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Failure to Study God’s Word
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Knowledge Through Obedience
Disobedience has closed the door to a vast amount of knowledge
that might have been gained from the word of God. Had men been
obedient, they would have understood the plan of God’s government.
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The heavenly world would have opened its chambers of grace and
glory for exploration. In form, in speech, in song, human beings
would have been altogether superior to what they are now. The mys-
tery of redemption, the incarnation of Christ, His atoning sacrifice,
would not be vague in our minds. They would be not only better
understood, but altogether more highly appreciated.
A failure to study God’s word is the great cause of mental weak-
ness and inefficiency. In turning from this word to feed on the
writings of uninspired men, the mind becomes dwarfed and cheap-
ened. It is not brought in contact with deep, broad principles of
eternal truth. The understanding adapts itself to the comprehension
of the things with which it is familiar, and in this devotion to finite
things it is weakened, its power is contracted, and after a time it
becomes unable to expand.
All this is false education. The work of every teacher should be
to fasten the minds of the youth upon the grand truths of the word of
Inspiration. This is the education essential for this life and the life
to come.
And let it not be thought that this will prevent the study of the
sciences or cause a lower standard in education. The knowledge
of God is as high as heaven and as broad as the universe. There is
nothing so ennobling and invigorating as a study of the great themes
which concern our eternal life. Let the youth seek to grasp these
God-given truths, and their minds will expand and grow strong in
the effort. It will bring every student who is a doer of the word into
a broader field of thought and secure for him a wealth of knowledge
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that is imperishable.
The ignorance that now curses the world in regard to the binding
claims of the law of God is the result of neglecting the study of
the Scriptures. It is Satan’s studied plan so to absorb and engage
the mind that God’s great Guidebook shall not be regarded as the
Book of books and that the sinner shall not be led from the path of
transgression into the path of obedience.