Two Systems of Education
By L. A. S.
“THE proper study of mankind is man,” is a statement made by an eminent poet, which expresses a belief that is general throughout the civilized world. It is, in fact, and ever has been, the foundation principle of the world's systems of education. Men have been forever studying the ideas, customs, speech, laws, and institutions of their fellow men, in order to become wise. Yet but few men in the world, comparatively, have been really wise. Their study of themselves has yielded knowledge rather than wisdom. But there is a system of education which yields both knowledge and wisdom. By their study of their fellow mortals men have been forever looking backward. They have been enslaved by tradition. They have delved into the things of the past, as though the treasures of learning had been buried in the civilizations of former ages. A custom, law, or institution has been invested with great value in men's minds merely because of its antiquity. No matter how it failed to harmonize with the requirements of justice and propriety, or to serve any visible necessity of life, it was necessarily to be perpetuated because of its long standing. Men talk about the traditions that have been handed down to them as representing the accumulated wisdom of the ages, which must be carefully treasured and referred to as a guide in the affairs of the present time. They ignore a source of wisdom plainly set before them, infinitely greater and purer, and more accessible than all this,—a wisdom unencumbered with the dust and rubbish of a dead past, but ever fresh and perfect through all time. Man is a fallen being. For this reason he cannot be the proper study of mankind. Even if he were not fallen, it would still be the same; he could not with profit turn his mental faculties upon himself or upon those like him. He is not the source of that which he finds in himself and in his fellow beings. Lucifer, the anointed cherub, perfect and full of wisdom, fell and was lost by looking at himself. His whole education acquired throughout long ages was a failure because he finally chose a system of study which was not centered upon his Creator. The proper study of mankind is God. That educational system alone is true and safe and perfect which has for its aim the imparting of the knowledge of God. This is the eternal system of education, instituted from the beginning, and unchanging as God himself. To this end the infinite One has given a revelation of himself in the things of nature, and in his Word and works. His thoughts, his precepts, his laws, his institutions6his ways, are our proper study. In them there is nothing to lead downward to a lower plane of life, but all that leads upward to a higher plane. And mankind, by beholding him through the revelation he has given of himself, will be led ever upward, being made like him in nature, and approaching ever nearer to him in knowledge and wisdom. This is the true education, to be begun here on the earth, and continued forever in the world to come.