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Fundamentals of Christian Education
with them? Shall we as Christians, recommend the works of his agents
as valuable, even essential to the attainment of an education?
The Lord himself has signified that schools should be established
among us in order that true knowledge may be obtained. No teacher
in our schools should suggest the idea that, in order to have the right
discipline, it is essential to study textbooks expressing pagan and
infidel sentiments. Students who are thus educated, are not competent
to become educators in their turn; for they are filled with the subtle
sophistries of the enemy. The study of works that in any way express
infidel sentiments is like handling black coals; for a man cannot be
undefiled in mind who thinks along the line of skepticism. In going to
such sources for knowledge, are we not turning away from the snow
of Lebanon to drink from the turbid water of the valley?
Men who turn away from the knowledge of God, have placed their
minds under control of their master, Satan, and he trains them to be
his servants. The less the productions expressing infidel views are
brought before the youth, the better. Evil angels are ever on the alert
that they may exalt before the minds of the youth that which will do
them injury, and as books expressing infidel and pagan sentiments
are read, these unseen agents of evil seek to impress those who study
them with the spirit of questioning and unbelief. Those who drink
from these polluted channels do not thirst for the waters of life; for
they are satisfied with the broken cisterns of the world. They think
they have the treasures of knowledge, when they are hoarding that
which is but wood and hay and stubble, not worth gaining, not worth
keeping. Their self-esteem, their idea that a superficial knowledge of
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things constitutes education, make them boastful and self-satisfied,
when they are, as were the Pharisees, ignorant of the Scriptures and
the power of God.
O that our youth would treasure up the knowledge that is imperish-
able, that they can carry with them into the future, immortal life, the
knowledge that is represented as gold and silver and precious stones!
The class of educators and learners who deem themselves wise, know
nothing as they ought to know it. They need to learn meekness and
lowliness in the school of Christ, that they may esteem highly that
which Heaven regards as excellent. Those who receive a valuable
education, one that will be as enduring as eternity, will not be regarded
as the world’s best educated men. But the Scriptures declare that “the