“I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify [teach] them through Thy truth.”[55] As He lifted His eyes to heaven in those moments of quiet, just before entering Gethsemane, these words fell from the lips of the Son of man. Looking upon the little company of men clustering around Him, He saw in them the nucleus of the church which was to be called by His name, and His heart yearned for that body of Christians. Many and fierce would be their struggles; for He had breathed into the hearts of men a system of instruction which, because it was truth, would awaken all the bitterness of the enemy of truth; and the new system must be able to resist all the darts which human minds, swayed by the prince of evil, could hurl. _Divine philosophy must meet and vanquish human philosophy_. That was now the controversy, and it was left to a few weak men to start the work. What power was in that Spirit of truth with which they were baptized! His commission to this same company, as they watched Him recede from earth on the day of His ascension, was, “Go ye therefore, and _teach_ all nations.” They, the true Israel, were now to become teachers of nations. Recognizing the difficulties to be met, He had, on another occasion, said: “I send you forth as sheep among wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and simple as doves.” In no boasted philosophy, no high-sounding words, but in _simplicity of truth, was to lie their strength_. Of the works of the apostles and those who believed on Christ through their teaching, we have this divine testimony, “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast labored and hast not fainted.”[56] It is therefore evident that a great work was done, and that very speedily; for again Inspiration describes it: “Behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; ... and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.”[57] Men, though admonished to be as harmless as doves, were nevertheless, when teachers of truth, enabled to make themselves felt in the world. [Sidenote: A call from popular education]