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CHRISTIAN SCHOOL WORK

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 19, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 12.

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CHRISTIAN SCHOOL WORK

By John O. Stow

JOHN O. STOW
So much has been said and written on the subject of Christian education that no argument is needed to convince Seventh-day Adventists that an educational system according to the plan of God must be successfully operated among us to insure our spiritual advancement.
Such a system will not only secure to us the perfect development of all the powers and faculties, physical, mental, and spiritual, thus enabling us to reach the highest attainments of life andcharacter, but is absolutely necessary to keep us from backsliding and becoming as the ancient Jewish Church—a sad relic of what might have been.
No religion can prosper without an educational system. The Roman Catholic denomination understand this far better than do Seventh-day Adventists. They know that ten thousand dollars invested in Catholic schools means more toward the advancement and spread of their religion than three times that amount devoted to preaching, without the aid of the educational institutions. Here, too, Satan is wiser than the children of light, and has skillfully prepared a thousand and one attractions to allure the youth and get them under his training, so that he can control the young, and thus govern the world. Satan watches with intense interest the movement to establish church schools, for he well knows that here lies the key to the future; and if he can check the schools, he can hinder the spread of the truth. So he works in every conceivable way to bring in doubt, fear, and every form of opposition, to defeat, if possible, the progress of the Third Angel’s Message.
The educational question is therefore one of vital importance with us. This branch of the work can not be neglected without irreparable loss. As a purely missionary enterprise, it will bring the greatest returns when carried out in God’s appointed way.
The rapid spread of the Catholic denomination is due to the fact that they have church schools. Not only are their children educated to be Catholics, but thousands of other children are educated by them, and become members of that Church.
No other people have half the light on the subject of education that has been given to us; and if this light had been received, we should now be far in advance of all other people in education. If we are not the leaders in education now, it is because we have hidden our light under a bushel, and, like ancient Israel, turned back from the promised land into the wilderness of unbelief.
Over forty years ago it was our privilege to have a complete system of Christian schools. During the past year the writer visited a church where a church school was in successful operation over forty years ago. That was so long ago that most of the members had forgotten all about the school, or knew nothing of it. Some said that it was a complete failure; but an interview with the teacher, who is now quite aged, drew out the following interesting facts: There were twenty-five pupils. The teacher understood Christian principles; and love for souls was the inspiring motive. The school was carried on successfully through the year. Several Catholic children attended the school. The president of a denominational college not of our faith, sent his two little boys, because he recognized that the school was superior to the public school, both in mental training and in moral power. The teacher sacrificed her time, receiving only five dollars a month. But with all this success, the church got anxious, and stopped the school because they could “not afford to pay the teacher”!
Their trouble was not so much present shortage, but a fear of future difficulties; so they went back into the wilderness. While Catholics and others were so interested in Seventh-day Adventist education, the people themselves were like the ten spies, who brought back a discouraging report of the promised land. The great financial giant looked invincible, and they were only as grasshoppers in their own sight, so they turned back into the wilderness when they might have entered the promised land.
“So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” Heb. 3:19.