What anxiety you have manifested to discipline your mind by study, to become properly conversant with your textbooks, that you might pass a creditable examination before instructors, friends, and interested spectators! How ambitious you have been to prove that you have been a diligent student and have faithfully employed your time in storing your mind with useful knowledge! You have been as sincerely anxious to progress in your studies as you have been to secure the commendation of your friends and teachers. You have justly earned the honors you have received for scholarship. But how has your mind been disciplined in religion? Have you not unthinkingly placed the kingdom of God and His righteousness below your advancement in the sciences? True, some of the human faculties were given more especially for the purpose of engaging in temporal matters, but the higher powers of the mind should be wholly consecrated to God. These control the man, these form his life and character. And while you should not neglect your secular studies, you have no right to give them all your attention, but should devote yourself especially to the moral and spiritual requirements of your heavenly Father. {4T 115.2}

Hvilken iver har du ikke udvist for at disciplinere dit til studium, blive velbevandret med dine tekstbøger, så du kan få en hæderlig eksamen for lærere, venner og andre interesserede. Hvor ivrig har du ikke været for at bevise at du har studeret flittigt og har trofast brugt din tid på at fylde dit hoved med nyttig kundskab! Du har været lige så nidkær for dine studier som du har været for at få dine venners og læreres anbefaling. Med rette har du fået den ære du har fået for lærdommen. Men hvordan er dine tanker blevet opdraget i religion? Har du ikke ubetænksomt sat Guds rige og hans retfærdighed ned under din voksende videnskabskundskab? Jo, nogle af menneskeevnerne fik mere styrke for de timelige sagers skyld, men sindets højere kræfter bør helliges helt til Gud. Disse kræfter kontroller (116) mennesket, disse danner dets liv og karakter. Og selvom du ikke skal forsømme dine timelige studier, har du ikke ret til at give dem hele din opmærksomhed, men burde hellige dig selv især til din himmelske faders moralske og åndelige fordringer.