Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it.”—Isaiah 30:21

Those who undertake to carry forward the work in their own strength will certainly fail. Education alone will not fit a person for a place in the work, will not enable him to obtain a knowledge of God. Hear what Paul has to say on this matter: “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent…. For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

Through successive ages of darkness, in the midnight of heathenism, God permitted people to try the experiment of finding out God by their own wisdom, not to demonstrate their inability to His satisfaction, but that humans themselves might see that they could not obtain a knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ His Son, save through the revelation of His word by the Holy Spirit. When Christ came to the world, the experiment had been fully tried, and the result made it evident that the world by wisdom knew not God. Even in the church God has allowed people to test their own wisdom in this matter, but when a crisis has been brought about through human fallibility, God has risen mightily to defend His people. When the church has been brought low, when trial and oppression have come upon His people, He more abundantly exalted them by signal deliverance. When unfaithful teachers came among the people, weakness followed, and the faith of God’s people seemed to wane; but God arose and purged His floor….

There are times when apostasy comes into the ranks, when piety is left out of the heart by those who should have kept step with their divine Leader…. There are idols within and idols without; but God sends the Comforter as a reprover of sin, that His people may be warned of their apostasy and rebuked for their backsliding. When the more precious manifestations of His love shall be gratefully acknowledged and appreciated, the Lord will pour in the balm of comfort and the oil of joy.—Fundamentals of Christian Education, 196, 197.

Further Reflection: What good thing am I attempting to do today without Jesus?