"The work of winning souls to Christ demands careful preparation. Men cannot enter the Lord's service without the needed training, and expect the highest success. Mechanics, lawyers, merchants, men of all trades and professions, are educated for the line of business they hope to enter. It is their policy to make themselves as efficient as possible.... Should the servants of Christ show less diligence in preparing for a work infinitely more important?"—Gospel Workers, p. 92.
"The more natural ability God has bestowed upon an individual, . . . the greater his responsibility to use his time and talents for the glory of God. The mind must not remain dormant. If it is not exercised in the acquisition of knowledge, there will be a sinking into ignorance, superstition, and fancy. If the intellectual faculties are not cultivated as they should be to glorify God, they will become strong and powerful aids in leading to perdition."—Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 443.
"Men of God must be diligent in study, earnest in the acquirement of knowledge, never wasting an hour. Through persevering exertion they may rise to almost any degree of eminence as Christians, as men of power and influence." —Ibid., p. 411.
"If God's word were studied as it should be, men would have a breadth of mind, a nobility of character, and a stability of purpose that are rarely seen in these times."—Gospel Workers, p. 249.
"God requires the training of the mental faculties. He designs that His servants shall possess more intelligence and clearer discernment than the worldling, and He is displeased with those who are too careless or too indolent to become efficient, well-informed workers. . . . If placed under the control of His Spirit, the more thoroughly the intellect is cultivated, the more effectively it can be used in the service of God. . . . The Lord desires us to obtain all the education possible, with the object in view of imparting our knowledge to others. . . . We should not Jet slip even one opportunity of qualifying ourselves intellectually to work for God."—Christ's Object Lessons, pp. 333, 334.
"Ministers should devote time to reading, to study, to meditation and prayer. They should store the mind with useful knowledge, committing to memory portions of Scripture, tracing out the fulfilment of the prophecies, and learning the lessons which Christ gave His disciples. Take a book with you to read when traveling. . . . Employ every spare moment in doing something."—Gospel Workers, pp. 278, 279.
Need of Mental Culture
"Mental culture is what we as a people need, and what we must have in order to meet the demands of the time. Poverty, humble origin, and unfavorable surroundings need not prevent the cultivation of the mind. .
"Difficulties will be met in all studies; but never cease through discouragement. Search, study, and pray; face every difficulty manfully and vigorously; call the power of will and the grace of patience to your aid, and then dig more earnestly till the gem of truth lies before you, plain and beautiful, all the more precious because of the difficulties involved in finding it. Do not, then, continually dwell upon this one point, concentrating upon it all the energies of the mind, and constantly urging it upon the attention of others: but take another subject, and carefully examine that. Thus mystery after mystery will be unfolded to your comprehension.
"Two valuable victories will be gained by this course. You will not only secure useful knowledge, but the exercise of the mind will increase your mental power. The key found to unlock one mystery, may reveal also other precious gems of knowledge heretofore undiscovered."—Ibid., p. 280.
"Some who have been preaching for years are content to confine themselves to a few subjects, being too indolent to search the Scriptures diligently and prayerfully, that they may become giants in the understanding of Bible doctrines and the practical lessons of Christ.
The minds of all should be stored with a knowledge of the truths of God's word, that they may be prepared, at any moment when required, to present from the storehouse things new and old. Minds have been crippled and dwarfed for want of zeal and earnest, severe taxation. The time has come when God says, Go forward, and cultivate the abilities I have given you. . . . The cause of God needs men of intellect, men of thought, men well versed in the Scriptures, to meet the inflowing tide of opposition. We should give no sanction to arrogance, narrow-mindedness, and inconsistencies, although the garment of professed piety may be thrown over them." —Ibid., p. 281.
Self-improvement
"He who discerns the opportunities and privileges of his work will allow nothing to stand in the way of earnest endeavor for self-improvment. He will spare no pains to reach the highest standard of excellence."—Education, p. 281.
"You may become men of responsibility and influence if, by the power of your will, united with divine strength, you earnestly engage in the work. Exercise the mental powers, and in no case neglect the physical. Let not intellectual slothfulness close up your path to greater knowledge. Learn to reflect as well as to study, that your minds may expand, strengthen, and develop. Never think that you have learned enough and that you may now relax your efforts. The cultivated mind is the measure of the man. Your education should continue during your lifetime; every day you should be learning and putting to practical use the knowledge gained."—Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 561.
"Far more might be accomplished in the work of self-education if we were awake to our own opportunities and privileges. . . . Let the mind be trained and disciplined to wrestle with hard problems in the search for divine truth.
"Those who hunger for knowledge that they may bless their fellow men will themselves receive blessing from God. Through the study of His word their mental powers will be aroused to earnest activity. There will be an expansion and development of the faculties, and the mind will acquire power and efficiency."—Christ's Object Lessons, p. 334.
"An ordinary mind, well disciplined, will accomplish more and higher work than will the most highly educated mind and the greatest talents without self-control."—Ibid., p. 335.
"He whose mind is enlightened by the opening of God's word to his understanding, will realize his responsibility to God and to the world, and he will feel that his talents must be developed in a way that will produce the very best results. . . . While growing in grace and in a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, he will realize his own imperfections, he will feel his real ignorance, and he will seek constantly to preserve and put to the stretch his powers of mind."—Counsels to Parents and Teachers, p. 37.
"If the worker has consecrated himself fully to God, and is diligent in prayer for strength and heavenly wisdom, the grace of Christ will be his teacher, and he will overcome his defects, and become more and more intelligent in the things of God. . . .
"Above all other people on earth, the man whose mind is enlightened by the word of God will feel that he must give himself to greater diligence in the perusal of the Bible, and to a diligent study of the sciences; for his hope and his calling are greater than any other."Ibid., p. 510.
"God alone can measure the powers of the human mind. It was not His design that man should be content to remain in the lowlands of ignorance, but that he should secure all the advantages of an enlightened, cultivated intellect.
"Everyone should feel that there rests upon him an obligation to reach the height of intellectual greatness. . . .
"Having entered the school of Christ, the student is prepared to engage in the pursuit of knowledge without becoming dizzy from the height to which he is climbing."—Gospel Workers, p. 279.
"Cultivated intellects are now needed in every part of the work of God; for novices cannot do the work acceptably in unfolding the hidden treasure to enrich souls. God has devised that schools shall be an instrumentality for developing workers for Jesus Christ of whom He will not be ashamed, and this object must ever be kept in view. The height man may reach by proper culture has not hitherto been realized. We have among us more than an average of men of ability."—Testimonies to Ministers, p. 195.
"While we are to preach the gospel to the poor, we are also to present it in its most attractive light to those who have ability and talent, and make far more wise, determined, God-fearing efforts than have hitherto been made, to win them to the truth.
"But in order to do this all the workers will have to keep themselves up to a high level of intelligence. They cannot do this work and sink down to a low, common level, feeling that it does not much matter how they labor or what they say, since they are working for the poor and ignorant classes. They will have to sharpen up, and be armed and equipped in order to present the truth intelligently and to reach the higher classes."—Evangelism, pp. 555, 556.
"Never should a young minister rest satisfied with a superficial knowledge of the truth, for he knows not where he may be required to bear witness for God. Many will have to stand before kings and before the learned of the earth, to answer for their faith."—Gospel Workers, p. 93.
"Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God's ideal for His children. Godliness—godlikeness—is the goal to be reached. 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."—Education, p. 18.
"Perseverance in the acquisition of knowledge, controlled by the fear and love of God, will give the youth increased power for good in this life; and those who make the most of their opportunities to reach high attainments will take these attainments with them into the future life. They have sought and obtained that which is imperishable. The ability to appreciate the glories that 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard' (1 Cor. 2:9), will be proportionate to the attainments reached."—Counsels to Parents and Teachers, p. 513.
