Work and Education
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darkness. They will not be prepared to reflect light until the darkness
of their own erroneous education is dispelled. In the future our school
will not be the same as it has been in the past. Among the students
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there have been reliable, experienced men who have taken advantage
of the opportunity to gain more knowledge in order to do intelligent
work in the cause of God. These have been a help in the school, for
they have been as a balance wheel; but in the future the school will
consist mostly of those who need to be transformed in character, and
who will need to have much patient labor bestowed upon them; they
have to unlearn, and learn again. It will take time to develop the true
missionary spirit, and the farther they are removed from the cities
and the temptations that are flooding them, the more favorable will it
be for them to obtain the true knowledge and develop well-balanced
characters.
Farmers need far more intelligence in their work. In most cases it
is their own fault if they do not see the land yielding its harvest. They
should be constantly learning how to secure a variety of treasures from
the earth. The people should learn as far as possible to depend upon
the products that they can obtain from the soil. In every phase of this
kind of labor they can be educating the mind to work for the saving
of souls for whom Christ has died. “Ye are God’s husbandry; ye are
God’s building.” Let the teachers in our schools take their students
with them into the gardens and fields, and teach them how to work the
soil in the very best manner. It would be well if ministers who labor in
word or doctrine could enter the fields and spend some portion of the
day in physical exercise with the students. They could do as Christ did
in giving lessons from nature to illustrate Bible truth. Both teachers
and students would have much more healthful experience in spiritual
things, and much stronger minds and purer hearts to interpret eternal
mysteries, than they can have while studying books so constantly, and
working the brain without taxing the muscles. God has given men
and women reasoning powers, and He would have men employ their
reason in regard to the use of their physical machinery. The question
may be asked, How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plow, and
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driveth oxen?—by seeking her as silver, and searching for her as for
hid treasures. “For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth
teach him.” “This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is
wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.”