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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
would cultivate the spirit of Christian courtesy, they would far more
readily find access to the hearts of the people; many more would
be led to examine and receive the truth. When every teacher shall
forget self and feel a deep interest in the success and prosperity of his
pupils, realizing that they are God’s property and that he must render
an account for his influence upon their minds and character, then we
shall have a school in which angels will love to linger. Jesus will look
approvingly upon the work of the teachers and will send His grace into
the hearts of the students.
Our college at Battle Creek is a place where the younger members
of the Lord’s family are to be trained according to God’s plan of growth
and development. They should be impressed with the idea that they
are created in the image of their Maker and that Christ is the pattern
which they are to follow. Our brethren permit their minds to take too
narrow and too low a range. They do not keep the divine plan ever in
view, but are fixing their eyes upon worldly models. Look up, where
Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, and then labor that your pupils
may be conformed to that perfect character.
If you lower the standard in order to secure popularity and an
increase of numbers, and then make this increase a cause of rejoicing,
you show great blindness. If numbers were evidence of success, Satan
might claim the pre-eminence; for in this world his followers are
largely in the majority. It is the degree of moral power pervading the
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college that is a test of its prosperity. It is the virtue, intelligence, and
piety of the people composing our churches, not their numbers, that
should be a source of joy and thankfulness.
Without the influence of divine grace, education will prove no real
advantage; the learner becomes proud, vain, and bigoted. But that
education which is received under the ennobling, refining influence
of the Great Teacher will elevate man in the scale of moral value
with God. It will enable him to subdue pride and passion and to walk
humbly before God, as dependent upon Him for every capability, every
opportunity, and every privilege.
I speak to the workers in our college: You must not only profess
to be Christians, but you must exemplify the character of Christ. Let
the wisdom from above pervade all your instruction. In a world of
moral darkness and corruption, let it be seen that the spirit by which
you are moved to action is from above, not from beneath. While you