Chapter 3—Pure Education
Education comprises more than a knowledge of books. Proper
education includes not only mental discipline, but that training which
will secure sound morals and correct deportment. In this age of the
world, children should have strict watch-care. They should be advised
and restrained. Eli was cursed of God, because he did not promptly
and decidedly restrain his wicked sons.
Every son and daughter should be called to account if absent from
home at night. Parents should know what company their children
are in, and at whose house they spend their evenings. Some children
deceive their parents with falsehoods to avoid exposure of their wrong
course. There are those who seek the society of corrupt companions,
and secretly visit saloons and other forbidden places of resort in the
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city. There are students who visit the billiard-rooms, and who engage
in card-playing, flattering themselves that there is no danger. Since
their object is merely amusement, they feel perfectly safe. It is not the
lower grade alone who do this. Some who have been carefully reared,
and educated to look upon such things with abhorrence, are venturing
upon the forbidden ground.
The young should be controlled by firm principle, that they may
rightly improve the powers which God has given them. But youth
follow impulse so much and so blindly, without reference to principle,
that they are constantly in danger. Since they cannot always have the
guidance and protection of parents and guardians, they need to be
trained to self-reliance and self-control. They must be taught to think
and act from conscientious principle.
Those who are engaged in study should have relaxation. The
mind must not be constantly confined to close thought, for the delicate
mental machinery becomes worn. The body, as well as the mind, must
have exercise. There is great need of temperance in amusements, as
in every other pursuit. The character of these amusements should be
carefully and thoroughly considered. Every youth should ask himself,
What influence will these amusements have on physical, mental, and
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