Possibilities in Sabbath-School Work
27
sympathies. If all work in love and manifest Christian courtesy, they
will be winners of souls, and will bring precious sheaves to the Master.
One thing is certain, there is too little of the spirit of love among
Seventh-day Adventists, both in church and Sabbath-school work.
The workers and learners aim for too low a standard. All need to
be enlarged, to have higher and holier aspirations, to inhale a purer
atmosphere. Young men and women are to come forth from our
Sabbath-schools and colleges to become missionaries for God. They
need the very best of instruction and religious training. They need that
virtue that comes from God, added to knowledge, which will qualify
them for trying and responsible positions. The intellectual and spiritual
growth should be as marked as the development of the physical powers.
The young should feel the necessity of being strong and competent
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intellectually as well as spiritually. Many fail to acquire this power,
not because they are lacking in ability, but because they fail to apply
themselves with determined and diligent effort. They should make the
very most of their opportunities, and become care-takers, in order to
be able to bear the burdens and share the responsibilities of those who
are worn and laden. The most important of all missionary work is to
train workers to go into the field to preach the gospel to every creature.
Let the Sabbath-school teacher be an example in faith, in charity,
in doctrine, and deportment. Let him dress with simplicity. Let him
show the beauty of the natural and true, in contrast with the false and
artificial. Let him teach his scholars to love God, giving them line
upon line, and precept upon precept, little by little adding new features
to the truth, till it is delineated before the minds in its attractiveness
and beauty. Let him pray and work until he sees his charges bound
to the truth, and in possession of the love of God, which passeth
knowledge.—
Sabbath-School Worker, January 1, 1889, par. 11
.
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