To Teachers and Students
183
to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath
the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” “O
my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way
of thy paths.”
I am alarmed for you at Battle Creek. Teachers are very exact
in visiting with denunciation and punishments those students who
violate the slight rules, not from any vicious purpose, but heedlessly;
or circumstances occur which make it no sin for them to deviate from
rules which have been made, and which should not be held with in-
flexibility if transgressed, and yet the person in fault is treated as if he
had grievously sinned. Now I want you to consider, teachers, where
you stand, and deal with yourselves and pronounce judgment against
yourselves; for you have not only infringed the rules, but you have
been so sharp, so severe upon students; and more than this, there is a
controversy between you and God. You have not made straight paths
for your feet lest the lame be turned out of the way. You have departed
from safe paths. I say “teachers”; I do not specify names. I leave that
to your own consciences to appropriate. The Lord God of Israel has
wrought in your midst again and again. You have had great evidences
of the stately steppings of the Most High. But a period of great light,
of the wonderful revealings of the Spirit and power of God, is a period
[223]
of great peril, lest the light shall not be improved. Will you consider
Jeremiah 17:5-10
;
18:12-15
? For you are most surely coming under
the rebuke of God. Light has been shining in clear and steady rays
upon you. What has this light done for you? Christ, the Chief Shep-
herd, is looking upon you with displeasure, and is inquiring, “Where
is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?” “Wherefore I
take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God,
which He hath purchased with His own blood.” “Feed the flock of God
which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint,
but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.”
Those teachers who have not a progressive religious experience,
who are not learning daily lessons in the school of Christ, that they
may be ensamples to the flock, but who accept their wages as the main
thing, are not fit for the solemn, awfully solemn, position they occupy.