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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob
thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” You have yielded
to inclination rather than duty and made your studies paramount to the
expressed command of the Most High.
Our camp meetings are arranged and held at great expense. God’s
ministers who advocate unpopular truth, labor excessively at these
large gatherings to bear the message of mercy from a crucified Re-
deemer to poor fallen sinners. To neglect or treat these messages with
indifference is to slight the mercy of God and His voice of warning
and entreaty. Your absence from these meetings has been very detri-
mental to your spiritual welfare. You have missed the strength that you
might have gained there by listening to the preached word of God, and
mingling with the believers of the truth. Your mind has been lulled
into a fatal apathy in regard to the well-being of your soul. You have
exalted your secular education above the knowledge to be gained in
the school of Christ. Experience in a true religious life is necessary
in order to form a character acceptable to God and to secure the pure
virtues that will bear the light of heaven.
What anxiety you have manifested to discipline your mind by
study, to become properly conversant with your textbooks, that you
might pass a creditable examination before instructors, friends, and
interested spectators! How ambitious you have been to prove that you
have been a diligent student and have faithfully employed your time in
storing your mind with useful knowledge! You have been as sincerely
anxious to progress in your studies as you have been to secure the
commendation of your friends and teachers. You have justly earned
the honors you have received for scholarship. But how has your mind
been disciplined in religion? Have you not unthinkingly placed the
kingdom of God and His righteousness below your advancement in
the sciences? True, some of the human faculties were given more
especially for the purpose of engaging in temporal matters, but the
higher powers of the mind should be wholly consecrated to God.
These control the man, these form his life and character. And while
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you should not neglect your secular studies, you have no right to give
them all your attention, but should devote yourself especially to the
moral and spiritual requirements of your heavenly Father.
How little anxiety you have manifested to improve the religious
advantages within your reach to gain a more thorough knowledge of