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Fundamentals of Christian Education
business, merely for the sake of a livelihood, but they will enter the
work allowing no worldly consideration to control them, realizing that
the cause of God is sacred.
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The world is to be warned, and no soul should rest satisfied with a
superficial knowledge of truth. You know not to what responsibility
you may be called. You know not where you may be called upon to
give your witness of truth. Many will have to stand in the legislative
courts; some will have to stand before kings and before the learned
of the earth, to answer for their faith. Those who have only a super-
ficial understanding of truth will not be able clearly to expound the
Scriptures, and give definite reasons for their faith. They will become
confused, and will not be workmen that need not to be ashamed. Let no
one imagine that he has no need to study, because he is not to preach
in the sacred desk. You know not what God may require of you. It is a
lamentable fact that the advancement of the cause is hindered by the
dearth of educated laborers who have fitted themselves for positions of
trust. The Lord will accept of thousands to labor in His great harvest
field, but many have failed to fit themselves for the work. But every
one who has espoused the cause of Christ, who has offered himself as
a soldier in the Lord’s army, should place himself where he may have
faithful drill. Religion has meant altogether too little to the professed
followers of Christ; for it is not the will of God that any one should
remain ignorant when wisdom and knowledge have been placed within
reach.
How few have qualified themselves in the science of saving souls!
How few understand the work that should be done in building up the
church, in communicating light to those who sit in darkness! Yet
God has given to every man his work. We are to work out our own
salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in us,
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. In the work of salvation
there is a co-operation of human and divine agencies. There is much
said concerning the inefficiency of human effort, and yet the Lord
does nothing for the salvation of the soul without the co-operation of
man. The word of God is clear and distinct on this point, and yet when
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so much depends upon our co-operation with the heavenly agencies,
men conduct themselves as though they could afford to set aside the
claims of God, and let the things of eternal importance wait their
convenience. They act as though they could manage spiritual things