Fragments
165
men whom he could educate for his great work. In the ordinary walks
of life there is many a man patiently treading the round of daily toil,
all unconscious that he possesses powers, which, if called into action,
would raise him to an equality with the world’s most honored men. The
touch of a skillful hand is needed to arouse and develop those dormant
faculties. It was such men whom Jesus connected with himself; and
he gave them the advantages of three year’s training under his own
care. No course of study in the schools of the rabbis or the halls of
[204]
philosophy could have equaled this in value.
Any young man is wanting in his duty to himself if he fails to meet
the purposes of God by improving and enlarging his faculties. The
mind is the best possession we have; but it must be trained by study,
by reflection, by learning in the school of Christ, the best and truest
educator the world has ever known.
Chasing through books superficially, clogs the mind, and causes
you to become a mental dyspeptic. You cannot digest and use one half
that you read. If you should read with one object in view, to improve
the mind, and should read only as much as the mind can comprehend
and digest, and would patiently persevere in such a course of reading,
good results would be obtained.... The perusal of works upon our faith,
the reading of arguments from the pen of others, while an excellent and
important practice, is not that which will give the mind the greatest
strength. The Bible is the best book in the world for intellectual
culture.—
Gospel Workers, 384-386.
Nature as an Educator.—The great honor conferred upon David
did not serve to elate him. Notwithstanding the high position which
he was to occupy, he quietly continued his employment, content to
await the development of the Lord’s plans in his own time and way. As
humble and modest as before his anointing, the shepherd boy returned
to the hills, and watched and guarded his flocks as tenderly as ever.
But with new inspiration he composed his melodies, and played upon
his harp. Before him spread a landscape of rich and varied beauty. The
vines, with their clustering fruit, brightened in the sunshine. The forest
[205]
trees, with their green foliage, swayed in the breeze. He beheld the sun
flooding the heavens with light, coming forth as a bridegroom out of
his chamber, and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race. There were
the bold summits of the hills reaching toward the sky; in the far-away
distance rose the barren cliffs of the mountain wall of Moab; above