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Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students
the soul temple. The departure from the simplicity of true godliness
on the part of students has had an influence to weaken character and
lessen mental vigor. Their advancement in the sciences has been
retarded, while if they had been like Daniel, hearers and doers of the
word of God, they would have advanced as he did in all branches of
learning upon which they entered. Being pure-minded, they would
have become strong-minded. Every intellectual faculty would have
been sharpened.
When the Bible is made the guide and counselor, it exerts an
ennobling influence upon the mind. Its study more than any other
will refine and elevate. It will enlarge the mind of the candid student,
endowing it with new impulses and fresh vigor. It will give greater
efficiency to the faculties by bringing them in contact with grand,
far-reaching truths. If the mind becomes dwarfed and inefficient, it
is because it is left to deal with commonplace subjects only. Let the
Bible be received as the food of the soul, the best and most effectual
means of purifying and strengthening the intellect.
* * * * *
Out of the heart are the issues of life; and the heart of the com-
munity, of the church, and of the nation is the household. The
well-being of society, the success of the church, the prosperity of
the nation, depend upon home influences.
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