Chapter 145—Exalted Conversation
The best educated in the sciences are not always the most effective
instruments for God’s use. There are many who find themselves
laid aside, and those who have had fewer advantages of obtaining
knowledge of books taking their places, because the latter have a
knowledge of practical things that is essential to the uses of everyday
life; while those who consider themselves learned often cease to be
learners, are self-sufficient, and above being taught, even by Jesus,
who was the greatest teacher the world ever knew.
Those who have grown and expanded, whose reasoning faculties
have been improved by deep searching of the Scriptures, that they may
know the will of God, will come into positions of usefulness; for the
word of God has had an entrance into their life and character. It must do
its peculiar work, even to the piercing asunder of the joints and marrow,
and discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart. God’s word is to
become the nourishment by which the Christian must grow strong, in
spirit and in intellect, that he may battle for truth and righteousness.
The Reason for Low Standards
Why is it that our youth, and even those of maturer years, are so
easily led into temptation and sin?—It is because the word of God is
not studied and meditated upon as it should be. If it were appreciated,
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there would be an inward rectitude, a strength of spirit, that would
resist the temptations of Satan to do evil. A firm, decided will-power is
not brought into the life and character, because the sacred instruction
of God is not made the study and the subject of meditation. There
is not the effort put forth that there should be, to associate the mind
with pure, holy thoughts, and to divert it from what is impure and
untrue. There is not the choosing of the better part, the sitting at the
feet of Jesus, as did Mary, to learn the most sacred lessons of the divine
Teacher, that they may be laid up in the heart, and practiced in the daily
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