p. 295 | WHO SHALL BE GREATEST?

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, May 6, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 19

WHO SHALL BE GREATEST?

THE old strife over the question, Who shall be greatest, begun so long ago, is still going on, and is the cause of great crime and misery. There are not many mighty ones. The men and women who are called to great work are few. The world is made up of very ordinary people, and most of the work to be done is of an ordinary kind, which, though very necessary, attracts little attention. A wheat field is far less conspicuous than a bit of ground gorgeous with flowers, yet of how much more value is the wheat!

Since, then, there is but little extraordinary work to be done, and few are chosen to sit in high places, would it not be well to have the young taught to think the place they occupy is of less importance than the manner in which they occupy it? The truly great will be known without “push” or intrigue, and exalted positions gained by dishonorable means are seldom, if ever, honorably filled. We are inclined to believe in the old-time way of bringing up children, when they were kept in the background somewhat, instead of being brought forward on every possible occasion. In our schools the very youngest are put upon the platform, where, it must be confessed, they often make a pretty show, but is it well for them?

The energies of the older pupils are kept at a white-heat pitch of action, not so much for the sake of mastering the contents of a book, as to get through it, and go into a higher class. Such feverish haste cannot be healthy for mind or body. It is a strain upon the nervous system which few can bear, and fosters a love for the “uppermost seats” and the prominent parts in life. It begets a discontented, uneasy spirit, and does not develop the strong, brave, self-contented, upright men and women, whom we need in the quiet vales as well as on the mountain-tops of life. The gate-keeper of the castle should be a man of greater ability than he who watches from the tower.

Unless this consuming desire to be constantly before the public is checked, need we wonder if, in order to make a show in the world, money is gotten dishonestly and forgeries are committed? Need we marvel to see brother putting down brother, that he himself may rise? We think not. We cry out against the times, but we venture to predict that the future will be no improvement on the present, unless the children of the land are educated to respect the laws of God and man, and to believe that to be good is better than to be great.—Household.