In the selection of a home, parents should not be governed by temporal considerations merely.
It is not altogether a question of the place where they can make the most money, or where they
will have the most pleasant surroundings, or the greatest social advantages. The influences that
will surround their children, and sway them for good or evil, are of more consequence than any
of these considerations. A most solemn responsibility rests upon parents in choosing a place of
residence. As far as possible they are to place their families in the channel of light, where their
affections will be kept pure, and their love to God and to one another active. The same principle
applies to the location of our schools, where the youth will be gathered, and families will be
attracted for the sake of the educational advantages.
No pains should be spared to select places for our schools where the moral atmosphere will be
as healthful as possible; for the influences that prevail will leave a deep impress on young and
forming characters. For this reason a retired locality is best. The great cities, the centers of
business and learning, may seem to present some advantages; but these advantages are
outweighed by other considerations.
Society at the present time is corrupt, as it was in the days of Noah. To the long-lived,
antediluvian race, only a step from paradise, God gave rich gifts, and they possessed a strength of
body and mind of which men now have but a faint idea; but they used His bounties, and the
strength and skill He gave them, for selfish purposes, to minister to unlawful appetites, and to
gratify pride. They expelled God from their thoughts; they despised His law; trampled His
standard of character in the dust. They reveled in sinful pleasure, corrupting their ways before
God, and corrupting one another. Violence and crime filled the earth. Neither the
marriage relation nor the rights of property were respected; and the cries of the oppressed entered
into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. By beholding evil, men became changed into its image, until
God could bear with their wickedness no longer, and they were swept away by the flood.
The youth educated in large cities are surrounded by influences similar to those that prevailed
before the flood. The same principles of disregard for God and His law; the same love of
pleasure, of selfish gratification, and of pride and vanity are at work at the present time. The
world is given up to pleasure; immorality prevails; the rights of the weak and helpless are
disregarded; and, the world over, the large cities are fast becoming hotbeds of iniquity.
The love of pleasure is one of the most dangerous, because it is one of the most subtle, of the
many temptations that assail the children and youth in the cities. Holidays are numerous; games
and horse-racing draw thousands, and the whirl of excitement and pleasure attracts them away
from the sober duties of life. Money that should have been saved for better uses -- in many cases
the scanty earnings of the poor -- is frittered away for amusements.
The continual craving for pleasurable amusements reveals the deep longings of the soul. But
those who drink at this fountain of worldly pleasure, will find their soul-thirst still unsatisfied.
They are deceived; they mistake mirth for happiness; and when the excitement ceases, many sink
down into the depths of despondency and despair. O what madness, what folly to forsake the
"Fountain of living waters" for the "broken cisterns" of worldly pleasure! We feel to the depth of
the soul the peril that surrounds the youth in these last days; and shall not those who come to us
for an education, and the families that are attracted to our schools, be withdrawn, as far as
possible, from these seductive and demoralizing influences?
In choosing retired localities for our schools, we do not
for a moment suppose that we are placing the youth beyond the reach of temptation. Satan is a
very diligent worker, and is untiring in devising ways to corrupt every mind that is open to his
suggestions. He meets families and individuals on their own ground, adapting his temptations to
their inclinations and weaknesses. But in the large cities his power over minds is greater, and his
nets for the entanglement of unwary feet are more numerous. In connection with our schools,
ample grounds should be provided. There are some students who have never learned to
economize, and have always spent every shilling they could get. These should not be cut off from
the means of gaining an education. Employment should be furnished them, and with their study
of books should be mingled a training in industrious, frugal habits. Let them learn to appreciate
the necessity of helping themselves.
There should be work for all students, whether they are able to pay their way or not; the
physical and mental powers should receive proportionate attention. Students should learn to
cultivate the land; for this will bring them into close contact with nature.
There is a refining, subduing influence in nature that should be taken into account in selecting
the locality for a school. God has regarded this principle in training men for His work. Moses
spent forty years in the wilds of Midian. John the Baptist was not fitted for his high calling as the
forerunner of Christ by association with the great men of the nation in the schools at Jerusalem.
He went out into the wilderness, where the customs and doctrines of men could not mold his
mind, and where he could hold unobstructed communion with God.
When the persecutors of John, the beloved disciple, sought to still his voice and destroy his
influence among the people, they exiled him to the Isle of Patmos. But they could not separate
him from the Divine Teacher. On lonely Patmos, John could study the things that God had
created. In the
rugged rocks, in the waters that surrounded the island, he could see the greatness and majesty of
God. And while he was communing with God, and studying the book of nature, he heard a voice
speaking to him, the voice of the Son of God. Jesus was John's teacher upon the Isle of Patmos,
and He there unfolded to His servant wonderful things that were to take place in time to come.
God would have us appreciate His blessings in His created works. How many children there
are in the crowded cities that have not even a spot of green grass to set their feet upon. If they
could be educated in the country, amid the beauty, peace, and purity of nature, it would seem to
them the spot nearest heaven. In retired places, where we are farthest from the corrupting
maxims, customs, and excitements of the world, and nearest to the heart of nature, Christ makes
His presence real to us, and speaks to our souls of His peace and Love.--"Special Testimonies on
Education," May 11, 1896.