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Fundamentals of Christian Education
In teaching them the laws of God, he taught them that the Lord is our
judge, our lawgiver and king, and that parents and children were to be
ruled by Him; that on the part of parents there was to be no oppression,
and on the part of children no unfilial disobedience.
The Lord commanded Moses to go and speak unto Pharaoh, bid-
ding him to allow Israel to leave Egypt. For four hundred years they
had been in Egypt, and had been in slavery to the Egyptians. They
had been corrupted by idolatry, and the time came when God called
them forth from Egypt, in order that they might obey His laws and
keep His Sabbath, which He had instituted in Eden. He spoke the
ten commandments to them in awful grandeur from Mount Sinai, that
they might understand the sacred and enduring character of the law,
and build up the foundation of many generations, by teaching their
children the binding claims of God’s holy precepts.
This is the work that we are called upon to do. From the pulpits of
the popular churches it is proclaimed that the first day of the week is
the Sabbath of the Lord; but God has given us light, showing us that
the fourth precept of the decalogue is as verily binding as are the other
nine moral precepts. It is our work to make plain to our children that
the first day of the week is not the true Sabbath, and that its observance
after light has come to us as to what is the true Sabbath, is idolatry,
and in plain contradiction to the law of God. In order to give them
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instruction in regard to the claims of the law of Jehovah, it is necessary
that we separate our children from worldly associations and influences,
and keep before them the Scriptures of truth, by educating them line
upon line, and precept upon precept, that they may not prove disloyal
to God.
The Protestants have accepted the spurious Sabbath, the child
of the papacy, and have exalted it above God’s holy, sanctified day;
and our institutions of learning have been established for the express
purpose of counteracting the influence of those who do not follow the
word of God. These are sufficient reasons to show the necessity of
having educational institutions of our own; for we must teach truth
rather than fiction and falsehood. The school is to supplement the
home training, and both at home and at school, simplicity of dress,
diet, and amusement must be maintained. An atmosphere must be
created that will not be deleterious to the moral nature. Line upon line,
precept upon precept, our children and households must be educated