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Fundamentals of Christian Education
that they cannot be in touch with them, to do them good, to let light
shine amid the moral darkness. Students need to be placed under the
most favorable circumstances to counteract very much of the education
they have received.
Entire families are in need of thorough transformation in their
habits and ideas before they can be true representatives of Jesus Christ.
And to a great extent children who are to receive an education in
our schools, will make far more advancement if separated from the
family circle where they have received an erroneous education. It
may be necessary for some families to locate where they can board
their children and save expense, but in many cases it would prove a
hindrance rather than a blessing to their children. The people of this
country have so little appreciation of the importance of industrious
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habits that the children are not educated to do real, earnest work. This
must be a part of the education given to the youth.
God gave Adam and Eve employment. Eden was the school for
our first parents, and God was their instructor. They learned how to till
the soil and to care for the things which the Lord had planted. They
did not regard labor as degrading, but as a great blessing. Industry was
a pleasure to Adam and Eve. The fall of Adam changed the order of
things; the earth was cursed: but the decree that man should earn his
bread by the sweat of his brow, was not given as a curse. Through
faith and hope, labor was to be a blessing to the descendants of Adam
and Eve. God never meant that man should have nothing to do. But
the more and deeper the curse of sin, the more the order of God is
changed. The burden of toil rests heavily upon a certain class, but the
curse of idleness is upon many who are in possession of God’s money,
and all because of the false idea that money increases the moral worth
of men. Labor is to human beings what they make it. To delve in
constant toil, seeking momentary relief in liquor-drinking and exciting
amusements, will make men little better than the brutes.
We need schools in this country to educate children and youth that
they may be masters of labor, and not slaves of labor. Ignorance and
idleness will not elevate one member of the human family. Ignorance
will not lighten the lot of the hard toiler. Let the worker see what
advantage he may gain in the humblest occupation, by using the ability
God has given him as an endowment. Thus he can become an educator,
teaching others the art of doing work intelligently. He may understand