Knowledge of God: From “Education” by Ellen G. White (vegetarian), Part 2 of 2

Let us continue with selections from Ellen G. White’s book “Education,” where she expounds on why love is the basis of true education.

“The law of love calls for the devotion of body, mind, and soul to the service of God and our fellow-men. And this service, while making us a blessing to others, brings the greatest blessing to ourselves. Unselfishness underlies all true development. Through unselfish service we receive the highest culture of every faculty. More and more fully do we become partakers of the Divine nature. We are fitted for Heaven; for we receive Heaven into our hearts.”

“Since God is the source of all true knowledge, it is, as we have seen, the first object of education to direct our minds to His own revelation of Himself. […] The Holy Scriptures are the perfect standard of truth, and as such should be given the highest place in education. To obtain an education worthy of the name, we must receive a knowledge of God, the Creator, and of Christ, the Redeemer, as they are revealed in the sacred word.”

“It is the work of true education to develop this power; to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men’s thought. Instead of confining their study to that which men have said or written, let students be directed to the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation. Let them contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen.”

“Before the student there is opened a path of continual progress. He has an object to achieve, a standard to attain, that includes everything good, and pure, and noble. He will advance as fast and as far as possible in every branch of true knowledge. But his efforts will be directed to objects as much higher than mere selfish and temporal interests as the Heavens are higher than the Earth.”

“He who co-operates with the Divine purpose in imparting to the youth a knowledge of God, and moulding the character into harmony with His, does a high and noble work. As he awakens a desire to reach God’s ideal, he presents an education that is as high as Heaven and as broad as the universe; an education that can not be completed in his life, but that will be continued in the life to come; an education that secures to the successful student his passport from the preparatory school of Earth to the higher grade, the school above.”