October 17, 1899

“The Sermon. Christian Education” ^{1Delivered in the Tabernacle, Battle Creek, Mich., Sabbath, Sept. 2, 1899, and stenographically reported.} Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 76, 42, pp. 663, 664.

NOW, a little as to the practice of Christian education. I know that there are thousands of persons who are surprised, and so express themselves, whenever it is said that the Bible must be the basis of all true education; that the Bible must be the text-book in every line of study. The reason of that surprise is evident; the only reason that there can be for it is that to those persons the Bible is so small a thing, so utterly narrow and confined, that, in their estimation, to undertake to make the Bible the basis of all education, and the text-book in all studies, is like teaching nothing at all. But how much Christianity, how much confidence in the Bible, has a person to whom the Bible is so small as that? That is the question—the important question. So, one who is astonished that the Bible should be the basis of all education in Christian schools, one who is surprised that the Bible should be the text-book in every study in a Christian school, by that simply certifies to his own narrow view of the Bible: he simply tells how small the Bible is to him, and what a small place the Bible has in his life.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 663.1

Now a few illustrations as to what really is the use of the Bible as the only text-book. First of all, bear in mind that the Bible as the text-book in every study does not mean the Bible as the only study-book in education. When the Bible is mentioned as a text-book, persons get the idea—and the only idea that they do get of it is—that the Bible is to be the only study-book. There is a material difference. To illustrate: I took two texts this morning. You will remember that I read them from these papers. I took the two texts from these papers; but in the study I have led you into a considerable field which, in itself, is not expressed in words in those two texts. Those two passages are the texts; but I have used all the world’s history as a field of study, in this hour. Those two passages are the two texts, and all the history to which I have called your attention is the study-book. Do you see the difference then between a text-book and a study-book?ARSH October 17, 1899, page 663.2

This mistake of thinking that a text-book and a study-book are the same thing, came about by the fact that in the schools of the day all study-books are called text-books. To the teachers these books are supposed to be text-books; while to the students they are expected to be study-books. But instead of the study-books of the students being text-books to the teachers, nine times out of ten the text-books are study-books to the teachers; and the teacher does not get out of the text-book, and the students hardly ever get into it.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 663.3

To use the Bible as a text-book is literally to take the Bible as a book from which to take the text of all lessons to be given, in Christian education. Take a statement of the Bible as a text; and then use all the realm of history, literature, science, nature, and human experience as your study-book. And that is not a narrow field of study.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 663.4

How shall that be then? Perhaps I had better illustrate that: Botany must be a study in Christian schools everywhere; and the Bible will be the text-book. One of the texts will be this: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.” And then, the lily itself, and how it grows—what causes it to grow—all the history, the literature, and the science of the lily—will be the study-book. That will be the field of study on that text. And for what purpose? Why does Jesus tell you and me to “consider the lilies of the field, how they grow”? “Consider;” that is, to study the lily. And why?—For the reason stated in that place where it is written: “Israel... shall grow as the lily.” You and I,—the Christian,—the students themselves, are to grow, under God, as the lily grows. Jesus tells every student to study the lily, to see and know how it grows, so that he may know how he himself is to grow. He is to find in the lily the life and the power of God by which it grows,—the means which God employs in the sunshine, the soil, the dew, and the rain, to cause it to grow,—and the science and philosophy of the growing itself, so that he may know how God will cause him himself to “grow as the lily.” Then, every student studying botany that way, only so far as the lily is concerned, will, whenever he sees a lily, get from that lily a lesson direct from God, telling him what God is doing in his life, and what God will put into his life by his believing on him.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 663.5

Another text: “He shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine.” That is the text; and the study-book will be the corn and the vine themselves, in all the science, the philosophy, the literature, and the Scripture that can be found relating to the nature of the corn and the vine. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.” “Ye are the branches.” Thus the corn and the vine will be the study-book for the student who has in the Bible the text, Israel “shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine.” Then whenever he sees either corn or vine anywhere, it will speak to him lessons of experience, in the language of God.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 663.6

Astronomy will be a study in Christian schools everywhere, and one of the texts used will be, “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?” With that as a text, all the astronomy of the Pleiades will be the study-book. And when the student has covered the field of the Pleiades, and knows what are the sweet influences of the Pleiades, he will know, in his own life, the sweet influences of the Spirit of him who gave sweet influences to the Pleiades; and this will make him in his place in the order of God what the Pleiades are in their place in the order of God.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 663.7

More than this, it is written, in Psalm 147:3, 4: “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.” “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” When one has taken for his text, “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?” and has studied thoroughly the book of the Pleiades, and knows him who can bind their sweet influences, he will know the sweet influences of him who binds up the broken heart and heals the wounded spirit.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 663.8

Now read Isaiah 40, the last three verses. First the 26th verse: “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.” Not one of them escapes his notice. And then the next verse: “Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?” When the student, with this as his text, looks into that study-book, and knows something of the infinite number of the starry host, and knows that God calls these all by their names, he can easily understand that the Lord will never forget his name, nor shall he ever escape the Lord’s notice. This is the Bible as a text-book.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 663.9

Meteorology will be a study in all Christian schools; that is the study of the winds and the waves, the atmosphere, the rain, the dew, the ocean tides, the ocean itself. And one of the texts may be: “The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.” With that as the text, the teacher will lead the students into the study-book of the course of the winds as they come out of the north, as they go to the south, as they whirl about continually, and as they return again according to their circuits. He will lead the students into the books that give the science of the winds, and so will conduct the students along the whole course of the circuit of the winds. Then the students will know that the wind has a circuit as certainly as the sun a course, and that the gentlest breeze that fans the cheek on a summer’s day is wafted by the hand of the Lord, who “causeth his wind to blow.” And that will be no small study-book.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 663.10

Another text will be: “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” Ecclesiastes 1:7. The teacher will take that text, and will have his class get it well in mind. Then he will lead the class through the whole course of the philosophy, and the science, as it is given in the literature of the true science, of the return of the rivers from where they flow into the sea, to the place whence they came in the first place.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 663.11

Another text on that same subject will be: God “calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth.” That will be the text; the study-book will be all the literature that can be had that contains the science and the philosophy that will give to the student and the philosophy that will give to the student the actual facts, the procedure, and the means by which God picks up the water from the sea, and transports it over the earth, and pours it out upon the earth—two hundred and fifty-two cubic miles of water every twenty-four hours.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 663.12

And, by the way, by the time that the student has gone through that, he will be no tyro in arithmetic. And this recalls to my mind a query that is made by man, How in the world are you going to teach arithmetic from the Bible? That is about the way it is put. Now, that a person does not know how to do it, is no proof that it can not be done. You can see, from what I have cited, how arithmetic will come in, not as an abstract thing, but as an actual experience in the daily life of the student as he studies the taking up of the waters from the sea, the transporting of them through the air, the pouring out of them in the form of the rain or the snow. As the student actually practises arithmetical calculations as a material part of his studies, arithmetic will be found a most practical thing, and will be far more beneficial than when it is studied abstractly and merely for practise.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 663.13

But the greatest benefit is that in all the study and work the student is living with God, and is studying the works of God. And it will be found that such study will have such a hold upon the student, such a charm indeed, that there will be no need of urging, driving, threatening, etc., to have the students get their lessons. They will be so wrapped up in it that they will be studying their lessons, and will have them well learned because they are interested at every step, and wish to know.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 664.1

Well, one may say, that will do very well after a person has learned arithmetic; but how are you going to use the Bible in teaching the children—the beginners—that two times two are four? As to two and two are four, or eight times nine are seventy-two,—the simple calculations in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division,—so far as the actual fact is concerned, the process is the same whether it be the Bible as the basis, or something else, such as stock exchange. There is no difference in the material thing involved as to the use of the nine digits and the cipher; but there is a most important difference in the association of the ideas that come to the student’s mind, and become a part of his very self as he uses the nine digits and the cipher in his lessons. The question is which will be the better way? which will have the better influence on the child’s life? which will have more influence,—not simply more, but the BETTER influence, upon his character (and character is the great object in all education)? Which is better,—to take the problem from the Bible, or from the stock exchange? Which will be better for the child,—to have his mind drawn to things outside of the Bible every time his mind is called to those figures, or to have the mind drawn to the things in the Bible? Which is better,—to have his mind filled with the stock exchange, with the idea of getting the advantage over others, and of making all he can in a worldly way; or to take problems from the Bible, which will teach him something better? And the way that you answer these questions, will tell you whether your heart is more with the Bible than with the world, or more with the world than with the Bible.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 664.2

I am perfectly free to say that I believe this thoroughly: that the child who, in his first steps in figures, has all his problems in the use of figures drawn from the Bible, has far better influences surrounding him, and meets something of far more benefit to his character and character development, than if all his problems are concerned with hogs, and horses, and “percent.,” and “how much did he make?” “how much did he lose?” “did he gain or lose?”—all taken from the world, and in the world’s own way; simply teaching him selfishness—how to make money. The associations that fix themselves in the child’s mind, and inevitably mold his character,—that is the philosophy of the Bible in the beginning of number work, with little children; and it is all expressed in that saying that “first impressions are most lasting.” The first impressions upon the mind of a man or a child are always most lasting; and these will associate with his thoughts in spite of himself with everything that ever comes to him. The only question is as to whether it is preferable to have these first impressions from the word of God, or from the things of this world. And surely nobody whose heart is with God can have any difficulty in answering the question.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 664.3

I will not take your time longer; but this that I have presented for your consideration is something which I hope will help you to understand what the truth of Christian education is; what the philosophy of it is; and what the principle is, in making the Bible first in all, the beginning and the end in everything, in Christian education. And these teachers, these church-school teachers, who go out from here before another Sabbath comes, may nothing draw them away from the closest possible allegiance to that one thing—that one principle—that the Bible is the beginning and the end; the all in all; the basis of all true education, and the text-book in every line of study that is taken up in Christian education. Make the study of this one Book the study of your life; study it until it becomes your very life. Is not that the very best preparation that a teacher can make? And then, when it is your very life, it will be your text-book, while all true learning, all true science, all sound literature, and all nature,—all this will be your study-book. Then, wherever you go, you will have such success in teaching as no other kind of teachers in the world can have. Then these educators who are calling for just such things as these, will find that for which they are longing. God wishes to give to the world just such an education as this. And thus God can manifest to the world that which he has longed since Christ’s day to manifest in the world, but which he has not had the opportunity to do since Christ was in the world.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 664.4

God will redeem a people from the world,—a people that will be separate from every untoward thing,—a people that will stand in this world as did Christ Jesus, amid the wickedness and perverseness of this world; and he will do it by his word and Spirit, by the foolishness of preaching that blessed Word, the Bible.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 664.5

This is Christian education; and you will find it in Jesus Christ. And that is what he has put you into the world for. Jesus Christ has put it into the Bible for all people; and “he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee;” and “who teacheth like him?”ARSH October 17, 1899, page 664.6

“Editorial” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 76, 42, p. 668.

TO employ means that are contrary to the commandments of God in order to get rid of a disease that can be removed by conformity to the commandments of God, is plainly disloyalty to the commandments of God.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.1

To resort to a miracle that is wrought by a power that is contrary to the commandments of God, in order to obtain relief from a disease that can be removed only by a miracle in conformity with the commandments of God, is plainly to God.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.2

To employ means that are contrary to the commandments of God, and that bring the individual under a power from which nothing but a miracle of the power and grace of God can deliver him, in order to be rid of disease even by a miracle, is plainly disloyalty to God.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.3

These propositions are worthy of most serious consideration: they are not only the truth, but they are the truth for these times; for it is certain that diseases are multiplying upon the earth, and will multiply, so the offered remedies and means of removing them will multiply. And as we have stated before in these columns, this is one of the chief things employed by Satan in getting power over the people in his war against the church of God.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.4

There are to-day presented to the public many means of healing. Besides the dreadful drug medications, there are pretended faith healings, magnetic healings, hypnotism, Christian science healings, etc., etc. And there is not one of them that does not definitely draw away from the commandments of God; there are none that speak “according to this word.”ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.5

There are thousands of persons to-day who have diseases, and who so long to get rid of them that they will willingly apply anything that gives them the promise of doing away with the disease, without asking any questions as to any consequences. The only question with them is, How can I get rid of this, and in the quickest way? There are thousands of persons who are diseased,—persons who have brought disease upon themselves, by their wrong methods of living; and who will adopt, and give themselves up to anything that will relieve them of the suffering, rather than to set about a rational, conscientious course to correct their manner of living, so that the disease may go. Those persons need not expect anything else than that they will fall under the deceptive power of the enemy, who, by curing, or apparently curing, their bodies, gets a hold upon both soul and body that nothing but the power of God himself can break. Then why not have God to deliver them at the first?—Simply because the way of the Lord is not the thing of supreme importance with them.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.6

And when you do go to God to be healed of disease, please do not ask nor expect him to take away the disease while you continue the cause of that disease. Bear in mind forever that disease does not come without cause. Diseases have their causes: every one of them has its causes. And the Lord has given you in outline—yes, more than in outline, in detail—the causes of disease. Seek for the cause, and conscientiously correct that, and God will invariably co-operate with you.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.7

The Lord has told you plainly, and in detail, the causes of disease. He has put all this easily within your reach. Now if you have those diseases because of those causes, and then you will not take that Word and study what the cause of your disease is, and how to put away the cause so that the disease may go utterly, then how can you have the face to ask the Lord to cure you? Is it fair?ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.8

When you put away the cause, the disease is certain to go. That is settled. Then when the Lord has given in great detail the causes of disease, and this is all easily within your reach, is it fair for you to refuse or to neglect to study these causes of disease, and then ask the Lord to put away the disease by a miracle? And if you neglect this knowledge of God, can it be either fair or safe for you to resort to some other “healing power,” and by that means bring yourself so under the power of Satan that a miracle of God is the only thing that can deliver you?ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.9

To ask the Lord to heal you of disease while you are continuing the cause, is only to ask the Lord to set himself against and work contrary to his own eternal laws and established principles: and all for your sake. For if a person is not willing to put away the cause of the disease,—yea, if a person is not willing to seek diligently and study faithfully to find out the cause, that he may honestly and decidedly put it away,—then it is plain that his own pleasure, and not the glory of God, is his chief aim in asking the Lord to heal him. And it is plain that in asking the Lord to do so, he does it, not for the Lord’s sake, but for his own sake.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.10

It is a perfectly safe proposition that when a person has done all in his power to search out and put away the causes of disease, and it should be found after all that the cause is beyond all human effort to remove, then if the one sole aim of his healing is the glory of God and the keeping of the commandments of God, he may with perfect confidence and full assurance of faith ask the Lord to heal him.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.11

And in all your searching, please remember that sin is the first of all causes of disease; for it there had never been any sin, there never could have been any disease. Accordingly the Bible, forgiveness of sin is connected with the healing of disease. “Bless the Lord, O my soul... who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases.” “The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.” “That ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins (he saith unto the sick of the palsy), I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.”ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.12

Therefore as sin is the first of all causes of disease, all plans or means of getting rid of disease, utterly miss the mark if they do not take into consideration the getting rid of sin; and the getting rid of sin as the principal thing.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.13

For as sin is the very foundation of all the causes of disease, surely there can be complete deliverance from disease only in complete deliverance from sin. Therefore it is written of those who shall inhabit that glorious land. “The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick;” and why?—Because “the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” Isaiah 33:24.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.14

Again: as sin is the first of all the causes of disease, the getting rid of sin must be the chief thing in putting away the causes of disease. And as sin is the transgression of the law of God,—the Ten Commandments,—the putting away of sin as the chief of all things in putting away the causes of disease, inevitably brings every soul face to face with the keeping of the commandments as the chief of all things to be had in view in all efforts made to get rid of disease. Accordingly all effort made to be rid of disease must be made in conformity with the commandments of God. And loyalty to the commandments of God will utterly discountenance and repudiate everything—miracles and all—that is offered as a means of getting rid of disease, if in any way it draws away from the keeping of the commandments of God.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.15

“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Are not you one of those who keep them?ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.16

“Studies in Galatians. Galatians 2:18, 19” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 76, 42, p. 668.

“FOR if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.”ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.1

What is it that is referred to in the words, “If I build again the things which I destroyed”? There are at least two special thoughts involved in these words.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.2

1. The one great idea of those who had turned back the Galatian Christians was justification by LAW. Whereas the truth of the gospel, which Paul had preached to the Galatians, and which even “an angel from heaven” could not contradict, is justification by FAITH.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.3

Paul has already shown, in verses 15, 16, that even they who were Jews by nature, and so had all the laws that the Lord had given, had believed on Christ in order that they might be justified by faith and not by works of law: and this for the accepted reason that by works of law no flesh can be justified.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.4

This was the utter abandonment and destruction of all idea of justification by law. And having abandoned all idea of justification by law, in order, by believing in Jesus, to be justified by the faith of Christ, now, being justified by faith, shall I set up again the idea and the hope of being justified by law? Having abandoned the idea of justification by law, in order to find justification by faith, having found justification by faith, shall I again adopt the idea of justification by law?—God forbid; for when, to be justified by faith, I must abandon all idea of justification by law, if I now adopt again the idea of justification by law, I must abandon justification by faith. But when I abandon justification by faith, I make myself a transgressor; for “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Therefore, if I build again the structure of justification by law, which I destroyed by justification by faith, I make myself a transgressor; because by the law is the knowledge of sin.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.5

2. That which I destroyed by abandoning all idea of justification by law, and adopting justification only by the faith of Christ, is “the old man,” “the body of sin.” And to build again that which I destroyed is only to bring back from the dead that old man, is only to make alive the body of sin, and that can only make me a transgressor.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.6

Justification by the faith of Christ means in itself the total abandonment of all sins committed, the remission of all “sins that are past,” and also the destruction of the body of sin, so that “henceforth we should not serve sin.” Therefore while seeking to be justified by faith, we must not be found sinners. For if I build again the body of sin which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. And in again adopting the idea of justification by law, I do build again, in works, what I destroyed by faith; because all seeking of justification by law is seeking justification by our own works, and our own works are simply works of the flesh, which are all sin; for “the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like.”ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.7

And in building again the structure “of justification by law, which I abandoned in order to be justified by faith, I make myself a transgressor; “for I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.” Since abandoning the idea of justification by law and adopting justification by faith caused me to become dead to the law and alive unto God, then adopting again the idea of justification by law, which, in itself, is the abandonment of justification by faith, would cause me to become alive to the law and dead unto God. But to be dead unto God is nothing but to be dead in trespasses and in sins. And as to be dead unto God is to be dead in trespasses and in sins, and to be dead unto God is to be alive to the law, then to be alive to the law is only to be a transgressor.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.8

Therefore, my brethren, justification by faith forever, without any works of any law of any kind whatever,—this is the only ground of hope of salvation.ARSH October 17, 1899, page 668.9