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Education
for display, luxury, and extravagance, the overreaching, fraud, robbery,
and ruin,—what are the teachings there to be met?
Spiritualism asserts that men are unfallen demigods; that “each
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mind will judge itself;” that “true knowledge places men above all
law;” that “all sins committed are innocent;” for “whatever is, is right,”
and “God doth not condemn.” The basest of human beings it represents
as in heaven, and highly exalted there. Thus it declares to all men, “It
matters not what you do; live as you please, heaven is your home.”
Multitudes are thus led to believe that desire is the highest law, that
license is liberty, and that man is accountable only to himself.
With such teaching given at the very outset of life, when impulse is
strongest, and the demand for self-restraint and purity is most urgent,
where are the safeguards of virtue? what is to prevent the world from
becoming a second Sodom?
At the same time anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law, not
only divine, but human. The centralizing of wealth and power; the
vast combinations for the enriching of the few at the expense of the
many; the combinations of the poorer classes for the defense of their
interests and claims; the spirit of unrest, of riot and bloodshed; the
world-wide dissemination of the same teachings that led to the French
Revolution—all are tending to involve the whole world in a struggle
similar to that which convulsed France.
Such are the influences to be met by the youth of today. To stand
amidst such upheavals they are now to lay the foundations of character.
In every generation and in every land the true foundation and
pattern for character building have been the same. The divine law,
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart; ... and thy
neighbor as thyself” (
Luke 10:27
), the great principle made manifest
in the character and life of our Saviour, is the only secure foundation
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and the only sure guide.
“The stability of thy times and the strength of thy happiness shall
be wisdom and knowledge” (
Isaiah 33:6
, Leeser’s translation)—that
wisdom and knowledge which God’s word alone can impart.
It is as true now as when the words were spoken to Israel of
obedience to His commandments: “This is your wisdom and your
understanding in the sight of the nations.”
Deuteronomy 4:6
.
Here is the only safeguard for individual integrity, for the purity
of the home, the well-being of society, or the stability of the nation.