True Education
333
be attached to the words of the greatest authors, there is a conscious
inability to trace them back to the first great principle, the Source of
unerring wisdom, from which teachers derive their authority. There is
a painful uncertainty, a constant searching and reaching for assurances
that can only be found in God. The trumpet of human greatness may
be sounded, but it is with an uncertain sound; it is not reliable, and the
salvation of human souls cannot be ventured upon it.
A mass of tradition, with merely a semblance of truth, is being
brought into education, which will never fit the learner to live in this
life so that he may obtain the higher immortal life. The literature
placed in our schools, written by infidels and so-called wise men, does
not contain the education that students should have. It is not essential
that they shall be educated in these lines in order to graduate from
these schools to the school which is in heaven. The mass of tradition
taught will bear no comparison with the teachings of Him who came
to show the way to heaven. Christ taught with authority. The sermon
on the mount is a wonderful production, yet so simple that a child can
study it without being misled. The mount of beatitudes is an emblem
of the high elevation on which Christ ever stood. He spoke with an
authority which was exclusively His own. Every sentence He uttered
came from God. He was the Word and the Wisdom of God, and He
[408]
ever presented truth with the authority of God. “The words that I speak
unto you,” He said, “they are spirit and they are life.”
That which in the councils of heaven the Father and the Son deemed
essential for the salvation of man, was defined from eternity by infinite
truths which finite beings cannot fail to comprehend. Revelations have
been made for their instruction in righteousness, that the man of God
may glorify his own life and the lives of his fellow men, not only by
the possession of truth, but by communicating it. “All Scripture is
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God
may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. I charge
thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge
the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; preach the
word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will
not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching ears.”