The Schools of the Prophets by M. E. CADY

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 11, 1915

The Schools of the Prophets

By M. E. CADY

— No. 1

The Pattern Schools

M. E. CADY

MORE than forty years have passed since the light and truth regarding Christian education first came to our people. Through the spirit of prophecy, messages of instruction have been coming to us during all these years. The first message received, entitled “Proper Education,” was published in 1873; and shortly after that our first college was established, at Battle Creek, Mich. Since then, slowly but steadily, this educational phase of our denominational work has grown and enlarged, until now we have an organized system of primary and intermediate schools, academies, and colleges, which provides courses of instruction for students of every grade.

In the messages that have come to us from time to time, the purpose and plan of God for these schools has been repeated many, many times. As a people, and especially as educators, we have had held up before us a model, a pattern, which was worked out in the days of ancient Israel.

The following are a few of the oft-repeated admonitions to conduct our schools according to the pattern given in the Scriptures.

“There are many parents who do not know how to train their children to be workers together with God. They have not in all things outgrown their childishness, and therefore they know not how to care properly for the church of God in their homes. Fathers and mothers have become indifferent to their obligations to God, and unmindful of their duty to their children. Therefore we must have established schools that will be as the schools of the prophets.”—Testimonies, MS., May 17, 1903.

“These words are spoken to the teachers in all our schools, which are established, as God designed they should be, after the example of the schools of the prophets, to impart knowledge of a high order, not mingling dross with silver.”—“Counsels to Teachers,” page 282.

“Our schools are to be more and more efficacious and self-reliant from a human standpoint, more like the schools of the prophets. The teachers should walk very near to God. The Lord calls for strong, devoted, self-sacrificing young men and women, who will press to the front, and who, after a short time spent in school, will go forth prepared to give the message to the world.”—Id., pages 548, 549.

“The youth are to be encouraged to attend our schools, which are to become more and more like the schools of the prophets. Our schools have been established by the Lord; and if they are conducted in harmony with his purpose, the youth sent to them will quickly be prepared to engage in various lines of missionary work. Some will be trained to enter the field as missionary nurses, some as canvassers, some as evangelists, some as teachers, and some as gospel ministers.”—Testimonies, MS., May, 1903.

“Just before Elijah was taken to heaven, he visited the schools of the prophets, and instructed the students on the most important points of their education. The lessons he had given them on former visits, he now repeated, impressing upon the minds of the youth the importance of letting simplicity mark every feature of their education. Only in this way could they receive the mold of heaven and go forth to work in the ways of the Lord. If conducted as God designs they should be, our schools in these closing days of the message will do a work similar to that done by the schools of the prophets.”—Testimonies, MS., Feb. 16, 1908.

“In all our churches there should be schools, and teachers in these schools who are missionaries. It is essential that teachers be trained to act well their part in the important work of educating the children of Sabbath keepers, not only in the sciences, but in the Scriptures. These schools, established in different localities and conducted by God-fearing men or women, as the case demands, should be built on the same principles as were the schools of the prophets.”—“Counsels to Teachers,” page 168.

“Schools should be established, not such elaborate schools as those at Battle Creek and College View, but more simple schools with more humble buildings, and with teachers who will adopt the same plans that were followed in the schools of the prophets.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, page 139.

“When I look upon the scenes presented before me; when I consider the schools established in different places, and see them falling so far below anything like the schools of the prophets, I am distressed beyond measure.”—“Special Testimonies on Education,” pages 189, 190.

These, and many similar quotations which might be given, show conclusively that the Lord through his servant is constantly holding before his people the “schools of the prophets” as the pattern which is to be followed in the education of their youth. In this instruction is the Lord not saying to us, “See . . . that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount”?

The counsel given to pattern our schools after the schools of the prophets has caused the writer to feel his lack of knowledge regarding “the pattern,” and led him to study what the Lord has revealed regarding the purpose and work of these schools, both in the Bible and through the spirit of prophecy. Surely we are not called upon to follow, and strongly urged to adhere to, a pattern, or plan, which has not been revealed and explained, and which cannot be made practical in its outworkings.

The results of the study of these “pattern schools” will be given under the general heading, “The Schools of the Prophets.” The titles of the articles that will appear are as follows:— “The Pattern Schools.” “Purpose and Establishment.” “The Word of God — the Bible.” “The Works of God — Science.” “The Study of History.” “The Study of Literature.” “The Study of Music.” “Industrial Training.” “Some of the Students.”

Berkeley, Cal.