Chapter 37—Principles of Study and Learning
The Mind and Affections Must Be Trained—God has given
reason, the mental faculties of the mind; but if left to themselves
uneducated and untrained, they leave man as is revealed in the fierce
heathen. The mind and affections require education and direction by
teachers. It must be line upon line, and precept upon precept, to guide
and train the human moral agent to work in cooperation with God.
God works in the human agent by the light of His truth. The mind
enlightened by the truth, sees truth in distinction from error.—
Letter
135, 1898
.
Highest Culture of Mind Receives God’s Fullest Approval—
The human mind is susceptible of the highest cultivation. A life
devoted to God should not be a life of ignorance. Many speak against
education because Jesus chose uneducated fishermen to preach His
gospel. They assert that He showed preference for the uneducated.
Many learned and honorable men believed His teaching. Had these
fearlessly obeyed the convictions of their consciences, they would
have followed Him. Their abilities would have been accepted and
employed in the service of Christ, had they offered them. But they
had not moral power, in face of the frowning priests and jealous rulers,
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to confess Christ, and venture their reputation in connection with the
humble Galilean....
Jesus did not despise education. The highest culture of the mind,
if sanctified through the love and fear of God, receives His fullest
approval. The humble men chosen by Christ were with Him three
years, subject to the refining influence of the Majesty of heaven. Christ
was the greatest educator the world ever knew.
God will accept the youth with their talent and their wealth of
affection if they will consecrate themselves to Him. They may reach
to the highest point of intellectual greatness; and if balanced by reli-
gious principle, they can carry forward the work which Christ came
from heaven to accomplish, and in thus doing be co-workers with the
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