Our College
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Workers are needed all over the world. The truth of God is to be
carried to foreign lands, that those in darkness may be enlightened
by it. God requires that a zeal be shown in this direction infinitely
greater than has hitherto been manifested. As a people, we are almost
paralyzed. We are not doing one-twentieth part of the good we might,
because selfishness prevails to a large extent among us. Cultivated
intellect is now needed in the cause of God, for novices cannot do the
work acceptably. God has devised our college as an instrumentality
for developing workers of whom He will not be ashamed. The height
man may reach by proper culture has not hitherto been realized. We
have among us more than an average of men of ability. If their talents
were brought into use, we should have twenty ministers where we now
have one.
Teachers should not feel that their duty is done when their pupils
have been instructed in the sciences. But they should realize that they
have the most important missionary field in the world. If the capabil-
ities of all engaged as instructors are used as God would have them,
they will be most successful missionaries. It must be remembered that
the youth are forming habits which will, in nine cases out of ten, decide
their future. The influence of the company they keep, the associations
they form, and the principles they adopt will be carried with them
through life.
It is a terrible fact, and one which should make the hearts of parents
tremble, that the colleges to which the youth of our day are sent for
the cultivation of the mind endanger their morals. As innocent youth
when placed with hardened criminals learn lessons of crime they never
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before dreamed of, so pure-minded young people, through association
with college companions of corrupt habits, lose their purity of char-
acter and become vicious and debased. Parents should awake to their
responsibilities and understand what they are doing in sending their
children from home to colleges where they can expect nothing else but
that they will become demoralized. The college at Battle Creek should
stand higher in moral tone than any other college in the land, that the
safety of the children entrusted to her keeping may not be endangered.
If teachers do their work in the fear of God, working with the spirit of
Christ for the salvation of the souls of the students, God will crown
their efforts with success. God-fearing parents will be more concerned
in regard to the characters their children bring home with them from