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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 3, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 40.

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Our Seminaries

By R. R. Kennedy

The fear of the Lord lies at the foundation of Christian education. Education acquired without Bible religion is disrobed of its true brightness and glory.
Young men should not neglect the essential branches of education. These can not be found in the schools of the world. This instruction can be imparted only by those who know God. None can interpret the handwriting of God in the signs all about us except those who are walking in the light of the third angel’s message. Precious light has come appropriate for this time. Believers are not to rest in suppositions and ill-defined ideas of what constitutes truth. Their faith must be firmly founded upon the Word of God, so that when the testing time shall come, and they are brought before councils for their faith, they may be able to give a reason for the hope that it in them, with meekness and fear.
Our schools should educate the young to have nobler views, aims, and objects in life, giving them correct knowledge of human duty and eternal interests. Our seminaries should teach the correct relation between true science and religion. This will enable the student to discern God, whom to know aright is eternal life. God intends that our schools should reach a higher standard of intellectual and moral culture than other schools not favored by the light of the third angel’s message. Our colleges, like the schools of the prophets, should so train our youth, that they may not only obtain the highest attainment in the sciences, but such a revelation of God through his Word and the natural sciences as will enable them to instruct others in things pertaining to eternal life. Our colleges are God’s instrumentalities to make himself known to man.
Men of culture and refinement are needed just now to carry the message to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. Shall we not arouse to the situation? We must educate. Our schools should be filled to overflowing.
As we near the close of time, the need of educated, Christian young men will become more imperative. Can we lower the standard of our work now?
What shall we do for our consecrated youth, who by the instruction given them at their homes are saying, “Here am I, Lord; send me”?
The work so nobly begun must not be lowered from the standard to which the Lord has appointed it. Parents to whom the Lord has intrusted children, will you, like Hannah of old, lend your children to the Lord? Will you send them without delay to a seminary to be trained for service? Men of means, who have been entrusted with the talents of the Lord, can you not assist some one of consecrated ability to secure the training so much needed in finishing the work? We have been instructed that the standard of instruction in our schools must not be lowered,—that it must be lifted higher and higher, far above where it now stands.
We are under solemn, sacred covenant to God to bring up our children for him, and not for the world; to teach them not to put their hands into the hand of the world, but to love and fear God and to keep his commandments. To accomplish this, teachers must be chosen who love and fear God. They must be men who know and practise the principles laid down in the Scriptures and the testimonies of his Spirit. They should ever remember that the third angel’s message is the key that unlocks the great storehouse of truth for the last days. Time is short. We are living in the closing scenes of the perils of the last days; these will continue to thicken all about us. Darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people. Our seminaries should reach the highest point of true excellence in preparing our youth for service. The different lines and branches of our work are calling loudly for qualified men and women to fill places of trust and responsibility in our broadening work.
To accomplish this, the responsibility must not alone be placed upon our teachers and students, but we must individually and collectively rally to their support. Let not a single soul excuse himself and begin to murmur and complain, and to find fault with those who are trying to do the work under discouraging circumstances.
We should earnestly study the needs of our schools and plan to supply them. Every dollar given to assist our schools and students is money invested in the bank of heaven. Every word of encouragement spoken will be as apples of gold in pictures of silver. “The morning cometh, and also the night.” The doors of our schools will soon be closed forever. What is done must be done quickly. There shall be delay no longer.
When the Lord called his people to build the tabernacle in the wilderness, all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun. This was done to help build a sanctuary so that the Lord might dwell among them. That was to be the great center of truth from which light was to emanate to all the world. We are called to help as truly as they. “Christ’s Object Lessons” has been given us for this very purpose. Thousands of these books are still on our shelves unsold. Shall they remain there as a witness to our unfaithfulness, while the last atoning work is being done for us individually? Shall we be responsible for souls that might have been saved had we faithfully performed our work in placing this soul-inspiring book in their hands? I leave the answer for your prayerful consideration. Many have done nobly in the past. They have labored heartily as unto the Lord. What is needed now is an earnest, united effort to finish the work. There will never be a more favorable time.
God foresaw our need of acquiring a fitness for effectual service. Let us not be satisfied with reaching a low standard. We are not what we might be, or what it is God’s will we should be. God has not given us reasoning powers to remain inactive, but to be trained to meet the people in a courteous, scholarly way. No man can reach the highest standard of usefulness without an education. “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.”
True education includes the whole being. It is not complete unless the body, the mind, and the heart are equally educated. This calls for a complete collegiate course and a full surrender to the molding influence of his Spirit.—R. R. Kennedy, in The Welcome Visitor.