The "great scholar, Paul, writer of most of the New Testament, cried out as he looked into the bosom of the great ocean of God's truth and wisdom: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" Chosen instrument of the early church, Paul was a man of depth and understanding, of astonishing breadth of vision, with a far-reaching program and a great, loving heart. We who have been chosen as heralds of the closing gospel message likewise need depth of understanding, breadth of vision, wideness of program, and loving hearts. Paul was a thinker! We, too, need to be thinkers and not mere reflectors of other men's thinking.
"The intellect is to be kept thoroughly awake with new, earnest, wholehearted work." "Strong minds are needed. The human intellect must gain expansion and vigor and acuteness and activity. It must be taxed to do hard work, or it will become weak and inefficient. Brain power is required to think most earnestly; it must be put to the stretch to solve hard problems and master them, else the mind decreases in power and aptitude to think. The mind must invent, work, and wrestle, in order to give hardness and vigor to the intellect."—"Fundamentals of Christian Education," pp. 227, 226.
Great tasks are before every Seventh-day Adventist preacher, tasks which will tax to the utmost the mental and physical powers. As someone said at our recent educational convention, "It is a great responsibility to be possessed of a brain." God means for us to use and improve our intellects. We are responsible to God for the use we make of the gifts with which He has endowed us. Unfortunately it could have been said of our ministry some years ago:
"The men who now stand before the people as representatives of Christ have generally more ability than they have training, but they do not put their faculties to use, making the most of their time and opportunities.. . . There has been but little ambition to put their powers to the test to reach an elevated standard in knowledge and in religious intelligence. They might have done tenfold more work intelligently had they cared to become intellectual giants.
Let everyone examine himself in the light of this rebuke to the ministry. Have we been wasting time in unimportant conversations? Have we entangled ourselves with the affairs of this life? Have we dawdled over newspapers or unworth-while books? Surely God expects every minister to gird up the loins of his mind and not allow the intellectual powers to go to waste. It has been truly said that "without deep, wide, and hard reading, and strong personal thinking, a revolting shallowness that destroys both poise and power settles like a blight on the minister."
Realizing the great need of our workers for the opportunity to do systematic research under the leadership of men who have specialized in the various fields of theological study, the General Conference has, at great expense, provided a school for advanced training. Its first objective was to strengthen the Bible and history departments in our schools; and a good work is being done in these fields. One college Bible teacher said, "My few weeks' stay here has opened to me a new horizon. I see the Book in a light in which I never saw it before. I see the Bible teacher from a different perspective."
Our ministers, facing new problems and strange currents of thought, also need the advantages of a graduate school. Some ministers have come to each of our four summer sessions, but now that sessions are to be held in winter—the best time of the year for ministers in most sections of North America to get away—it is hoped that a goodly number of our ministers will be able to avail themselves of this opportunity. The winter quarter this year will begin December 7 and close February 28. Comprehensive courses in theology, prophetic interpretation, history of Eastern antiquity, church history, Greek, Hebrew, and homiletics are offered.
If you desire the privilege of attending, it is proper to talk with your conference president about it. Perhaps some plan can be arranged for a leave of absence. There may be some who can come wholly at their own expense. In any case, we shall be glad to send further information to those who are interested. Address the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Takoma Park, D.C.