AN APPEAL TO SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST PUBLIC-SCHOOL TEACHERS.
By E. A. Sutherland
For a number of years we have been told that “we are standing upon the threshold of great and solemn events. . . . Old controversies, which have apparently been hushed for a long time will be revived, and new controversies will spring up; new and old will commingle, and this will take place right early. . . . The storm is gathering, the clouds are loading, ready to burst upon the world; and to many it will be as a thief in the night.” Because affairs have not developed as some expected, the love of many is growing cold, and they say, “My Lord delayeth his coming.” Consequently they employ themselves largely with the affairs of this world. Although many of the remnant do not understand where we are in the history of the world, yet there are those outside the faith who do. A well-known minister recently said, “Our age sees an era closely paralleling the period in which Christianity arose, and the period in which Protestantism broke from the great Catholic Church.” This is true; we are living over those momentous times, but we must carry the work further than did the Reformers. We must succeed where they failed. Nothing but a complete victory will do. This victory will not be the result of passiveness or mere desire, but will come as the result of entire sacrifice. Those not willing to yield all are not worthy to receive power. Do we imagine that the adherents of the truth in the early church were content to devote their energy and ability to the cause that was attempting to crush the truth they advocated? Do we find that in the days of the Reformation those who had withdrawn from the corruption of Rome were still content to act as instructors in the papal schools?—Indeed not. So rapidly did Protestant teachers espouse the principles of the new education, that in a few years the youth of all Germany sat at their feet, and Catholics sought almost in vain for teachers for their own schools. High salaries and worldly honors afforded no inducement to the converted. We are repeating the history of the sixteenth century. Are we, as teachers, true to the cause we profess to believe? W. T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education (see Report of 1897–98, page 24) understands the difference between the work of the secular and the religious school better than many who profess to believe in the Third Angel’s Message. In his history of Sunday-schools, he makes a positive statement that methods which are used in secular schools can not be used in giving religious training; for they encourage doubt and destroy faith. President Harper, of the University of Chicago, says: “It is difficult to prophesy what the result of our present method of educating the youth will be in fifty years. We are training the mind in our public schools, but the moral side of the child’s nature is almost entirely neglected. The Roman Catholic Church insists on remedying the manifest evil, but our Protestant churches seem to ignore it completely. They expect our Sunday-schools to make good what our public schools leave undone, and the consequence is we overlook a danger as real and as great as any we have had to face.” I know of teachers, Seventh-day Adventist public-school teachers, who use the same argument in reference to their work and the Sabbath-school. Do our teachers believe the second angel’s message? That says that Babylon is fallen. Babylon means a mixture of truth and error. A mixture of the true and the false in education forms Babylon. Moreover, this mixture in educational methods renders possible a similar mixture in the churches, and it is for this reason that the schools and the school-teachers are largely responsible for the fall of the church. Do you wish to be responsible for a further decline? Having come out of Babylon, are we not now ready to help others out? This is a work of education, and God has a special work for teachers in these closing days.12 The schools of the first centuries formed the papacy, by mingling with paganism. Christian schools carried the light of the Reformation. The Jesuit schools defeated the work of reform. To-day the conflict is renewed. Where are the Luthers? The Melanchthons? The destinies of thousands of children will be decided by the course pursued by Seventh-day Adventist teachers. Passiveness is equivalent to a choice of the false system instead of the true. To disregard the calls now made upon us by our own children, may prove fatal. Schools can not be started without teachers. Has it not occurred to you that God gave you the means of obtaining the education you now possess, in order that Christian schools should be started? You would need but a brief preparation in principles and methods to enable you to do efficient work for him. Think of it; for the call has now come. “We may bring thousands of children to Christ if we will work for them.” You argue that as a teacher in the public schools, you are working for the salvation of your pupils; but the Lord says, “The education that is generally given in the schools of the world is not that which can be accepted as true education.” Again he says, “One reason why it was necessary to establish institutions of our own was the fact that parents were not able to counteract the influence of the teaching their children were receiving in the public schools, and the error there taught was leading the youth into false paths. No stronger influence could be brought to bear upon the minds of youth and children than that of those who were educating them in principles of science. For this reason it was evident that schools must be established in which our children should be instructed in the way of truth.” We are told that every church where there are children should have a Christian school. Who should teach these schools if not you? The time of the latter rain is here, and it can not yet be received because we are backward about accepting Christian education. The angel has been told to hold the four winds a little longer. God is waiting for us as teachers. Shall we refuse to heed the call? It is possible for the Lord to take the unlearned and fit them for this work, but the offer is to us until we utterly refuse. The precious gift of teaching has been intrusted to us. Shall we bury it, or use it for God’s glory? “To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” lest it be said, “Curse ye Meroz, . . . curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord.” E. A. SUTHERLAND.