18
Christ’s Object Lessons
All this is false education. The work of every teacher should be
[42]
to fasten the mind of the youth upon the grand truths of the word of
Inspiration. This is the education essential for this life and for the life
to come.
And let it not be thought that this will prevent the study of the
sciences, or cause a lower standard in education. The knowledge of
God is as high as heaven and as broad as the universe. There is nothing
so ennobling and invigorating as a study of the great themes which
concern our eternal life. Let the youth seek to grasp these God-given
truths, and their minds will expand and grow strong in the effort. It
will bring every student who is a doer of the word into a broader
field of thought, and secure for him a wealth of knowledge that is
imperishable.
The education to be secured by searching the Scriptures is an
experimental knowledge of the plan of salvation. Such an education
[43]
will restore the image of God in the soul. It will strengthen and
fortify the mind against temptation, and fit the learner to become a
co-worker with Christ in His mission of mercy to the world. It will
make him a member of the heavenly family; and prepare him to share
the inheritance of the saints in light.
But the teacher of sacred truth can impart only that which he him-
self knows by experience. “The sower sowed his seed.” Christ taught
the truth because He was the truth. His own thought, His character, His
life-experience, were embodied in His teaching. So with His servants:
those who would teach the word are to make it their own by a personal
experience. They must know what it is to have Christ made unto them
wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. In pre-
senting the word of God to others, they are not to make it a suppose-so
or a may-be. They should declare with the apostle Peter, “We have not
followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of
His majesty.”
2 Peter 1:16
. Every minister of Christ and every teacher
should be able to say with the beloved John, “The life was manifested,
and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.”
1 John
1:2
.