Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students

Putting the Bible First

In the instruction given in our schools, the natural and the spiritual are to be combined. The laws obeyed by the earth reveal the fact that it is under the masterly power of an infinite God. The same principles run through the spiritual and the natural world. Divorce God from the acquisition of knowledge, and you have a lame, one-sided education, dead to all the saving qualities that give true power to man. The Author of nature is the Author of the Bible. Creation and Christianity have one God. God is revealed in nature, and God is revealed in His word. In clear rays the light shines from the sacred page, showing us the living God, as represented in the laws of His government, in the creation of the world, in the heavens that He has garnished. His power is to be recognized as the only means of redeeming the world from the degrading superstitions that are so dishonoring to God and man. CT 395.2

The student who in his school life becomes familiar with the truths of God's word and feels their transforming power upon his heart will represent the character of Christ to the world in a well-ordered life and a godly conversation. God will do great things for those who will open the heart to His word and let it take possession of the soul temple. The departure from the simplicity of true godliness on the part of students has had an influence to weaken character and lessen mental vigor. Their advancement in the sciences has been retarded, while if they had been like Daniel, hearers and doers of the word of God, they would have advanced as he did in all branches of learning upon which they entered. Being pure-minded, they would have become strong-minded. Every intellectual faculty would have been sharpened. CT 395.3

When the Bible is made the guide and counselor, it exerts an ennobling influence upon the mind. Its study more than any other will refine and elevate. It will enlarge the mind of the candid student, endowing it with new impulses and fresh vigor. It will give greater efficiency to the faculties by bringing them in contact with grand, far-reaching truths. If the mind becomes dwarfed and inefficient, it is because it is left to deal with commonplace subjects only. Let the Bible be received as the food of the soul, the best and most effectual means of purifying and strengthening the intellect. CT 396.1

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Out of the heart are the issues of life; and the heart of the community, of the church, and of the nation is the household. The well-being of society, the success of the church, the prosperity of the nation, depend upon home influences. CT 396.2