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Fundamentals of Christian Education
Those interested in your behalf have flattering hopes for you, that
you will become useful men, who will be filled with moral worth
and unswerving integrity. For the youth who have gone from New
Zealand to America, much has been ventured; and I will say to these
students, Set your aim high, and then step by step ascend to reach the
standard, even though it may be by painful effort, through self-denial
and self-sacrifice. Christ will be to you a present help in every time
of need, if you call upon Him, that you may be like Daniel, whom no
temptation could corrupt. Do not disappoint your parents and your
friends; but above all, do not disappoint Him who so loved you that
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He gave His own life in order to cancel your sins and become your
personal Saviour. Jesus said, “Without Me ye can do nothing.” Bear
this in mind. If you have made mistakes, you may gain a victory
by discerning these mistakes, and by regarding them as beacons of
warning, to enable you to shun their repetition. I need not tell you that
this will be turning your defeat into victory, disappointing the enemy,
and honoring your Redeemer, whose property you are.
We feel sorry indeed that any weakness of character should have
marred the record of the past, because we know it is an evidence that
you did not watch unto prayer. We feel sorry that mistakes have been
made, because they have placed upon the teachers burdens which they
ought not to have borne. Teachers have their own natural weaknesses
of character to contend with, and they are capable of moving unwisely
under the stress of temptation. They may think they are doing right
when they are enforcing strict discipline, and yet they may be making
mistakes in the case with which they are dealing. How much better
would it be for both pupils and teachers, if students would place them-
selves upon their honor, and act from pure and noble motives, so that
their very course of action would recommend them to those who were
their teachers and educators. If in every possible way and under every
circumstance, they would treat those who are in positions of trust, and
bearing responsibility, as they themselves would like to be treated,
what peace and success would attend the school.
Why should students link themselves with the great apostate, to
become his agents in tempting others, and through others causing the
fall of many? Every human being has his own individual trials, peculiar
to himself, and no one is free from temptation. If teachers are disciples
of Christ, and are engaging in the work in a way which is approved of