on every hand; and while it is easy to drift, the strongest effort is
required in order to press against the current. Every school should be a
“city of refuge” for the tempted youth, a place where their follies
shall be dealt with patiently and wisely. Teachers who understand their
responsibilities will separate from their own hearts and lives
everything that would prevent them from dealing successfully with the
wilful and disobedient. Love and tenderness, patience and self-control,
will at all times be the law of their speech. Mercy and compassion will
be blended with justice. When it is necessary to give reproof, their
language will not be exaggerated, but humble. In gentleness they will
set before the wrong-doer his errors, and help him to recover himself.
Every true teacher will feel that should he err at all, it is better to
err on the side of mercy than on the side of severity.
[Sidenote: _Reclaimed by Kindness_]
Many youth who are thought incorrigible are not at heart so hard as they
appear. Many who are regarded as hopeless may be reclaimed by wise
discipline. These are often the ones who most readily melt under
kindness. Let the teacher gain the confidence of the tempted one, and by
recognizing and developing the good in his character, he can, in many
cases, correct the evil without calling attention to it.
[Sidenote: _Our Example_]
The divine Teacher bears with the erring through all their perversity.
His love does not grow cold; His efforts to win them do not cease. With
outstretched arms He waits to welcome again and again the erring, the
rebellious, and even the apostate. His heart is touched with the
helplessness of the little child subject to rough usage. The cry of
human suffering never reaches His ear in vain. Though all are precious
in His sight, the rough, sullen, stubborn dispositions draw most heavily
upon His sympathy and love; for He traces from cause to effect. The one
who is most easily tempted, and is most inclined to err, is the special
object of His solicitude.
Every parent and every teacher should cherish the attributes of Him who
makes the cause of the afflicted, the suffering, and the tempted His
own. He should be one who can have “compassion on the ignorant, and on
them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with
infirmity.”[412] Jesus treats us far better than we deserve; and as He
has treated us, so we are to treat others. The course of no parent or
teacher is justifiable if it is unlike that which under similar
circumstances the Saviour would pursue.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: _Meeting Life’s Discipline_]
Beyond the discipline of the home and the school, all have to meet the
stern discipline of life. How to meet this wisely is a lesson that
should be made plain to every child and to every youth. It is true that
God loves us, that He is working for our happiness, and that, if His law
had always been obeyed, we should never have known suffering; and it is
no less true that, in this world, as the result of sin, suffering,
trouble, burdens, come to every life. We may do the children and the
youth a lifelong good by teaching them to meet bravely these troubles
and burdens. While we should give them sympathy, let it never be such as
to foster self-pity. What they need is that which stimulates and
strengthens rather than weakens.
[Sidenote: “_Be Strong_”]
They should be taught that this world is not a parade-ground, but a
battle-field. All are called to endure hardness, as good soldiers. They
are to be strong, and quit themselves like men. Let them be taught that
the true test of character is found in the willingness to bear burdens,
to take the hard place, to do the work that needs to be done, though it
bring no earthly recognition or reward.
The true way of dealing with trial is not by seeking to escape it, but
by transforming it. This applies to all discipline, the earlier as well
as the later. The neglect of the child’s earliest training, and the
consequent strengthening of wrong tendencies, makes his after-education
more difficult, and causes discipline to be too often a painful process.
Painful it must be to the lower nature, crossing, as it does, the
natural desires and inclinations; but the pain may be lost sight of in a
higher joy.
[Sidenote: _Stepping-Stones_]
Let the child and the youth be taught that every mistake, every fault,
every difficulty, conquered, becomes a stepping-stone to better and
higher things. It is through such experiences that all who have ever
made life worth the living have achieved success.
“The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight;
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.”
“We rise by the things that are under our feet;
By what we have mastered of good or gain;
By the pride deposed, and the passion slain,
And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet.”
“All common things, each day’s events,
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend.”
[Sidenote: “_The Things Not Seen_”]
We are to “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the
things which are not seen are eternal.”[413] The exchange we make in the
denial of selfish desires and inclinations is an exchange of the
worthless and transitory for the precious and enduring. This is not
sacrifice, but infinite gain.
[Sidenote: _Love That Constrains_]
“Something better” is the watchword of education, the law of all true
living. Whatever Christ asks us to renounce, He offers in its stead
something better. Often the youth cherish objects, pursuits, and
pleasures that may not appear to be evil, but that fall short of the
highest good. They divert the life from its noblest aim. Arbitrary
measures or direct denunciation may not avail in leading these youth to
relinquish that which they hold dear. Let them be directed to something
better than display, ambition, or self-indulgence. Bring them in contact
with truer beauty, with loftier principles, and with nobler lives. Lead
them to behold the One “altogether lovely.” When once the gaze is fixed
upon Him, the life finds its center. The enthusiasm, the generous
devotion, the passionate ardor of the youth find here their true object.
Duty becomes a delight, and sacrifice a pleasure. To honor Christ, to
become like Him, to work for Him, is the life’s highest ambition and its
greatest joy.
“The love of Christ constraineth.”[414]
_THE HIGHER COURSE_
_“Since the beginning of the world men have
not perceived by the ear, neither hath the
eye seen, what He hath prepared for him
that waiteth for Him”_
_The School of the Hereafter_
“THEY SHALL SEE HIS FACE;
AND HIS NAME SHALL BE IN THEIR
FOREHEADS”
[Sidenote: _Its Location_]
Heaven is a school; its field of study, the universe; its teacher, the
Infinite One. A branch of this school was established in Eden; and, the
plan of redemption accomplished, education will again be taken up in the
Eden school.
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart
of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”[415]
Only through His word can a knowledge of these things be gained; and
even this affords but a partial revelation.
The prophet of Patmos thus describes the location of the school of the
hereafter:—
[Sidenote: “_A New Earth_”]
“I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away.... And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband.”[416]
“The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it;
for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light
thereof.”[417]
[Sidenote: _Conditions_]
Between the school established in Eden at the beginning and the school
of the hereafter there lies the whole compass of this world’s
history,—the history of human transgression and suffering, of divine
sacrifice, and of victory over death and sin. Not all the conditions of
that first school of Eden will be found in the school of the future
life. No tree of knowledge of good and evil will afford opportunity for
temptation. No tempter is there, no possibility of wrong. Every
character has withstood the testing of evil, and none are longer
susceptible to its power.
“To him that overcometh,” Christ says, “will I give to eat of the tree
of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”[418] The giving
of the tree of life in Eden was conditional, and it was finally
withdrawn. But the gifts of the future life are absolute and eternal.
The prophet beholds the “river of water of life, clear as crystal,
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” “And on this side
of the river and on that was the tree of life.” “And there shall be no
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more
pain; for the former things are passed away.”[419]
[Sidenote: “_All Righteous_”]
“Thy people also shall be all righteous:
They shall inherit the land forever,
The branch of My planting,
The work of My hands,
That I may be glorified.”[420]
[Sidenote: _Teachers_]
Restored to His presence, man will again, as at the beginning, be taught
of God: “My people shall know My name;... they shall know in that day
that I am He that doth speak; behold, it is I.”[421]
“The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and
they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be
their God.”[422]
[Sidenote: “_Unto Living Fountains_”]
“These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are
they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His
temple.... They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither
shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living
fountains of waters.”[423]
“Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:” now we know
in part; but then shall we know even as also we are known.[424]
“They shall see His face; and His name shall be in their
foreheads.”[425]
[Sidenote: _Field of Nature_]
There, when the veil that darkens our vision shall be removed, and our
eyes shall behold that world of beauty of which we now catch glimpses
through the microscope; when we look on the glories of the heavens, now
scanned afar through the telescope; when, the blight of sin removed, the
whole earth shall appear “in the beauty of the Lord our God,” what a
field will be open to our study! There the student of science may read
the records of creation, and discern no reminders of the law of evil. He
may listen to the music of nature’s voices, and detect no note of
wailing or undertone of sorrow. In all created things he may trace one
handwriting,—in the vast universe behold “God’s name writ large,” and
not in earth or sea or sky one sign of ill remaining.
There the Eden life will be lived, the life in garden and field. “They
shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards,
and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit;
they shall not plant, and another eat; for as the days of a tree are the
days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their
hands.”[426]
[Sidenote: _The Kingship Restored_]
There shall be nothing to “hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
saith the Lord.”[427] There man will be restored to his lost kingship,
and the lower order of beings will again recognize his sway; the fierce
will become gentle, and the timid trustful.
[Sidenote: _Field of History_]
There will be open to the student history of infinite scope and of
wealth inexpressible. Here, from the vantage-ground of God’s word, the
student is afforded a view of the vast field of history, and may gain
some knowledge of the principles that govern the course of human events.
But his vision is still clouded, and his knowledge incomplete. Not until
he stands in the light of eternity will he see all things clearly.
[Sidenote: _The Great Controversy_]
Then will be opened before him the course of the great conflict that had
its birth before time began, and that ends only when time shall cease.
The history of the inception of sin; of fatal falsehood in its crooked
working; of truth that, swerving not from its own straight lines, has
met and conquered error,—all will be made manifest. The veil that
interposes between the visible and the invisible world will be drawn
aside, and wonderful things will be revealed.
Not until the providences of God are seen in the light of eternity shall
we understand what we owe to the care and interposition of His angels.
Celestial beings have taken an active part in the affairs of men. They
have appeared in garments that shone as the lightning; they have come as
men, in the garb of wayfarers. They have accepted the hospitalities of
human homes; they have acted as guides to benighted travelers. They have
thwarted the spoiler’s purpose, and turned aside the stroke of the
destroyer.
[Sidenote: _Angel Ministry_]
Though the rulers of this world know it not, yet often in their councils
angels have been spokesmen. Human eyes have looked upon them. Human ears
have listened to their appeals. In the council-hall and the court of
justice, heavenly messengers have pleaded the cause of the persecuted
and oppressed. They have defeated purposes and arrested evils that would
have brought wrong and suffering to God’s children. To the students in
the heavenly school, all this will be unfolded.
Every redeemed one will understand the ministry of angels in his own
life. The angel who was his guardian from his earliest moment; the angel
who watched his steps, and covered his head in the day of peril; the
angel who was with him in the valley of the shadow of death, who marked
his resting-place, who was the first to greet him in the
resurrection-morning,—what will it be to hold converse with him, and to
learn the history of divine interposition in the individual life, of
heavenly co-operation in every work for humanity!
[Sidenote: _Perplexities Made Plain_]
All the perplexities of life’s experience will then be made plain. Where
to us have appeared only confusion and disappointment, broken purposes
and thwarted plans, will be seen a grand, overruling, victorious
purpose, a divine harmony.
[Sidenote: _Fruition of Life’s Sowing_]
There all who have wrought with unselfish spirit will behold the fruit
of their labors. The outworking of every right principle and noble deed
will be seen. Something of this we see here. But how little of the
result of the world’s noblest work is in this life manifest to the doer!
How many toil unselfishly and unweariedly for those who pass beyond
their reach and knowledge! Parents and teachers lie down in their last
sleep, their life-work seeming to have been wrought in vain; they know
not that their faithfulness has unsealed springs of blessing that can
never cease to flow; only by faith they see the children they have
trained become a benediction and an inspiration to their fellow-men, and
the influence repeat itself a thousandfold. Many a worker sends out into
the world messages of strength and hope and courage, words that carry
blessing to hearts in every land; but of the results he, toiling in
loneliness and obscurity, knows little. So gifts are bestowed, burdens
are borne, labor is done. Men sow the seed from which, above their
graves, others reap blessed harvests. They plant trees, that others may
eat the fruit. They are content here to know that they have set in
motion agencies for good. In the hereafter the action and reaction of
all these will be seen.
[Sidenote: _The Heavenly Record_]
Of every gift that God has bestowed, leading men to unselfish effort, a
record is kept in heaven. To trace this in its wide-spreading lines, to
look upon those who by our efforts have been uplifted and ennobled, to
behold in their history the outworking of true principles,—this will be
one of the studies and rewards of the heavenly school.
[Sidenote: _Social Life_]
There we shall know even as also we are known. There the loves and
sympathies that God has planted in the soul will find truest and
sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious
social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all
ages, the sacred fellowship that binds together “the whole family in
heaven and earth,”—all are among the experiences of the hereafter.
There will be music there, and song, such music and song as, save in the
visions of God, no mortal ear has heard or mind conceived.
[Sidenote: _Music and Song_]
“As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there.”[428]
“They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of
Jehovah.”[429]
“For the Lord shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places;
and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the
garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein,
thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.”[430]
There every power will be developed, every capability increased. The
grandest enterprises will be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations
will be reached, the highest ambitions realized. And still there will
arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to
comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of body and mind and
soul.
[Sidenote: _Treasures of the Universe_]
All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God’s
children. With unutterable delight we shall enter into the joy and the
wisdom of unfallen beings. We shall share the treasures gained through
ages upon ages spent in contemplation of God’s handiwork. And the years
of eternity, as they roll, will continue to bring more glorious
revelations. “Exceeding abundant above all that we ask or think”[431]
will be, forever and forever, the impartation of the gifts of God.
[Sidenote: _Service_]
“His servants shall serve Him.”[432] The life on earth is the beginning
of the life in heaven; education on earth is an initiation into the
principles of heaven; the life-work here is a training for the life-work
there. What we now are, in character and holy service, is the sure
foreshadowing of what we shall be.
“The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”[433]
Christ’s work below is His work above, and our reward for working with
Him in this world will be the greater power and wider privilege of
working with Him in the world to come.
“Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.”[434] This also we
shall be in eternity.
[Sidenote: _Witnessing_]
For what was the great controversy permitted to continue throughout the
ages? Why was it that Satan’s existence was not cut short at the outset
of his rebellion?—It was that the universe might be convinced of God’s
justice in His dealing with evil; that sin might receive eternal
condemnation. In the plan of redemption there are heights and depths
that eternity itself can never exhaust, marvels into which the angels
desire to look. The redeemed only, of all created beings, have in their
own experience known the actual conflict with sin; they have wrought
with Christ, and, as even the angels could not do, have entered into the
fellowship of His sufferings; will they have no testimony as to the
science of redemption,—nothing that will be of worth to unfallen beings?
[Sidenote: “_The Glory of This Mystery_”]
Even now, “unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly
places” is “made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God.”
And He “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places; ... that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches
of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”[435]
“In His temple doth every one speak of His glory,”[436] and the song
which the ransomed ones will sing,—the song of their experience,—will
declare the glory of God: “Great and marvelous are Thy works, O Lord
God, the Almighty; righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the
ages. Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only
art holy.”
In our life here, earthly, sin-restricted, though it is, the greatest
joy and the highest education are in service. And in the future state,
untrammeled by the limitations of sinful humanity, it is in service that
our greatest joy and our highest education will be found;—witnessing,
and ever as we witness learning anew “the riches of the glory of this
mystery;” “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
* * * * *
“It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”
[Sidenote: “_He Shall Be Satisfied_”]
Then, in the results of His work, Christ will behold its recompense. In
that great multitude which no man could number, presented “faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,” He whose blood has
redeemed and whose life has taught us, “shall see of the travail of His
soul, and shall be satisfied.”
SCRIPTURAL INDEX
_Genesis_
1:1, 134
2, R. V., 134
5, 129
27, 15, 130
2:8, 9, 15, 21
9–17, 23
3:3–5, 24
5, 6, 25
15, 27
17–19, 26
8:22, 105
9:16, 115
18:19, 187
28:16, 17, 243
22, 138
32:29, 147
39:9, 255
48:15, 16, 147
49:7, 148
22–26, 53
_Exodus_
3:5, 243
15:1, 2, 6–11, R. V., 162
18–21, R. V., 162
21, 39
16:3, 38
20:11, 250
25:8, 35
31:1–6, 37
13, 250
34:6, 22, 35, 40
35:21, 286
_Leviticus_
19:32, 244
26:3–6, 141
27:30, 32, 138
_Numbers_
10:35, 36, 39
11:16, 17, 37
13:30, 31 149
21:16; 21:17, 18, R. V. 162
23:7–23, R. V. 161
24:4–6, R. V. 161
16–19 161
_Deuteronomy_
1:15 37
4:6 40, 174, 229
6:6, 7 40, 187
7 186
8:2, 5 39
10:8 148
9 149
11:22–25 48
12:19 149
23:14 38
26:19 40
28:10 40
20, 32 143
29:29 171
32:10–12 40
47 174
34:10 64
_Joshua_
24:15 289
_Judges_
10:16 263
13:12 276
_1 Samuel_
8:5 50
16:6, 7, 10 266
22:2 152
_2 Samuel_
8:15 152
_1 Kings_
19:21 58
_2 Kings_
2:2 59
6–15 60
6:1–7 217
_1 Chronicles_
29:15, R. V. 165
_2 Chronicles_
20:1–4, 12 163
14–17, 20 163
_Nehemiah_
4:6 286
9:6 130
_Esther_
4:14 263
_Job_
1:8–12 155
2:5–7 155
10:1 155
12:7, 8 117
13 13, 14
13:15 156
14:13 155
19:7–21, 25–27, R. V. 156
22:21 14
23:3–6, R. V. 156
6–10 156
26:7–10 131
11–14, R. V. 131
28:15–18 18
29:4–16, R. V. 142
21–25 142
31:32 142
33:24 115
34:22 144
37:16 15, 21
38:4–27, R. V. 160
7 22, 161
31, 32 160
42:10–12 156
_Psalms_
3:4–8 165
9:9, 10 257
11:4 132
12:6 244
15:2, 3 236
2–4 141
5 229
17:4 190
19:8 229
10, 11 252
23:1–4 164
27:1 164
29:9 308
32:8 282
33:9 129, 254
34:7 255
36:9 197
37:5, 6 257
18, 19 141
29 271
41:1, 2 141
42:11 164
46:1, 2; 46:4–7, R. V. 165
10 260
48:14 165
50:1–3; 50:4–6, R. V. 181
21 144
51:1–7 165
63:1–7, R. V. 164
73:9–11 144
78:37–39 45
87:7 307
90:17 80
91:9, 10 181
95:3–6 243
97:2, R. V. 169
100:3, 4 243
103:13 245
104:12, 18 118
27–30 131
105:21, 22 53
42–45 40
106:34–36 45
111:8 30
9 243
113:2, 3 166
5, 6 132
116:1–8 166
119:11 190
24, 45 291
48 252
72 137
104–112 48
126:6 105
139:2–6, R. V. 133
7–10 133
14 201
145:16 118
_Proverbs_
2:6 14
3:1, 2 197
9, 10 140
17 206
4:7 225
14 136
22 197
5:22 291
6:6 117
28 136
8:8 69
18 142
10:22 142
11:15 136
24, 25 140
12:18 237
13:4 135
11, R. V. 136
20 136
14:9 291
23 135
34 47, 175
15:1 114
2 225
16:12 175
24 197
31 244
17:22 197
27 135
18:21 235
18:24 136
19:17 141
20:3, 19 135
28 175
21:6 136
22:7, 16 136
11 237
29 135
23:4, 5 140
7 149
10, 11 136
21 135
25:28 236
26:2 146
18, 19 236
27 136
27:18 219
28:20 136
29:20 236
30:5 244
31:13, 15, R. V. 217
16, 17, 20, 27 217
30, 31 217
_Ecclesiastes_
2:4–12, 17, 18 153
3:11, R. V. 198, 248
14 50
5:8 144
9 219
7:12 126
10:17 206
11:1 140
6, R. V. 105, 267
_Canticles_
2:3, 4 261
11–13, R. V. 160
5:10, 16 69
8:7, 6 93
_Isaiah_
1:17 141
18 231
3:10, 11 146
7:15 231
9:6 73
11:4 182
13:19 176
14:23 176
24:1–8 180
14 307
25:8, 9 182
26:1–4 167
20 181
28:10 123
26 219
32:20 109
33:6 229
15–17 141
20–22 182
24 271
35:8 170
10, R. V. 167
40:12 35
26–29 116
41:6 286
10, 13 116
41:13 259
43:12 154, 308
21 174
45:5 174
47:1–5 176
51:3 161, 307
52:6 302
53:11 309
54:9, 10 115
14 182
17 155
55:11 105
57:16–19 147
60:18 182
21 302
61:11 105
63:9 263
65:19 271
21, 22, 25 304
66:13 245
_Jeremiah_
4:19, 20, 23–26 181
6:19 146
15:16 252
17:11 143
29:11 21, 101
30:7 181
17, 18 182
31:12 167
33:3 127, 282
51:13 176
_Ezekiel_