Chapter 37—To the Students at Battle Creek College
I have a very deep interest in the educational institution at Battle
Creek. For years my husband and myself were greatly exercised in
reference to establishing a school in which our youth and children
should have advantages of a superior character to those found in the
common public schools, or in the colleges of the world. The Lord
plainly specified what should be the character of the influence and
instruction the school should maintain, in order that the important
work might be accomplished for which the school was designed. As
the knowledge and fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, it was
necessary that the study of the Bible should have a prominent place
among the various branches of scientific education. The standard of
the school was to be of high order, and the principles of vital godliness
were ever to be kept before the students as a most essential feature
of education. “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” The youth
were to be instructed in regard to the times in which we live, and to be
made to understand that which will come to pass before the closing up
of the world’s history.
One reason why it was necessary to establish institutions of our
own was the fact that parents were not able to counteract the influence
of the teaching their children were receiving in the public schools,
and the error there taught was leading the youth into false paths. No
stronger influence could be brought to bear upon the minds of the
youth and children than that of those who were educating them in
principles of science. For this reason it was evident that schools must
be established in which our children should be instructed in the way of
truth. In our schools it was specified that the youth were to be taught
in the principles of Bible temperance, and every influence was to be
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brought to bear upon them that would tend to help them to shun the
follies of this degenerate age, which were fast making the world as a
second Sodom.
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