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Chapter 34—True Education a Missionary Training
True education is missionary training. Every son and daughter
of God is called to be a missionary. We are called to serve God and
one another. To fit us for this service should be the object of our
education.
This object should ever be kept in view by Christian parents
and teachers. We know not in what line our children may serve.
They may spend their lives within the circle of the home. They may
engage in life’s common vocations or go as teachers of the gospel to
heathen lands. But all are alike called to be missionaries for God,
ministers of mercy to the world.
The children and youth, with their fresh talent, energy, courage,
and quick susceptibilities, are loved of God, and He desires to bring
them into harmony with divine agencies. They are to obtain an
education that will help them stand by the side of Christ in unselfish
service.
Of all His children to the close of time, no less than of the first
disciples, Christ said, “‘As You sent Me into the world, I also have
sent them into the world’” (
John 17:18
), to be representatives of
God, to reveal His Spirit, to manifest His character, to do His work.
Our children stand, as it were, at the parting of the ways. On ev-
ery hand the world’s enticements to self-seeking and self-indulgence
call them away from the path that leads to the Holy City. Whether
their lives shall be a blessing or a curse depends upon the choices
they make. Overflowing with energy, eager to test their untried ca-
pabilities, they must find some outlet for their superabounding life.
Active they will be for good or for evil.
God’s Word does not repress activity, but guides it aright. God
does not tell the youth to be less aspiring. The elements of charac-
ter that make a person truly successful and honored by peers—the
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irrepressible desire for some greater good, the indomitable will,
the strenuous application, the untiring perseverance—are not to be
discouraged. By the grace of God they are to be directed to the at-
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