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receive his reward. He will stand in the great day of the Lord.—MS
26, 1886. (HC 234.)
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Counsel and Training Not to Preclude Individual Relationship
With God—But while education, training, and the counsel of those of
experience are all essential, the workers should be taught that they are
not to rely wholly upon any man’s judgment. As God’s free agents, all
should ask wisdom of Him. When the learner depends wholly upon
another’s thoughts and goes no further than to accept his plans, he sees
only through that man’s eyes and is, so far, only an echo of another.
God deals with men as responsible beings. He will work by His Spirit
through the mind He has put in man, if man will only give Him a
chance to work and will recognize His dealings. He designs that each
shall use his mind and conscience for himself. He does not intend that
one man shall become the shadow of another, uttering only another’s
sentiments.—
Testimonies for the Church 5:724, 725
(1889).
God Sanctions the Highest Culture of the Mind—The highest
culture of the mind, if sanctified through the love and the 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.—
The Review and Herald, June 21, 1877
. (
Fundamentals of Christian
Education, 47, 48
.)
Mind the Source of All Actions, Good or Bad—He has prepared
this living habitation for the mind; it is “curiously wrought,” a temple
which the Lord Himself has fitted up for the indwelling of His Holy
Spirit. The mind controls the whole man. All our actions, good or bad,
have their source in the mind. It is the mind that worships God and
allies us to heavenly beings. Yet many spend all their lives without
becoming intelligent in regard to the ... [jewel case] that contains this
treasure.—
Special Testimonies On Education, 33 (May 11, 1896)
.
(
Fundamentals of Christian Education, 426
.)
Heaven-directed or Perverted—Intellect, ennobled, purified,
heaven-directed, is the universal power to build up the kingdom of
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God. Intellect perverted has exactly the opposite influence; it is a cor-
rupting of the human power given in trust to be multiplied in earnest
labor for good. It deceives and destroys.
God has given sufficient endowments to make men capable and
wise to carry forward, and strongly and graciously to represent, the