Counsels for the Church - Ellen G. White

image, breathe His Spirit, do His will, and please Him in all things.
True education is the power of using our faculties so as to achieve
beneficial results. Why is it that religion occupies so little of our attention,
while the world has the strength of brain, bone, and muscle? It is because the
whole force of our being is bent in that direction. We have trained ourselves
to engage with earnestness and power in worldly business, until it is easy for
the mind to take that turn. This is why Christians find a religious life so hard
and a worldly life so easy. The faculties have been trained to exert their force
in that direction. In religious life there has been an assent to the truths of
God's word, but not a practical illustration of them in the life.
To cultivate religious thoughts and devotional feelings is not made a part
of education. These should influence and control the entire being. The habit
of doing right is wanting. There is spasmodic action under favorable
influences, but to think naturally and readily upon divine things is not the
ruling principle of the mind.
The mind must be educated and disciplined to love purity. A love for
spiritual things should be encouraged; yea, must be encouraged, if you would
grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. Desires for goodness and
true holiness are right so far as they go; but if you stop here, they will avail
nothing. Good purposes are right, but will prove of no avail unless resolutely
carried out. Many will be lost while hoping and desiring to be Christians; but
they made no earnest effort, therefore they will be weighed in the balances
and found wanting. The will must be exercised in the right direction. I will
be a wholehearted Christian. I will know the length and breadth, the height
and depth, of perfect love. Listen to the words of Jesus: "Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled."
Matthew 5:6. Ample provisions are made by Christ to satisfy the soul that
hungers and thirsts for righteousness.
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