To meet the highest standard possible, we need to be persevering and determined. In many cases established habits and ideas must be overcome before we can make advancement in the religious life.... The essential work is to conform the tastes, the appetites, the passions, the motives, the desires, to the great standard of righteousness. The work must begin in the heart. Unless the heart is wholly conformed to Christ’s will, some master passion, or some habit or defect, will become a power to destroy. (CT 505.1) MC VC

Piety and religious experience lie at the very foundation of true education. God wants the teachers in our schools to be efficient. If they advance in spiritual understanding, they will see how important it is that they should not be deficient in a knowledge of the sciences. While teachers need piety, they also need a thorough knowledge of the sciences.... (CT 505.2) MC VC

The Christian aims to reach the highest attainments for the purpose of doing others good. Knowledge harmoniously blended with a Christlike character will make a man a light in the world. God works with human efforts. Those who give all diligence to make their calling and election sure will feel that a superficial knowledge will not fit them for a position of usefulness. Education balanced by a solid religious experience fits the child of God to do his appointed work steadily, firmly, understandingly. He who is learning of the greatest Educator the world ever knew, will have not only a symmetrical Christian character, but a mind trained for effective labor.... (CT 505.3) MC VC