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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
what they said. The cause of God is not so much in need of preachers as
of earnest, persevering workers for the Master. God alone can measure
the powers of the human mind. It was not His design that man should
be content to remain in the lowlands of ignorance, but that he should
secure all the advantages of an enlightened, cultivated intellect. Every
man and every woman should feel that obligations are resting upon
them to reach the very height of intellectual greatness. While none
should be puffed up because of the knowledge they have acquired, it
is the privilege of all to enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that with
every advance step they are rendered more capable of honoring and
glorifying God. They may draw from an inexhaustible fountain, the
Source of all wisdom and knowledge.
Having entered the school of Christ, the student is prepared to
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engage in the pursuit of knowledge without becoming dizzy from the
height to which he is climbing. As he goes on from truth to truth,
obtaining clearer and brighter views of the wonderful laws of science
and of nature, he becomes enraptured with the amazing exhibitions
of God’s love to man. He sees with intelligent eyes the perfection,
knowledge, and wisdom of God stretching beyond into infinity. As his
mind enlarges and expands, pure streams of light pour into his soul.
The more he drinks from the fountain of knowledge, the purer and
happier his contemplation of God’s infinity, and the greater his longing
for wisdom sufficient to comprehend the deep things of God.
Mental culture is what we as a people need, and what we must have
in order to meet the demands of the time. Poverty, humble origin, and
unfavorable surroundings need not prevent the cultivation of the mind.
The mental faculties must be kept under the control of the will and
the mind not allowed to wander or become distracted with a variety of
subjects at a time, being thorough in none. Difficulties will be met in
all studies; but never cease through discouragement. Search, study, and
pray; face every difficulty manfully and vigorously; call the power of
will and the grace of patience to your aid, and then dig more earnestly
till the gem of truth lies before you, plain and beautiful, all the more
precious because of the difficulties involved in finding it. Do not, then,
continually dwell upon this one point, concentrating all the energies
of the mind upon it, constantly urging it upon the attention of others,
but take another subject, and carefully examine that. Thus mystery
after mystery will be unfolded to your comprehension. Two valuable