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Youth to Be Burden Bearers
433
a successful minister or a successful worker in any branch of God’s
cause. Nothing less than constant cultivation will develop the value
of the gifts that God has bestowed for wise improvement.
A great injury is often done our young men by permitting them
to begin to preach when they have not sufficient knowledge of the
Scriptures to present our faith in an intelligent manner. Some who
enter the field are novices in the Scriptures. In other things also they
are incompetent and inefficient. They cannot read the Scriptures
without hesitating, mispronouncing words, and jumbling them to-
gether in such a manner that the word of God is abused. Those who
cannot read correctly should learn to do so, and should become apt
to teach, before they attempt to stand before the public.
The teachers in our schools are obliged to apply themselves
closely to study, that they may be prepared to instruct others. These
teachers are not accepted until they have passed a critical examina-
tion, and their capabilities to teach have been tested by competent
judges. No less caution should be used in the examination of minis-
ters; those who are about to enter upon the sacred work of teaching
Bible truth to the world should be carefully examined by faithful,
experienced men.
The teaching in our schools is not to be the same as in other
colleges and seminaries. It is not to be of an inferior order; the
knowledge essential to prepare a people to stand in the great day of
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God is to be made the all-important theme. The students are to be
fitted to serve God, not only in this life, but in the future life. The
Lord requires that our schools shall fit students for the kingdom to
which they are bound. Thus they will be prepared to blend in the
holy, happy harmony of the redeemed.
Many teachers are in danger of making their training mechanical.
There is danger that a ceremonial service will take the place of
genuine heart work. Thus religion will become little more than a
form. The students in our schools, the members of our churches,
need something deeper than this. An intellectual religion will not
satisfy the soul. Intellectual training must not be neglected, but it is
not sufficient. Students must be taught that they are in this world
to do service for God. They must be taught to place the will on the
side of God’s will.