Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students - Ellen G. White

into the courses of study given in the schools of the
world. The force of much human teaching is found
in assertion, not in truth. The teachers of the
present day can use only the ability of previous
teachers; and yet with all the weighty importance
that may be attached to the words of the greatest
human authors there is a conscious inability to
trace back to the first great principle, the Source of
unerring wisdom. There is a painful uncertainty, a
constant searching, a reaching for assurance, that
can be found only in God. The trumpet of human
greatness may be sounded, but it is with an
uncertain sound; it is not reliable, and the salvation
of souls cannot be assured by it.
In acquiring earthly knowledge, men have
thought to gain a treasure; and they have laid the
Bible aside, ignorant that it contains a treasure
worth everything else. A failure to study and obey
God’s word has brought confusion into the world.
Men have left the guardianship of Christ for the
guardianship of the great rebel, the prince of
darkness. Strange fire has been mingled with the
sacred. The accumulation of things that minister to
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