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Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students
Why is it that our youth, and even those of more mature years,
are so easily led into temptation and sin? It is because the Bible is
not studied and meditated upon as it should be. If it were made the
daily study, there would be an inward rectitude, a strength of spirit,
that would resist the temptations of the enemy. A firm, decided effort
to turn from evil is not seen in the life, because the instruction given
by God is disregarded. There is not put forth the effort that there
should be to fill the mind with pure, holy thoughts and to rid it of
all that is impure and untrue. There is not the choosing of the better
part, the sitting at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary, to learn lessons
from the divine Teacher.
When God’s word is made the man of our counsel, when we
search the Scriptures for light, heavenly angels come near to impress
the mind and to enlighten the understanding so that it can be truly
said, “The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understand-
ing unto the simple.”
Psalm 119:130
. It is no marvel that there is
not more heavenly-mindedness seen among the youth who profess
Christianity, when so little attention is given to the word of God.
The divine counsels are not heeded; the divine admonitions are not
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obeyed. Grace and heavenly wisdom are not sought, that every taint
of corruption may be cleansed from the life.
Into Forbidden Paths
If the minds of the youth were directed aright, their conversation
would be upon exalted themes. When the mind is pure and the
thoughts ennobled by the truth of God, the words will be of the
same character, “like apples of gold in baskets of silver.”
Proverbs
25:11
, R.V. But with the present understanding and the present
practices, with the low standard that Christians are content to reach,
the conversation is cheap and profitless. It is of the earth, earthy,
and does not reach even the standard of the more cultured class of
worldlings. When Christ and heaven are the theme of contemplation,
the conversation will give evidence of the fact. The speech will be
seasoned with grace, and the speaker will show that he has been
obtaining an education in the school of the divine Teacher.
We are to regard the Bible as God’s disclosure to us of eternal
things—the things of most consequence for us to know. By the