- Preface
- Chapter 1—Teaching in Parables
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- Chapter 3—“First the Blade, Then the Ear”
- Chapter 4—Tares
- Chapter 5—“Like a Grain of Mustard Seed”
- Chapter 6—Other Lessons from Seed-Sowing
- Chapter 7—Like Unto Leaven
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- Chapter 9—The Pearl
- Chapter 10—The Net
- Chapter 11—Things New and Old
- Chapter 12—Asking to Give
- Chapter 13—Two Worshipers
- Chapter 14—“Shall Not God Avenge His Own?”
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- Chapter 16—“Lost, and Is Found”
- Chapter 17—“Spare it this Year Also”
- Chapter 18—“Go Into the Highways and Hedges”
- Chapter 19—The Measure of Forgiveness
- Chapter 20—Gain that is Loss
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- Chapter 22—Saying and Doing
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- Chapter 24—Without a Wedding Garment
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- Chapter 26—“Friends by the Mammon of Unrighteousness”
- Chapter 27—“Who is My Neighbour?”
- Chapter 28—The Reward of Grace
- Chapter 29—“To Meet the Bridegroom”
Results of Neglecting the Treasure
Satan works on human minds, leading them to think that there is wonderful knowledge to be gained apart from God. By deceptive reasoning he led Adam and Eve to doubt God's word, and to supply its place with a theory that led to disobedience. And his sophistry is doing today what it did in Eden. Teachers who mingle the sentiments of infidel authors with the education they are giving, plant in the minds of youth thoughts that will lead to distrust of God and transgression of His law. Little do they know what they are doing. Little do they realize what will be the result of their work.COL 108.1
A student may go through all the grades of the schools and colleges of today. He may devote all his powers to acquiring knowledge. But unless he has a knowledge of God, unless he obeys the laws that govern his being, he will destroy himself. By wrong habits he loses his power of self-appreciation. He loses self-control. He cannot reason correctly about matters that concern him most closely. He is reckless and irrational in his treatment of mind and body. By wrong habits he makes of himself a wreck. Happiness he cannot have; for his neglect to cultivate pure, healthful principles places him under the control of habits that ruin his peace. His years of taxing study are lost, for he has destroyed himself. He has misused his physical and mental powers, and the temple of the body is in ruins. He is ruined for this life and for the life to come. By acquiring earthly knowledge he thought to gain a treasure, but by laying his Bible aside he sacrificed a treasure worth everything else.COL 108.2