orchard and field, its week’s encampment in the leafy booths, its social
reunions, the sacred memorial service, and the generous hospitality to
God’s workers, the Levites of the sanctuary, and to His children, the
strangers and the poor, uplifted all minds in gratitude to Him who had
“crowned the year with His goodness,” and whose “paths dropped fatness.”
By the devout in Israel, fully a month of every year was occupied in
this way. It was a period free from care and labor, and almost wholly
devoted, in the truest sense, to purposes of education.
[Sidenote: _Ownership of Land_]
In apportioning the inheritance of His people, it was God’s purpose to
teach them, and through them the people of after-generations, correct
principles concerning the ownership of the land. The land of Canaan was
divided among the whole people, the Levites only, as ministers of the
sanctuary, being excepted. Though one might for a season dispose of his
possession, he could not barter away the inheritance of his children.
When able to do so, he was at liberty at any time to redeem it; debts
were remitted every seventh year, and in the fiftieth, or year of
jubilee, all landed property reverted to the original owner. Thus every
family was secured in its possession, and a safeguard was afforded
against the extremes either of wealth or of poverty.
[Sidenote: _Special Provision for Education_]
By the distribution of the land among the people, God provided for them,
as for the dwellers in Eden, the occupation most favorable to
development,—the care of plants and animals. A further provision for
education was the suspension of agricultural labor every seventh year,
the land lying fallow, and its spontaneous products being left to the
poor. Thus was given opportunity for more extended study, for social
intercourse and worship, and for the exercise of benevolence, so often
crowded out by life’s cares and labors.
[Sidenote: _A Key to Present-Day Problems_]
Were the principles of God’s laws regarding the distribution of property
carried out in the world to-day, how different would be the condition of
the people! An observance of these principles would prevent the terrible
evils that in all ages have resulted from the oppression of the poor by
the rich and the hatred of the rich by the poor. While it might hinder
the amassing of great wealth, it would tend to prevent the ignorance and
degradation of tens of thousands whose ill-paid servitude is required
for the building up of these colossal fortunes. It would aid in bringing
a peaceful solution of problems that now threaten to fill the world with
anarchy and bloodshed.
[Sidenote: _Recognition of God’s Ownership_]
The consecration to God of a tithe of all increase, whether of the
orchard and harvest-field, the flocks and herds, or the labor of brain
or hand; the devotion of a second tithe for the relief of the poor and
other benevolent uses, tended to keep fresh before the people the truth
of God’s ownership of all, and of their opportunity to be channels of
His blessings. It was a training adapted to kill out all narrowing
selfishness, and to cultivate breadth and nobility of character.
A knowledge of God, fellowship with Him in study and in labor, likeness
to Him in character, were to be the source, the means, and the aim of
Israel’s education,—the education imparted by God to the parents, and by
them to be given to their children.
_The Schools of the Prophets_
“THEY SAT DOWN AT THY FEET;
EVERY ONE SHALL RECEIVE OF
THY WORDS”
[Sidenote: _Perils from Heathenism_]
Wherever in Israel God’s plan of education was carried into effect, its
results testified of its Author. But in very many households the
training appointed by Heaven, and the characters thus developed, were
alike rare. God’s plan was but partially and imperfectly fulfilled. By
unbelief and by disregard of the Lord’s directions, the Israelites
surrounded themselves with temptations that few had power to resist. At
their settlement in Canaan “they did not destroy the nations, concerning
whom the Lord commanded them; but were mingled among the heathen, and
learned their works. And they served their idols, which were a snare
unto them.” Their heart was not right with God, “neither were they
steadfast in His covenant. But He, being full of compassion, forgave
their iniquity, and destroyed them not; yea, many a time turned He His
anger away.... For He remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that
passeth away, and cometh not again.”[48] [Sidenote: _Parental
Indifference_] Fathers and mothers in Israel became indifferent to their
obligation to God, indifferent to their obligation to their children.
Through unfaithfulness in the home, and idolatrous influences without,
many of the Hebrew youth received an education differing widely from
that which God had planned for them. They learned the ways of the
heathen.
[Sidenote: _Schools as a Safeguard_]
To meet this growing evil, God provided other agencies as an aid to
parents in the work of education. From the earliest times, prophets had
been recognized as teachers divinely appointed. In the highest sense the
prophet was one who spoke by direct inspiration, communicating to the
people the messages he had received from God. But the name was given
also to those who, though not so directly inspired, were divinely called
to instruct the people in the works and ways of God. For the training of
such a class of teachers, Samuel, by the Lord’s direction, established
the schools of the prophets.
[Sidenote: _Teachers and Students_]
These schools were intended to serve as a barrier against the
wide-spreading corruption, to provide for the mental and spiritual
welfare of the youth, and to promote the prosperity of the nation by
furnishing it with men qualified to act in the fear of God as leaders
and counselors. To this end, Samuel gathered companies of young men who
were pious, intelligent, and studious. These were called the sons of the
prophets. As they studied the word and the works of God, His life-giving
power quickened the energies of mind and soul, and the students received
wisdom from above. The instructors were not only versed in divine truth,
but had themselves enjoyed communion with God, and had received the
special endowment of His Spirit. They had the respect and confidence of
the people, both for learning and for piety. In Samuel’s day there were
two of these schools,—one at Ramah, the home of the prophet, and the
other at Kirjath-jearim. In later times others were established.
[Sidenote: _Industrial Training_]
The pupils of these schools sustained themselves by their own labor in
tilling the soil, or in some mechanical employment. In Israel this was
not thought strange or degrading; indeed, it was regarded as a sin to
allow children to grow up in ignorance of useful labor. Every youth,
whether his parents were rich or poor, was taught some trade. Even
though he was to be educated for holy office, a knowledge of practical
life was regarded as essential to the greatest usefulness. Many also of
the teachers supported themselves by manual labor.
[Sidenote: _Course of Study_]
In both the school and the home much of the teaching was oral; but the
youth also learned to read the Hebrew writings, and the parchment rolls
of the Old Testament Scriptures were open to their study. The chief
subjects of study in these schools were the law of God, with the
instruction given to Moses, sacred history, sacred music, and poetry. In
the records of sacred history were traced the footsteps of Jehovah. The
great truths set forth by the types in the service of the sanctuary were
brought to view, and faith grasped the central object of all that
system,—the Lamb of God, that was to take away the sin of the world. A
spirit of devotion was cherished. Not only were the students taught the
duty of prayer, but they were taught how to pray, how to approach their
Creator, how to exercise faith in Him, and how to understand and obey
the teachings of His Spirit. Sanctified intellect brought forth from the
treasure-house of God things new and old, and the Spirit of God was
manifested in prophecy and sacred song.
[Sidenote: _Results_]
These schools proved to be one of the means most effective in promoting
that righteousness which “exalteth a nation.”[49] In not small degree
they aided in laying the foundation of that marvelous prosperity which
distinguished the reigns of David and Solomon.
[Sidenote: _David and Solomon_]
The principles taught in the schools of the prophets were the same that
moulded David’s character and shaped his life. The word of God was his
instructor. “Through Thy precepts,” he said, “I get understanding.... I
have inclined mine heart to perform Thy statutes.”[50] It was this that
caused the Lord to pronounce David, when in his youth He called him to
the throne, “a man after Mine own heart.”[51]
In the early life of Solomon also are seen the results of God’s method
of education. Solomon in his youth made David’s choice his own. Above
every earthly good he asked of God a wise and understanding heart. And
the Lord gave him not only that which he sought, but that also for which
he had not sought,—both riches and honor. The power of his
understanding, the extent of his knowledge, the glory of his reign,
became the wonder of the world.
[Sidenote: _Greatness of Israel_]
In the reigns of David and Solomon, Israel reached the height of her
greatness. The promise given to Abraham and repeated through Moses was
fulfilled: “If ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I
command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His
ways, and to cleave unto Him; then will the Lord drive out all these
nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and
mightier than yourselves. Every place whereon the soles of your feet
shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the
river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast
be. There shall no man be able to stand before you.”[52]
[Sidenote: _Intermingling with Idolaters_]
[Sidenote: _Apostasy_]
But in the midst of prosperity lurked danger. The sin of David’s later
years, though sincerely repented of and sorely punished, emboldened the
people in transgression of God’s commandments. And Solomon’s life, after
a morning of so great promise, was darkened with apostasy. Desire for
political power and self-aggrandizement led to alliance with heathen
nations. The silver of Tarshish and the gold of Ophir were procured by
the sacrifice of integrity, the betrayal of sacred trusts. Association
with idolaters, marriage with heathen wives, corrupted his faith. The
barriers that God had erected for the safety of His people were thus
broken down, and Solomon gave himself up to the worship of false gods.
On the summit of the Mount of Olives, confronting the temple of Jehovah,
were erected gigantic images and altars for the service of heathen
deities. As he cast off his allegiance to God, Solomon lost the mastery
of himself. His fine sensibilities became blunted. The conscientious,
considerate spirit of his early reign was changed. Pride, ambition,
prodigality, and indulgence bore fruit in cruelty and exaction. He who
had been a just, compassionate, and God-fearing ruler, became tyrannical
and oppressive. He who at the dedication of the temple had prayed for
his people that their hearts might be undividedly given to the Lord,
became their seducer. Solomon dishonored himself, dishonored Israel, and
dishonored God.
[Sidenote: _National Overthrow_]
The nation, of which he had been the pride, followed his leading. Though
he afterward repented, his repentance did not prevent the fruition of
the evil he had sown. The discipline and training that God appointed for
Israel would cause them, in all their ways of life, to differ from the
people of other nations. This peculiarity, which should have been
regarded as a special privilege and blessing, was to them unwelcome. The
simplicity and self-restraint essential to the highest development they
sought to exchange for the pomp and self-indulgence of heathen peoples.
To be “like all the nations”[53] was their ambition. God’s plan of
education was set aside, His authority disowned.
In the rejection of the ways of God for the ways of men, the downfall of
Israel began. Thus also it continued, until the Jewish people became a
prey to the very nations whose practises they had chosen to follow.
[Sidenote: _God’s Plan Unchanged_]
As a nation the children of Israel failed of receiving the benefits that
God desired to give them. They did not appreciate His purpose or
co-operate in its execution. But though individuals and peoples may thus
separate themselves from Him, His purpose for those who trust Him is
unchanged. “Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever.”[54]
While there are different degrees of development and different
manifestations of His power to meet the wants of men in the different
ages, God’s work in all time is the same. The Teacher is the same. God’s
character and His plan are the same. With Him “is not variableness,
neither shadow of turning.”[55]
[Sidenote: “_For Our Admonition_”]
The experiences of Israel were recorded for our instruction. “All those
things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”[56] With us, as
with Israel of old, success in education depends on fidelity in carrying
out the Creator’s plan. Adherence to the principles of God’s word will
bring as great blessings to us as it would have brought to the Hebrew
people.
_Lives of Great Men_
“THE FRUIT OF THE RIGHTEOUS
IS A TREE OF LIFE”
[Sidenote: _Results of True Education_]
Sacred history presents many illustrations of the results of true
education. It presents many noble examples of men whose characters were
formed under divine direction; men whose lives were a blessing to their
fellow-men, and who stood in the world as representatives of God. Among
these are Joseph and Daniel, Moses, Elisha, and Paul,—the greatest
statesmen, the wisest legislator, one of the most faithful of reformers,
and, except Him who spoke as never man spake, the most illustrious
teacher that his world has known.
[Sidenote: _Joseph_]
In early life, just as they were passing from youth to manhood, Joseph
and Daniel were separated from their homes, and carried as captives to
heathen lands. Especially was Joseph subject to the temptations that
attend great changes of fortune. In his father’s home a tenderly
cherished child; in the house of Potiphar a slave, then a confidant and
companion; a man of affairs, educated by study, observation, contact
with men; in Pharaoh’s dungeon a prisoner of state, condemned unjustly,
without hope of vindication or prospect of release; called at a great
crisis to the leadership of the nation,—what enabled him to preserve his
integrity?
[Sidenote: _Perils of Prosperity_]
No one can stand upon a lofty height without danger. As the tempest that
leaves unharmed the flower of the valley uproots the tree upon the
mountaintop, so do fierce temptations that leave untouched the lowly in
life assail those who stand in the world’s high places of success and
honor. But Joseph bore alike the test of adversity and of prosperity.
The same fidelity was manifest in the palace of the Pharaohs as in the
prisoner’s cell.
[Sidenote: _Joseph’s Early Years_]
In his childhood, Joseph had been taught the love and fear of God. Often
in his father’s tent, under the Syrian stars, he had been told the story
of the night vision at Bethel, of the ladder from heaven to earth, and
the descending and ascending angels, and of Him who from the throne
above revealed Himself to Jacob. He had been told the story of the
conflict beside the Jabbok, when, renouncing cherished sins, Jacob stood
conqueror, and received the title of a prince with God.
A shepherd boy, tending his father’s flocks, Joseph’s pure and simple
life had favored the development of both physical and mental power. By
communion with God through nature and the study of the great truths
handed down as a sacred trust from father to son, he had gained strength
of mind, and firmness of principle.
[Sidenote: _The Crisis_]
In the crisis of his life, when making that terrible journey from his
childhood’s home in Canaan to the bondage which awaited him in Egypt,
looking for the last time on the hills that hid the tents of his
kindred, Joseph remembered his father’s God. He remembered the lessons
of his childhood, and his soul thrilled with the resolve to prove
himself true,—ever to act as became a subject of the King of heaven.
[Sidenote: _Training for Service_]
In the bitter life of a stranger and a slave, amidst the sights and
sounds of vice and the allurements of heathen worship, a worship
surrounded with all the attractions of wealth and culture and the pomp
of royalty, Joseph was steadfast. He had learned the lesson of obedience
to duty. Faithfulness in every station, from the most lowly to the most
exalted, trained every power for highest service.
At the time when he was called to the court of Pharaoh, Egypt was the
greatest of nations. In civilization, art, learning, she was unequaled.
Through a period of utmost difficulty and danger, Joseph administered
the affairs of the kingdom; and this he did in a manner that won the
confidence of the king and the people. Pharaoh made him “lord of his
house, and ruler of all his substance; to bind his princes at his
pleasure, and teach his senators wisdom.”[57]
[Sidenote: _Secret of Joseph’s Greatness_]
The secret of Joseph’s life Inspiration has set before us. In words of
divine power and beauty, Jacob, in the blessing pronounced upon his
children, spoke thus of his best-loved son:—
“Joseph is a fruitful bough,
Even a fruitful bough by a well;
Whose branches run over the wall;
The archers have sorely grieved him,
And shot at him, and hated him;
But his bow abode in strength,
And the arms of his hands were made strong
By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; ...
Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee;
And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee
With blessings of heaven above,
Blessings of the deep that lieth under; ...
The blessings of thy father have prevailed
Above the blessings of my progenitors
Unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills;
They shall be on the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his
brethren.”[58]
Loyalty to God, faith in the Unseen, was Joseph’s anchor. In this lay
the hiding of his power.
“The arms of his hands were made strong
By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.”
* * * * *
[Sidenote: _Daniel_]
[Sidenote: _Perils in Babylon_]
Daniel and his companions in Babylon were, in their youth, apparently
more favored of fortune than was Joseph in the earlier years of his life
in Egypt; yet they were subjected to tests of character scarcely less
severe. From the comparative simplicity of their Judean home these youth
of royal line were transported to the most magnificent of cities, to the
court of its greatest monarch, and were singled out to be trained for
the king’s special service. Strong were the temptations surrounding them
in that corrupt and luxurious court. The fact that they, the worshipers
of Jehovah, were captives to Babylon; that the vessels of God’s house
had been placed in the temple of the gods of Babylon; that the king of
Israel was himself a prisoner in the hands of the Babylonians, was
boastfully cited by the victors as evidence that their religion and
customs were superior to the religion and customs of the Hebrews. Under
such circumstances, through the very humiliations that Israel’s
departure from His commandments had invited, God gave to Babylon
evidence of His supremacy, of the holiness of His requirements, and of
the sure result of obedience. And this testimony He gave, as alone it
could be given, through those who still held fast their loyalty.
[Sidenote: _A Test of Character_]
To Daniel and his companions, at the very outset of their career, there
came a decisive test. The direction that their food should be supplied
from the royal table was an expression both of the king’s favor and of
his solicitude for their welfare. But a portion having been offered to
idols, the food from the king’s table was consecrated to idolatry; and
in partaking of the king’s bounty these youth would be regarded as
uniting in his homage to false gods. In such homage loyalty to Jehovah
forbade them to participate. Nor dared they risk the enervating effect
of luxury and dissipation on physical, mental, and spiritual
development.
Daniel and his companions had been faithfully instructed in the
principles of the word of God. They had learned to sacrifice the earthly
to the spiritual, to seek the highest good. And they reaped the reward.
Their habits of temperance and their sense of responsibility as
representatives of God called to noblest development the powers of body,
mind, and soul. At the end of their training, in their examination with
other candidates for the honors of the kingdom, there was “found none
like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.”[59]
[Sidenote: _Foremost among Students_]
At the court of Babylon were gathered representatives from all lands,
men of the choicest talents, men the most richly endowed with natural
gifts, and possessed of the highest culture this world could bestow; yet
amidst them all, the Hebrew captives were without a peer. In physical
strength and beauty, in mental vigor and literary attainment, they stood
unrivaled. “In all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king
inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians
and astrologers that were in all his realm.”[60]
[Sidenote: _The Unrivaled Statesman_]
Unwavering in allegiance to God, unyielding in the mastery of himself,
Daniel’s noble dignity and courteous deference won for him in his youth
the “favor and tender love” of the heathen officer in whose charge he
was. The same characteristics marked his life. Speedily he rose to the
position of prime minister of the kingdom. Throughout the reign of
successive monarchs, the downfall of the nation, and the establishment
of a rival kingdom, such were his wisdom and statesmanship, so perfect
his tact, his courtesy, and his genuine goodness of heart, combined with
fidelity to principle, that even his enemies were forced to the
confession that “they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as
he was faithful.”[61]
[Sidenote: _Heaven’s Ambassador_]
While Daniel clung to God with unwavering trust, the spirit of prophetic
power came upon him. While honored by men with the responsibilities of
the court and the secrets of the kingdom, he was honored by God as His
ambassador, and taught to read the mysteries of ages to come. Heathen
monarchs, through association with Heaven’s representative, were
constrained to acknowledge the God of Daniel. “Of a truth it is,”
declared Nebuchadnezzar, “that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of
kings, and a revealer of secrets.” And Darius, in his proclamation “unto
all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth,”
exalted the “God of Daniel” as “the living God, and steadfast forever,
and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed;” who “delivereth and
rescueth, and ... worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth.”[62]
* * * * *
By their wisdom and justice, by the purity and benevolence of their
daily life, by their devotion to the interests of the people,—and they,
idolaters,—Joseph and Daniel proved themselves true to the principles of
their early training, true to Him whose representatives they were. These
men, both in Egypt and in Babylon, the whole nation honored; and in them
a heathen people, and all the nations with which they were connected,
beheld an illustration of the goodness and beneficence of God, an
illustration of the love of Christ.
[Sidenote: _A Noble Life-Work_]
What a life-work was that of these noble Hebrews! As they bade farewell
to their childhood’s home, how little did they dream of their high
destiny! Faithful and steadfast, they yielded themselves to the divine
guiding, so that through them God could fulfil His purpose.