Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students

The School of Christ

He who is seeking with diligence to acquire the wisdom of human schools should remember that another school also claims him as a student. Christ was the greatest teacher the world ever saw. He brought to man knowledge direct from heaven. The lessons which He has given us are what we need for both the present and the future state. He sets before us the true aims of life, and how we may secure them. CT 50.3

In the school of Christ, students are never graduated. Among the pupils are both old and young. Those who give heed to the instructions of the divine Teacher constantly advance in wisdom, refinement, and nobility of soul, and thus they are prepared to enter that higher school where advancement will continue throughout eternity. CT 51.1

Infinite Wisdom sets before us the great lessons of life—lessons of duty and happiness. These are often hard to learn, but without them we can make no real progress. They may cost us effort and tears, and even agony, but we must not falter or grow weary. We shall at last hear the Master's call, “Child, come up higher.” CT 51.2

It is in this world, amid its trials and temptations, that we are to gain a fitness for the society of the pure and holy. Those who become so absorbed in less important studies that they cease to learn in the school of Christ are meeting with infinite loss. They insult the divine Teacher by the rejection of the provisions of His grace. The longer they continue in their course, the more hardened they are in sin. Their retribution will be proportioned to the infinite value of the blessings they have spurned. CT 51.3

In the religion of Christ there is a regenerating influence that transforms the entire being, lifting man above every debasing, groveling vice, and raising the thoughts and desires toward God and heaven. Linked to the Infinite One, man is made partaker of the divine nature. Upon him the shafts of evil have no effect; for he is clothed with the panoply of Christ's righteousness. CT 51.4

Every faculty, every attribute, with which the Creator has endowed the children of men is to be employed for His glory; and in this employment is found its purest, holiest, happiest exercise. While religious principle is held paramount, every advance step taken in the acquirement of knowledge or in the culture of the intellect is a step toward the assimilation of the human with the Divine, the finite with the Infinite. CT 52.1