Chapter 53—Student Opportunities
Students, co-operate with your teachers. As you do this, you
give them hope and courage. You are helping them, and at the
same time you are helping yourselves to advance. Remember that
it rests largely with you whether your teachers stand on vantage
ground, their work an acknowledged success. In the highest sense
you are to be learners, seeing God behind the teacher, and the teacher
co-operating with Him.
Your opportunities for work are fast passing. You have no time
to spend in self-pleasing. Only as you strive earnestly to succeed
will you gain true happiness. Precious are the opportunities offered
you during the time you spend in school. Make your student life
as perfect as possible. You will pass over the way but once. And it
rests with you yourself whether your work shall be a success or a
failure. As you succeed in gaining a knowledge of the Bible, you
are storing up treasures to impart.
Helping Others
If you have a fellow student who is backward, explain to him
the lesson that he does not understand. This will aid your own
understanding. Use simple words; state your ideas in language that
is clear and easy to be understood.
By helping your fellow student, you help your teachers. And
often one whose mind is apparently stolid will catch ideas more
quickly from a fellow student than from a teacher. This is the cooperation
that Christ commends. The great Teacher stands beside [184]
you, helping you to help the one who is backward.
In your school life you may have opportunity to tell the poor
and ignorant of the wonderful truths of God’s word. Improve every
such opportunity. The Lord will bless every moment spent in this
way—Testimonies for the Church 7:275, 276.
167
168 Messages to Young People
Thorough Mastery of Fundamentals
Never rest satisfied with a low standard. In attending school,
be sure that you have in view a noble, holy object. Go because
you desire to fit yourselves for service in some part of the Lord’s
vineyard. Do all that you can to attain this object. You can do more
for yourselves than any one can do for you. And if you do all that
you can for yourselves, what a burden you will lift from the principal
and the teachers!
Before attempting to study the higher branches of literary knowledge,
be sure that you thoroughly understand the simple rules of
English grammar, and have learned to read and write and spell correctly....
Do not spend time in learning that which will be of little use to
you in your after life. Instead of reaching out for a knowledge of the
classics, learn first to speak the English language correctly. Learn
how to keep accounts. Gain a knowledge of those lines of study that
will help you to be useful wherever you are.—Counsels to Parents,
[185] Teachers, and Students, 218-219.
Chapter 54—Training for Service
Considering the light that God has given, it is marvelous that
there are not scores of young men and women inquiring, “Lord,
what wilt Thou have me to do?” It is a perilous mistake to imagine
that unless a young man has decided to give himself to the ministry,
no special effort is required to fit him for the work of God. Whatever
may be your calling, it is essential that you improve your abilities
by diligent study.
Young men and women should be urged to appreciate the heavensent
blessings of opportunities to become well-disciplined and intelligent.
They should take advantage of the schools that have been
established for the purpose of imparting the best of knowledge. It
is sinful to be indolent and negligent in regard to obtaining an education.
Time is short, and therefore, because the Lord is soon to
come to close the scenes of earth’s history, there is all the greater
necessity of improving present opportunities and privileges.
Consecrate Ability to God
Young men and young women should place themselves in our
schools, in the channel where knowledge and discipline may be
obtained. They should consecrate their ability to God, become
diligent Bible students, that they may be fortified against erroneous
doctrine, and not be led away by the error of the wicked; for it is by
diligent searching of the Bible that we obtain a knowledge of what
is truth. By the practice of the truth we already know, increased light [186]
will shine upon us from the holy Scriptures....
Those who are truly consecrated to God will not enter the work
prompted by the same motive which leads men to engage in worldly
business, merely for the sake of a livelihood, but they will enter the
work allowing no worldly consideration to control them, realizing
that the cause of God is sacred.
169
170 Messages to Young People
Preparation for Future Contingencies
The world is to be warned, and no soul should rest satisfied with a
superficial knowledge of truth. You know not to what responsibility
you may be called. You know not where you may be called upon to
give your witness of truth. Many will have to stand in the legislative
courts; some will have to stand before kings and before the learned
of the earth, to answer for their faith.
Those who have only a superficial understanding of truth will not
be able clearly to expound the Scriptures, and give definite reasons
for their faith. They will become confused, and will not be workmen
that need not to be ashamed. Let no one imagine that he has no need
to study because he is not to preach in the sacred desk. You know
not what God may require of you.
It is a lamentable fact that the advancement of the cause is hindered
by the dearth of educated laborers who have fitted themselves
for positions of trust. The Lord will accept of thousands to labor
in His great harvest field, but many have failed to fit themselves
[187] for the work. But every one who has espoused the cause of Christ,
who has offered himself as a soldier in the Lord’s army, should
place himself where he may have faithful drill. Religion has meant
altogether too little to the professed followers of Christ; for it is not
the will of God that any one should remain ignorant when wisdom
and knowledge have been placed within reach.—Fundamentals of
Christian Education, 216, 217.
Balanced by Right Principles
It is not true that brilliant young men always make the greatest
success. How often men of talent and education have been placed
in positions of trust, and have proved failures. Their glitter had the
appearance of gold, but when it was tried it proved to be but tinsel
and dross. They made a failure of their work through unfaithfulness.
They were not industrious and persevering, and did not go to the
bottom of things. They were not willing to begin at the bottom of
the ladder, and with patient toil ascend round after round till they
reached the top. They walked in the sparks (their bright flashes of
thought) of their own kindling. They did not depend on the wisdom
Training for Service 171
which God alone can give. Their failure was not because they did not
have a chance, but because they were not sober-minded. They did
not feel that their educational advantages were of value to them, and
so did not advance as they might have advanced in the knowledge
of religion and science. Their mind and character were not balanced
by high principles of right.—Fundamentals of Christian Education,
193.