You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 2:1.

The seeking of the kingdom of God and His righteousness is to be the object and aim of our lives. It is no child’s play to fulfill this injunction, but whatever self-denial it calls for, it is still for our interest in this life and the life to come to obey this command. We are to have an eye single to the glory of God, and thus grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The more earnestly and diligently we seek for divine wisdom, the more firmly established we shall be in the truth….

We are not always to remain children in our knowledge and experience in spiritual things. We are not always to express ourselves in the language of one who has just received Christ, but our prayers and exhortations are to grow in intelligence as we advance in experience in the truth. The language of a child of 6 in a child of 10 years of age would not be pleasing to us, and how painful would it be to hear expressions of childish intelligence in one who had arrived at years of maturity….

The youth who has had several years of experience in the Christian life ought not to have the hesitating language of one who is a babe in Christ. There is a want of growth in professed Christians. Those who are not growing up unto the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus manifest this in the way they speak of the things of the kingdom of God….

The testimonies that are borne by many of the professed followers of Christ are those of persons who have become dwarfs in the Christian life. The language of true, deep, intelligent experience is wanting….

We are not to cultivate the language of the earthy, and be so familiar with human conversation that the language of Canaan will be new and unfamiliar to us….

Christians are to be faithful students in the school of Christ, ever learning more of heaven, more of the words and will of God, more of the truth, and how to use faithfully the knowledge that they have gained to instruct others and to lead them to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We are to have an intelligent knowledge of the Scriptures, for how can we know God’s will and way without searching for the treasures of God’s righteousness in His Holy Word? We should know the truth for ourselves and understand both the prophecies and the practical teachings of our Lord.—Youth’s Instructor, June 28, 1894.