280
Life Sketches of Ellen G. White
“It is not the correct plan to locate school buildings where the
students will have constantly before their eyes the erroneous practices
that have moulded their education during their lifetime, be it longer or
shorter.... Should schools be located in the cities or within a few miles
from them, it would be most difficult to counteract the influence of
the former education which students have received in regard to these
holidays and the practices connected with them, such as horse-racing,
betting, and the offering of prizes. The very atmosphere of these cities
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is full of poisonous malaria....
“We shall find it necessary to establish our schools out of, and away
from, the cities, and yet not so far away that they cannot be in touch
with them, to do them good, to let light shine amid the moral darkness.
Students need to be placed under the most favorable circumstances to
counteract very much of the education they have received....
“We need schools in this country to educate children and youth that
they may be masters of labor, and not slaves of labor. Ignorance and
idleness will not elevate one member of the human family. Ignorance
will not lighten the lot of the hard toiler. Let the worker see what
advantage he may gain in the humblest occupation, by using the ability
God has given him as an endowment. Thus he can become an educator,
teaching others the art of doing work intelligently. He may understand
what it means to love God with the heart, the soul, the mind, and the
strength. The physical powers are to be brought into service for love
to God. The Lord wants the physical strength, and you can reveal your
love for Him by the right use of your physical powers, doing the very
work which needs to be done. There is no respect of persons with
God....
“There is in the world a great deal of hard, taxing work to be done;
and he who labors without exercising the God-given powers of mind
and heart and soul, he who employs the physical strength alone, makes
the work a wearisome tax and burden. There are men with mind, heart,
and soul who regard work as a drudgery, and settle down to it with
self-complacent ignorance, delving without thought, without taxing
the mental capabilities in order to do the work better.
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“There is science in the humblest kind of work; and if all would
thus regard it, they would see nobility in labor. Heart and soul are to be
put into work of any kind; then there is cheerfulness and efficiency. In
agricultural or mechanical occupations, men may give evidence to God