MUSIC

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 17, 1900

“Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish.” Prov. 12:1.

God has plainly said that the schools established in different localities should be built upon the same principles as were the schools of the prophets. So it is safe for us to follow their example: and the same advice will do for the home; for in the days of the prophets “the home and the school were one.”

This quotation is from an article by Sister White, on “The Schools of the Ancient Hebrews,” in the Signs of the Times of Aug. 13, 1885. Among many other excellent thoughts in this article are the following:—

The art of sacred melody was diligently cultivated. No frivolous waltz was heard, nor flippant song that should extol man and divert the attention from God; but sacred, solemn psalms of praise to the Creator, exalting his name and recounting his wondrous works. Thus music was made to serve, a holy purpose, to lift the thoughts to that which is pure and noble and elevating, and to awaken in the soul devotion and gratitude to God. . . .

Another spirit must be in our schools, to animate and sanctify every branch of education. Divine co-operation must be fervently sought. And we shall not seek in vain. The promises of God’s word are ours. We may expect the presence of the heavenly Teacher. We may see the Spirit of the Lord diffused as in the schools of the prophets, and every object partake of a divine consecration. Science will then be, as she was to Daniel, the handmaid of religion; and every effort, from first to last, will tend to the salvation of man,—soul, body, and spirit,—and the glory of God through Christ.