Work and Education
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poverty of the country, and deepening the misery that is the sure result
of this kind of education.
Never can the proper education be given to the youth in this country,
or any other country, unless they are separated a wide distance from
the cities. The customs and practices in the cities unfit the minds of
the youth for the entrance of truth. The liquor-drinking, the smoking
and gambling, the horse racing, the theater going, the great importance
placed upon holidays,—are all a species of idolatry, a sacrifice upon
idol altars. If people conscientiously attend to their lawful business
upon the holidays, they are regarded as mean-spirited and unpatriotic.
The Lord cannot be served in this way. Those who multiply the days for
pleasure and amusement are really giving patronage to liquor-sellers,
and are taking from the poor the very means that should purchase food
and clothing for their children, the very means that, used economically,
would soon provide a dwelling place for their families. These evils we
can only touch upon.
It is not the correct plan to locate school buildings where the
students will have constantly before their eyes the erroneous practices
that have molded their education during their lifetime, be it longer or
shorter. These holidays, with all their train of evil, result in twentyfold
more misery than good. In a large degree the observance of these days
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is really compulsory. Even persons who have been truly converted find
it difficult to break away from these customs and practices. Should
schools be located in the cities or within a few miles from them,
it would be most difficult to counteract the influence of the former
education which students have received in regard to these holidays and
the practices connected with them, such as horse racing, betting, and
the offering of prizes. The very atmosphere of these cities is full of
poisonous malaria. The freedom of individual action is not respected;
a man’s time is not regarded as really his own; he is expected to do
as others do. Should our school be located in one of these cities, or
within a few miles of it, there would be a counterworking influence
constantly in active exercise to be met and overcome. The devotion
to amusements and the observance of so many holidays, give a large
business to the courts, to officers and judges, and increase the poverty
and squalor that need no increasing.
All this is a false education. We shall find it necessary to establish
our schools out of, and away from, the cities, and yet not so far away