human
channels.
Many who are seeking efficiency for the exalted work of God by
perfecting their education in the schools of men will find that they
have failed of learning the more important lessons. By neglecting to
submit themselves to the impressions of the Holy Spirit, by not living
in obedience to all God’s requirements, their spiritual efficiency
has become weakened; they have lost what ability they had to do
successful work for the Lord. Absenting themselves from the school
of Christ, they have forgotten the sound of the Teacher’s voice, and
He cannot direct their course.
Men may acquire all the knowledge possible to be imparted by
the human teacher, but God requires of them still greater wisdom.
Like Moses, they must learn meekness, lowliness of heart, and
distrust of self. Our Saviour Himself, when bearing the test for
humanity, acknowledged that of Himself He could do nothing. We
also must learn that there is no strength in humanity alone. Man
becomes efficient only by becoming partaker of the divine nature.
God’s Guidance to Be Sought
From the first opening of a book the student should recognize
God as the One who imparts true wisdom. He should seek divine
counsel at every step. No arrangement should be made to which God
cannot be a party, no union formed of which He cannot approve.
From first to last the Author of wisdom should be recognized as the
guide. Thus the knowledge obtained from books will be bound off
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by living faith in the infinite God. The student should not permit
himself to be bound down to any particular course of study involving
long periods of time, but should be guided in such matters by the
Spirit of God....