The Advance by F. G.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jun 23, 1904

The Advance

By F. G.

As we look back over the past five or six years, we are impressed with the wonderful strides which, as a denomination, we have made in some phases of our school work. This is particularly true in the matter of our church-schools. During these years the number of these schools has increased amazingly. Hundreds and thousands of our children have been taken from the schools of the world and placed in our own schools, in order that they might receive an education which aims to fit them not only to be useful in this life, but to enjoy the one to come.

The motive that has inspired our people in this work, which, when we look at it in the aggregate, is indeed a great one, is a pure and unselfish one; for surely no parents, from any other motive, could possibly desire to take their children from good public schools, where they can obtain a thorough knowledge of facts, and place them in schools where the facilities for carrying on educational work are often not nearly so good, and where a larger per cent of the teachers, owing to the newness of our work, are inexperienced.

The Lord has plainly pointed out to us the importance of our church-school work, and he can but honor the faith and action of those who thus seek to do his bidding. Our children may not make all that advancement in knowledge, as the world looks at it, that they would in the public schools, but they may gain a life and character which is far in advance of what they could gain in these other schools.

It must be admitted that there are weak places in our church-school work. This might naturally be expected when we consider what is involved in the starting of such a reform as we have begun. But the fact that there may be weak points in our church-school work to-day, owing to the many difficulties which are experienced in the matter of securing properly qualified teachers, proper locations for holding a school, adequate means of support, the right text-books, and other facilities for the proper conducting of our work, offers no excuse for the continuance of these weak points. Our schools should be more thorough and systematic than are the schools of the world. It is, indeed, the duty of every Seventh-day Adventist to make a study of this educational question, and to seek by every means to overcome each point of weakness in our work as it is now being carried on, and to make it one of strength. This is the line of advance along which this people must move.

The Lord has spoken concerning the importance of our educating our children in his fear and to his glory and honor. Here, as with every other word of the Lord, is brought to us a responsibility which we can not shirk, and with a proper discharging of this responsibility will come a corresponding blessing from the Lord, and with it prosperity to his cause of truth. F. G.