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Fundamentals of Christian Education
with the present practices, with the low standard which even Christians
are content to reach, the conversation is cheap and profitless. It is
“of the earth, earthy,” and savors not of the truth, or of heaven, and
does not come up, even to the standard of the more cultured class of
worldlings. When Christ and heaven are the themes of contempla-
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tion, the conversation will give evidence of the fact. The speech will
be seasoned with grace, and the speaker will show that he has been
obtaining an education in the school of the divine Teacher. Says the
psalmist, “I have chosen the way of truth: Thy judgments have I laid
before me.” He treasured the word of God. It found an entrance to his
understanding, not to be disregarded, but to be practiced in his life.
Unless the sacred word is appreciated, it will not be obeyed as
a sure and safe and precious textbook. Every besetting sin must be
put away. Warfare must be waged against it until it is overcome. The
Lord will work with your efforts. As finite, sinful man works out his
own salvation with fear and trembling, it is God who works in him,
to will and to do of His own good pleasure. But God will not work
without the co-operation of man. He must exercise his powers to the
very utmost; he must place himself as an apt, willing student in the
school of Christ; and as he accepts the grace that is freely offered to
him, the presence of Christ in the thought and in the heart will give
him decision of purpose to lay aside every weight of sin, that the heart
may be filled with all the fullness of God, and of His love.
The students of our schools should consider that through the con-
templation of sin, the sure result has followed, and their God-given
faculties have been weakened and unfitted for moral advancement,
because they have been misapplied. There are many who admit this
as the truth. They have cherished pride and self-conceit, until these
evil traits of character have become a ruling power, controlling their
desires and inclinations. While they have had a form of godliness, and
have performed many acts of self-righteousness, there has been no real
heart change. They have not brought their life practices into definite
and close measurement with the great standard of righteousness, the
law of God. Should they critically compare their life with this standard,
they could not but feel that they were deficient, sinsick, and in need of
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a physician. They can only understand the depth to which they have
fallen, by beholding the infinite sacrifice that has been made by Jesus
Christ, to lift them out of their degradation.