The Schools of the Prophets by M. E. CADY

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · May 20, 1915

The Schools of the Prophets

By M. E. CADY

— No. 9

Some of the Students

M. E. CADY

Having considered in the previous articles the purpose and establishment of the schools of the prophets, and also the curriculum provided for the training and education of the youth, let us now consider some of the product turned out by these schools.

The value of any institution is determined by its “finished product.” What kind of students did the schools of the prophets produce? What was their finished product? “By their fruits ye shall know them.”

The standard by which we must measure these students is the standard given to the Great Teacher when he “was with the church in the wilderness,” and illustrated in his education during childhood and youth. The divine standard, as exemplified in his earthly life, is a symmetrical development of the threefold being:—

1. Physical development. “And the child grew.” He developed his physical powers so that in health he was able to deal successfully with the industrial problems requiring strength and skill.

2. Intellectual development. “Filled with wisdom.” He developed his mental powers so that he was able to study and comprehend truth, and wisely to separate it from error and falsehood.

3. Spiritual development. “And waxed strong in spirit.” He developed and cherished a love for the truth and a hatred for sin. He “loved righteousness, and hated iniquity.” See Luke 2:40, 52.

This method of education is heaven-appointed and heaven-indorsed. “And the grace [favor] of God was upon him.” This is the highest and truest educational standard that has ever been raised.

Keeping this high standard before us, let us consider some of the students educated in the home schools in Israel, and in the schools of the prophets which were established later because the home school plan was not fully adopted and appreciated by the parents in Israel:—

Joseph

Joseph was educated in the family school of Jacob until he was eighteen years of age. Concerning his early education we learn the following:—

“A pure and simple life had favored the vigorous development of both physical and intellectual powers. Communion with God through his works, and the contemplation of the grand truths intrusted to the inheritors of faith, had elevated and ennobled his spiritual nature, broadening and strengthening the mind as no other study could do.”—“Patriarchs and Prophets,” page 222.

How clearly in his later years did the results of his early physical and industrial education appear in the wise administration of Potiphar’s household, the full oversight of the prisoners, and the organized plans to provide food for the seven years of famine. He manifested strong spiritual power by refusing to yield to the seductions of his master’s wife, by suffering without a murmur or complaint the tortures of the prison life, and by giving God the honor and credit for the interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams. That his intellectual powers were strongly developed, making him a wise formulator and administrator of just and good laws, is attested to in the inspired record: “He [Pharaoh] made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: to bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.” Ps. 105:21, 22.

Moses

Moses had six years less of home school training than Joseph, being taken to the royal court of Pharaoh at the age of twelve. From that time he was educated in the university of Egypt, a calamity which Joseph was spared, and saved from making the mistake Moses made when entering upon the special work to which God had called him. After Moses’ failure it was necessary for God to send him to the shepherd school,—a school which Joseph had attended before going down into Egypt. Although “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds” (Acts 7:22),—in other words, he was a historian, a poet, a philosopher, a general of armies, and a legislator,—yet at the age of forty it was necessary to spend forty years in a shepherd’s school to secure the proper balance of his physical, mental, and spiritual powers, if he would be a successful deliverer and leader of God’s people.

Moses was eighty years of age before he was prepared for his forty years of leadership, while Joseph was but thirty years of age when he was prepared for his eighty years of service as prime minister of Egypt, administrating the affairs of the kingdom so wisely and to the advantage of God’s chosen people sojourning in a strange land.

But though late in life, Moses finally secured the equal balance of his physical, mental, and spiritual powers, as evidenced by the provision made for feeding and clothing that mighty host

through forty years of desert wanderings, and by formulating and administering laws and statutes that have never been equaled; and by his intimate communion with God and close fellowship with his brethren he revealed his devotion to spiritual things.

(To be continued)