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Education
relation to God. Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused
our Creator. All heaven suffered in Christ’s agony; but that suffering
did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is
a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception,
sin has brought to the heart of God. Every departure from the right,
every deed of cruelty, every failure of humanity to reach His ideal,
brings grief to Him. When there came upon Israel the calamities that
were the sure result of separation from God,—subjugation by their
enemies, cruelty, and death,—it is said that “His soul was grieved for
the misery of Israel.” “In all their affliction He was afflicted: ... and He
bare them, and carried them all the days of old.”
Judges 10:16
;
Isaiah
63:9
.
His Spirit “maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered.” As the “whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together” (
Romans 8:26, 22
), the heart of the infinite Father is pained
in sympathy. Our world is a vast lazar house, a scene of misery that
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we dare not allow even our thoughts to dwell upon. Did we realize it
as it is, the burden would be too terrible. Yet God feels it all. In order
to destroy sin and its results He gave His best Beloved, and He has put
it in our power, through co-operation with Him, to bring this scene of
misery to an end. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all
the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”
Matthew 24:14
.
“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature”
(
Mark 16:15
), is Christ’s command to His followers. Not that all are
called to be ministers or missionaries in the ordinary sense of the term;
but all may be workers with Him in giving the “glad tidings” to their
fellow men. To all, great or small, learned or ignorant, old or young,
the command is given.
In view of this command, can we educate our sons and daughters
for a life of respectable conventionality, a life professedly Christian,
but lacking His self-sacrifice, a life on which the verdict of Him who
is truth must be, “I know you not”?
Thousands are doing this. They think to secure for their children
the benefits of the gospel while they deny its spirit. But this cannot
be. Those who reject the privilege of fellowship with Christ in service,
reject the only training that imparts a fitness for participation with Him
in His glory. They reject the training that in this life gives strength and