p. 126 | Learning by Joseph Clarke

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 15, 1864

Learning.

By Joseph Clarke

God's people do not rest content to decay in inglorious ignorance, but have been people devoted to improvement; and from remote antiquity it appears that the sons of God have sought for wisdom.

Josephus informs us that Abraham taught astronomy and arithmetic to the Egyptians (of which they knew nothing previously), and that from Egypt these sciences passed into Greece.

This historian also informs us that the sons of Seth employed themselves in the study of astronomy, and that they wrote their observations upon two pillars, one of brick and the other of stone, which last, he affirms, was standing in his day.

Moses was one of the most learned of the Egyptians, and the age of Solomon was famous for its proficiency in science and art, and the language of Job and David, and the style of Isaiah and of Daniel, and Ezra, prove them to have been men of high mental culture, as may be said of all the prophets, to a greater or less extent.

Luke and Paul were men of high standing as scholars in their day, and all the disciples of Christ, however ignorant on their first introduction to him, soon found in him one who, while he did not set aside the unlettered, yet strove to remedy the evil, and always improved every opportunity of enlightening the darkened mind of man.

Jesus Christ, a true educator, began at the foundation, and appearing to our race in the form and image of an equal, thus condescending that he might find a way to the heart of man, his teachings profoundly affected the minds of his hearers, and carefully removing the useless rubbish which had gathered about the corrupt systems of the literature of that age, he laid the only true foundation for a lasting and perfect building "moral excellence."

The most withering rebuke ever given to the proud Pharisee was that the key of knowledge was withheld from the people: and the gift of tongues on the day of Pentecost, opened to the church all the literary treasures of the world.

Paul, a chosen vessel to the Gentiles, was a man of vast learning; and sages and philosophers were awed and charmed at once by his zeal, his wisdom, eloquence and moral power; and when the apostasy had disgraced the work of Paul, and had stolen the livery of Heaven to serve the Devil in, and sought, not only the honors due to angels, but to act as God; then arose men of might to tear off this livery, and make its deformity to appear.

These apostles of the Reformation were men of learning; for demons incarnate had forbidden the Bible in the living languages, and if Luther would refresh his soul with the precious word, it must needs come to him in the form of a Greek copy of the Scriptures. But, under difficulties, he made this language almost as familiar as his mother tongue.

Melanethon was a ripe scholar. The reformers of that age were scholars—men of depth and strength of mind, as Huss, Wickliffe, Favel and Carlstadt; and throughout Europe, from the dawn of the Reformation, there was a revival of learning.

Bright lights shone out upon the world, eclipsing the satanic court at Rome, which had crushed learning in the bud, had imprisoned Galileo, and embittered the dying hours of Copernicus; and as God used learning as an instrument to reveal the snaky covering of Romanism, the jealousy of the pontiffs, and cardinals, and priests, was aroused, and before an astonished world the church of Rome appeared as the woman upon the scarlet-colored beast, with the golden cup of abominations and filthiness in her hand. Anti-christ had made its citadel of defence, the ignorance of the people, and by the power of God, the people arose, and opening the book of knowledge, transferred it from a dead language to living ones, and lo, the result!

Who is angry now? Aye, is it not the dragon? Germany is shaken to its center, and Switzerland. France and England are alarmed, as if an earthquake had rent their firm hills. Aye! Education has broken its shackles, and learning is being diffused, and every man in his own language is reading God's word. Minds thirsting for knowledge are feasting on words formerly locked for many dark centuries in an unknown tongue, long since lost to the world; and now such men as Luther have unlocked the precious treasure, and many eyes are wet with tears, and many hearts melt with gratitude and love.

And is not this enough to waken the ire and jealousy of crafty bishops who had fastened their licentious persons upon incomes from indulgences, and blasphemous rites and ceremonies? and who, while they broke every commandment in the decalogue, were intent upon the mint, anise and cummin of their respective domains? Was not their reputation and income at stake?

But they signally failed; and God's people being "helped," still advanced, and learning was, and continued to be, a means in the hands of God of holding in check the power of the enemy.

At the present day, it is true, learning may be by some almost defied, and made rather an end than a means: but the abuse of a gift does not diminish its real value to those who would gladly use it aright. Learning is not a god, to be worshiped, but rather a pickaxe for the reformer, as he cuts a passage through the mountains of error, and clears away the rubbish in his search for truth.

Gladly do we behold those who stand as messengers in the present reform, enriching their minds at the temple of wisdom.

It is to be hoped that no one will be so engrossed with study as to neglect meditation and prayer; let no one, in seeking intellectual treasures, neglect the moral training of the head and heart. Had Solomon added devotion in proportion to his wisdom, his sun would not have set under a cloud, as it did, (oh, how melancholy to think of it!) but bright and radiant would have been the record of his end.

JOSEPH CLARKE.