Books and Authors in Our Schools
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the hands of children and youth in our schools as lesson books—books
from which they are to be educated. They are kept before the youth,
taking up their precious time in studying those things which they can
never use. Many books have been introduced into the schools which
should never have been placed there. These books do not in any sense
voice the words of John, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world.” The whole line of study in our schools should be
to prepare a people for the future, immortal life.
Jesus Christ is the knowledge of the Father, and Christ is our great
teacher sent from God. Christ has declared in the sixth chapter of John
that He is that bread sent down from heaven. “Verily, verily, I say unto
you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life. I am that bread
of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may
eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from
heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the
bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world.” The disciples did not comprehend His words. Says Christ, “It
is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that
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I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
It is of immense importance, in the light of the lessons of Christ,
that every human being should study the Scriptures, that he may be
convinced in whom his hopes of eternal life are centered. The Bible
should ever have been made the great, grand book of study, which has
come down to us from heaven, and is the word of life. Should that
book which tells us what we must do in order to be saved, be set aside
in a corner, and human productions be exalted as the great wisdom
in education? The very knowledge children and youth need to obtain
for usefulness in this life, and that they may carry with them in the
future life, is found in the word of God. But this is not encouraged
and presented before them as the most essential knowledge, and as
that which will give the most correct information of the true God, and
Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. There are gods many and doctrines
many. There are maxims and commandments placed before our youth
as the commandments of God. It is impossible for them to understand
what is truth, what is the sacred, and what is the common, only as they
understand the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments.