Gaining Efficiency

The third angel is represented as flying in the midst of heaven, showing that the message is to go throughout the length and breadth of the earth. It is the most solemn message ever given to mortals, and all who propose to connect themselves with the work should first feel their need of an education, of the most thorough training. Plans should be made and efforts put forth for the improvement of those who anticipate entering any branch of the work.

Ministerial labor should not be entrusted to boys, neither should the work of giving Bible readings be entrusted to young girls, because they offer their services and are willing to take responsible positions, while they are wanting in religious experience and lack a thorough education and training. They must be proved; for unless they develop a firm, conscientious principle to be all that God would have them be, they will not correctly represent His cause. All who are engaged in the work, in every mission, should gain a depth of experience. Those who are young in the work should have the help of such as have had experience and understand the manner of working. Missionary operations are constantly embarrassed for want of workers of the right class of mind—workers who have devotion and piety that will correctly represent our faith.

There are many who ought to become missionaries, but who never enter the field because those who are united with them in church capacity or in our colleges do not feel the burden to labor with them, to open before them the claims of God upon all their powers, and do not pray with and for them. The eventful period which decides the course of life passes, their convictions are stifled, other influences and inducements attract them, and temptations to seek positions that will, they think, bring them financial gain, take them into the worldly current. These young men might have been saved to the cause.

Our schools are to be training schools. If men and women come forth from them fitted in any sense for the missionary field, they must be led to realize the greatness of the work; practical godliness must be brought into their daily experience if they would be fitted for any place of usefulness in the cause of God....

The School to Continue the Work of the Home

Those who attend our colleges are to have a training different from that given by the common schools of the day. Our youth generally, if they have wise, God-fearing parents, have been taught the principles of Christianity. The word of God has been respected in their homes, and its teachings have been made the law of life. They have been brought up in the nurture and admonition of the gospel. When they enter school, this same education and training is to continue. The world’s maxims, the world’s customs and practices, are not the teaching that they need. Let them see that the teachers in the school care for their souls, that they have a decided interest in their spiritual welfare. Religion is the great principle to be inculcated; for the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom....

Pleasure in Religion

Wherever a school is established, there should be warm hearts to take a lively interest in the youth. Fathers and mothers are needed who will give warm sympathy and kindly admonitions. All the pleasantness possible should be brought into the religious exercises. Those who prolong these exercises to weariness are leaving wrong impressions upon the minds of the youth, leading them to associate religion with that which is dry, unsocial, and uninteresting.... Ardent, active piety in the teacher is essential. Unless constant care is exercised, and unless vitalized by the Spirit of God, the morning and evening service in the chapel and the Sabbath meetings will become dry and formal, and to the youth the most burdensome and the least attractive of the school exercises. The social meetings should be managed in such a way as to make them seasons not only of profit, but of positive pleasure.

Let those who teach the youth study for themselves in the school of Christ, and learn lessons to communicate to their students. Sincere, earnest, heartfelt devotion is needed. All narrowness should be avoided. Let the teacher so far unbend from his dignity as to be one with the children in their exercises and amusements, without leaving the impression that they are being watched. His very presence with them will give a mold to their actions, and will cause his heart to throb with new affection.

The youth need sympathy, affection, and love, or they will become discouraged. A spirit of “I care for nobody and nobody cares for me” takes possession of them. They may profess to be followers of Christ; but they have a tempting devil on their track, and they are in danger of becoming disheartened and lukewarm, and of backsliding from God. Then some feel it a duty to blame them and to treat them coldly as if they were a great deal worse than they really are. Few, perhaps none, feel it their duty to make personal efforts to reform them and to remove the unhappy impressions that have been made upon them.

The teacher’s obligations are weighty and sacred, but no part of his work is more important than that of looking after the youth with tender, loving solicitude. Let the teacher once gain the confidence of his students, and he can easily lead and control and train them. The holy motives that underlie Christian living must be brought into the life. The salvation of his pupils is the highest interest entrusted to the God-fearing teacher. He is Christ’s co-worker, and his special and determined effort should be to win them to Christ. God will require this at his hands.

Every teacher should lead a life of piety, of purity, of painstaking effort. If the heart is glowing with the love of God, there will be seen in the life that pure affection which is essential; fervent prayers will be offered and faithful warnings given. When these are neglected, the souls under his care are endangered....

And yet, after all these efforts have been made, teachers may find that some will develop unprincipled characters. They are lax in morals, the result, in many cases, of vicious example and lack of parental discipline. Though teachers may do all they can, they will fail to lead these youth to a life of purity and holiness. After patient discipline, affectionate labor, and fervent prayer, they will be disappointed by those from whom they have hoped for much. In addition to this they will meet the reproaches of the parents because they have not had power to counteract the influence of the wrong example and unwise training received in the home. But in spite of these discouragements the teacher must work on, trusting in God to work with him, standing at his post manfully and laboring in faith. Others will be saved to God, and their influence will be exerted in saving still others....

Setting a High Standard

What is worth doing at all is worth doing well. While religion should be the prevailing element in every school, it will not lead to a cheapening of the literary attainments. It will make all true Christians feel their need of thorough knowledge, that they may make the best use of the faculties bestowed upon them. While growing in grace and in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, they will seek constantly to put to the stretch their powers of mind, that they may become intelligent Christians.

The Lord is dishonored by low ideas or designs on our part. He who does not perceive the binding claims of God’s law, who neglects to keep its every requirement, violates the whole law. He who is content to meet only partially the standard of righteousness, and who does not triumph over every spiritual foe, will not fulfill the purpose of Christ. He cheapens the whole plan of his religious life and weakens his character. Under the force of temptation his defects of character gain the supremacy, and evil triumphs.

To meet the highest standard possible, we need to be persevering and determined. In many cases established habits and ideas must be overcome before we can make advancement in the religious life.... The essential work is to conform the tastes, the appetites, the passions, the motives, the desires, to the great standard of righteousness. The work must begin in the heart. Unless the heart is wholly conformed to Christ’s will, some master passion, or some habit or defect, will become a power to destroy.

Piety and religious experience lie at the very foundation of true education. God wants the teachers in our schools to be efficient. If they advance in spiritual understanding, they will see how important it is that they should not be deficient in a knowledge of the sciences. While teachers need piety, they also need a thorough knowledge of the sciences....

The Christian aims to reach the highest attainments for the purpose of doing others good. Knowledge harmoniously blended with a Christlike character will make a man a light in the world. God works with human efforts. Those who give all diligence to make their calling and election sure will feel that a superficial knowledge will not fit them for a position of usefulness. Education balanced by a solid religious experience fits the child of God to do his appointed work steadily, firmly, understandingly. He who is learning of the greatest Educator the world ever knew, will have not only a symmetrical Christian character, but a mind trained for effective labor....

God does not want us to be content with lazy, undisciplined minds, dull thoughts, and loose memories. He wants every teacher to feel dissatisfied with simply a measure of success and to realize his need of constant diligence in acquiring knowledge. Our bodies and souls belong to God, for He has bought them. He has given us talents and has made it possible for us to acquire more, that we may be able to help ourselves and others in the way of life. It is the work of each one to develop and strengthen the gifts that God has lent him. If all realized this, what a vast difference we should see in our schools, in our churches, and in our missions! But the larger number are content with a meager knowledge, a few attainments, content just to be passable. The necessity of being men like Daniel, men of influence, men whose characters have become harmonious by working to bless humanity and glorify God—such a need few feel, and the result is that there are few fitted for the great want of the times.

God does not ignore ignorant men; but if such are connected with Christ, if they are sanctified through the truth, they will be constantly gathering knowledge. By exerting every power to glorify God, they will have increased power with which to glorify Him. Those who are willing to remain in a narrow sphere because God condescended to accept them when they were there, are very foolish. Yet there are hundreds and thousands who are doing this very thing.