Proper Education of the Young
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same education and training is to go on. The world’s maxims, the
world’s customs and practices, are not the teaching they need; but they
are to see that the teachers in the schools care for their souls, that they
will take a decided interest in their spiritual welfare, and religion is to
be the great principle inculcated; for the love and fear of God are the
beginning of wisdom. Youth removed from the domestic atmosphere,
from the home rule and guardianship of parents, if left to themselves
to pick and choose their companions, meet with a crisis in their history
not generally favorable to piety or principle.
Then, wherever a school is established, there should be warm
hearts to take a lively interest in our youth. Fathers and mothers are
needed with warm sympathy, and with kindly admonitions, and all the
pleasantness possible should be brought into the religious exercises. If
there are those who prolong religious exercises to weariness, they are
leaving impressions upon the mind of the youth, that would associate
religion with all that is dry, unsocial, and uninteresting. And these
youth make their own standard not the highest, but weak principles
and a low standard spoil those who if properly taught, would be not
only qualified to be a blessing to the cause, but to the church and to
the world. Ardent, active piety in the teacher is essential. Morning
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and evening service in the chapel, and the Sabbath meetings, may
be, without constant care and unless vitalized by the Spirit of God,
the most formal, dry, and bitter mixture, and, to the youth, the most
burdensome and the least pleasant and attractive of all the school
exercises. The social meetings should be managed with plans and
devices to make them not only seasons of pleasantness, but positively
attractive.
Let those who are competent to teach youth, study themselves
in the school of Christ, and learn lessons to communicate to youth.
Sincere, earnest, heartfelt devotion is needed. All narrowness should
be avoided. Let teachers so far unbend from their dignity as to be one
with the children in their exercises and amusements, without leaving
the impression that you are watching them, and without going round
and round in stately dignity, as though you were like a uniformed
soldier on guard over them. Your very presence gives a mold to their
course of action. Your unity with them causes your heart to throb
with new affection. The youth need sympathy, affection, and love,
else they will become discouraged. A spirit of “I care for nobody and