p. 23 | The Educational Missionary Movement

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 6, 1908

The Educational Missionary Movement

By Ida Fischer Carnahan

Thoughts for Our Youth

True Education

MAN, the highest and noblest of all the created works of God, stands before us as a subject worthy of the highest and truest education. True education, in the broadest sense, does not consist alone in a system which educates only a few of our God-given faculties, but it reaches out and prepares a person to fill the position for which his Maker created him. Had he proved true to his God-given trust, this world would now have been filled with the highest and noblest of creatures; but as a result of man's fall, we see him living far below his privilege. God is seeking to bring him back to his lost position.

We are living in a time when there is such a confusion of voices crying, “This way and that way,” that unless we understand fully our position, we shall be led in paths that will bring ruin to us. What parent does not look anxiously forward to the time when his children will hold responsible positions in the world? How carefully many plan for their children's education, denying themselves the necessaries of life in order to place their boys and girls in some school or college that will give them the best advantages. How father and mother counsel together over this or that college or seminary; how carefully they follow the youth year after year in their class work, and as the time draws near when they leave the dear old college walls, a thrill of satisfaction enters the heart of father and mother.

O, how few stop to consider if those years of study have developed those traits of character that will prove a blessing to the people with whom the students come in contact! Is it possible that pride, greed, avarice, malice, and selfishness reign within the heart of any of those who have been seeking what is termed true education? That which fails to educate and train our faculties and prevents us from giving to the world our best and noblest thoughts, can not be termed true education.

Created in his likeness, God designed that, as the years passed by, man should reflect the glory of his Creator. For this purpose he was created. Face to face with God and in daily communion with holy angels, why should he not reach the height of education? As one writer has said: “All of his faculties were capable of development; their capacity and vigor were continually to increase; vast was the scope offered for their exercise, glorious the field opened for their research. God planned that man should search out the mysteries of the visible universe, his wonderful works. This was to be the educational work of man, but man himself has marred the work, and, for a time, turned aside God's plans concerning the universe and true education; nevertheless God's purpose is the same, and to-day he is holding out to man a way, a system of education, that will prepare him to stand before kings, and to hold a higher position than the world can give. He holds out to us this offer that will bring all our faculties into harmony with his law; that will teach us perfect confidence and

trust in him as our Saviour; that will give us the patience of Job, the boldness and integrity of Daniel, the meekness of Moses, the purity of soul which Joseph possessed, and the love and charity which John the Beloved had, although imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos. Do you need this education? Do you need these traits of character in your daily life? When the work goes hard, what a comfort to rest awhile under the protection of him who is training and teaching us the principles of true education and true missionary endeavor.”

IDA FISCHER CARNAHAN.