Why Go to School by H. W. HERRELL

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 7, 1908

Why Go to School

By H. W. HERRELL

Is it to gain a knowledge of books? To hold a high position in the world? To have a title affixed to your name? To have a higher education than some one else?—No, no!

“Every faculty, every attribute, with which the Creator has endowed men is to be employed for his glory and for the uplifting of our fellow men.” We should attend school, not for any selfish, worldly purpose, but to broaden our minds, that we may better understand God’s will concerning us, and how best to render him acceptable service.

“The object of true education is to restore the image of God in the soul;” and until the image of God is restored in our souls, we can not show, by our lives, his life and love to those in the world.

God is interested in us, he has a work for us to do, when we fit ourselves to do his bidding. He was interested in Israel of old; and since he directed in their work, education, why not in ours? “The Lord himself directed the education of Israel. His care was not restricted to their religious interests; whatever affected their mental or physical well-being was also the object of his consideration, and came within the sphere of divine law. God had commanded the Hebrews to teach their children his requirements, and to make them acquainted with all his dealings with their fathers.

“The mighty works of God in the deliverance of his people and the promises of the Redeemer to come, were to be often recounted in the homes of Israel; and the use of figures and symbols caused the lessons given to be more firmly fixed in memory.

“The great truths of God’s providence and of the future life were impressed on the young mind. Such was the training of Moses in the lowly cabin home in Goshen; of Samuel by the faithful Hannah; of David in the hill-dwelling at Bethlehem; of Daniel before the scenes of the captivity separated him from the home of his father. Such, too, was the early life of Christ at Nazareth; such the training by which the child Timothy learned, from the lips of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, the truths of Holy Writ.

“In those schools of the olden time it was the grand object of all study to learn the will of God and man’s duty toward him;” then as that was Israel’s whole object in education, so the object of going to school now in Israel should be to study how to better fulfil God’s will in the earth, God says to us, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature;” therefore “with the great work before us of enlightening the world, we who believe the truth should feel the necessity of thorough education in the practical branches of knowledge, and especially our need of an education in the truths of the Scriptures. The Lord has called us out from the world, that we may be witnesses for his truth; and all through our ranks, young men and women should be trained for positions of usefulness and influence.” These positions are waiting; some one must be educated to fill these places, that God’s name may be better represented in the earth. “God’s work in the earth in these last days is to reflect the light that Christ brought into the world. This light is to dissipate the gross darkness of ages.” Our youth must awake to this fact, and prepare themselves to carry this light to the thousands who are waiting for it.

How sad to know that, “years have passed into eternity with small results, that might have shown the accomplishment of a great and sacred work. If the Lord’s will had been done by the workers in earth as the angels do it in heaven, much that now remains to be done would be already accomplished, and noble results would be seen to follow our missionary efforts.” Let me say to you, young people, let your object in attending school be, to know God’s will better, and then give the light you have to the world. “We must educate, educate, to prepare a people who will understand the message, and then give the message to the world.”

H. W. HERRELL.