now conducted [1872], is unfitting youth for practical life. The human mind will have action. If it
is not active in the right direction, it will be active in the wrong. In order to preserve the balance of
the mind, labor and study should be united in the schools.—Testimonies for the Church 3:152, 153
(1872).
Means of Improvement Within Reach of All.—Young men are wanted who are men of
understanding, who appreciate the intellectual faculties that God has given them and cultivate them
with the utmost care. Exercise enlarges these faculties, and if heart-culture is not neglected, the
character will be well-balanced. The means of improvement are within the reach of all. Then let
none disappoint the Master, when He comes seeking for fruit, by presenting nothing but leaves. A
resolute purpose, sanctified by the grace of Christ, will do wonders.—MS 122, 1899.
Body, Mind, Heart, Under God’s Control.—He who truly loves and fears God, striving with
a singleness of purpose to do His will, will place his body, his mind, his heart, his soul, his strength,
under service to God. Thus it was with Enoch. He walked with God.... Those who are determined
to make the will of God their own must serve and please God in everything. Then the character
will be harmonious and well-balanced, consistent, cheerful, and true.—Lt 128, 1897. (In Heavenly
Places, 190.)
Faculties of Mind to Rule the Body.—True education includes the whole being. It teaches the
right use of one’s self. It enables us to make the best use of brain, bone, and muscle, of body, mind,
and heart. The faculties of the mind, as the higher powers, are to rule the kingdom of the body. The
natural appetites and passions are to be brought under the control of the conscience and the spiritual
affections. Christ stands at the head of humanity, and it is His purpose to lead us, in His service, into
high and holy paths of purity. By the wondrous working of His grace, we are to be made complete
in Him.—The Ministry of Healing, 398, 399 (1905).
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Well-developed Minds and Broad Characters.—God’s workmen must labor to be many-sided
men; that is, to have a breadth of character, not to be one-idea men, stereotyped in one manner of
working, getting into a groove, and unable to see and sense that their words and their advocacy
of truth must vary with the class of people they are among and the circumstances that they have
to meet. All should be constantly seeking for well-developed minds and to overcome ill-balanced
characters. This must be your constant study, if you make a useful, successful laborer.—Lt 12,
1887. (Evangelism, 106.)
Commonplace, Trivial Matters Dwarf the Mind.—Upon the mind of every student should be
impressed the thought that education is a failure unless the understanding has learned to grasp the
truths of divine revelation and unless the heart accepts the teachings of the gospel of Christ. The
student who, in the place of the broad principles to the Word of God, will accept common ideas and
will allow the time and attention to be absorbed in commonplace, trivial matters, will find his mind
becoming dwarfed and enfeebled. He has lost the power of growth. The mind must be trained to
comprehend the important truths that concern eternal life,—The Review and Herald, November 11,
1909.(Fundamentals of Christian Education, 536.)
Minds Not to Be Crowded With Useless Things.—Education, as it is conducted in the schools
of today [1897], is one-sided, and therefore a mistake. As the purchase of the Son of God, we are
His property, and everyone should have an education in the school of Christ. Wise teachers should
be chosen for our schools. Teachers have to deal with human minds, and they are responsible to
God to impress upon those minds the necessity of knowing Christ as a personal Saviour. But no one
can truly educate God’s purchased possession unless he himself has learned in the school of Christ
how to teach.
I must tell you from the light given me by God, I know
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that much time and money are spent by students in acquiring a knowledge that is as chaff to them;
for it does not enable them to help their fellowmen to form characters that will fit them to unite with
saints and angels in the higher school. In the place of crowding youthful minds with a mass of things
that are distasteful and that in many cases will never be of any use to them, a practical education
should be given. Time and money are spent in gaining useless knowledge. The mind should be
carefully and wisely taught to dwell upon Bible truth. The main object of education should be to
gain a knowledge of how we can glorify God, whose we are by creation and by redemption. The
result of education should be to enable us to understand the voice of God....
Like the branches of the True Vine, the Word of God presents unity in diversity. There is in it a
perfect, superhuman, mysterious unity. It contains divine wisdom, and that is the foundation of all
true education; but this Book has been treated indifferently.
Now, as never before, we need to understand the true science of education. If we fail to
understand this, we shall never have a place in the kingdom of God. “This is life eternal, that
they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). If
this is the price of heaven, shall not our education be conducted on these lines?—The Christian
Educator, August, 1897.
Making Iron Rule for Others Dishonors God.—God will not vindicate any device whereby
man shall in the slightest degree rule or oppress his fellowman. As soon as a man begins to
make an iron rule for other men, he dishonors God and imperils his own soul and the souls of
his brethren.—Testimonies for the Church 7:181 (1902).
Balance of Differing Minds Necessary.—Here we are brought together—of different minds,
different education, and different training—and we do not expect that every mind will run right in
the same channel; but the
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question is, Are we, the several branches, grafted into the parent Vine? That is what we want to
inquire, and we want to ask teachers as well as students. We want to understand whether we are
really grafted into the parent Vine. If we are, we may have different manners, different tones, and
different voices. You may view things from one standpoint, and we have ideas different from one
another in regard to the Scriptures, not in opposition to the Scriptures, but our ideas may vary.
My mind may run in the lines most familiar to it, and another may be thinking and taking a view
according to his traits of character, and see a very deep interest in one side of it that others do not
see.—MS 14, 1894.
The Hyssop, the Cedar, and the Palm.—In all the Lord’s arrangements there is nothing more
beautiful than His plan of giving to men and women a diversity of gifts. The church is His garden,
adorned with a variety of trees, plants, and flowers. He does not expect the hyssop to assume the
proportions of the cedar, nor the olive to reach the height of the stately palm. Many have received
but a limited religious and intellectual training, but God has a work for this class to do if they will
labor in humility, trusting in Him.—Lt 122, 1902. (Evangelism, 98, 99).
Characters as Varied as the Flowers.—From the endless variety of plants and flowers, we may
learn an important lesson. All blossoms are not the same in form or color. Some possess healing
virtues. Some are always fragrant. There are professing Christians who think it their duty to make
every other Christian like themselves. This is man’s plan, not the plan of God. In the church of God
there is room for characters as varied as are the flowers in a garden. In His spiritual garden there are
many varieties of flowers.—Lt 95, 1902. (Evangelism, 99.)
Powers of Mind and Body—the Gift of God.—The requirements of God must be brought
home to the conscience.
