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the working of the Holy Spirit upon their hearts, and live lives wholly
sanctified to the service of God, enduring the necessary discipline
imposed by the Lord without complaining or fainting by the way. If
they will not faint at the rebuke of the Lord, and become hard-hearted
and stubborn, the Lord will teach both young and old, hour by hour,
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day by day. He longs to reveal his salvation to the children of men;
and if his chosen people will remove the obstructions, he will pour
forth the waters of salvation in abundant streams through the human
channels.
Many who are seeking efficiency for the exalted work of God by
perfecting their education in the schools of men, will find that they have
failed of learning the more important lessons which the Lord would
teach them. By neglecting to submit themselves to the impressions of
the Holy Spirit, by not living in obedience to all God’s requirements,
their spiritual efficiency has become weakened; they have lost what
ability they had to do successful work for the Lord. By absenting
themselves from the school of Christ, they have forgotten the sound
of the voice of the Teacher, and he cannot direct their course. Men
may acquire all the knowledge possible to be imparted by the human
teacher; but there is still greater wisdom required of them by God. Like
Moses, they must learn meekness, lowliness of heart, and distrust of
self. Our Saviour himself, bearing the test for humanity, acknowledged
that of himself he could do nothing. We must also learn that there is no
strength in humanity alone. Man becomes efficient only by becoming
a partaker of the divine nature.
From the first opening of a book, the candidate for an education
should recognize God as the one who imparts true wisdom. He should
seek his counsel at every step along the way. No arrangement should be
made to which God cannot be made a party, no union formed of which
he is not the approver. The Author of wisdom should be recognized
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as the Guide from first to last. In this manner the knowledge obtained
from books will be bound off by a living faith in the infinite God. The
student should not permit himself to be bound down to any particular
course of studies involving long periods of time, but should be guided
in such matters by the Spirit of God.
A course of study at Ann Arbor may be thought essential for some;
but evil influences are there ever at work upon susceptible minds, so
that the farther they advance in their studies, the less they deem it