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False and the True in Education
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praised or glorified. I see no reason why the opinions of worldly-wise
people and so-called great thinkers should be trusted and exalted.
How can those who are destitute of divine enlightenment have cor-
rect ideas of God’s plans and ways? They either deny Him altogether
and ignore His existence, or they circumscribe His power by their
own finite conceptions.
Let us choose to be taught by Him who created the heavens and
the earth, by Him who set the stars in their order in the firmament
and appointed the sun and the moon to do their work.
It is right for the youth to feel that they must reach the highest
development of their mental powers. We would not restrict the
education to which God has set no limit. But our attainments avail
nothing if not put to use for the honor of God and the good of
humanity.
It is not well to crowd the mind with studies that require intense
application but that are not brought into use in practical life. Such
education will be a loss to students. These studies lessen their desire
and inclination for studies that would fit them for usefulness and
enable them to fulfill their responsibilities. A practical training is
worth far more than any amount of mere theorizing. It is not enough
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even to have knowledge. We must have ability to use the knowledge
aright.
The time, means, and study that so many expend for a compara-
tively useless education should be devoted to gaining an education
that would make them practical men and women, fitted to bear life’s
responsibilities. Such an education would be of the highest value.
What we need is knowledge that will strengthen mind and soul,
that will make us better men and women. Heart education is of far
more importance than mere book learning. It is well, even essential,
to have a knowledge of the world in which we live, but if we leave
eternity out of our reckoning we shall make a failure from which we
can never recover.
Students may devote all their powers to acquiring knowledge,
but unless they have a knowledge of God, unless they obey the laws
that govern their own being, they will destroy themselves. By wrong
habits, they lose the power of self-appreciation. They lose self-
control. They cannot reason correctly about matters that concern
them most deeply. They are reckless and irrational in their treatment