Counsels for the Church - Ellen G. White

after healthful labor, and they will be refreshed for the next day's work.
One's Mother Tongue Should Not Be Ignored
And in every branch of education there are objects to be gained more
important than those secured by mere technical knowledge. Take language,
for example. More important than the acquirement of foreign languages,
living or dead, is the ability to write and speak one's mother tongue with ease
and accuracy; but no training gained through a knowledge of grammatical
rules can compare in importance with the study of language from a higher
point of view. With this study, to a great degree, is bound up life's weal or
woe.
The Works of Skeptics Forbidden by God
Is it the Lord's purpose that false principles, false reasoning, and the
sophistries of Satan should be kept before the minds of our youth and
children? Shall pagan and infidel sentiments be presented to our students as
valuable additions to their store of knowledge? The works of the most
intellectual skeptic are the works of a mind prostituted to the service of the
enemy; and shall those who claim to be reformers, who seek to lead the
children and youth in the right way, in the path cast up for the ransomed of
the Lord to walk in, imagine that God would have them present to the youth
for their study that which will misrepresent His character and place Him in a
false light? Shall the sentiments of unbelievers, the expressions of dissolute
men, be advocated as worthy of the student's attention, because they are the
productions of men whom the world admires as great thinkers? Shall men
professing to believe in God gather from these unsanctified authors their
expressions and sentiments, and treasure them up as precious jewels to be
stored away among the riches of the mind? God forbid!
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