JUL 15 1919 BV 1A71 .H35 1919 Haithcox, Henry C. Man and His Education MAN AND HIS EDUCATION ^ / BY HENRY C. HAITHCOX, D.D. BOSTON RICHARD G. BADGER THE GORHAM PRESS Copyright, 1919, by Richard G. Badger All Rights Reserved Made in the United States of America The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A FOREWORD The educational ideas of our country are natural- istic rather than religious; humanistic rather than divine; materialistic rather than spiritual; rational- istic rather than of faith in God over all, in all, and working through all, blessed forever more. This little book is a brief pointing-out of the way of faith and hope and love centering in Christ, the Way, the Truth, the Life. May its glimmer and gleamings help to clearer vision of the goal of hu- manity. May its breath be an inspiration. May its touch verify. May its word be a live coal. May its pages sparkle with thought. May it be a little star of the morning fading away to leave the reader facing the rising Sun of Righteousness. October 15, 191 8 CONTENTS PART I. THE NATURE OF MAN'S EDUCATION CHAPTER PAGE I. What Man Is 9 II. Man, a Soul 12 III. The Will of Man 15 IV. Man a Spiritual Being 18 V. Phases of Human Life 21 VI. Moral Types 25 VII. The Essential in Man's Education ... 30 VIII. The Field of Man's Consciousness ... 35 IX. His World-Consciousness 39 X. His God-Consciousness 42 PART II. THE MEANS OF MAN'S EDUCATION I. The Word of Man 49 II. The Senses of Man 51 III. Objective Nature 54 IV. The Vegetable Kingdom 57 V. The Animal Kingdom 59 VI. The Human Kingdom 62 VII. Adaptation of Means 65 PART III. METHOD OF MAN'S EDUCATION I. The Pouring-in Method 71 II. The Drawing-out Method 75 5 6 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE III. Other Methods 79 IV. Results of Wrong Methods 84 V. The Ideal Method 88 PART IV. THE IDEAL OF MAN'S EDUCATION I. The Ideal Propaganda 95 II. The Ideal at Work 99 III. The Ideal at Work Among Sovereignties . 102 IV. The Ideal at Work in the School Among Sovereignties 106 PART I THE NATURE OF MAN'S EDUCATION Man and His Education CHAPTER I WHAT MAN IS WE think first of man. What Is man? Often has this question been asked. Thousands of years ago it was asked by a man in whom the light of God shined. The answer given was that he was a little lower than the angels. Others have said that he is a little higher than any other crea- ture of earth. It may be that in man heaven and earth touch each other. In him spirit and matter blend. He is akin to God who is spirit. He is related to the earth of dust. He is a spiritual or- ganism in living touch with all the elements of the earth. Through the members of his body, his senses, he comes into communion with all his earthly environment. Through his sense of sight he gets at least eighty per cent of all his knowledge of the world and is charmed with its beauty. Through the sense of touch he gets hold upon the world and 9 10 Man and His Education utilizes its elements. Through the sense of hear- ing he enjoys the concord of sweet sounds. Through the sense of taste he relishes his food and drink. Thus through all his senses he comes into friendly touch and blissful communion with his ma- terial environment. What a beautiful adjustment to earth our bodies are! So manifold is the adjust- ment, and so well adapted to correspondence with the earthly that we can use the earthly for our in- tellectual, affectional and moral growth, for the final unfolding in harmony with the Infinite. Whence this body of man with its marvelous adaptation and power of assimilation of earthly elements? Men who see things and name them, whose business it is to note facts and gather data and classify them, be they scientists, or philosophers, or theologians, men who carefully observe, note and give a reason for what they name and classify, tell us that the visible beginning of the body is a pro- toplasmic germ in a white fluid enswathment so small that the unaided eye can scarcely see it. From this germ the body develops with all its mem- bers, powers, relations, functions. The beating heart with its arterial and veinous subways, the breathing lungs with their sensitive lobes, the artic- ulated bones, the cleaving muscles, the electric nerves, all centering in the brain, the powerhouse What Man Is ii of the whole body, are all from the protoplasmic germ. Though scarcely distinguishable from other germs, it is so true to the law of its own life that it will develop only the human form. It will be- come the human body or nothing. There is no compromise between it and the germ of vegetable or animal. The human germ is king among all other cosmic germs, a veritable autocrat among them. By sub- mission to the human germ all other germs are transmuted, and elementally assimilated, and trans- formed into the form of man; if they yield not to the law of the life of the human germ they remain either dust or become assimilated to mere vegetable or animal form. Even here man is as the Greek philosopher taught, the microcosm, or the little world. In him all the elements of the world around him are vitalized and rationalized, and may be spiritualized. When this human life dominates all other elements they are all humanized. And thus through his body man subdues the earth and hath dominion. And thus too when the soul domi- nates the body the whole body is ennobled by the soul. And thus also when the body is subject to the soul, and when the soul is subject to the spirit of man, and when the spirit of man is subject to the spirit of God, man becomes a temple of God. CHAPTER II MAN, A SOUL WE have thought of the body of man. We now think of his soul. In the body or out of the body, or through the body, come thought power, feeling power, will power, and these we call soul powers. Soul is intellect and more. It is feeling and more. It is will and more. It is these three made potential by a personal spirit. Some say there is nothing great in man but mind. Others say that feeling, affection, love is the great- est thing in man. And others say that the will is imperative, the chief executor. In life's field of consciousness they are three, but in life's fulness of activities there are many manifestations of one per- sonal spirit, the heart life of man. In the Book of books men are called souls. Not that they are not bodies, but that they are more than material organisms. Over the material ele- ments and working through them are soul powers, which psychologists have named intellect, sensibili- ties and will, the three recognized phenomena in 12 Man, a Soul 13 the field of man's consciousness. Blowing through this field of man's consciousness is a breath that is a power making for righteousness. Through the book, the paragon of literature, and of more than literature, the words of which are spirit and life there comes into man's soul a wish, a breathing prayer that he may be kept blameless in body, soul and spirit unto the coming of the Lord of glory. The body is the material ultimation of the spirit. The soul, intellect and sensibilities, and will, is the refraction of the light of God shining through the prismatic spirit of man. Intellect shows us thoughts that sparkle and flash like rays of light. In feeling, the sparkling light is melted into a flow- ing stream of life. The will gives direction to the sparkling thoughts and flowing stream of life, ulti- mating themselves in language, words and deeds, cold or hot as they may seem to the interested or uninterested seer or hearer. Thus human language is the product of the human spirit through the soul of intellect and sensibilit}^ and will. And human language is the literature of the soul. And human literature is human life in letters. Therefore the importance and power of literature in man's edu- cation. Human literature, being human life in let- ters, carries with it all power of humanity in thought and feeling and will — the soul powers of Man and His Education humanity. Divine literature, which is Divine life in letters, has in it the power of the thought and the love and the will of God. If human literature is mighty in man's education, divine literature is as much more mighty as God is more mighty than man. Therefore to neglect or reject divine litera- ture in man's education is to neglect or reject the most powerful help. The literature of man passes and changes with the ages. The literature of God, like himself, is unchangeable. The literature of dying man fades like the grass and the flower of grass. The literature of the ever-living God abid- eth forever. The heavens and the earth shall pass away but the word of God shall not pass away. Man's word dies as dieth man. God's word lives as liveth God. The soul that is filled with the word of God liveth forever with God. CHAPTER III THE WILL OF MAN THE will of man. By his will power, man chooses his course of thought and action, de- termines the direction to which his thoughts shall be given and his feelings shall flow. Thus the will is commander-in-chief of the forces of character and of manhood. When the will is weak thoughts scat- ter and waste themselves on life's arena, feelings go wild and often rush into wreck and ruin. To pre- vent such sad results the intellect must be busy in sending out thoughts to make discoveries to gather data for comparisons, and classifications according to the law governing such data. Hence the func- tion of the intellect is to note the law of cause and effect, to show the easier and better way for the current of thoughts to go, to note the way of pleasure and of pain, the way of right and wrong, the way of lower and higher utilities, so the feeling of interest may be developed and begin to flow and influence the will to choose. Owing to the power that makes for righteousness in man and 15 1 6 Man and His Education another power that makes for unrighteousness, man must choose which he will serve. To make this choice is the function of man through the will. If the choice be an intelligent one looking to the higher and more enduring utilities and to the ulti- mate right, man feels ennobled and worthy, but if the choice be one dominated by excited emotions, raging passions, devouring appetite, he feels shamed and humiliated. To choose wisely and well, and to persistently maintain such a choice is the preroga- tive of the will. Thus a strong and robust char- acter may be formed and man show himself a real and true man, bearing and showing the likeness of his creator, God. To fail in this, though he is more and greater than all other creatures beneath him in excellence, he is debased. When the lower elements prevail over his will, he becomes material- istic in thought, animalistic in appetite and passion, incapable of noble living, a corrupter of human so- ciety, a worry to his best friends, and a devouring parasite on the tree of human life : Such a parasitic leaf, such a blighted bud, such a blasted twig, and such a dying branch on the tree of human life is fit only for the consuming fires which are already burning within him. On the other hand, if the will choose the higher utilities, directing thoughts along the higher lines where light from above The Will of Man 17 shines, the results are ennobling, full of conscious worthiness, man becomes a fruitful tree, whose every branch and twig has its buds of life and blos- soms of beauty. Heaven smiles upon him. CHAPTER IV MAN A SPIRITUAL BEING WE have thought of man as to his body and as to his soul. Of how, by means of his body he can subdue the earth and have dominion and by means of his soul of intellect and sensibilities and will he can give intelligent direction to his power of dominion. We come now to think of man as a personal spirit. As a spiritual being he is close of kin to God, who is Spirit. In and through his soul, his threefold outgoing energies of thought and feeling and will, and revealed through the body, man makes his achievements in the earth. In the center of the soul, or in the germinal and potential root thereof, is he a personal spirit. In his spirit man is conscious of God, God touches him and comes into fellowship with him. In the spirit of man God limits himself and man becomes as man a personal and responsible being to his creator and to every creature around him, the most responsible of all creatures. The protoplasmic germ of the plant placed i8 Man a Spiritual Being 19 among the mineral elements and properly related to them, transmutes and regenerates and transforms them and makes them after its own image, glorify- ing them in the fragrance and beauty of the rose and the lily. We know not how the vegetable germ does this but we believe it does this very thing. This faith gives us the fruitage of the florist and of the farmer. By the power within the animal germ of life, the elements of the mineral and vege- table kingdoms are regenerated and transformed into the heart-beating and eye-glittering and walk- ing organism of the animal. How this animal germ of life does this we know not, but we believe it does this very thing. The protoplasmic germ of human life, rightly adjusted and related, regenerates and transmutes and transforms the elements of the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms into the upright walking, talking, reasoning, spiritualizing, organism of man. How this protoplasmic germ of human life does all this we know not but we believe it does these very things. In view of all these things, is it too much to believe that the spirit of the creator of the heavens and the earth, enswathed in light, clothed with fire, moving in the wind and the water, can give breathing life to man, and re- generate and transmute and transform all the ele- ments in man, spirit, soul and body, into the image 20 Man and His Education and glory of God? Let man submit himself to the guidance of the spirit of God, following the leadership and teaching of Jesus Christ in the use of the means appointed by Him he will be renewed after the image of Him who created him. So the spirit of man receives the spirit of God and the life and the beauty and the glory of God is in and upon him. CHAPTER V PHASES OF HUMAN LIFE WE now proceed to note the different phases of human life as they appear in the face of man. As he passes before us he has been classified in color as white, yellow, red and black. Whence the color type of man is a mystery. The best chemical analysis ever made has not revealed the secret. And his education may have very little to do with his color type and yet it may have more to do with it than we think. The color of leaf and of flower and of fruit is more than skin deep. And so it is of man. His thought and feeling and will have much to do with the color and form of his expression in language and in life. We speak of him as black with rage, as red with anger, as yellow with jealousy, as white with fear. Thought and feeling have to do with these colorings. The whiteness of the light is deeper than the silver lining of the cloud or the bright twinkle of the star. God is light. The yellow of the golden sun- set is deeper than the fleecy cloud through which it 21 22 Man and His Education shines. The red of the blushing morn comes from a source deeper than the blue sky upon which it is painted. The blackness of the cloud is more than mist in the air. The color of leaf and of flower is of more than sunshine and of air. In all this and back of all this and through all this comes a life potency working its wonders for our learning. And as these color phases of man come from a source back of that which appears on his face, so human life, flowing out through thought and feeling and will, has to do with the colorings of its mate- rial and flesh forms. It is worthy of note that human life in its darker shades seeks the brighter and fairer faces. In the vegetable kingdom the darker colorings of life are relatively few. Black roses and black lilies are rare. And in the unfolding ages and progress of human life they may be as rare in the human king- dom. As light triumphs over darkness so may the aspirations of human life for the brighter face pre- vail. The educator who imparts in forms of purity of thought, kindness of feeling, benevolence of purpose helps the power in man that not only makes for righteousness but for the beauty of God in and upon man. The true educator of man observes and notes all the forms and phases of life for suggestions in his Phases of Human Life 23 work as an educator. He traces carefully the law of cause and effect, the influence of circumstances and the force of power working in and through him. He will carefully note the distribution of the different forms and colorings of life, vegetable and animal and human. He studies carefully rela- tions and modifying causes. He will note the con- ditions and circumstances of the most perfect forms and most beautiful colorings, to ascertain whether they are the effects of segregating influences or otherwise. He will seek a reason for classification and segregation, noting the methods of the best de- velopment in the vegetable and animal and human kingdoms. To educate the good and all the good in man and to use means adapted to the develop- ment of the good in its most perfect and beautiful forms will be the scope of his endeavor. To use means that are adequate and methods that are ef- fective will be his high purpose. To most surely succeed in this the educator himself must be in right attitude and relation to the power in man that makes for righteousness, — yea, to the power over the spirit of man giving light and life and love to all, working in all men to will and to do of His good pleasure, even the perfection of the creature. It may be noted here that this law of the selec- tion of agencies and means is observed by man in 24 Man and His Education all spheres of his achievements. The forester looks for the man who has been trained in the use of the axe and the saw. The farmer looks for the man who has been trained to the work of the farm. The house builder looks for the man who knows the work and the tools of house building. The tradesman wants the man who will line up well in his business. And so we might go through the whole catalogue of human enterprises and the same would be true. The man of knowledge and experi- ence, and one thing more not hitherto named, the man who is in tune with his work is the man of highest value. He is best adapted, most effective for successful achievement. And nowhere in life's school of achievements is this more important than in what is known as the school room. The most effective teacher, and the one whose work fails not in time or in eternity, is the one who is in tune with the infinite source of light and of love and of life, the creator, preserver and governor of heaven and earth. Thus only will man be an adequate agency and use adequate means for the perfecting of hu- man life in all its relations. Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect. CHAPTER VI MORAL TYPES HAVING thought of man in his physical organ- ism of many members, and his psychic or soul powers, and of the color phases of his life all of which are related to his education, we come now to consider three moral types of his life. These are known as the carnal, the natural, the spiritual. All his physical elements and members, and all his psychic powers, with all their blendings and inter- blendings may be martialed under either of these types, but which depends largely upon his educa- tion and training. We note first, the carnal type of human life. And we note here the marks of the carnal type. They are of course physical and are found where the body dominates the soul. Here the body is master and flesh ruling rather than serving, the life is carnal. As my Greek brother would say life is somatic rather than psychic or pneumatic. As St. Paul, a greater logician and philosopher than Plato, says, the life is carnal. The carnal mind is enmity 25 26 Man and His Education against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Whatever helps the en- thronement of the appetites of the body over the soul and spirit of man tends to man's debasement. Appetite, in the divine order, is means to a higher end. To keep the higher end in view is the scope of education. It seems to be true that man is born hungry. Soon after breathing his own individual life his lips give signs for food and his hands find their way to his mouth. And parenthood gratifies the hunger and thirst of the child wisely but not always most wisely. Sometimes the parent pampers the appetite, surfeits the system, overindulges the child and so starts it on the career of a self-indulgent life that works ruin in later years. Thus it is trained in the habit of the carnal mind and will be prone to live to eat rather than to eat to live. So, the first months and years of a child's individual and dependent existence may determine what kind of a man he will be at forty years of age, if he live so long. Though he live a temperate life in his manhood years and reach the sixtieth or even seventieth anniversary of his birth, he may waken up to the consciousness of having to fight over again the battles of his youth. And the par- ent, or the school, or the church, that neglects the Moral Types 27 early training of the child, fails to help the old man conquer. God made no mistake when He said: "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." To neglect to so train, or to train otherwise is to make it hard for the child when he is old. The carnal mind, unrestrained in youth, becomes a destroying tyrant to manhood even down to old age. The second type of human life involving char- acter and destiny is known in Holy Scripture as the natural mind. Here the viewpoint is that of the soul. Self-worthiness may be the watchword. Man prides himself on what he is and what he does. He is prone to think that there is nothing great in man but mind. He says thoughts are things, and things make up the world. Mind names and classi- fies and systematizes all things from clod to God. Mind is great, and naturally man becomes heady, high minded, proud. He glories in his intellectual achievements and in the mastery of mind over mat- ter. Knowledge is power. Therefore the emphasis is put in mind and its development. Education be- comes pre-eminently an intellectual matter. A well-trained mind is here the goal. The affections may play their part; love may make its conquests; hate may exploit its spoils ; the will, like an imperial Caesar, may make its achievements; the body may 28 Man and His Education walk forth like a giant and perform its feats, but over all these the mind is censor. The natural law of cause and effect is noted. Natural elements are classified according to their relations and potences. The realm of nature is the arena of mental achievement. Man is great in his achievement because of his mind. He sees and notes the operation of mental laws, traces the law of cause and effect among natural elements and so habituates himself to natural processes of thought as to see only that which is natural. His spiritual suscepti- bility, power of faculty, becomes atrophied. The natural mind is king, and knows only things of the natural kingdom, 'Tor the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." i Cor. H:i4. Therefore it is evident that if man's education has to do only with the natural he becomes so pre- dominantly natural minded as to lose power to know spiritual things. That education which trains the child to think only of nature, and nature's processes, trains the child to become skeptical con- cerning things supernatural. However important his education in natural things may be, man's education in faith in the supernatural is of greater importance. Moral Types 29 As the body is more than the raiment it wears, as the soul is more than the body through which it works, so the spirit of man is more than the soul, its psychic manifestations. And that education which neglects the spirit of man, or divorces his spirit from the spirit of God in nature robs man of his highest glory. CHAPTER VII THE ESSENTIAL IN MAN's EDUCATION WE come now to consider the most important factor in man's education. Physical training is important. Our schools do well in teaching and training in the manual utilities. They do better in their teaching and training the soul in the higher utilities where mind makes its exploits and heart shows its interest and will makes its choices. But they do best of all when they teach and train to faith in God over all blessed forever more. Man is essentially spiritual. God is spirit and man was created in His image, a personal spirit. As such God communes with him and he with God, receiving illumination, endowment and induement for achievements. God is the absolute and univer- sal dynamic. And thus man as a spiritual being comes into working harmony with God. To neg- lect this point of spiritual power, of this relation of the human spirit to the divine spirit is to fail in the highest and most comprehensive and most enduring education of man. 30 The Essential in Mans Education 3 1 There is an abiding affinity between the spirit of man and the spirit of God. The spirit of man, in this fluxing, restless world, finds not rest until it finds it in God. In order that the spirit of man might have this rest the spirit of God came into this world chaotic before God said: Let there be light. The coming of light was a sequence to the coming of the spirit of God into the material world. The creative process from light to the breathing spirit of man had for its immanent dynamic the spirit of God. This power of the Highest has to do with every atom of the world from chaos to final con- summation when infinite harmony shall prevail. By the influence of this immanent power of God man is kept conscious of the Supreme, is called to God, and endued with power divine. So it was with the prophets, apostles and evangelists whom God called, qualified and sent forth to preach and to teach. The gentleness of God made them great in power for righteousness. Their work abides as the work of God. They were pre-eminently of the spiritual mind. Their spirits were attuned to the spirit of God. And we today must come into har- mony with this dominant chord of God in His world if we would sing the song of the perfect humanity, the song of Moses and the Lamb. Let us now note some marks of the spiritual 32 Man and His Education mind. The spiritual mind is the prevalence of the spirit of God in the mind of man. When man yields himself to the Spirit of God, and is guided by the Spirit, in the use of the means of the Spirit, he is of the spiritual mind. Jesus the Christ is God's revelation of Himself unto His world as the Father of our spirits. The work of the Spirit of God is to take the things of Christ and show them to the spirit of man to guide him into all truth. Note the words "all truth." Thus the Spirit conserves all law in creation and revelation processes, helps man into harmony with God in Christ in whom man has complete redemp- tion. And thus man is guided into the goal of all his education. This then we note as a mark of the spiritual mind. Looking unto Christ who is the way, the truth and the life. He says: "Look unto me all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me and ye shall find rest unto your souls." And the spirit through the apostle says: "There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." The spir- itual mind looks to Christ, comes to Him in faith, learns of Him, follows Him. The Essential in Mans Education 33 Another mark of the spiritual mind is this: Guidance by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. ''By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." "He spake and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast." "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the Word of the Lord abideth forever." "The Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." "To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." So saith the Spirit of God to the spirit of man. And the Bible, the Holy Scriptures is the Word of God. "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." "All Scrip- ture given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be per- fect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Given therefore by the spirit for this very purpose, the spiritual mind is guided by Holy Scripture in faith and life. Another mark of the spiritual mind is the ac- 34 Man and His Education ceptance of the Sacraments of the Word of God be- cause they are appointed and commanded by the Word and Spirit of God. Another mark of the spiritual mind is fellowship with the church, the body of Christ, the pillar and ground of the truth, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. Bearing these marks, the spirit of man is kept by the power of God unto eternal life. CHAPTER VIII THE FIELD OF MAn's CONSCIOUSNESS MAN is fearfully and wonderfully made and that my soul knoweth right well, said the singing prophet of Israel. In the complexity of his being he is in the midst of three worlds. Of these worlds he is very conscious. To hold these worlds in right relations in the field of his consciousness is the ideal of his life here where so much is at issue. If either of these three worlds is ignored or neglected in man's education he becomes an ab- normal being. The school that neglects either of these worlds is an abnormal school. To educate man symmetrically these three worlds of man's consciousness must be in harmony. Then man will be beautiful, blessed, most useful and divinely re- lated to all the environs of his life. Thus he is so related to the material world about him as to as- similate its elements to his needs and enjoyment. Then his mind is clear and alert, his affections are active and blissful, his will is strong and command- ing and he is clothed in royal apparel and power. 35 36 Man and His Education And then his spirit is in tune with the Spirit of God whose gifts are so manifold, making man a most effective and harmonious worker with God. Now what are these three worlds which are so powerful in man's education? They are first, the realm of his self-consciousness; secondly, the realm of his world-consciousness; thirdly, the realm of his God-consciousness. We note first, the part man's self-consciousness takes in man's education. In this field of his learn- ing we have all those studies that relate to his body and to soul and to his spirit. Concerning the body we have anatomy, physiology, hygiene and all those studies that relate to health and healthful activities, to healthful foods and drinks, and to the right use and care of eye and of ear, of hands and of feet, yea of all the senses and members of the body that man may be the best possibly fitted for achievements in life. Then concerning the soul we have psychology, studies of the mind, the sensibilities and the will, ethics of moral science and all those philosophies which relate to historical and causative develop- ment of human life. Then again we have those studies which relate to the personal spirit oi man in its relation to the world and to God, the so-called science of being, The Field of Mans Consciousness 37 philosophy of life and its relations to conscious and sub-conscious influences. It was Alexander Pope who said: "The proper study of mankind is man." And it was the wise Greek who said ; "Know thyself." Man is the key that unlocks the door of all-world knowledge. The God-man is the key to all true knowledge. For man to know himself, his relations and dependen- cies, is of first importance. It helps him to adjust to the world about him and to God above him. In his self-adjustment to the world the scientific studies are very helpful. Here medical science is a suggestive friend. Here moral philosophy is a wise counsellor. And here the teaching of the reve- lation of God, man's creator is the true friend and unerring counselor. To know man in his real and true nature, to learn the prophecies of his possibili- ties, to see the forecasting of his destiny, study the Book of books. Without this light upon man, in body and soul and spirit, man will not have a true knowledge of himself. Without the study of this Book he will not learn to know himself in his real and true relations to this world or to the next whither he is going. Man's teachings are con- stantly changing but God's teachings, like Himself, change not. "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord." Until that candle is lighted by Him 38 Man and His Education who is the light of the world it has only a dying spark and is as only smoking flax. And the match by which the spirit of man, the candle of the Lord, is lighted is the written Word of the living God. Without a knowledge of this Book man cannot see himself as he is. He cannot know whither he is tending. He gropes in darkness. But God is light and His Word is life. CHAPTER IX HIS WORLD-CONSCIOUSNESS IN the field of man's consciousness the world about him has a very prominent place. To know the material world in which we live is very impor- tant to us. From it we get our food, our clothing, our shelter, our money as a medium of exchange for the supply of all our needs, and the means for our educational advancement in science, art and philosophy. It is not surprising, therefore, that this material world plays so important a part in most men's lives. Hence in man's education he exploits all nature from the stars to the depths of the sea, to discover his resources, to classify her elements, to know her laws that he might know and choose her utilities. As a result of this exploitation he classi- fies nature studies, giving us geography, geology, mineralogy, botany, entomolog>% ornithology, zool- ogy, anthropology, astronomy, physics, and chemis- try, probably the most important of all the sciences not to mention scores of other classified studies. In these studies we speak of the law of gravity, of 39 40 Man and His Education chemical affinity, of cohesion, of centripetal and cen- trifugal forces, and of the law of cause and effect. So manifold are the facts and the laws governing them, and so related are they to human life as to make a knowledge of them of great utility in man's achievements and welfare. Everything being under law, a knowledge of things and the laws govern- ing them are valuable assets in solving the problem of man's education. The Creator of the heavens and the earth had all this in view when he gave the earth to man and said to him: "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work." So important is human life in the earth, and so important is a knowledge of earthly things and the laws governing them that God com- manded man to be busy six days in learning these things. God hath commanded wisely. He spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. His word endureth forever and changeth not. God is good, and His tender mercies are over all his works. Every good gift and every perfect gift Cometh from God with whom there is no variable- ness nor shadow of turning. And His laws govern- ing nature are of love and change not. Is it the law of gravity? of chemical affinity? of cohesion? of centripetal and centrifugal forces? They are the same everywhere and therefore man can depend His World-Consciousness 41 upon them and make his calculations for days and for years and for centuries to come. Therefore, knowing these laws of God in nature man can adjust to them and be filled with all the fullness of God for him in body and soul and spirit. Here two important things may be noted. The first is this: If man allows nature studies to absorb all his energies he becomes natural minded and worldly. The natural mind knoweth not the things of the Spirit of God. He becomes worldly because the world dominates his life. He lives in and for this world. Nature is his god. He talks of nature as doing everything which he does not do. Nature causes the water to flow, and the plants to grow, and the wind to blow, and beyond nature he recognizes no power. He becomes a nature wor- shiper. Such a man is only one-third educated. The other thing we here note is this: The habit of nature study, if persisted in, results in dulling the consciousness of the supernatural, in clouding the thought of God and in the atrophy of the spir- itual faculties. Thus man may lose faith in God and become Saduceeic as to the world of spiritual realities. He loves only this world and the things of this world. His spiritual nature is blighted and dwarfed. His inner light goes out. His glory de- parts. His name is Ichabod. CHAPTER X HIS GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS THE three thirds of man's education are his self-consciousness, his world-consciousness, and his God-consciousness. As we look out over the world we see houses for various purposes. Among them on mountain, and on hill and in valley we see the altar and the church building. The altar and the church are evolutions of the consciousness of God. As in self-consciousness man contemplates himself, and as in his world-consciousness he con- templates the world, so in his God-consciousness he thinks of God. The altar registers on earth his thought and worship of God. At the altar man and God meet in fellowship. There man prays, offers his sacrifice, and receives the expressed favor of God in sign and approving and guiding word. Therefore, the church Is the house of prayer, our Father's house. Here man's consciousness of God is fostered as nowhere else. Here the spirit of man draws near to the appointments of the Spirit of God. Here the Spirit of God, brooded over 42 His God-Consciousness 43 the waters in the beginning, broods over the spirit of man, to illuminate, to quicken, and to guide in the way of all truth. Here God speaks to man as nowhere else. Here God helps man as nowhere else. It is true that all the natural world is the expression and a revelation of God, but not such an expression and revelation of himself as God gives by the altar in His house. In nature the gentle- ness of God seems veiled, the still small voice of God is seldom heard, the constraining love of God is but little felt, but in His house of prayer and on His altar, God reveals himself to draw man to Him with the tender cords of light and of love. Therefore the spirit of man, guided by the Spirit of God, says: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after ; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." Upon such a man rests the beauty of the Lord our God, and His word is established unto him. All this is the result of the striving of the Spirit of God with the spirit of man. The Spirit of God was man's first teacher, breathing into him the breath of life. Then the Lord God taught him the way of life. The angel of the Lord's presence counselled him. So God was man's first educator. Man's education came from above him rather than 44 Man and His Education within him or from around him or from below him. The altar was man's first school-house and Jehovah his first teacher. Though man built the altar with his own hands, God taught him how to build it and what offerings to make upon it. And in the teaching of man God hath used all nature from the solid rock to the cloud of vapor, from the blade of grass to the sun, from the worm to man himself. And all God's teachings through nature, whether by type or symbol, or by revelation unto man, have their concentrated fullness in Jesus Christ in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. By Him were all things made that were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Therefore, He knows all elements and all their relations and all laws governing them. And therefore, he spake as never man spake. By Him all things consist. He is the bond of union between God and man. He is the God-Man. His knowl- edge is more comprehensive and complete than that of all men in all ages. His wisdom is greater than that of men and of angels. His love and power are the love and power of Almighty God. There- fore His teaching, and preaching and living and suffering and power and glory and dominion are those of the Infinite himself made finite for man. Not to be taught of Him is to miss the teaching His God-Consciousness 45 of the greatest and best teacher this world has ever seen. In Him our self-consciousness and our world- consciousness are so blended together in their ab- sorption by our God-consciousness as to bring us into blending harmony with God over all blessed forever more. PART II THE MEANS OF MAN'S EDUCATION CHAPTER I THE WORD OF MAN THE word of man is linguistic, that is, a lettered expression of his thought, his feeling, his will, his life. 2. This linguistic expression may be vocal and articulate. Thus man's word goes through ear- gate to educate. Faith cometh by hearing — faith in its forms natural and spiritual, human and di- vine, scientific, philosophic, and religious. Vocaliz- ing organs are primary means of our education. The voice of parent, of nurse, of teacher, of preacher, of God, — all have to do with man's edu- cation. Lips, tongue, teeth, palate, larynx, bron- chia, lungs, have to do with man's education. All ought to be used without abuse. God uses them to give His word to the world. 3. The lettered and written or printed word of man is used in his education. His spoken word may pass with the wind. His written word abides with the ages and centuries possess it. By the use of this means man's thought is spelled out into and* 49 50 Man and His Education through many languages and dialects, and man be- comes cosmic in the manifoldness of his teaching and learning. Wonderful is the power of the per- sonal spirit of man. More wonderful is that power who gives to man such manifoldness of expression. No wonder His name is called Wonderful, Coun- sellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, whose government and peace shall have no end. The wind, the water, the oil, the rock, the woody fiber, the iron and steel, the pearl and dia- mond — all are used to express and record, and make effective, the educative power of man and his Creator. CHAPTER II THE SENSES OF MAN WE note in Chapter One the word of man, or the linguistic means of his education. We note secondly, man's seven senses as means of his education. Through five of these senses he has to do w^ith the material world in which he lives. Through the eye it is estimated, he gets at least eighty per cent of his knowldge of this world. Therefore the eye should be well cared for. Through the senses of hearing, smelling, tasting and touching, he gets twenty per cent of his knowledge of material things. Injury to either sense diminishes man's knowledge of the world in which he lives. When one sense is destroyed, then he is so far dead to this world. If it is the sense of taste that is destroyed, he knows nothing of the gustatory pleasure of food or drink. If it is the sense of smell that is dead, he knows nothing of the odors of the rose or of the aroma of savory food. If the sense of touch is dead, he is ignorant of pleasurable feeling of friendly objects 51 52 Man and His Education he may touch or grasp. If it is the sense of hearing that is lost, he is dead to the concord of sweet sounds. If it is the sense of sight that is gone, he is dead to the beauty of the world. If all senses are dead, then man is dead to this world, and we lay thq organism of the five senses (his body) away into the tomb. His work in this world is done. His fellowship with friends in earthly form is ended. Then there is a sixth sense. Man is conscious of the right and the wrong, of the proper and of the improper, of the good and of the evil. He often feels it his duty to do thus or so. He op- poses or disapproves certain conduct. He has a moral sense, commonly called conscience. And few are the parents who want a teacher to teach their children who is deficient in this sense. A good moral character is essential in a good teacher for a good education of the pupil. Then there is a seventh sense. Man is conscious of God. God is spirit. Man is essentially spirit. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. The Spirit of God moves upon and among the elements of the material world in which man lives. The Spirit of God strives with man, and keeps man conscious of God. Man shows this consciousness in his language, in his acts of altar and temple building for worship. Thus man gives evidence of The Senses of Man 53 his spiritual sense. So a personal spirit man is conscious of God who is personal Spirit, and wor- ships Him as adequate cause of all things, and Father of his own spirit. The neglect to use a sense results in hurt to that sense. And if such neglect be persevered in for a long time, that sense becomes dead, atrophied, and man loses consciousness of the object of that sense, whether it be physical, moral, or spiritual. Thus it is possible for a man to be three times dead — physically, morally, and spiritually. Yea, more! He may be seven times dead, — dead to God and to this world. Not so when man is normally educated — when all his senses are used, developed and rightly culti- vated. Then he is a live man, seven times alive. Then Godliness is profitable unto all things, and he has promise of this life and of the life to come, Christ, the supreme spiritual life, came that we might have life more abundantly. In Him we have all the fullness of God, for time and for eternity. CHAPTER III OBJECTIVE NATURE WE have thought of the word of man and of the senses of man as means in his education. We now think of nature in its objective manifesta- tion and relation as means in the development of man in his full-orbed education. Nature may be divided into three kingdoms, that of the mineral, that of the vegetable, and that of the animal. And if we include man in nature, we would say, as a fourth kingdom, the human kingdom. We note, first, the mineral kingdom. In this kingdom we have air, water, earth and the stars, with their light and electricity. Here, too, we have the laws of gravity, of chemical affinity, of cohe- sion, of adhesion, and the forces of centrifugal and centripetal. By the law of gravity we are held to the earth. By keeping the center of gravity we stand and r/alk and leap and run. If we lose the center of gravity we fall. By this law we weigh commodi- 54 Objective Natu7-e 55 ties and reckon values. By this law we weigh rock, water, and air, and calculate displacements in water and in air. Adjusting to this law trees grow and trees fall. By this law we build our houses and our towers. Not to reckon with this law is to fail. Then there is the law of chemical affinity. By this law earth is a mixture of elements, water is formed, and air is composed. By this law plants grow, form pith, fiber and bark. By this law ani- mals grow, form^ bone, muscle, tendon, nerve, skin, and hair. By this law we prepare our foods, digest and assimilate them. By this law our brains are fed, surfeited, or starved. By this law our bodies are built up and by it they are decomposed. Not to reckon with this law is to fail. Then there is the law of cohesion. By this law solid rocks are formed and placed ; woods are ad- justed for use, iron is made to cohere to iron; and our buildings of stone, of brick, of wood, with their adjustments and decoration, stand and serve us. Without this law of cohesion and its sister law of adhesion, there could be no building for habitation, protection, or comfort. The mineral kingdom is the foundation without which life could not build. There would be no place for seed of life to rest, no soil in which to 56 Man and His Education grow, no air in which to breathe. Without it we would have no place to stand, no food to eat, no water to drink, no air to breathe, no light to see, no life in the body with its five senses. CHAPTER IV THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM WITHIN the mineral kingdom, with its ma- terial elements, governed by its laws operat- ing with unfailing accuracy, there is a place, a condition, and a provision, for life — ^vegetable life. The Creator put the seed of vegetable life into such ground, because in such ground composed of such elements and governed by such laws, it could grow. In such a soil it could germinate and root itself and rise into its heaven of air and light. There is the seed of the rose. It is a seed of life powerful and beautiful. The life in that seed gets hold of elements in the soil, assimilates them, transmutes them, gives them its own nature, and glorifies them in the form, color, and beauty of its blooming rose. What vegetable life does here it does in thousands of other seeds, from the smallest flower of grass to the biggest and most stately tree. Without life the mineral kingdom would remain a barren desert, a kingdom of desolation. But with life in manifoldness, it not only blossoms as the rose, but it blooms as a paradise. 57 58 Man and His Education You notice that the transformation is made by that force we call life. What is life? Who has seen it? Who can tell us what it is? Who can taste it? Who can abstract it from its form and show it to us? Tell us what it looks like. It cannot be seen with the eye. It cannot be held with the fingers or caught with the nippers. It evades every effort of man to grasp it. Yet man believes it is. He talks about it. He writes books about It. He cannot understand it, but he believes it is. So he says: Life makes the earth beautiful, fruitful, and a good place to live in. He believes and therefore he speaks and writes, and wants to live. He does not understand the mysteries of life, but he believes there is life, even vegetable life, and he shows his faith by his actions — his works. To know something of how plants and trees grow, of the conditions and best adaptations for growth is no small part of man's education. Not all elements are adapted to every plant for growth. But every plant in growing adjusts to the law of gravity, of chemical affinity, and of cohesion. It does not violate them, but it adjusts to them and they help life to grow and bloom and bear fruit. It has in it the power and wisdom of God. It is God's thought in bloom and in fruitage. CHAPTER V THE ANIMAL KINGDOM THE mineral kingdom has its values. The vegetable kingdom also has its values, and values which life gives to elements of the mineral realm. The vegetable has a value that cannot be given to the mineral. It is a life value. The most valuable gems in the mineral kingdom may have life value back of their marketable form and qual- ity. Whence the pearl? Whence the diamond? Would the mineral kingdom be worth anything without life? Would there be a value reckoned without life? There are different degrees of life, as well as different values. There are different kinds of life. There is static life as in the vegetable. It grows by being planted. There is a walking life. We call this life animal life. It moves from place to place. It feeds upon the vegetable. It transmutes vege- table and mineral elements into a new form. It gives them a new nature^ — the animal nature. The animal life is master here. This life gives a pulsat- 59 6o Man and His Education ing heart, breathing lungs, red blood, a hearing ear, a seeing eye, a moving, creeping, walking, flying, organism to plant and clod. Great is the power of the animal life. Wonderful its works. Marvelous its voices. It lives and works and grows in earth, in sea, in air, almost everywhere. It turns all be- low it in degree and kind into animal. The mineral kingdom has its sounds. There is the sound of the bubbling fountain of water, of the purling brook, the flowing river, and the rolling and splashing waves of the sea. It may be like a laugh, a sigh, a moan, and a crash down to death. They are the sounds of dead elements. The song of the trees, the rustle of the leaves, the sigh and moan of the forest is so different from the moan of the sea. What is the difference? Life makes the difference. Then there comes the chirp of the cricket, the trill and croak of the frog, the bleat of the lamb, the howl of the wolf, the low of the cow, the whinney of the horse, the song of the bird, the scream of the eagle, sounding in the air. What causes the difference from these sounds of forest and sea, and of rustling of leaves and the song of the brook? Life, a higher and greater life. To every seed God hath given a body as it has pleased Him. To every force a form its own. The Animal Kingdom 6l Even dead matter has its motion and its sounds. To every life there is a body, an organism, and a voice. But so far we have not heard a voice articu- late. We have not caught sight of a lettered w^ord or seen a sign telling us whence all these things. Is there yet a higher life? Is there a life that will give articulate speech to all these sounds and voices ? CHAPTER VI THE HUMAN KINGDOM HUMAN life is more than the sum of all earthly lives. The breath of God is in it. It is master of all nature below him. It is king over the three kingdoms — mineral, vegetable and animal. Its organism, the human body, is built up v^^ith ele- ments of these three kingdoms. In man they are all humanized. In man all are offered to God as living sacrifice. Man is the high priest of these three kingdoms. He is the anthropos of these kingdoms. In his face all look up to heaven and worship God. And when the Son of God became the Son of Man He offered in his own body, all nature and human nature, to God a holy and ac- ceptable sacrifice. As human life regenerates all other and lower lives, and makes them human, so the divine life of the Son of Man makes all other earthly lives divine. In the Christ all things are made new. He is the medium through which man is reconciled to God and comes into fellowship with Him. Heaven enters earth through man. 62 The Human Kingdom 63 Earth rises up to heaven through man. Heaven and earth blend in man. In the Christ, God and man are one. In the Christ God became man-like that man might become God-like. Thus man is the means through w^hich God cre- ates a new heaven and a new earth. For this pur- pose the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. For this purpose the spirit of man transmutes all other lower elements in a humanized organism, whatever its type and color and language. The human organism may be black, red, yellow, white, with various blendings of these it is yet hu- man — that it may become divine. The physical types, intellectual types, affectional types, and will power, need to be studied. There are the family, tribal, and national types to be noted. Ethnical and ethical types as well as language types, are helpful means for a full education. Every means through which human life shows itself is worthy of the thoughtful notice of the student, the scholar, and the teacher. In tYtry man there is some good and some evil, something divine, something human, something of the animal, something of the vege- table, something of the mineral, something angelic, and something demoniacal. To ignore any of these, results in partial education. To know all the facts and their laws and relations and possible 64 Man and His Education combinations, In man himself, Is most useful means by which to find the way out of darkness Into light, out of the complex mysteries Into the simple life of faith and hope and love. The mineral kingdom Is glorified by yielding to the power of the vegetable life. The mineral and vegetable kingdoms are glorified by yielding to the power of the animal life. These three kingdoms are glorified by yielding to the power of the human life. And all four are glorified by yielding to the power of the divine life in the person of the God- Man, the man of Gallllee. CHAPTER VII ADAPTATION OF MEANS MAN'S education is four-fold — physical, men- tal, moral and spiritual. To rightly relate and blend these elements is to have a well-educated man. Such a man will be more useful and happier for such proportionate blending of these elements. He will be full-orbed and strong. To have such a result, there needs to be adapta- tion of means to this end. Life is a very sensitive thing. It is also a very mighty thing. Its trans- mutations are marvelous. Its power to lift and place and hold up in air is wonderful. See the great tree, look at the ox drawing his load, note man lifting several times his weight. But for this physical power there must be means adapted to life for these results. A physical organism cannot be built up without physical means. Yes, and phys- ical means adapted to the temper and tone of the life for its natural working. Corn, potatoes, wheat, need different elements for the life in grains and tubers to produce desired results. Physical elements 65 66 Man and His Education adapted to the nature of the life type must be put where that life can touch and assimilate to its own organism. So for best results human life must have physical elements adapted to its building up a strong and effective organism. The same is true for the mental type of human life. Thought signs, symbols, words, language, must be adapted to the life that grows signs and symbols and words and language. The quality of thought means has much to do with the results of life's work. Well formed symbols, letters, words and proper and right acts, good and pure pictures, have much to do in the unfolding and habit-forming, and destiny-determining of human life. The mental temper and moral tone of words and language may soil and spoil the forming of a good moral type of life. Good moral elements are needed to build up a good moral life. Evil com- munications corrupt good manners. Bad language corrupts good thought. Bad thought hinders good life. The best manners, best language, best words, expressive of the best life, are needed for man's best unfolding. As physical life needs physical elements for growth, and for best growth, the physical elements best adapted to that particular type of life, so spiritual growth needs spiritual elements for its best unfolding. The spirit of man is not sufficient Adaptation of Means 67 of itself. Like every other kind and type of life, it needs its own proper food elements to unfold most beautifully — and fruitfully. As there is a certain affinity between certain types of life and certain natural elements for best results, so there is an affinity between the spirit of man and certain spiritual elements for best and most beautiful growth. All these elements of fitness, and of adap- tation, are of God. It is for man to discover these in nature and adjust them, and life will grow. But for man's spiritual growth he is not wholly dependent on discoveries. The elements for spirit- ual growth are furnished him in the Word of God. God is the Father and Creator of our spirits. His words in human language are spirit and life. To receive His word into the heart is to receive spirit- ual quickening and to unfold a life of the type and beauty of the life of Christ, the anointed. The Bible, given by the Spirit of God, is the Book of Life for man. The Spirit of God adapts the words of this Book to the spirit of man, and when man receives them by faith, the life of heaven be- comes manifest in the life of man. Then man comes into fellowship with God. Then man's edu- cation is a growth Godward, and heaven is the goal. This is life eternal: To know God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. PART III METHOD OF MAN'S EDUCATION CHAPTER I THE POURING-IN METHOD WE have thought of what and who man is. We have considered his nature, his rela- tions to his environments, and mission, to subdue and have dominion over the earth. The final pur- pose of this dominion is the offering of all, as Na- ture's high priest, to God, and the crowning of Christ as Lord of all. We have thought of the means adequate to this end. These means include man's consciousness, his languages, his seven senses, and his material environments. Now the question is. How can human life, in its nature and environment, best accomplish its mis- sion? In the educational world two methods have been in use. They have been called the pouring-in and the drawing-out methods. Some emphasize one and some the other method. Again, some ring the changes on adaptation and others on adjustment. Each of these has truth to support it. Each has 71 72 Man and His Education its place and mission in man's true and normal edu- cation. All are parts of the full-orbed man. All are parts of God's method for man's education. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void. Darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Gen. I :i-2. To move upon the face of the waters the Spirit of God had to come upon the face of the waters. He was not drawn out of the waters. He did not come up through the waters. He was not a development, or a spontaneous combustion or gen- eration, of the waters. He was a superinduction, a pouring upon, the face of the waters. He brooded over the waters as a hen broodeth over her eggs. This brooding was conditional to life and the light of life. As in the beginning so in the consummate ending of the mission of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost. He came upon man. And with His coming came light, life and power. The be- ginning was typical. The ending is consummative. The beginning was the potency of the germ of life. The ending is the potency of the fruitage of the germ. The beginning and the ending was a pour- ing upon method. The result of the first and the last was light, life, and man, of whom and of all Jehovah said, ''Very good.'* And so it will be again The Pouring-in Method 73 when man shall be educated according to the plan of His Creator. The mineral kingdom with all its elements, is lifeless — within itself. By the word of the Lord life was put into the midst of these mineral ele- ments and life began to appear in vegetable and then in animal, and finally in human forms. Each kind of life grows and produces its own kind. But the life of every kind was a superinduction, or a pouring in of life forces. Even so with man. Grod breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soul. And it is worthy of note that none of these lives come to flowering and fruiting without the pouring of light upon and into them. God's method is by light centers to pour light upon earth with force sufficient to cause seeds of life to grow. Without this pouring-in method, no growth in nature. And thus God deals with man. When God said to man, "Subdue the earth and have dominion," he poured thought power into man. When He taught man what to do and what not to do. He poured moral power into man. Whether the voice was God's own or echoed by angel, prophet, apostle, or evangelist, it was a telling that poured upon man the words of the Lord. In the Law by Moses, God poured truth into man through 74 Man and His Education ear and eye. Through Jesus Christ, God poured truth and grace into man through eye and ear and touch. St. John said : "That which we have heard, which we have seen, which we have handled of the Word of life, declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellow- ship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ." Light and life, flowering and fruitage, in nature and in grace, come by pouring upon and into created life. CHAPTER II . THE DRAWING-OUT METHOD EDUCATORS have put emphasis on what they call the drawing-out method. To draw out means there is something there to draw out. Ex nihilo nihil fit, the Latin boy says. The mineral kingdom is without life in itself. Having no life you cannot draw life out of it. Man cannot draw life out of death. Man cannot draw animal life out of the vegetable kingdom. Man cannot draw human life out of the animal kingdom. Neither can divine life be drawn out of human life without first put- ting divine life into the human. So the pouring-in method is primary, and conditional to the drawing- out method. Life in form of leaf, blossom, and fruit, is drawn out of the dead mineral kingdom after vegetable life has been put into it. So with every other higher kind of life. For any force, mineral or vital, vegetable or animal, or human, to rise above itself, it must be gripped by a force or power, above it. And before anything can be drawn out it must be there to draw out. 75 76 Man and His Education The child embodies elementally and germinally all the elements of the matured human being. The physical, mental, affectional, moral, religious, ele- ments are all in the child as a condition for drawing out educationally. To draw out or develop the physical, there is the feeding, or pouring-in process. So the mind is developed. So, too, the affections. And so the moral and religious natures. There must be suitable feeding before there can be growth. There must be pouring in before there can be drawing out. No amount of pumping will draw water out of a dry cistern or a dry well. Put water into the well and you can draw out water. Put thought into the mind and you can draw out thought. Put love into the heart and you can draw out love. Put morality into the soul and you can draw out morality. Put religion into the heart and you can draw out religion. Like develops like. The warm sunshine draws the life form in the earth out into leaf and blossom and fruit. Warm-hearted thought calls forth thought and love in the child. Steady and systematic nur- ture draws out the life force into its best form. But best unfolding is the result of the drawing of a higher force or power. If the same kind, the quality or quantity needs to be greater and better for best results. And the best is not too good The Drawinff-out Method 77 for even the worst. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me," said the best educator the world has ever had. Not all persons are equal in all the elements of a human being. Some are strong in body and others are weak. Some are strong in mind and others are weak. Some are cold of heart and others are warm-hearted. Some are strong of will power and others are weak. The world of hu- manity is a world of inequalities. What are our educational methods doing for these unequal chil- dren ? Are we feeding and drawing out the strong to crush out the weak? Are we stimulating and drawing out the strong elements of the child and allowing the weak elements to atrophy? Or are we feeding the weaker elements to make them stronger so as to help to a full-orbed and well- rounded individual and a more harmonious com- munity? To feed the strong and make them stronger, to starve the weak and make them weaker is the method of the under world. It helps where help is least needed. It ruins where help is most needed. There is an over-world method. It, too, pours into and draws out. Its sunshine is for all. Its rain falls upon all. Its wind blows and breathes for all. A voice from above clouds says: Ye that 78 Man and His Education are strong, bear the infirmities of the weak. Lift up the bowed down. Strengthen the weak. Loose the captive. Heal the sick. Raise the dead in trespasses and sins. Then the desert shall bloom as the rose. Then earth shall rejoice. Righteous- ness and peace will kiss each other. He who was the harmony of all earthly elements in his personal organism, and in his personality, harmonized the human and divine natures, shall be the teacher of all peoples and the harmonizer of all individuals and nations. To learn of Him and to follow Him, is to reign with Him whose right it is to reign. CHAPTER III OTHER METHODS TO teach is to tell. To tell is to pour upon or into. To teach by question is to draw out. This is sometimes called the catechetical method. Sometimes both of these methods are combined in a conversational way, and is called the conversa- tional method. This method is less formal than either of the others. It is more nearly mutual. With some it is more effective. It is free from declamation. It spans the chasm between the orator and his hearer. It draws the teacher and pupil to- gether. It subdues and softens the voice. It has more heart flow. It makes the teaching art a mutual matter. It helps reciprocal thinking. It quickens thought. It awakens interest. It in- creases freeness of expression. It receives and gives with ease. It edifies both teacher and taught. With a wise blending of methods it is often the most effective way. Then there is the partial method. This is the historic method. It puts emphasis on a part of 79 8o Man and His Education man and overlooks other parts of equal or of greater importance. For example: The average human life emphasizes the physical during the age of eighteen to thirty years. From thirty to fifty the intellectual predominates. From fifty to sev- enty the moral and reflective come into prominence. The ph3^sical attains its maximum at twenty-four. After that the average human being drawls upon the physical resources acquired before that age. At forty intellectual force reaches its maximum. Sup- ported by twenty-four years of physical develop- ment, thirty to fifty is the period of intellectual ag- gression. Here plans are formed for great achieve- ments. After fifty human life is more reflective and becomes more philosophic. The law of cause and effect receives more attention and means to ends are chosen more wisely. There is the exercise of greater caution. Here we find our wisest states- manship. Here we get our greatest generals for vast armies. Here we enroll our most astute dip- lomats. Old men for counsel. Young men for action. And here, too, are found the wisest teach- ers and the best preachers. The history of the world is a world enlargement of the individual. The world has had its child- hood, its youth, its manhood. There was its tribal life, roving about like children. There was its Other Methods 8 1 period of youth when physical power was at a premium. The period of Homer tells of this. Then came the period of philosophy. Socrates and Plato and Aristotle tell of this. Reason held sway. Art flourished. Esthetics bloomed like the rose. But ethics languished. Religion had gods many. But human life faltered, famished, failed to reach the goal of a sound soul in a sound body. The family was corrupt. Society was rotten at the very shrine of Venus. The method of education was partial. Reaching after better things, other methods were adopted. Mind and morals received emphasis. Mind became brilliant, morals became austere. The French revolution of over a century ago marked the going of the one and bald Puritanism marked the going of the other. At this writing, the world is in the throes of wars and rumors of wars. Why? The educa- tional methods of the world are partial. The carnal mind has been over active. When this mind rules men fight like beasts. The natural mind has been too highly exalted. It is heady, high- minded, but knoweth not the things of the Spirit of God. The natural mind has made wonderful achievements in scientific utilities. The same mind achieved wonders in philosophy but lost grip on 82 Man and His Education human life and vanished like vanishing fog. This same natural mind turned from mental phenomena to material phenomena and became scientific. Along that line the progress has been marvelous. Man has done more to subdue the earth and have do- minion in the past fifty years than in all previous centuries. Man now goes forth not only over the earth, but also over and through the sea and through the air to show his achievements. But alas! Alas! All his progress is turned to the destruction of hu- man life. Just the very opposite to that for which God came in the Man of Galilee, to give life abundant to a self-slaughtering world. Those nations which the carnal and natural minds have dominated in their official life, are in deadly conflict. Other nations are selling their morals for money. Where the carnal mind is ac- tive and the natural mind rules the affairs of state, selfish greed will lower standards and cheap- en human life. In the first part of this twentieth century our education is pragmatic. The scientific development of the past fifty years has made it so. The demand is for practical results. Though the sphere of the practical has widened and the man- ual art industries are encouraged, yet with all our methods our education is unbalanced, partial, ab- normal. The lower utilities are emphasized. The Other Methods 83 high utilities are minimized. Commercial values are dominant. Spiritual values are depreciated. Moral values are uncertain. Intellectual values are pragmatic. Physical values are mathematical. The whole man has been commercialized. Man is little better than a sheep. Sometimes he is of less value than the machine he runs. A partial, unbalanced, abnormal, wrongly emphasized, edu- cation has done this. Chaos threatens the world. All creation groans. Light glimmers. Faith lives. Hope smiles. CHAPTER IV RESULTS OF WRONG METHODS RESULTS are effects. Effects have their causes. That method that puts too strong emphasis on a cause causes bad effects. That method which puts too weak emphasis on a cause leads to ill effects. 1. That method that stresses physical develop- ment and trains for physical giants at the cost of intellectual or moral power, may produce a su- perlative animal, a mighty athlete, but fail to edu- cate the man. The result would be danger to the social life and defeat the true ideal of an educated man. 2. To unduly emphasize the intellectual may make strong minded, brilliant in thought, most acute in thought analysis, but the result to moral manhood may be most destructive. An educated thief, robber, rascal, is the worst kind of a man. There is something great in man besides mind, in- tellect. 3. To emphasize only the moral is also hurtful 84 Results of Wrong Methods 85 to the educated man. To be effective in right liv- ing, physical energy and mental power and dis- cipline are needed. Moral sentiment may become only a negative force vrithout other elements to pull or push moral issues to the front. Moral sentiments may be good, moral theories are better, for mind forms the theory, but moral sentiments worked out into real life are best, because of the working energy that makes them effectual for good. But how have moral sentiments at their best? They are variable quantities. Conscience in one man differs from conscience in another man. Men and nations have fought one another impelled by conscience. The human element of conscience is fallible. It is human to err. And conscience, with the human elements active, works havoc too often in home and in state and in Church. More than conscience is needed for righteousness and peace and joy to all the world. 4. Then there is the religious element in man's nature. He cannot ignore this, but to ignore other elements, may cause man to be a religious fanatic and as cruel as man void of conscience. Some of the most cruel wars have been religious wars. Man is a religious being. He will worship. His ten- dency is to become like the object he worships. Even if he forms and fashions his own gods, mate- 86 Man and His Education rially or mentally, he becomes like them. But his own self-made gods are not better than himself. They cannot lift him above himself. They can- not push him up to a higher level. To rise above himself the lifting or drawling or pushing pov^^er must be above him in degree, or kind, or both. The powder that does this must be more than physi- cal, mental, or moral. It needs to be more than all these put together in a united pull or push. The needed powder is one that touches man's own spirit at the central point where the human and the divine, where God and man, touch each other. At that point of mutual touch faith begins to grow and divine light and life begin to flow into man. Thus man begins to believe and to speak and achieve from above his own sphere. Thus the Spirit of God comes into his thought and love and choice and life. Thus God who is Spirit begins to guide man into all truth. Yes, into all truth. And all truth centers in Jesus, the Christ. To guide to this center of force, of power, of light, of life, temporal and eternal, is the supreme and all comprehending mission of the Spirit of the living God. Even this spiritual power has been counterfeited by those who put asunder what God hath put together. The vagaries of the over-mystical, the Results of Wrong Methods 87 too subjective, the so-called spiritualist, and those who deny the reality of material things and forces, are erratic, partial and fail to realize the divine ideal for man. The Spirit of God guides to the things of God in Word and Works, in Nature and revelation, all of which center in Him by whom all things were made, and without whom was not anything made that was made. CHAPTER V THE IDEAL METHOD THE ideal method contemplates the perfection of the individual person and works to this end. To attain this end, every element essential to the individual is considered, vv^hether it be physi- cal, intellectual, moral, religious, or spiritual. The perfection of each is sought not to the hurt of another, but in harmony with every other. Each element, each faculty, each capacity, essential to the perfect man is carefully related and developed so as to make a full-orbed, well-rounded, and per- fect man. All the elements are to be so related and interblended as to produce one harmonious whole — a perfect man. And the relation of these ele- ments must be according to intrinsic worth. Man being a trinity of body, soul, and spirit, each of these must be so related as to make a perfect man. The body is sovereign in its sphere of materiality, but this sovereignty must not interfere with the sovereignty of soul in its sphere. And neither of these sovereignties must be allowed to interfere 88 The Ideal Method 89 with the sovereignty of the spirit of man. All are sovereign in their respective spheres. Yet the spirit, of highest intrinsic worth, directs the soul of in- tellect and sensibilities and will, and the body with its energies, toward the high goal of a perfect man. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, and from that holy of holies the glory of the Lord is to shine forth through the whole temple, even to the outermost court. The sovereignty of the body is subordinate to the sovereignty of soul. The sovereignties of body and soul are subordinate to the sovereignty of the per- sonal spirit. Yet the personal spirit is dependent on the soul and body for the manifestation of its glory in the sphere of man on earth. And the soul and body are dependent on the spirit for their greatest glory. Thus mutual dependence and blend- ing sovereignties become harmonious in the perfect man. The lowest yields its sovereignty to the highest and receives the glory of the highest. Spirit thus ennobles and glorifies the body. The mineral elements have their sovereignty ex- pressed in the laws of gravity, chemical affinity, and cohesion. Yielding its sovereign laws to the sover- eignty of vegetable life, the mineral is exalted. The mineral and vegetable sovereignties yielding to the sovereignty of the animal life are exalted. go Alan and His Education And these three sovereignties yielding to the sover- eignty of human life are exalted by being made human. Thus the lower partakes of the glory of the higher and the lowest shares the glory of the highest. And in the perfect man the glory is shared by all the elements entering into his perfect manhood. But how can a perfect man be made with im- perfect elements? How can a clean thing come out of the unclean? Can a leopard change its spots? Can man educate unclean elements into cleanness? Can man make himself clean, or holy? He knows better than he does. To know to do good and do it not is sin. To transgress the law of the ideal is sin against that ideal. Not to be- lieve in the ideal is sin. Unbelief is sin. Not to believe the ideal possible of realization, and not to use the means for such realization is sin. Of these sins we are all guilty. And with such material the perfect man is not possible. The means are not adequate. The methods are inadequate. The agency is not adequate. Without help from above and without the submission of our sovereignty to that higher sovereignty we can never realize the perfection of sinful men, the goal of the education of man. Such help is available. It hath come to us from The Ideal Method 91 above us. The Spirit of God who moved upon the face of the vv^aters in the beginning, who strove with men all through the centuries, in the fullness of time, conceived the ideal man who was born of a virgin, heralded and protected by angels, and bap- tized by the eternal Father with His Spirit. He was born in Bethlehem. He came out of Egypt. He was a Nazarene. Yet without sin. He ful- filled all righteousness. God's own ideal for hu- manity. In his face the glory of God did shine. In his heart the love-life of God did beat. In his hands the power of God wrought. In his feet God went about doing good. From his mouth came the words that are Spirit and life. He is the light of God for the world. He is the righteousness of God for sinful man. He is the Word that was in the beginning with God, and that was God. By him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. He was before all things. And by him all things con- sist. In Him God and man stand together. In Him heaven and the world are reconciled. By faith in Him and fellowship with Him man is born from above and becomes like Him in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. To lay our 92 Man and His Education sovereignties at His feet is to be exalted and to reign with Him forever. He is the Way, the Truth, the Life. In Him God's ideal becomes ours and our ideal becomes God's. He of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He is God's teacher and Saviour for all. The Alpha and Omega. The Amen. PART IV THE IDEAL OF MAN'S EDUCATION CHAPTER I THE IDEAL PROPAGANDA BEGINNINGS are typical. Promises are pa- ternal. The child is father of the man. Causes are ancestral. Coming events cast their shadows. Ideals glimmer before they gleam. The ideal education was at first only a glimmer, a spark, a dim flash, a promise. It is not yet a full gleam. Its rays are seen and their pointings are being recog- nized. Their focalization is clearing. The day star from on high is rising. The candle of the Lord, the Spirit of man, is flickering more brightly. The spirit of God is brooding and warming the spirit of man into life. The Sun of Righteousness is shining through the clouds more brightly. The eye of man is opening. The ideal for him, and to become his, is drawing him. It has been a push and a pull for at least six thousand years. The eternal years of God move on to bring us to His ideal for us — fellowship with Him and His Son. Then we shall be like Him, and see Him and His ideal as they are. 95 96 Man and His Education The propaganda of all this began in the Garden of Eden. The light from above was dimmed by an- other. The voice from above w^as muffled by an- other. A subtle deceiver intruded and doubt cast its shadow and fear moved the heart of man. He fled from the voice and light and lost sight of the true ideal. Doubt blinded faith, fear clouded love and the carnal mind feasted on the fruit and the natural mind became ambitious. The pure white light became lurid. The voice of love became the voice of fear and was tormenting. With man God was angry and the Devil was pleased. Man's view- point of God, the True, the Beautiful, and the Good, was changed. But God, who is light and love eternal, did not leave man to his delusion. His Spirit strove with man. His Word spoke to man. His light continued to shine for man. Though man's vision was dimmed and his hearing dulled, the voice and the light did not fade entirely away. Man still had power to hear the promise which was the ideal, the bud of faith and hope in his soul. The Spirit of God brooded over man's spirit and kept him conscious of God and gave him power to see light, and catch glimpses of an unfold- ing and leading ideal. To follow that leading and to look at that unfolding was the way of faith, of learning, and of life. The Ideal Propaganda 97 In the propagation of the ideal, two agencies were employed. The one was subjective, the Spirit of God, the divine immanence, which kept man spiritually alive, though dominated by the carnal and natural minds. The objective agency was the angel of Jehovah, the angel of the covenant, the revealer of God unto man. Thus helped the ideal did not vanish out of sight nor perish from the earth. Clouds thickened, floods came, but the rainbow of promise and assurance could still be seen. God was yet present in His world, though like Jacob in the night, men knew it not. Even the vapory cloud became a pillar of His presence, and the pillar of fire, a gleam of His presence. In and through these God touched stone with His finger and His thought was engraved for man's learning and comfort. God's ideal for man would not down. Man's vision of that ideal did not perish from the earth. God wrought from below upward and from above downward to keep man's eye on the ideal and to keep man's heart beating for its realization. So susceptible was man and so effective the agencies of God, that man saw the glory of the ideal and said: — "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, 98 Man and His Education the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his Kingdom, to order and establish it forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will per- form this." And He is doing this very thing. He did so come. He is the Word made flesh. Son of God and Son of Man. The government for righteous- ness and peace, the Kingdom of heaven, is on His shoulder. He is Counsellor for the world. He is the mighty God made manifest. He is the ever- lasting Father revealed. He is the Prince of Peace. He is the righteous One. He is the Alpha and Omega of man's hope, man's glory, of man's life. All true seers and prophets point to and tell of Him. All true evangelists and apostles proclaim Him. All true teachers, learn of Him. He is heaven's eternal ideal for man's following. Looking to Him, learn- ing of and following Him, man's perfection is the goal, and God's ideal realized is the glory ever- lasting. CHAPTER II THE IDEAL AT WORK THE ideal for man and his education is not only high, but in its drawing and uplifting power, touches the lowest condition and need of man. The Word of God is the gateway to His ideal for man. Through the Word the ideal reaches man in his lowest state. Its work begins in man in his lowest state. In the stable manger it pulsated with human life. Where the mineral, vegetable, animal, and human elements blended, there God's ideal began to show man the way, the truth, the life. There God's ideal began to draw and lift up. There was the hiding of His power. There was the beating of His heart. There His life-flow began for complete redemption. There began the work of regenerating man, and through man, the world. Parental love and power guarded that beginning. Angels of the Lord guarded that beginning. Beginnings are difficult. Divine power in human conditions is adequate. The love-thought of God can touch death into life, can overcome 99 100 Man and His Education opposing environment of all creaturehood. And it did when the Word that was in the beginning with God, and that was God, became flesh. Though veiled by flesh, He wrought and His glory became manifest. The ideal budded, blossomed, fruited. He waxed strong in spirit filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. At twelve years of growing work and unveiling power, the learned doctors of the law marvelled. And at thirty years of working in home, in Church, in state, the record says, He increased in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God and man. As a man he learned by ex- perience, he grew in stature, in fellowship with the Father, and in social life among men. He was no youthful prodigy. He was no "boy preacher." He was no wonderful worker before he was thirty years old. He was God's ideal for all, as a son and worker, as a teacher, as a preacher, as a Son of man, as a Son of God. He made haste slowly. He walked with God. God walked in him. After thirty He wrought more manifestly. He had fulfilled the laws of God for individual and family life. Now He enters upon the official work of Church and State life — human life in its larger, more complex, relations. He fulfills all law in both Church and State. He is a loyal Churchman. No device of man or cunning of Satan, could en- The Ideal at Work lOi trap Him, or deter Him from the will of the Father. No matter what others might do He would finish the work his Father gave him to do. The Father's thought was his thought. The Father's love was his love. The Father's purpose was his purpose. The Father's way was his way. He and the Father were one. The work of both was one and the same. In beginning, in method, in means, in final purpose, it was the same. It was the work of God in man, through man and all embodied in man, for man. His work began "in the beginning." It will end in the consummation of all things. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, but revealed in time. He is the antidote, the anti- toxin for sin. In Him man, the son of Adam, was regenerated and glorified. To follow Him in the regeneration is our work. CHAPTER III THE IDEAL AT WORK AMONG SOVEREIGNTIES THE divine ideal has to do with all things in all conditions and in all relations. Every creature has its sphere and its law in that sphere. Everything has in it the element of sovereignty. To destroy that sovereignty is to destroy that thing. To harmonize all things is to harmonize all sov- ereignties. This is the work of the Ideal of God for this world. In the mineral kingdom there are sovereignties. And these sovereignties have their laws by which they are governed and known and named. Only by the perpetuity of these sovereignties by law can mineral elements be known from generation to gen- eration and their laws be so recognized. The law of gravity is universal here. The law of chemical affinity is everywhere in evidence. The law of cohesion is apparent. These laws make manifest the nature of the elements comprising the mineral kingdom and make their classification and utility possible. Thus the kind and quality of rock, the 102 The Ideal at Work Among Sovereignties 103 nature of water and air are known. These ele- ments and their laws are basic for superinduced kingdoms of vegetable, animal, and human. And their laws are in evidence wherever they are. Vital and higher forces may utilize them but cannot de- stroy them and manifestly exist. The plant cannot make its existence manifest to man without these elements and their laws. The vital force vitalizes them, places them, colors them, shapes them, forms them into vital organisms by their own laws. Whatever the name and nature and form and color of the vegetable, it is so known by the laws governing the elements composing it. The mineral elements submit to the power of the vital force and are perpetuated in a higher sphere, the sphere of vegetable life sharing the glory thereof. So, too, in the animal kingdom. The vegetable elements with their laws reappear in a higher and more sensitive form but still exist. The higher life of the animal has given to all its elements a new and higher form of organism. The laws of gravity, of chemical affinity, vital and non vital, are operative in the animal, and lifted to a higher plane of being by submitting to the law of like higher life, known as animal life. So in human life there is power to transmute and transform all the elements of the mineral, vege- I04 Ma?i and His Education table, and animal kingdoms, into the human or- ganism giving them its own glory. No law of any of those elements is violated in that transmutation. Every element and its law is glorified by submit- ting to the law of human life. In man they are all humanized. In man they all share the glory of man. In man every one has been born anew, born from above. So, too, in the divine man, or the ideal of God for man. In the God man every element of all the kingdoms earthly may share the divine glory. To submit to Him is to share His glory. Thus man is born from above, his whole being trans- muted into the life divine, and comes into harmony with God. Man has not lost his identity, nor his individuality, but has thus been glorified with the ideal of God regnant in him. Every element of his nature, and of all nature in him, shares the glory of the ideal of God for him. There are four other sovereignties with which the Ideal has to work. There is, first, the sover- eignty of the home. This is the first social organ- ism. This is the basic unit of all society. God gives to this organic unit a sovereignty most sacred. God lays His only Son down into the lap of the home. His ideal became flesh there. He submitted to the law of the home. He sanctified and glorified that sovereignty. Home is a sweeter word since The Ideal at Work Among Sovereignties 105 then. Home has a greater glory since then. He laid himself down under cover of the home and transfigured it with His glory. Then there is the Church. As man's body lo- cates and reveals the spirit of man, personal and sovereign man, so the Church is the body of Christ, congregation of believers in Him, looking up into His face, and becoming like Him. To trust Him submissively, hopefully, lovingly, is to share his glory. We become like our Ideal. Then there is the State. Here, too, is a sover- eignty. Cassar is its King. His law is for the common good, for justice and equity among his citizens. He takes notice of their overt acts and legsislates concerning them. He cannot pass through the door of the five senses. At the thresh- old of every sense he must pause and await the appearance of the kingdom within before he can act as legislator, judiciary, or executive. There- fore, his sovereignty is limited, too. All sovereign- ties but one are limited. All limited sovereignties are glorified by submitting to the law of the one absolute sovereignty of the Lord of lords and King of kings, the God-man, the Supreme Ideal for all the earth. In Him all elements are har- monized, all their laws filled with glowing light, love and life, and all sovereignties harmonized and glorified. Even so. Amen. CHAPTER IV THE IDEAL AT WORK IN THE SCHOOL AMONG SOVEREIGNTIES AMONG the sovereignties in our country and in the midst of our social sovereignties, is the School. The Ideal works here. He speaks to the home here. He counsels the Church here. He respects the State here. He cooperates with all here, for the good of all. His light radiates for all. There reflections and refractions of His light make all more beautiful, useful, glorious. There is first, the Church, His own Body. It is in the School. It touches the spirit of every pupil. It breathes the breath of God into the life of every one. There is the hiding of His power in the school of our country. But His power is there. The Spirit of the living God strives there. The elements of humanity with the prismatic re- fractions are there. The Ideal lies down there much like He lay down in the babe in the manger. Humanity veils Him. Angels sing of Him. Shep- herds wonder, see, rejoice. Herod frowns and io6 The Ideal at Work in the School 107 seeks to kill. Wise men pay tribute and go home satisfied that the stars center in Him. The music of the spheres echoes about Him. The powers of darkness are grouchy about Him, and smile their skeptical smile and put a growl into their speech. Heaven waits and is patient. Earth wonders and must wait. God's Ideal is wrapped in swaddling clothes, habiliments of flesh, sleeps, to awake like the light that shines more and more unto the per- fect day. He that believeth shall not make haste. God is in no hurry. With Him one day is as a thousand years. In Him is light and love and life and glory for all. The unfolding is like life in the plant, in the flesh, through all earth, so gradual that man cannot see the growing. The eternal years of God are His. He sees the home in the child — in the school. Honor thy father and thy mother, He says. In the home the child's education begins. As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined. There teaching, train- ing, nurturing, begin. There the spirit receives its first tempering. There the atmosphere of life im- parts its ozone or its poison. Therefore God says to the parent, Train up a child in the way he should go. Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and ad- monition of the Lord. Authority must not be lo8 Man and His Education abused. Under the reign of the Ideal it is not. Obedience must be learned, the obedience of God. A good servant makes a good master. The sover- eignty that serves a higher sovereignty grows in the power of that higher sovereignty. The child loyal to his home, finds higher sovereignties honor- ing him. The sovereignties of school and of State and of Church will lift him up. Right life in the home prepares for right life everywhere. Then there is the State, Caesar's realm. Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, saith the Ideal. Caesar impersonates the aggregation of all other personal and civic sovereignties. In all secu- lar matters of State, Caesar is sovereign. He legis- lates for the person, the home, the school, and even the Church, in matters overt and secular. He is set for justice and equity among his subjects. In matters overtly human he is sovereign over all, for the good of all. Under the reign of the Ideal, the home and the School and the State and the Church are coopera- tive to the supreme end, the perfection of man, the harmony of all units and all sovereignties under the reign of the kingdom of heaven. The view point of this consummation is the Ideal of God revealed to man in Jesus the Christ. He is the key to the revelation of God, to the interpretation The Ideal at Work in the School 109 of the works of God, and to the adequate causes for so great and glorious a consummation. By Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things. And by Him all things consist. And He said — ^AU things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also unto them. This is the law and the prophets. This is the Ultima Thule for all persons and all sovereignties among men. Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 1 1012 01197 0144