importance.
Too little attention has been given to the education of young men
for the ministry. This was the primary object to be secured in the
establishment of the college. In no case should this be ignored or regarded
as a matter of secondary importance. For several years, however, but
few have gone forth from that institution prepared to teach the truth to
others. Some who came at great expense, with the ministry in view, have
been encouraged by the teachers to take a thorough course of study which
would occupy a number of years, and, in order to obtain means to carry
out these plans, have entered the canvassing field and given up all thought
of preaching. This is entirely wrong. We have not many years to work,
and teachers and principal should be imbued with the Spirit of God and
work in harmony with His revealed will instead of carrying out their own
plans. We are losing much every year because we do not heed what God
has said upon these points.
Our college is designed of God to meet the advancing wants for this
time of peril and demoralization. The study of books only cannot give
students the discipline they need. A broader foundation must be laid. The
college was not brought into existence to bear the stamp of any one man’s
mind. Teachers and principal should work together as brethren. They
should consult together, and also counsel with ministers and responsible
men, and, above all else, seek wisdom from above, that all their decisions
in reference to the school may be such as will be approved of God.
To give students a knowledge of books merely is not the purpose of
the institution. Such education can be obtained at any college in the land.
I was shown that it is Satan’s purpose
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to prevent the attainment of the very object for which the college was
established. Hindered by his devices, its managers reason after the manner
of the world and copy its plans and imitate its customs. But in thus doing,
they will not meet the mind of the Spirit of God.
A more comprehensive education is needed, an education which will
demand from teachers and principal such thought and effort as mere
instruction in the sciences does not require. The character must receive
proper discipline for its fullest and noblest development. The students
should receive at college such training as will enable them to maintain a
respectable, honest, virtuous standing in society, against the demoralizing
influences which are corrupting the youth.
It would be well could there be connected with our college, land for
cultivation and also workshops under the charge of men competent to
instruct the students in the various departments of physical labor. Much is
lost by a neglect to unite physical with mental taxation. The leisure hours
of the students are often occupied with frivolous pleasures, which weaken
physical, mental, and moral powers. Under the debasing power of sensual
indulgence, or the untimely excitement of courtship and marriage, many
students fail to reach that height of mental development which they might
otherwise have attained.
The young should every day be impressed with a sense of their
obligation to God. His law is continually violated, even by the children of
religious parents. Some of these very youth frequent haunts of dissipation,
and the powers of the mind and body suffer in consequence. This class
lead others to follow their pernicious ways. Thus, while principal and
teachers are giving instruction in the sciences, Satan, with hellish cunning,
is exerting every energy to gain control of the minds of the pupils and lead
them down to ruin.
Generally speaking, the youth have but little moral
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strength. This is the result of neglected education in childhood. A
knowledge of the character of God and our obligations to Him should
not be regarded as a matter of minor consequence. The religion of the
Bible is the only safeguard for the young. Morality and religion should
receive special attention in our educational institutions.
The Bible as a Textbook
No other study will so ennoble every thought, feeling, and aspiration
as the study of the Scriptures. This Sacred Word is the will of God
revealed to men. Here we may learn what God expects of the beings
formed in His image. Here we learn how to improve the present life and
how to secure the future life. No other book can satisfy the questionings of
the mind and the craving of the heart. By obtaining a knowledge of God’s
word, and giving heed thereto, men may rise from the lowest depths of
ignorance and degradation to become the sons of God, the associates of
sinless angels.
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A clear conception of what God is, and what He requires us to be, will
give us humble views of self. He who studies aright the Sacred Word will