10
Education
dimmed. He had become subject to death. Yet the race was not left
without hope. By infinite love and mercy the plan of salvation had
been devised, and a life of probation was granted. To restore in man
the image of his Maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which
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he was created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul,
that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized—this was to
be the work of redemption. This is the object of education, the great
object of life.
Love, the basis of creation and of redemption, is the basis of true
education. This is made plain in the law that God has given as the
guide of life. The first and great commandment is, “Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy strength, and with all thy mind.”
Luke 10:27
. To love Him, the
infinite, the omniscient One, with the whole strength, and mind, and
heart, means the highest development of every power. It means that in
the whole being—the body, the mind, as well as the soul—the image
of God is to be restored.
Like the first is the second commandment—“Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself.”
Matthew 22:39
. The law of love calls for the
devotion of body, mind, and soul to the service of God and our fellow
men. And this service, while making us a blessing to others, brings
the greatest blessing to ourselves. Unselfishness underlies all true
development. Through unselfish service we receive the highest culture
of every faculty. More and more fully do we become partakers of the
divine nature. We are fitted for heaven, for we receive heaven into our
hearts.
Since God is the source of all true knowledge, it is, as we have
seen, the first object of education to direct our minds to His own reve-
lation of Himself. Adam and Eve received knowledge through direct
communion with God; and they learned of Him through His works.
All created things, in their original perfection, were an expression of
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the thought of God. To Adam and Eve nature was teeming with divine
wisdom. But by transgression man was cut off from learning of God
through direct communion and, to a great degree, through His works.
The earth, marred and defiled by sin, reflects but dimly the Creator’s
glory. It is true that His object lessons are not obliterated. Upon every
page of the great volume of His created works may still be traced His
handwriting. Nature still speaks of her Creator. Yet these revelations