Healthy Normality
47
the control of the conscience and the spiritual affections. Christ stands
at the head of humanity, and it is His purpose to lead us, in His service,
into high and holy paths of purity. By the wondrous working of His
grace, we are to be made complete in Him.—
The Ministry of Healing,
398, 399
(1905).
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Well-developed Minds and Broad Characters—God’s work-
men must labor to be many-sided men; that is, to have a breadth
of character, not to be one-idea men, stereotyped in one manner of
working, getting into a groove, and unable to see and sense that their
words and their advocacy of truth must vary with the class of people
they are among and the circumstances that they have to meet. All
should be constantly seeking for well-developed minds and to over-
come ill-balanced characters. This must be your constant study, if
you make a useful, successful laborer.—
Letter 12, 1887
(
Evangelism,
106
.)
Commonplace, Trivial Matters Dwarf the Mind—Upon the
mind of every student should be impressed the thought that education
is a failure unless the understanding has learned to grasp the truths
of divine revelation and unless the heart accepts the teachings of the
gospel of Christ. The student who, in the place of the broad principles
to the Word of God, will accept common ideas and will allow the time
and attention to be absorbed in commonplace, trivial matters, will find
his mind becoming dwarfed and enfeebled. He has lost the power
of growth. The mind must be trained to comprehend the important
truths that concern eternal life,—
The Review and Herald, November
11, 1909
.(
Fundamentals of Christian Education, 536
.)
Minds Not to Be Crowded With Useless Things—Education,
as it is conducted in the schools of today [1897], is one-sided, and
therefore a mistake. As the purchase of the Son of God, we are His
property, and everyone should have an education in the school of
Christ. Wise teachers should be chosen for our schools. Teachers
have to deal with human minds, and they are responsible to God to
impress upon those minds the necessity of knowing Christ as a personal
Saviour. But no one can truly educate God’s purchased possession
unless he himself has learned in the school of Christ how to teach.
I must tell you from the light given me by God, I know that much
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time and money are spent by students in acquiring a knowledge that is
as chaff to them; for it does not enable them to help their fellowmen