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become ennobled and purified. This is the work that causes glory to
flow back to God. We must become intelligent upon these points. Our
souls must be purified from all selfishness; for God desires to use His
people as representatives of the heavenly kingdom.
Our schools must be conducted under the supervision of God.
There is a work to be done for young men and women that is not yet
accomplished. There are much larger numbers of young people who
need to have the advantages of our training schools. They need the
manual training course, that will teach them how to lead an active,
energetic life. All kinds of labor must be connected with our schools.
Under wise, judicious, God-fearing directors the students are to be
taught. Every branch of the work is to be conducted in the most
thorough and systematic ways that long experience and wisdom can
enable us to plan and execute.
Let the teachers wake up to the importance of this subject and
teach agriculture and other industries that it is essential for the students
to understand. Seek in every department of labor to reach the very best
results. Let the science of the word of God be brought into the work,
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that the students may understand correct principles and may reach the
highest possible standard. Exert your God-given abilities, and bring
all your energies into the development of the Lord’s farm. Study and
labor, that the best results and the greatest returns may come from
the seed sowing, that there may be an abundant supply of food, both
temporal and spiritual, for the increased number of students that shall
be gathered in to be trained as Christian workers.
* * * * *
We have seen the giant trees felled and uprooted; we have seen
the plowshare pressed into the earth, turning deep furrows for the
planting of trees and the sowing of seed. The students are learning
what plowing means and that the hoe and the shovel, the rake and
the harrow, are all implements of honorable and profitable industry.
Mistakes will often be made, but every error lies close beside the truth.
Wisdom will be learned by failures, and the energy that will make a
beginning gives hope of success in the end. Hesitation will keep things
back, precipitancy will alike retard; but all will serve as lessons if the
human agent will have it so.