Daniel ever kept before him the glory of God, and you should also say, Lord, I desire knowledge, not for the glorification of self, but to meet the expectation of Jesus, that I may perfect an intelligent Christian character, through the grace He has given unto me. Will the students be true to principle as was Daniel? (FE 192.1) MC VC

In the future there will be more pressing need of men and women of literary qualifications than there has been in the past; for broad fields are opening out before us, white already for harvest. In these fields you may be laborers together with God. But if you are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, if you are filled with levity, if you allow the golden opportunities to pass without acquiring knowledge, without placing solid timbers in your character building, you will be dwarfed and crippled in any line of occupation you may undertake. (FE 192.2) MC VC

While a good education is a great benefit if combined with consecration in its possessor, still those who do not have the privilege of gaining high literary attainments need not think they cannot advance in intellectual and spiritual life. If they will make the most of the knowledge they have, if they will seek to gather something to their store every day, and will overcome all perverseness of temper through the studious cultivation of Christlike traits of character, God will open channels of wisdom to them, and it may be said of them as it was said of old, concerning the Hebrew children, God gave them wisdom and understanding. (FE 192.3) MC VC

Chapter 29—To Teachers and Students VC

To the Teachers and Students in Our College at Battle Creek, and in All Our Educational Institutions (FE 220) MC VC

In the night seasons messages have been given to me to give to you in Battle Creek, and to all our schools. While it is in the order of God that the physical powers shall be trained as well as the mental, yet the physical exercise should in character be in complete harmony with the lessons given by Jesus Christ to His disciples. That which is given to the world should be seen in the lives of Christians, so that in education and in self-training the heavenly intelligences should not record in the books that the students and the teachers in our schools are “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” This is the record now being made of a large number. “Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” Thus Satan and his angels are laying their snares for your souls, and he is working in a certain way upon teachers and pupils to induce them to engage in exercises and amusements which become intensely absorbing, but which are of a character to strengthen the lower powers, and create appetites and passions that will take the lead, and counteract most decidedly the operations and working of the Holy Spirit of God upon the human heart. (FE 220.1) MC VC

What saith the Holy Spirit to you? What was its power and influence upon your hearts during the General Conference, and the Conferences in other states? Have you taken special heed to yourselves? Have the teachers in the school felt that they must take heed? If God has appointed them as educators of the youth, they are also “overseers of the flock.” They are not in the school work to invent plans for exercises and games to educate pugilists; not there to bring down sacred things on a level with the common. (FE 220.2) MC VC

I was speaking to the teachers in messages of reproof. All the teachers need exercise, a change of employment. God has pointed out that this should be useful, practical work; but you have turned away from God’s plan, to follow human inventions, and that to the detriment of spiritual life. Not a jot or tittle of the after-influence of an education in that line will fit you to meet the severe conflicts in these last days. What kind of education are our teachers and students receiving? Has God devised and planned this kind of exercise for you, or is it brought in by the human inventions and human imaginations? How is the mind prepared for contemplation and meditation, and serious thoughts, and the earnest, contrite prayer, coming from hearts subdued by the Holy Spirit of God? “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.” “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (FE 220.3) MC VC

“No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me, draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” What is the drawing?—“It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me.” There are men who hear, but who do not learn the lesson as diligent students. They have a form of godliness, but are not believers. They know not the truth by practice. They receive not the engrafted word. “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” He did not receive the impression made upon his mind when comparing his course of action with the great moral looking-glass. He did not see his defects of character. He did not reform, and forgetting all about the impression made, he went not God’s way, but his way, continuing to be unreformed. (FE 460.1) MC VC