Our College
23
wrong. We have not many years to work, and teachers and principal
should be imbued with the Spirit of God and work in harmony with
His revealed will instead of carrying out their own plans. We are losing
much every year because we do not heed what God has said upon these
points.
Our college is designed of God to meet the advancing wants for
this time of peril and demoralization. The study of books only cannot
give students the discipline they need. A broader foundation must be
laid. The college was not brought into existence to bear the stamp of
any one man’s mind. Teachers and principal should work together as
brethren. They should consult together, and also counsel with ministers
and responsible men, and, above all else, seek wisdom from above,
that all their decisions in reference to the school may be such as will
be approved of God.
To give students a knowledge of books merely is not the purpose
of the institution. Such education can be obtained at any college in the
land. I was shown that it is Satan’s purpose to prevent the attainment
[23]
of the very object for which the college was established. Hindered
by his devices, its managers reason after the manner of the world and
copy its plans and imitate its customs. But in thus doing, they will not
meet the mind of the Spirit of God.
A more comprehensive education is needed, an education which
will demand from teachers and principal such thought and effort as
mere instruction in the sciences does not require. The character must
receive proper discipline for its fullest and noblest development. The
students should receive at college such training as will enable them to
maintain a respectable, honest, virtuous standing in society, against
the demoralizing influences which are corrupting the youth.
It would be well could there be connected with our college, land for
cultivation and also workshops under the charge of men competent to
instruct the students in the various departments of physical labor. Much
is lost by a neglect to unite physical with mental taxation. The leisure
hours of the students are often occupied with frivolous pleasures, which
weaken physical, mental, and moral powers. Under the debasing power
of sensual indulgence, or the untimely excitement of courtship and
marriage, many students fail to reach that height of mental development
which they might otherwise have attained.