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Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students
In order for you to become men and women that can be depended
upon, there must be a growth of the powers, the exercise of every
faculty, even in little things; then greater power is acquired to bear
larger responsibilities. Individual responsibility and accountability
are essential. In putting into practice that which you are learning
during your student days, do not shrink from bearing your share of
responsibility because there are risks to take, because something
must be ventured. Do not leave others to be brains for you. You
must train your powers to be strong and vigorous; then the entrusted
talents will grow, as a steady, uniform, unyielding energy is exercised
in bearing individual responsibility. God would have you add, day
by day, little by little, to your stock of ideas, acting as if the moments
were jewels, to be carefully gathered and discreetly cherished. You
will thus acquire breadth of thought and strength of intellect.
God will not require of man a more strict account of anything
than of the way in which he has occupied his time. Have its hours
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been wasted and abused? God has granted to us the precious boon
of life not to be devoted to selfish gratification. Our work is too
solemn, our time to serve God and our fellow men too short, to be
spent in seeking for fame. Oh, if men would stop in their aspirations
where God has set the bounds, what different service would the Lord
receive!
There are many who are in such haste to climb to distinction that
they skip some of the rounds of the ladder and in so doing lose expe-
rience which they must have in order to become intelligent workers.
In their zeal the knowledge of many things looks unimportant to
them. They skim over the surface and do not go deep into the mine
of truth, thus by a slow and painstaking process gaining an experi-
ence that will enable them to be of special help to others. We want
our medical students to be men and women who are most thorough
and who feel it their duty to improve every talent lent them, that they
may finally double their entrusted capital.
The light that God has given in medical missionary lines will
not cause His people to be regarded as inferior in scientific medical
knowledge, but will fit them to stand upon the highest eminence.
God would have them stand as a wise and understanding people
because of His presence with them. In the strength of Him who is