The question will often arise: What can be done where poverty prevails and is to be contended with at every step? Under these circumstances how can we impress minds with correct ideas of improvement? Certainly the work is difficult; and unless the teachers, the thinking men, and the men who have means will exercise their talents and will lift just as Christ would lift were He in their place, an important work will be left undone. The necessary reformation will never be made unless men and women are helped by a power outside of themselves. Those who have talents and capabilities must use these gifts to bless their fellow men, labouring to place them upon a footing where they can help themselves. It is thus that the education gained at our schools should be put to the very best use.
God's entrusted talents are not to be hid under a bushel or under a bed. "Ye are the light of the world," Christ said. Matthew 5:14. As you see families living in hovels,
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with scant furniture and clothing, without tools, without books or other marks of refinement about their homes, will you become interested in them, and endeavour to teach them how to put their energies to the very best use, that there may be improvement, and that their work may move forward? It is by diligent labour, by putting to the wisest use every capability, by learning to waste no time, that they will become successful in improving their premises and cultivating their land.
Physical effort and moral power are to be united in our endeavours to regenerate and reform. We are to seek to gain knowledge in both temporal and spiritual lines, that we may communicate it to others. We are to seek to live out the gospel in all its bearings, that its temporal and spiritual blessings may be felt all around us.