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Fundamentals of Christian Education
churches in the different places do their duty, God will work with their
efforts by His Spirit, and will supply faithful men to the ministry.
Our schools are to be educating schools and training schools; and
if men and women come forth from them fitted in any sense for the
missionary field, they must have impressed upon them the greatness of
the work, and that practical godliness must be brought into their daily
experience, to be fitted for any place of usefulness in our world, or in
the church, or in God’s great moral vineyard, now calling for laborers
in foreign lands.
The youth must be impressed with the idea that they are trusted.
They have a sense of honor, and they want to be respected, and it
is their right. If pupils receive the impression that they cannot go
out or come in, sit at the table, or be anywhere, even in their rooms,
except they are watched, a critical eye is upon them to criticize and
report, it will have the influence to demoralize, and pastime will have
no pleasure in it. This knowledge of a continual oversight is more
than a parental guardianship, and far worse; for wise parents can,
through tact, often discern beneath the surface and see the working
of the restless mind under the longings of youth, or under the forces
of temptations, and set their plans to work to counteract evils. But
this constant watchfulness is not natural, and produces evils that it
is seeking to avoid. The healthfulness of youth requires exercise,
cheerfulness, and a happy, pleasant atmosphere surrounding them for
the development of physical health and symmetrical, character.
God’s word must be opened to the youth, but a youth should not
be placed in the position to do this. Those who must have an eye
upon them constantly to insure their good behavior, will require to
be watched in any position where they may be. Therefore the mold
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given the character in youth by such a system of training, is wholly
deleterious. Aim for mental discipline and the formation of right moral
sentiments and habits.
Studies should generally be few and well chosen, and those who
attend our colleges are to have a different training from that of the
common schools of the day. They have been generally taught upon
Christian principles, if they have wise and God-fearing parents. The
word of God has been respected in their homes, and its teachings made
the law of the home. They have been brought up in the nurture and
admonition of the gospel, and when they come to the schools, this