The fear of the LORDis the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
The fear of the Lord is reverent awe and love toward God, not cringing terror, showing itself in hating evil and fearing to offend Him or lose His favor. The knowledge of the holy that is understanding is personally knowing God the Holy One and Jesus Christ whom He sent, which is eternal life itself. This wisdom is the principal thing to be sought above silver and gold and every earthly talent, for even the highest gifts have no real worth without consecration to God. It is the first lesson and starting point of true education, to be laid before all other learning and kept ever in view in home, school and every work. Received into the heart it changes character, binds the soul to God, and brings length of days, peace, moral power and usefulness as a tree of life to all who lay hold on it.
Meaning of Reverent Fear
The fear of the Lord that begins wisdom is reverent awe and serious regard for God, not servile terror or slavish dread. It is fear of offending Him or losing His favor through impurity, fear of dishonoring His name, fear that scorns to imperil the soul by a wrong action, and fear to offend the Creator. That fear is itself understanding and hatred of evil, including pride and arrogance and the evil way and the forward mouth. It belongs to the first step toward gaining a relish for heavenly, holy things, since without love for God there is no relish for holy things, and it is lived out during the time of earthly sojourning under God's everlasting arms so that faith centered in God cannot be moved and the enemy cannot deceive or harm. Applied to money as a talent lent by God, it means honoring Him by wise trading on His goods rather than using means for self-gratification to dishonor His name and misrepresent His character.
This fear means wholehearted loyalty to God who looks upon the heart, giving Him the whole heart and setting the affections on things above and not on things on the earth. The heart is the citadel of the whole person, and until it is wholly on the Lord's side the enemy holds a stronghold there that no human power can dislodge. Loving God supremely and one's neighbor as oneself expresses this fear through keeping His commandments, walking a pleasant and peaceful path that still meets annoyances from a fallen world without discouragement because Christ has overcome the world. It begins with the love and obedience owed to God as Creator who bestowed every blessing, formed humanity, understands human needs, and rejoices in the happiness of His creatures, and is therefore entitled to implicit faith and ready obedience. Understanding comes through knowing God's word, which surpasses all other knowledge, guides the obedient toward eternal salvation, brings great reward, and includes departing from evil learned from Scripture.
The fear is lived daily in humility of mind with love for God rather than trust in one's own worldly wisdom, giving a power far more valuable than learning or eloquence. Love and fear of God bind the soul to Him like a thread of gold, simplify life's choices and movements, and through faith connect the tempted soul struggling against the passions of the natural heart with the only One who can give help so as to overcome. This reverence should lead to using abilities diligently, keeping God before the mind, cultivating pure and elevated thoughts, and working wisely, faithfully and in unity under consciousness that every thought and action is open to the notice of heaven. It is maintained by beginning each day with prayer and continually seeking guidance, depending on divine aid in distrust of self, resisting enticement to evil, and rebuking sin.
Meaning of Holy Knowledge
The knowledge of the holy that gives understanding is personal knowledge of God, the Holy One, and of Jesus Christ whom He sent. Reverence for the Lord is the starting point of wisdom, and knowing God is the source and foundation of true understanding, true education, and character built in harmony with His character. That knowledge guards against temptation, enables likeness to God in character, and prepares for usefulness in this life and for the life to come. Satan opposes human beings gaining this true knowledge of God and Christ, and is willing for them to learn anything else instead.
This knowledge is the foundation for life and godliness and is bound up with eternal life, for to know the only true God and Jesus Christ is eternal life itself. It is the power and soul of true education, and it endures forever. The capacity to know God is constantly enlarged by diligent, faithful, persevering study, bringing growing comprehension of the great plan of salvation and active cooperation with Christ in saving souls. True knowledge of Him therefore requires pressing on to know Him more fully, continually learning His will, walking in agreement with it, and uniting earnest labor with constant prayer for saving grace to teach every step.
This knowing is not cold intellectual acceptance, mere book learning, or mental training alone. Heart education is of more importance than education gained merely from books, for reckoning must include eternity, and leaving eternity out brings irrecoverable failure. Mere intellectual religion does not satisfy the soul; students must have deep religious experience, place the will on the side of God's will, be set free from ideas, habits and practices learned under darkness, be delivered from everything opposed to loyalty to God, and resist evil. It is truth received into the heart through God's love and grace, changing character, making the life tender, compassionate, humble and contrite, freeing from darkness, and fitting for God's service in this life and in the immortal life. Talents become fully useful only when brought under the full control of the Spirit of God, knowledge and science must be vitalized by Him to serve the noblest purposes, and only a heart ennobled by grace and with Christ abiding in it by faith best comprehends the real value of education and is wise in God's sight.
God is revealed and known through His Word and the works of creation, and both are means of learning to know Him. The knowledge of God is obtained from His Word, and reverently studying it with quiet devout attention brings the mind into communion with Him, refines character, strengthens the mind, gives sound understanding, preserves a steady mind and firm principles, and makes known the duty of ordering life by its principles and the true way to live. Making God first brings the purifying influence of His Spirit on the heart and stimulates the intellect, producing well-developed, symmetrical character rather than what is dwarfed or one-sided. Experimental knowledge of true godliness in daily consecration and service gives the highest culture of mind, soul and body, prevents self-exaltation, teaches accountability to employ every faculty to the best purpose, and leads to honoring God and blessing others, while the attributes of God seen in created works can be appreciated only with knowledge of the Creator.
Wisdom's Nature and Blessings
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and wisdom itself is the principal thing to be sought together with understanding. This wisdom is divinely given, heaven-born, coming from God alone, and is set forth in inspired principles of holy living and high endeavor that are to govern every act of life and lead to godliness. Christ is to be recognized as counselor, infinite in wisdom and ever ready to help, with His words as the stronghold and His discourses repeated in His own words, and the principles of true godliness as the sure foundation of all work. All things are to be considered from the standpoint of His Word, with God made chief and with consciousness that He sees, hears every word, and knows the motives behind words and actions. This calls for daily humble prayer in different companies and places, working in simplicity rather than fanciful and theatrical excitement, taking time for calm, sensible, convincing Bible readings, letting the Holy Spirit work on penitent souls, and placing every true worker under the true theocracy in daily conversion. It is the wisdom needed to warn the cities, needed by professional men in every calling and in special measure by physicians as co-laborers with Christ who deal with all classes of minds and diseases, and needed in schools and sanitariums to keep youth from estrangement from God.
Reverence for God gives that divine wisdom, bringing heaven-born dignity, making its possessors powerful agents for good, firm as a rock to principle yet kind and courteous to all, moving with greatest caution lest mismanagement injure one of God's creatures, driven by pure unselfish motives to adorn the doctrine of Christ. Taking counsel of God brings the Great Healer to work with human effort, and living the truth as it is in Jesus in the godliness that results from grace leads souls to drink of the water of life. The very best knowledge is Jesus and His love interwoven with all education, for God is the Source of all wisdom, and Bible religion does not clip wings. To soar away from Him in ambitious projects leaves a person amounting to no more than a soap-bubble, so the Prince of life must be brought into every plan and every organization, with no excess possible of Jesus or of Scripture history in school. Reverence for God is worth more than all the treasure the world contains, and must lead those who know the truth to practice the truth, since present conduct decides eternal destiny and each is to work for the honor of God's name in the world as His vineyard.
This wisdom is more valuable than silver and fine gold and rubies, than anything desired, than wealth, worldly esteem, learning, eloquence, intellectual quickness or talent, and understanding of God's Word is better than all other knowledge. A pure and humble heart walking in humility of mind with love for God has a power far more valuable than learning or eloquence. Any knowledge gained without the fear of the Lord as the necessary foundation of all true knowledge has no real worth. Without consecration to God even the highest talents and knowledge have no real worth and can be perverted to ruin, entrapping through a little scientific knowledge unless youth are equipped with God-fearing wisdom to resist infidel books, skepticism and doubt and to give a reason for hope with meekness and fear.
Wisdom brings length of days, riches and honor, pleasantness and peace, and is a tree of life to all who lay hold and retain it. Its path is pleasant and peaceful, marked out as loving God supremely and loving neighbor as self, which is keeping the commandments of God. Those who walk this way will still meet annoyances from a fallen world but are not discouraged, because Christ has overcome the world. True wisdom includes learning the divine laws given for human good and obeying the laws of life and health, honoring God with the body as His property by correct habits of eating, drinking and dressing, turning from errors therein to hear and receive truth into a good and willing heart. When people with sinful habits yield to divine truth, God's Word applied to the heart gives light and understanding, revives moral power, gives clearer understanding and security in Christ fixed on the Eternal Rock, and health improves, so that religion and the laws of health work together and practicing nature's laws with renovating grace gives a new lease of physical and spiritual life.
Love and fear of God bind the soul to Him like a thread of gold, uniting the human agent to the divine and simplifying all the movements and choices of life. Through faith the tempted soul struggling against temptation and battling the passions of the natural heart is connected with the only One who can give help, so as to become an overcomer. This requires overcoming as Christ overcame by constantly guarding against Satan's temptations, keeping appetite and passions restricted under the control of enlightened conscience so intellect stays unimpaired and perceptive powers stay clear. In that clarity Satan's workings and snares are not mistaken for God's providence. Reaching the final reward and victory promised to overcomers comes only through obedience and continual effort involving toil, privation, denial of self and self-denial as the Redeemer endured.
Foundation of True Education
Reverence for the Lord is the starting point and foundation of wisdom and therefore the first lesson and starting point of true education, to be laid first before reading, writing, figures and accounts. Loyalty to God is the sum and substance of all education and must be presented as its foundation, and when the fear of the Lord is taught the wisdom of God comes with it. This foundation is to be laid especially in the earliest years, in the first seven to ten years when lasting impressions are made, by instruction from God's Word that forms character fit for the future immortal life and trains and disciplines children who belong to God by creation and redemption for His service. It is to be kept ever in view as the safeguard in home, workshop, business and every branch of learning, with all educational work in harmony with heaven so that youth can be transferred to the higher grade and take with them the education received here. The living oracles of God must lie at the base with a clear distinction kept between the sacred and the common, and to place human wisdom first as essential is a breach of accountability to God, while the use of books by infidel authors that omit this foundation is against God's order. Those who lay this foundation become happy men and women who help and do not hinder, keep their worth for Christian service and missionary work, pray for those in charge, and act on the principles of the law of God, and as children look to Jesus and receive instruction from His Word He receives them and they become children of God.
Understanding God's Word is better and more valuable than all other knowledge, and in true education this foundation matters more than accumulating knowledge. God's precepts are to be accepted as the rule of life, and Scripture as the revelation of God's will to His children and as His revealed will and living oracles must lie at the base and be the textbook. Wherever it is read in the family circle, the school, or the church, it should be read with quiet, devout attention, as though God were present and speaking. Close union with God on the part of both teachers and students is the very foundation of all true prosperity for a Christian college, with true education studying Scripture and maintaining a vital connection with God, directing learning toward honoring and serving Him rather than selfish ambition. Studying and obeying the Bible cultivates understanding, education in the sciences should therefore give the Bible a prominent place and keep vital godliness before students as essential, while neglect of Bible study causes the fear of the Lord to fade.
Knowledge of God's Word and of God through Jesus Christ belongs to the highest knowledge, and learning science and literature alone or book learning and worldly education alone is not the highest education and cannot make a person complete. True learning must start with reverence for the God of science and cannot exalt the sciences above Him, but must join book learning with wisdom from above and an intelligent knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, which is essential knowledge. Without time for prayer, communion with God, self-examination, and appreciation for the wisdom that comes alone from God, students are ignorant when they think themselves very wise, all learning is deficient, and schools and colleges are found wanting. This wisdom is consistent with the study of true science and is shown in a life shaped by God, lived in communion with the Creator, and guided by an understanding of human purpose and accountability to God, calling for a faith that works by love and purifies the soul according to the light received. Medical students and all students should acquire every kind of scientific knowledge and cultivate experience and minds, while daily recognizing that wisdom begins with fearing God and seeking wisdom from Him, for without wisdom from above knowledge can foster pride and self-sufficiency, leave them vulnerable to Satan's deception, and let years of educational preparation become a hindrance instead of an advancement to the work of God.
Obtaining a true education and a knowledge of God's Word requires teachers who have experience and wisdom from God to instruct the youth, who have themselves learned this fear, depend continually on Him, walk humbly with Him, and labor in humility and prayer. Religion is a foundational principle for education, and love and fear of God with the precepts and principles of religion are the central principle and first steps in gaining knowledge, so a school should continue the Christian teaching and training begun in the home rather than substitute the world's customs and maxims. Talents become fully useful only when brought under the full control of the Spirit of God, and knowledge and science must be vitalized by the Spirit of God to serve the noblest purposes, for only the Christian can make the right use of knowledge and knowledge is power only when united with true piety. Science must be viewed from a religious standpoint to be fully appreciated, leading all to worship the God of science, and the attributes of God seen in created works can be appreciated only with a knowledge of the Creator, while only a heart ennobled by the grace of God best comprehends the real value of education. Teachers need not only theory of truth but experimental knowledge of the way of holiness to lead youth to the fountains of truth, to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, with a soul emptied of self made noble and Christ abiding in the heart by faith making wise in God's sight; students should put relationship with God and study of the Bible first rather than letting academic work displace prayer, worship, or other religious duties, and a student who relies on God and grows in knowledge of Him is laying the foundation for a thorough education. Schools must be governed by the Lord, free from error and corrupting influences, studying Scripture and maintaining vital connection with God and directing learning toward honoring and serving Him rather than selfish ambition, or they fail their purpose.
Knowledge of God is the foundation of true education and the basis for building character in harmony with His character, and reverence for the Lord as the starting point of wisdom begins with learning God's plan for restoring people to Christ's character and living according to it. God is revealed through His Word and the works of creation, and both are means of learning to know Him, while reverently studying His Word brings the mind into communion with Him, refining character and strengthening the mind. This wisdom is more valuable than wealth or anything else people desire, and knowing God and His requirements opens a student's understanding to recognize responsibilities to God and the world and directs learning toward developing talents for the best service. Wisdom is more than learning from books: knowledge becomes a power for good only when guided by religious principle, knowledge pursued with duty to God and service to others can be used for good, and true education joins religious principles with study. The first and most precious knowledge is knowledge of Christ, and true education restores God's image in the soul. The true philosophy of education is learning what to do to be saved and building Christlike character, with students prizing opportunities as above price and making the most of them, aiming not to stand highest in book-learning but to increase efficiency to do good and spread the knowledge of Christ in the world; by diligent, faithful, persevering study the capacity to know God is constantly enlarged, and that knowledge is eternal life to the receiver, bringing growing comprehension of the great plan of salvation and active cooperation with Christ in His work of saving souls, developing every faculty for service and preparing for this life and the life to come. It requires no single exact method but conscientious use of varied gifts without copying others, with knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ meant to grow continually, though when people feel wise above a Thus saith the Lord they must become fools in order to become truly wise.
Professing parents must teach reverent fear of God to their children both by instruction and by example as part of earnestly striving for their salvation. Education does not mean mere knowledge of books, for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and children should learn this before other knowledge, with their education ultimately leading them to know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. This means dealing honestly with God who looks upon the heart, giving Him the whole heart, appreciating His countless blessings, and training in gratitude offerings until affections are set on things above and not on things on the earth. It leads them to receive truth in the heart, see sin as offense against God, obey all His commandments, and guard the heart purchased by Christ until Christ is enshrined as King, for the heart is the citadel of the whole person and until the heart is wholly on the Lord's side the enemy holds a stronghold there that no human power can dislodge. Parents who reject God's ways and choose their own impulses fail to value this wisdom, discard home religion, and lead their children away from obedience and toward spiritual danger. Wise parents keep the restoration of the image of God in the soul and the knowledge of Christ ever before the minds of their children, and as parents rightly use every means of love and wisdom to restore a broken limb to soundness, they are required to use still greater tact, patience, and persevering effort to remedy blemishes of the soul, with the father acting to his children as Christian teacher, ruler, and friend, binding them to his heart by the strong ties of sanctified love founded in duty faithfully performed.
Obedient Life in Practice
Walking in this wisdom is accepting the guidance of infinite love and pursuing the course that ennobles character, strengthens intellect, and alone prepares for true enjoyment and real usefulness. It is loving God supremely and loving neighbor as self, which is keeping the commandments of God, and those who walk this pleasant and peaceful path still meet the annoyances of a fallen world without discouragement because Christ has overcome the world. Reverence means constantly trimming the inner lamp, habitually obeying God's law, working diligently as a useful laborer, and consecrating soul, body and spirit fully to Christ in close connection with Him. Responsibility is measured exactly by talents entrusted, with the heaviest burden on the one with greatest opportunities and abilities, for the present is the day of trust and time and speech are to be faithfully traded for Him. True fear includes realization of the great love Christ expressed for sinful beings and a life guided by high principles of living, earnest, zealous faith, refusing to flatter the impenitent with an agreeable pleasant religion whose peaceableness in unrighteousness never leads to loving and fearing God.
It includes learning the divine laws given for human good and obeying the laws of life and health as the direct path to heaven, honoring God with the body as His property by correct habits of eating, drinking and dressing to avoid sickness. Turning from errors in eating, drinking and dressing prepares the heart to hear and receive truth into a good and willing heart, and practicing nature's laws together with receiving renovating grace gives a new lease of physical and spiritual life in pleasantness and peace. True wisdom requires overcoming as Christ overcame by guarding against temptation and keeping appetite and passions restricted under enlightened conscience, so intellect stays unimpaired, perceptions stay clear, Satan's workings are not mistaken for providence, and the final victory promised to overcomers is reached only through obedience and continual effort with toil, privation and self-denial. It means using probationary time to become acquainted with the precious truths of the Bible and to practice its precepts for life and health, instead of gratifying carnal desires and personal inclinations by feeding the mind on fictitious tales and novel-reading that ruins the mind, diseases the imagination, breeds vague unrest and appetite for unwholesome mental food, and unbalances the mind.
It calls for integrity that carries religion into studies, work and every duty, keeping temporal interests subject to the higher claims of the gospel, so that success in any pursuit never requires sacrificing principle. Reverence should lead the young to use abilities diligently, keep God before them, cultivate pure elevated thoughts and willingly obey while faithfully cultivating the intellectual and moral faculties entrusted to them, knowing every thought and action is open to heaven and angels minister to those striving to overcome wrong habits and resist Satan's devices. This reverence was the foundation of the greatness of upright men who learned self-denial and self-control early in life, and ambition and achievement are right when grounded in that foundation as the basis of all progress and true greatness.
It is maintained by daily acknowledging God and seeking wisdom from Him, for without wisdom from above even scientific knowledge and cultivation of mind and experience foster pride and self-sufficiency and leave the learner vulnerable to deception. Reverent fear dwelling in the heart gives steadfastness of purpose, deep humility, abiding dependence on divine aid, and beginning each day with prayer with the heart continually breathing petition for guidance and support, so that to pray well is the better half of study, joined with time for communion, self-examination and appreciation of wisdom that comes from God alone through faith working by love and purifying the soul. It means considering all things from the standpoint of the Word, recognizing Christ as counselor infinite in wisdom and always ready to help, making Him chief in all that is done, and living with consciousness that God sees, hears every word and knows motives behind words and actions. Teachers and workers are to stay the mind upon Christ, humbly and thankfully receive in order to impart, show Christlike love for souls, seek not own benefit but to bless others, go to Him for instruction until light is received, and bring heavenly wisdom into daily work by living truth in the godliness that leads souls to drink of the water of life.
In schools, sanitariums and mission work this fear must be visibly known and seen, for such institutions are God's agencies for reaching those nothing else will reach, raised as His memorial and witness where the light of truth burns brightly so all who come recognize it. As long as truth remains the honored and respected banner, God's keeping power stays with the institution, and when truth is no longer honored His keeping power is withdrawn. Those who begin there with this fear and heed the counsel of experienced people are fitted to bless others by carrying the light of present truth to their own community and to others.
Examples and Solemn Warnings
Daniel and his companions show what reverence for God as the beginning of wisdom looks like in youth, for that reverence formed the foundation of their greatness and held them true to the lessons received at home when they had to choose their own course in Babylon. Their refusal to join in sinful indulgence, even under strong temptation at court, and specifically to eat the king's food, was this reverence put into practice through temperance and loyalty to religious principle. Because they would let nothing interfere with religious principle, God favored them, His Spirit strengthened their faithful purposes and noble resolutions, and He gave them skill in learning and understanding, including understanding of visions and dreams. When young people do not make God their beginning their abilities remain largely undeveloped, and seeking greatness apart from heaven does not produce solid worth, whereas resisting temptation and avoiding sinful influences brings God's favor and moral strength. Wisdom starts with loving and fearing God, and without that love and fear even dazzling intellectual attainments are not true wisdom and can be turned to war against the Maker, while every violation of conscience is sin bringing death as its sure penalty. The verse must therefore be taught to children from when they are very young with persevering effort and patient forbearance, by teaching God's statutes and commands and interweaving His law with knowledge of the sciences, since spiritual training cannot be separated from intellectual training and true knowledge of God's Word is the only true scientific education bringing the highest good, as perfected in the thorough education given to Daniel and his companions.
The three Hebrews show the same reverence as the starting point of wisdom and the foundation of all real prosperity, learned from the history of Israel's fathers that disobedience to God brings dishonor, disaster and death. That history created in them unbreakable allegiance to the Ruler of the universe that threats could not turn aside, keeping allegiance to the great Ruler of nations above human threats and above the requirements of earthly rulers. Their fear of God kept them faithful despite the king's threats, refusing even a hair's breadth of turning from duty to the Creator to join false worship of the golden image, even under pain of death. It gave them calm courage and calm trust in God in danger to face the furnace while trusting that God is able to deliver and will be glorified in delivering. Making God one's strength and keeping His fear continually before oneself in all life's transactions requires prayer as a necessity, because one dares not trust one's own moral power. This fear keeps a person true to early religious instruction amid the severest temptations and influences calculated to subvert those who vacillate between principle and inclination, producing a faultless, true, firm, noble character with genuine meekness, peaceful toward all yet unbending as the lofty cedar wherever principle is involved, respectful and obedient to authority in all that does not collide with allegiance to God.
Even the youngest child who loves and fears God is greater in God's sight than a talented, learned person who neglects salvation, for consecrating heart and life to God connects a person with the source and Fountain of all wisdom and excellence and does not make youth weak-minded or inefficient. Samuel proved this as a child by loving and fearing God, refusing the company and evil ways of those who feared not God, and making it his constant effort to become what God would have him become. David showed this reverence by trusting God for protection and continually praying to walk before Him in a blameless way, in reliance on God and desire to live rightly. Luther exemplified it by steadfastness and humility in prayerful dependence, Wycliffe by joining piety with learning and scholarship, and Waldensian youth by joining reverence with practical knowledge of people and active life, which they held compatible with wisdom and believed could broaden the mind and sharpen perception.
By contrast Ahithophel lacked this God-given enlightenment, so he wrongly treated treason and incest as a path to success, failing to reckon with God's overruling providence. Rejecting the fear of God as folly reverses the truth that reverence for God is the foundation of wisdom, and during the French Revolution this rejection accompanied the abolition of worship and the burning of the Bible.
Without this beginning all learning is deficient and found wanting, and any knowledge gained without it has no real worth for eternal life. True learning must start with reverence for the God of science and cannot exalt the sciences above Him, for wisdom comes from God alone through humility before Him, not trust in one's own worldly wisdom, and obedience to God is worth more than the world's esteem. Without time for prayer, communion with God, self-examination, and appreciation for wisdom from God, students are ignorant when they think themselves very wise, and scientific learning alone leaves a person helpless and questioning reality, since science alone without knowledge of the Bible and of God does not give true wisdom. A person with little education who knows God and Jesus Christ has more enduring wisdom than a highly learned person who rejects God's instruction, and a pure and humble heart is better than all learning acquired apart from that fear. The highest education is therefore not science and literature alone but includes knowledge of God's Word, knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, requiring training that honors the inspiration of the Bible instead of exposing youth to unbelief, criticism and questioning about it. Youth will meet skeptics and infidels everywhere and must be equipped with God-fearing wisdom so they are not entrapped by Satan through a little scientific knowledge, but can resist infidel books and doubt and give a reason for hope with meekness and fear. Neglect calls for repentance and redeeming past neglect by providing such schools, with willingness and obedience bringing blessing and refusal bringing destruction, lest years of educational preparation become a hindrance instead of an advancement to God's work and lest those with opportunity prove unfit and injurious through pride, self-sufficiency, deception, skepticism and elevated ungodliness.
The histories of good and bad men faithfully recorded in Scripture impress this as the most practical lesson, that living without God is a fatal, hopeless deception, that the fear of the Lord means keeping His commandments in which there is great reward, and that no honor or favor of the world can compensate for one hour or one act of disobedience, which brings dishonor and disaster to oneself. This will be proved in the long-expected great day of God when every person's work is tested by fire. Then one hour of transgression will be exposed as great loss, while fear of the Lord will be shown to be wisdom because it produces steadfast principle maintained at any cost. The pleasure of self-indulgence, with selfishness and false religion, will perish as wood, hay and stubble consumed by fire, but this God-fearing life is gold of true simple humble faith that is imperishable, never loses value, and endures forever.
The fear of the Lord is reverent awe and love toward God, not cringing terror, showing itself in hating evil and fearing to offend Him or lose His favor. The knowledge of the holy that is understanding is personally knowing God the Holy One and Jesus Christ whom He sent, which is eternal life itself. This wisdom is the principal thing to be sought above silver and gold and every earthly talent, for even the highest gifts have no real worth without consecration to God. It is the first lesson and starting point of true education, to be laid before all other learning and kept ever in view in home, school and every work. Received into the heart it changes character, binds the soul to God, and brings length of days, peace, moral power and usefulness as a tree of life to all who lay hold on it.
Meaning of Reverent Fear
The fear of the Lord that begins wisdom is reverent awe and serious regard for God, not servile terror or slavish dread. It is fear of offending Him or losing His favor through impurity, fear of dishonoring His name, fear that scorns to imperil the soul by a wrong action, and fear to offend the Creator. That fear is itself understanding and hatred of evil, including pride and arrogance and the evil way and the forward mouth. It belongs to the first step toward gaining a relish for heavenly, holy things, since without love for God there is no relish for holy things, and it is lived out during the time of earthly sojourning under God's everlasting arms so that faith centered in God cannot be moved and the enemy cannot deceive or harm. Applied to money as a talent lent by God, it means honoring Him by wise trading on His goods rather than using means for self-gratification to dishonor His name and misrepresent His character.
This fear means wholehearted loyalty to God who looks upon the heart, giving Him the whole heart and setting the affections on things above and not on things on the earth. The heart is the citadel of the whole person, and until it is wholly on the Lord's side the enemy holds a stronghold there that no human power can dislodge. Loving God supremely and one's neighbor as oneself expresses this fear through keeping His commandments, walking a pleasant and peaceful path that still meets annoyances from a fallen world without discouragement because Christ has overcome the world. It begins with the love and obedience owed to God as Creator who bestowed every blessing, formed humanity, understands human needs, and rejoices in the happiness of His creatures, and is therefore entitled to implicit faith and ready obedience. Understanding comes through knowing God's word, which surpasses all other knowledge, guides the obedient toward eternal salvation, brings great reward, and includes departing from evil learned from Scripture.
The fear is lived daily in humility of mind with love for God rather than trust in one's own worldly wisdom, giving a power far more valuable than learning or eloquence. Love and fear of God bind the soul to Him like a thread of gold, simplify life's choices and movements, and through faith connect the tempted soul struggling against the passions of the natural heart with the only One who can give help so as to overcome. This reverence should lead to using abilities diligently, keeping God before the mind, cultivating pure and elevated thoughts, and working wisely, faithfully and in unity under consciousness that every thought and action is open to the notice of heaven. It is maintained by beginning each day with prayer and continually seeking guidance, depending on divine aid in distrust of self, resisting enticement to evil, and rebuking sin.
Meaning of Holy Knowledge
The knowledge of the holy that gives understanding is personal knowledge of God, the Holy One, and of Jesus Christ whom He sent. Reverence for the Lord is the starting point of wisdom, and knowing God is the source and foundation of true understanding, true education, and character built in harmony with His character. That knowledge guards against temptation, enables likeness to God in character, and prepares for usefulness in this life and for the life to come. Satan opposes human beings gaining this true knowledge of God and Christ, and is willing for them to learn anything else instead.
This knowledge is the foundation for life and godliness and is bound up with eternal life, for to know the only true God and Jesus Christ is eternal life itself. It is the power and soul of true education, and it endures forever. The capacity to know God is constantly enlarged by diligent, faithful, persevering study, bringing growing comprehension of the great plan of salvation and active cooperation with Christ in saving souls. True knowledge of Him therefore requires pressing on to know Him more fully, continually learning His will, walking in agreement with it, and uniting earnest labor with constant prayer for saving grace to teach every step.
This knowing is not cold intellectual acceptance, mere book learning, or mental training alone. Heart education is of more importance than education gained merely from books, for reckoning must include eternity, and leaving eternity out brings irrecoverable failure. Mere intellectual religion does not satisfy the soul; students must have deep religious experience, place the will on the side of God's will, be set free from ideas, habits and practices learned under darkness, be delivered from everything opposed to loyalty to God, and resist evil. It is truth received into the heart through God's love and grace, changing character, making the life tender, compassionate, humble and contrite, freeing from darkness, and fitting for God's service in this life and in the immortal life. Talents become fully useful only when brought under the full control of the Spirit of God, knowledge and science must be vitalized by Him to serve the noblest purposes, and only a heart ennobled by grace and with Christ abiding in it by faith best comprehends the real value of education and is wise in God's sight.
God is revealed and known through His Word and the works of creation, and both are means of learning to know Him. The knowledge of God is obtained from His Word, and reverently studying it with quiet devout attention brings the mind into communion with Him, refines character, strengthens the mind, gives sound understanding, preserves a steady mind and firm principles, and makes known the duty of ordering life by its principles and the true way to live. Making God first brings the purifying influence of His Spirit on the heart and stimulates the intellect, producing well-developed, symmetrical character rather than what is dwarfed or one-sided. Experimental knowledge of true godliness in daily consecration and service gives the highest culture of mind, soul and body, prevents self-exaltation, teaches accountability to employ every faculty to the best purpose, and leads to honoring God and blessing others, while the attributes of God seen in created works can be appreciated only with knowledge of the Creator.
Wisdom's Nature and Blessings
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and wisdom itself is the principal thing to be sought together with understanding. This wisdom is divinely given, heaven-born, coming from God alone, and is set forth in inspired principles of holy living and high endeavor that are to govern every act of life and lead to godliness. Christ is to be recognized as counselor, infinite in wisdom and ever ready to help, with His words as the stronghold and His discourses repeated in His own words, and the principles of true godliness as the sure foundation of all work. All things are to be considered from the standpoint of His Word, with God made chief and with consciousness that He sees, hears every word, and knows the motives behind words and actions. This calls for daily humble prayer in different companies and places, working in simplicity rather than fanciful and theatrical excitement, taking time for calm, sensible, convincing Bible readings, letting the Holy Spirit work on penitent souls, and placing every true worker under the true theocracy in daily conversion. It is the wisdom needed to warn the cities, needed by professional men in every calling and in special measure by physicians as co-laborers with Christ who deal with all classes of minds and diseases, and needed in schools and sanitariums to keep youth from estrangement from God.
Reverence for God gives that divine wisdom, bringing heaven-born dignity, making its possessors powerful agents for good, firm as a rock to principle yet kind and courteous to all, moving with greatest caution lest mismanagement injure one of God's creatures, driven by pure unselfish motives to adorn the doctrine of Christ. Taking counsel of God brings the Great Healer to work with human effort, and living the truth as it is in Jesus in the godliness that results from grace leads souls to drink of the water of life. The very best knowledge is Jesus and His love interwoven with all education, for God is the Source of all wisdom, and Bible religion does not clip wings. To soar away from Him in ambitious projects leaves a person amounting to no more than a soap-bubble, so the Prince of life must be brought into every plan and every organization, with no excess possible of Jesus or of Scripture history in school. Reverence for God is worth more than all the treasure the world contains, and must lead those who know the truth to practice the truth, since present conduct decides eternal destiny and each is to work for the honor of God's name in the world as His vineyard.
This wisdom is more valuable than silver and fine gold and rubies, than anything desired, than wealth, worldly esteem, learning, eloquence, intellectual quickness or talent, and understanding of God's Word is better than all other knowledge. A pure and humble heart walking in humility of mind with love for God has a power far more valuable than learning or eloquence. Any knowledge gained without the fear of the Lord as the necessary foundation of all true knowledge has no real worth. Without consecration to God even the highest talents and knowledge have no real worth and can be perverted to ruin, entrapping through a little scientific knowledge unless youth are equipped with God-fearing wisdom to resist infidel books, skepticism and doubt and to give a reason for hope with meekness and fear.
Wisdom brings length of days, riches and honor, pleasantness and peace, and is a tree of life to all who lay hold and retain it. Its path is pleasant and peaceful, marked out as loving God supremely and loving neighbor as self, which is keeping the commandments of God. Those who walk this way will still meet annoyances from a fallen world but are not discouraged, because Christ has overcome the world. True wisdom includes learning the divine laws given for human good and obeying the laws of life and health, honoring God with the body as His property by correct habits of eating, drinking and dressing, turning from errors therein to hear and receive truth into a good and willing heart. When people with sinful habits yield to divine truth, God's Word applied to the heart gives light and understanding, revives moral power, gives clearer understanding and security in Christ fixed on the Eternal Rock, and health improves, so that religion and the laws of health work together and practicing nature's laws with renovating grace gives a new lease of physical and spiritual life.
Love and fear of God bind the soul to Him like a thread of gold, uniting the human agent to the divine and simplifying all the movements and choices of life. Through faith the tempted soul struggling against temptation and battling the passions of the natural heart is connected with the only One who can give help, so as to become an overcomer. This requires overcoming as Christ overcame by constantly guarding against Satan's temptations, keeping appetite and passions restricted under the control of enlightened conscience so intellect stays unimpaired and perceptive powers stay clear. In that clarity Satan's workings and snares are not mistaken for God's providence. Reaching the final reward and victory promised to overcomers comes only through obedience and continual effort involving toil, privation, denial of self and self-denial as the Redeemer endured.
Foundation of True Education
Reverence for the Lord is the starting point and foundation of wisdom and therefore the first lesson and starting point of true education, to be laid first before reading, writing, figures and accounts. Loyalty to God is the sum and substance of all education and must be presented as its foundation, and when the fear of the Lord is taught the wisdom of God comes with it. This foundation is to be laid especially in the earliest years, in the first seven to ten years when lasting impressions are made, by instruction from God's Word that forms character fit for the future immortal life and trains and disciplines children who belong to God by creation and redemption for His service. It is to be kept ever in view as the safeguard in home, workshop, business and every branch of learning, with all educational work in harmony with heaven so that youth can be transferred to the higher grade and take with them the education received here. The living oracles of God must lie at the base with a clear distinction kept between the sacred and the common, and to place human wisdom first as essential is a breach of accountability to God, while the use of books by infidel authors that omit this foundation is against God's order. Those who lay this foundation become happy men and women who help and do not hinder, keep their worth for Christian service and missionary work, pray for those in charge, and act on the principles of the law of God, and as children look to Jesus and receive instruction from His Word He receives them and they become children of God.
Understanding God's Word is better and more valuable than all other knowledge, and in true education this foundation matters more than accumulating knowledge. God's precepts are to be accepted as the rule of life, and Scripture as the revelation of God's will to His children and as His revealed will and living oracles must lie at the base and be the textbook. Wherever it is read in the family circle, the school, or the church, it should be read with quiet, devout attention, as though God were present and speaking. Close union with God on the part of both teachers and students is the very foundation of all true prosperity for a Christian college, with true education studying Scripture and maintaining a vital connection with God, directing learning toward honoring and serving Him rather than selfish ambition. Studying and obeying the Bible cultivates understanding, education in the sciences should therefore give the Bible a prominent place and keep vital godliness before students as essential, while neglect of Bible study causes the fear of the Lord to fade.
Knowledge of God's Word and of God through Jesus Christ belongs to the highest knowledge, and learning science and literature alone or book learning and worldly education alone is not the highest education and cannot make a person complete. True learning must start with reverence for the God of science and cannot exalt the sciences above Him, but must join book learning with wisdom from above and an intelligent knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, which is essential knowledge. Without time for prayer, communion with God, self-examination, and appreciation for the wisdom that comes alone from God, students are ignorant when they think themselves very wise, all learning is deficient, and schools and colleges are found wanting. This wisdom is consistent with the study of true science and is shown in a life shaped by God, lived in communion with the Creator, and guided by an understanding of human purpose and accountability to God, calling for a faith that works by love and purifies the soul according to the light received. Medical students and all students should acquire every kind of scientific knowledge and cultivate experience and minds, while daily recognizing that wisdom begins with fearing God and seeking wisdom from Him, for without wisdom from above knowledge can foster pride and self-sufficiency, leave them vulnerable to Satan's deception, and let years of educational preparation become a hindrance instead of an advancement to the work of God.
Obtaining a true education and a knowledge of God's Word requires teachers who have experience and wisdom from God to instruct the youth, who have themselves learned this fear, depend continually on Him, walk humbly with Him, and labor in humility and prayer. Religion is a foundational principle for education, and love and fear of God with the precepts and principles of religion are the central principle and first steps in gaining knowledge, so a school should continue the Christian teaching and training begun in the home rather than substitute the world's customs and maxims. Talents become fully useful only when brought under the full control of the Spirit of God, and knowledge and science must be vitalized by the Spirit of God to serve the noblest purposes, for only the Christian can make the right use of knowledge and knowledge is power only when united with true piety. Science must be viewed from a religious standpoint to be fully appreciated, leading all to worship the God of science, and the attributes of God seen in created works can be appreciated only with a knowledge of the Creator, while only a heart ennobled by the grace of God best comprehends the real value of education. Teachers need not only theory of truth but experimental knowledge of the way of holiness to lead youth to the fountains of truth, to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, with a soul emptied of self made noble and Christ abiding in the heart by faith making wise in God's sight; students should put relationship with God and study of the Bible first rather than letting academic work displace prayer, worship, or other religious duties, and a student who relies on God and grows in knowledge of Him is laying the foundation for a thorough education. Schools must be governed by the Lord, free from error and corrupting influences, studying Scripture and maintaining vital connection with God and directing learning toward honoring and serving Him rather than selfish ambition, or they fail their purpose.
Knowledge of God is the foundation of true education and the basis for building character in harmony with His character, and reverence for the Lord as the starting point of wisdom begins with learning God's plan for restoring people to Christ's character and living according to it. God is revealed through His Word and the works of creation, and both are means of learning to know Him, while reverently studying His Word brings the mind into communion with Him, refining character and strengthening the mind. This wisdom is more valuable than wealth or anything else people desire, and knowing God and His requirements opens a student's understanding to recognize responsibilities to God and the world and directs learning toward developing talents for the best service. Wisdom is more than learning from books: knowledge becomes a power for good only when guided by religious principle, knowledge pursued with duty to God and service to others can be used for good, and true education joins religious principles with study. The first and most precious knowledge is knowledge of Christ, and true education restores God's image in the soul. The true philosophy of education is learning what to do to be saved and building Christlike character, with students prizing opportunities as above price and making the most of them, aiming not to stand highest in book-learning but to increase efficiency to do good and spread the knowledge of Christ in the world; by diligent, faithful, persevering study the capacity to know God is constantly enlarged, and that knowledge is eternal life to the receiver, bringing growing comprehension of the great plan of salvation and active cooperation with Christ in His work of saving souls, developing every faculty for service and preparing for this life and the life to come. It requires no single exact method but conscientious use of varied gifts without copying others, with knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ meant to grow continually, though when people feel wise above a Thus saith the Lord they must become fools in order to become truly wise.
Professing parents must teach reverent fear of God to their children both by instruction and by example as part of earnestly striving for their salvation. Education does not mean mere knowledge of books, for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and children should learn this before other knowledge, with their education ultimately leading them to know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. This means dealing honestly with God who looks upon the heart, giving Him the whole heart, appreciating His countless blessings, and training in gratitude offerings until affections are set on things above and not on things on the earth. It leads them to receive truth in the heart, see sin as offense against God, obey all His commandments, and guard the heart purchased by Christ until Christ is enshrined as King, for the heart is the citadel of the whole person and until the heart is wholly on the Lord's side the enemy holds a stronghold there that no human power can dislodge. Parents who reject God's ways and choose their own impulses fail to value this wisdom, discard home religion, and lead their children away from obedience and toward spiritual danger. Wise parents keep the restoration of the image of God in the soul and the knowledge of Christ ever before the minds of their children, and as parents rightly use every means of love and wisdom to restore a broken limb to soundness, they are required to use still greater tact, patience, and persevering effort to remedy blemishes of the soul, with the father acting to his children as Christian teacher, ruler, and friend, binding them to his heart by the strong ties of sanctified love founded in duty faithfully performed.
Obedient Life in Practice
Walking in this wisdom is accepting the guidance of infinite love and pursuing the course that ennobles character, strengthens intellect, and alone prepares for true enjoyment and real usefulness. It is loving God supremely and loving neighbor as self, which is keeping the commandments of God, and those who walk this pleasant and peaceful path still meet the annoyances of a fallen world without discouragement because Christ has overcome the world. Reverence means constantly trimming the inner lamp, habitually obeying God's law, working diligently as a useful laborer, and consecrating soul, body and spirit fully to Christ in close connection with Him. Responsibility is measured exactly by talents entrusted, with the heaviest burden on the one with greatest opportunities and abilities, for the present is the day of trust and time and speech are to be faithfully traded for Him. True fear includes realization of the great love Christ expressed for sinful beings and a life guided by high principles of living, earnest, zealous faith, refusing to flatter the impenitent with an agreeable pleasant religion whose peaceableness in unrighteousness never leads to loving and fearing God.
It includes learning the divine laws given for human good and obeying the laws of life and health as the direct path to heaven, honoring God with the body as His property by correct habits of eating, drinking and dressing to avoid sickness. Turning from errors in eating, drinking and dressing prepares the heart to hear and receive truth into a good and willing heart, and practicing nature's laws together with receiving renovating grace gives a new lease of physical and spiritual life in pleasantness and peace. True wisdom requires overcoming as Christ overcame by guarding against temptation and keeping appetite and passions restricted under enlightened conscience, so intellect stays unimpaired, perceptions stay clear, Satan's workings are not mistaken for providence, and the final victory promised to overcomers is reached only through obedience and continual effort with toil, privation and self-denial. It means using probationary time to become acquainted with the precious truths of the Bible and to practice its precepts for life and health, instead of gratifying carnal desires and personal inclinations by feeding the mind on fictitious tales and novel-reading that ruins the mind, diseases the imagination, breeds vague unrest and appetite for unwholesome mental food, and unbalances the mind.
It calls for integrity that carries religion into studies, work and every duty, keeping temporal interests subject to the higher claims of the gospel, so that success in any pursuit never requires sacrificing principle. Reverence should lead the young to use abilities diligently, keep God before them, cultivate pure elevated thoughts and willingly obey while faithfully cultivating the intellectual and moral faculties entrusted to them, knowing every thought and action is open to heaven and angels minister to those striving to overcome wrong habits and resist Satan's devices. This reverence was the foundation of the greatness of upright men who learned self-denial and self-control early in life, and ambition and achievement are right when grounded in that foundation as the basis of all progress and true greatness.
It is maintained by daily acknowledging God and seeking wisdom from Him, for without wisdom from above even scientific knowledge and cultivation of mind and experience foster pride and self-sufficiency and leave the learner vulnerable to deception. Reverent fear dwelling in the heart gives steadfastness of purpose, deep humility, abiding dependence on divine aid, and beginning each day with prayer with the heart continually breathing petition for guidance and support, so that to pray well is the better half of study, joined with time for communion, self-examination and appreciation of wisdom that comes from God alone through faith working by love and purifying the soul. It means considering all things from the standpoint of the Word, recognizing Christ as counselor infinite in wisdom and always ready to help, making Him chief in all that is done, and living with consciousness that God sees, hears every word and knows motives behind words and actions. Teachers and workers are to stay the mind upon Christ, humbly and thankfully receive in order to impart, show Christlike love for souls, seek not own benefit but to bless others, go to Him for instruction until light is received, and bring heavenly wisdom into daily work by living truth in the godliness that leads souls to drink of the water of life.
In schools, sanitariums and mission work this fear must be visibly known and seen, for such institutions are God's agencies for reaching those nothing else will reach, raised as His memorial and witness where the light of truth burns brightly so all who come recognize it. As long as truth remains the honored and respected banner, God's keeping power stays with the institution, and when truth is no longer honored His keeping power is withdrawn. Those who begin there with this fear and heed the counsel of experienced people are fitted to bless others by carrying the light of present truth to their own community and to others.
Examples and Solemn Warnings
Daniel and his companions show what reverence for God as the beginning of wisdom looks like in youth, for that reverence formed the foundation of their greatness and held them true to the lessons received at home when they had to choose their own course in Babylon. Their refusal to join in sinful indulgence, even under strong temptation at court, and specifically to eat the king's food, was this reverence put into practice through temperance and loyalty to religious principle. Because they would let nothing interfere with religious principle, God favored them, His Spirit strengthened their faithful purposes and noble resolutions, and He gave them skill in learning and understanding, including understanding of visions and dreams. When young people do not make God their beginning their abilities remain largely undeveloped, and seeking greatness apart from heaven does not produce solid worth, whereas resisting temptation and avoiding sinful influences brings God's favor and moral strength. Wisdom starts with loving and fearing God, and without that love and fear even dazzling intellectual attainments are not true wisdom and can be turned to war against the Maker, while every violation of conscience is sin bringing death as its sure penalty. The verse must therefore be taught to children from when they are very young with persevering effort and patient forbearance, by teaching God's statutes and commands and interweaving His law with knowledge of the sciences, since spiritual training cannot be separated from intellectual training and true knowledge of God's Word is the only true scientific education bringing the highest good, as perfected in the thorough education given to Daniel and his companions.
The three Hebrews show the same reverence as the starting point of wisdom and the foundation of all real prosperity, learned from the history of Israel's fathers that disobedience to God brings dishonor, disaster and death. That history created in them unbreakable allegiance to the Ruler of the universe that threats could not turn aside, keeping allegiance to the great Ruler of nations above human threats and above the requirements of earthly rulers. Their fear of God kept them faithful despite the king's threats, refusing even a hair's breadth of turning from duty to the Creator to join false worship of the golden image, even under pain of death. It gave them calm courage and calm trust in God in danger to face the furnace while trusting that God is able to deliver and will be glorified in delivering. Making God one's strength and keeping His fear continually before oneself in all life's transactions requires prayer as a necessity, because one dares not trust one's own moral power. This fear keeps a person true to early religious instruction amid the severest temptations and influences calculated to subvert those who vacillate between principle and inclination, producing a faultless, true, firm, noble character with genuine meekness, peaceful toward all yet unbending as the lofty cedar wherever principle is involved, respectful and obedient to authority in all that does not collide with allegiance to God.
Even the youngest child who loves and fears God is greater in God's sight than a talented, learned person who neglects salvation, for consecrating heart and life to God connects a person with the source and Fountain of all wisdom and excellence and does not make youth weak-minded or inefficient. Samuel proved this as a child by loving and fearing God, refusing the company and evil ways of those who feared not God, and making it his constant effort to become what God would have him become. David showed this reverence by trusting God for protection and continually praying to walk before Him in a blameless way, in reliance on God and desire to live rightly. Luther exemplified it by steadfastness and humility in prayerful dependence, Wycliffe by joining piety with learning and scholarship, and Waldensian youth by joining reverence with practical knowledge of people and active life, which they held compatible with wisdom and believed could broaden the mind and sharpen perception.
By contrast Ahithophel lacked this God-given enlightenment, so he wrongly treated treason and incest as a path to success, failing to reckon with God's overruling providence. Rejecting the fear of God as folly reverses the truth that reverence for God is the foundation of wisdom, and during the French Revolution this rejection accompanied the abolition of worship and the burning of the Bible.
Without this beginning all learning is deficient and found wanting, and any knowledge gained without it has no real worth for eternal life. True learning must start with reverence for the God of science and cannot exalt the sciences above Him, for wisdom comes from God alone through humility before Him, not trust in one's own worldly wisdom, and obedience to God is worth more than the world's esteem. Without time for prayer, communion with God, self-examination, and appreciation for wisdom from God, students are ignorant when they think themselves very wise, and scientific learning alone leaves a person helpless and questioning reality, since science alone without knowledge of the Bible and of God does not give true wisdom. A person with little education who knows God and Jesus Christ has more enduring wisdom than a highly learned person who rejects God's instruction, and a pure and humble heart is better than all learning acquired apart from that fear. The highest education is therefore not science and literature alone but includes knowledge of God's Word, knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, requiring training that honors the inspiration of the Bible instead of exposing youth to unbelief, criticism and questioning about it. Youth will meet skeptics and infidels everywhere and must be equipped with God-fearing wisdom so they are not entrapped by Satan through a little scientific knowledge, but can resist infidel books and doubt and give a reason for hope with meekness and fear. Neglect calls for repentance and redeeming past neglect by providing such schools, with willingness and obedience bringing blessing and refusal bringing destruction, lest years of educational preparation become a hindrance instead of an advancement to God's work and lest those with opportunity prove unfit and injurious through pride, self-sufficiency, deception, skepticism and elevated ungodliness.
The histories of good and bad men faithfully recorded in Scripture impress this as the most practical lesson, that living without God is a fatal, hopeless deception, that the fear of the Lord means keeping His commandments in which there is great reward, and that no honor or favor of the world can compensate for one hour or one act of disobedience, which brings dishonor and disaster to oneself. This will be proved in the long-expected great day of God when every person's work is tested by fire. Then one hour of transgression will be exposed as great loss, while fear of the Lord will be shown to be wisdom because it produces steadfast principle maintained at any cost. The pleasure of self-indulgence, with selfishness and false religion, will perish as wood, hay and stubble consumed by fire, but this God-fearing life is gold of true simple humble faith that is imperishable, never loses value, and endures forever.