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True Education, a Missionary Training
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to cultivate and to exercise every power that will render us more
efficient workers for God.
True education includes the whole being. It teaches the right
use of one’s self. It enables us to make the best use of brain, bone,
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and muscle, of body, mind, and heart. The faculties of the mind, as
the higher powers, are to rule the kingdom of the body. The natural
appetites and passions are to be brought under the control of the
conscience and the spiritual affections. Christ stands at the head of
humanity, and it is His purpose to lead us, in His service, into high
and holy paths of purity. By the wondrous working of His grace, we
are to be made complete in Him.
Jesus secured His education in the home. His mother was His
first human teacher. From her lips, and from the scrolls of the
prophets, He learned of heavenly things. He lived in a peasant’s
home and faithfully and cheerfully acted His part in bearing the
household burdens. He who had been the commander of heaven
was a willing servant, a loving, obedient son. He learned a trade
and with His own hands worked in the carpenter’s shop with Joseph.
In the garb of a common laborer He walked the streets of the little
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town, going to and returning from His humble work.
With the people of that age the value of things was estimated by
outward show. As religion had declined in power, it had increased
in pomp. The educators of the time sought to command respect
by display and ostentation. To all this the life of Jesus presented a
marked contrast. His life demonstrated the worthlessness of those
things that men regarded as life’s great essentials. The schools of
His time, with their magnifying of things small and their belittling
of things great, He did not seek. His education was gained from
Heaven- appointed sources, from useful work, from the study of the
Scriptures, from nature, and from the experiences of life—God’s
lesson books, full of instruction to all who bring to them the willing
hand, the seeing eye, and the understanding heart.
“The Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom:
and the grace of God was upon Him.”
Luke 2:40
.
Thus prepared, He went forth to His mission, in every moment
of His contact with men exerting upon them an influence to bless, a
power to transform, such as the world had never witnessed.