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Fundamentals of Christian Education
process of giving their hearts and minds to Him they become His
disciples.
Children should be taught to have a part in domestic duties. They
should be instructed how to help father and mother in the little things
that they can do. Their minds should be trained to think, their mem-
ories taxed to remember their appointed work; and in the training to
habits of usefulness in the home, they are being educated in doing
practical duties appropriate to their age. If children have proper home
training, they will not be found upon the streets receiving the haphaz-
ard education that so many receive. Parents who love their children in
a sensible way will not permit them to grow up with lazy habits, and
ignorant of how to do home duties. Ignorance is not acceptable to God,
and is unfavorable for the doing of His work. To be ignorant is not to
be considered a mark of humility, or something for which men should
be praised. But God works for people in spite of their ignorance. Those
who have had no opportunity for acquiring knowledge, or who have
had opportunity and have failed to improve it, and become converted
to God, can be useful in the service of the Lord through the operation
of His Holy Spirit. But those who have education, and who consecrate
themselves to the service of God, can do service in a greater variety
of ways, and can accomplish a much more extensive work in bringing
souls to the knowledge of the truth than can those who are uneducated.
They are on vantage ground, because of the discipline of mind which
they have had. We would not depreciate education in the least, but
would counsel that it be carried forward with a full sense of the short-
ness of time, and the great work that is to be accomplished before the
coming of Christ. We would not have the students receive the idea
that they can spend many years in acquiring an education. Let them
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use the education that they can acquire in a reasonable length of time,
in carrying forward the work of God. Our Saviour is in the sanctuary
pleading in our behalf. He is our interceding High Priest, making
an atoning sacrifice for us, pleading in our behalf the efficacy of His
blood. Parents should seek to represent this Saviour to their children
to establish in their minds the plan of salvation, how that because of
transgression of the law of God, Christ became our sin-bearer. The
fact that the only-begotten Son of God gave His life because of man’s
transgression, to satisfy justice and to vindicate the honor of God’s
law, should be constantly kept before the minds of children and youth.