.
 
 THE ORIGINAL ORDER OF NATURE OUR 
 MODEL, AND THE SPIRIT OF GOD OUR 
 GUIDE, IN THE WORK OF EDUCATION. 
 
 A SEEMON 
 
 PREACHED ^T THE ANNUAL MEETING 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SSi ite gtoasait draining College, 
 
 OCTOBER 20, 1859. 
 
 HON. AND REV. W. H. LYTTELTON, 
 
 RECTOR OF HAGLEY; 
 HONOEABY CANON OF WORCESTER. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 LONDON : 
 BELL AND DALDY, 186, FLEET STREET. 
 
 BIRMINGHAM: BENJAMIN HALL. 
 1860. 
 
 rmcE sixpence.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The following Sermon, originally printed with the 
 Report of the College to which it was preached, is 
 now by the advice of many whose judgment I res- 
 pect, published separately. I have made some slight 
 alterations in it since it was preached, but in the 
 main it is printed as delivered. 
 
 In its present shape, I hope it may be of some 
 use to those who read it with earnest minds. I am 
 not, however, a great believer in the usefulness, 
 generally speaking, of single printed sermons. In 
 our time, when the multitude of books is so great, 
 and we are most of us so constantly occupied with 
 reading, there is, I think, a serious danger of our 
 learning the habit of reading rather as a mere pas-
 
 IV 
 
 time, or for idle speculation, than with the earnest 
 intention of altering or improving our lives by it ; 
 or of forming well-grounded opinions of our own, 
 by which to guide our practice. Theory and prac- 
 tice become very much separate, to the great injury 
 of both ; our practice becomes thoughtless and 
 mechanical — a mere routine, carried on in tradi- 
 tional ways, without lively original thought at the 
 time ; and our opinions unreal, and unpractical ; 
 hastily professed, because we do not feel the 
 responsibility involved in professing them ; and 
 ill-grounded, because we are not in the habit of 
 testing them by experience. 
 
 May I then earnestly ask every schoolmaster who 
 reads this sermon to do so thoughtfully, with a view 
 to his own practice 9 The work of schoolmasters is 
 of great and solemn importance ; most thankful 
 shall I be, if I can contribute any thoughts which 
 will help them to do it more effectively ; for the 
 greater glory of God and the good of the world. 

 
 My main object in this sermon is to direct atten- 
 tion to the importance of endeavouring first clearly 
 to discern, and then earnestly to work with the Pro- 
 vidence of God in all things ; and of reverencing that 
 great primeval Order of Nature, which is still what 
 it was in the day when " God saw every thing that 
 He had made, and behold it was very good." 
 
 Under all the artificial contrivances of a highly 
 civilized world, the simple processes of nature be- 
 come concealed from our notice ; and yet are always 
 working more powerfully than they all. And 
 just as we shall never understand maps of political 
 geography in a lively way, till we have looked 
 through all their lines, and studied those great phy- 
 sical divisions, which underlie and often cut across 
 them all; so can we never understand or apply 
 the present order of the world rightly, till we look 
 through it to the original Divine order, which is the 
 primitive rock on which it stands, and which has 
 given it whatever in its shape is permanent.
 
 VI 
 
 I do not think we generally watch for indications 
 of the will of God in facts as much as we ought. I 
 believe that if we did we should be more successful 
 than we generally are. "We can do nothing 
 against the truth, but for the truth : " and truth is 
 written by the Finger of God in the Great Book of 
 Nature and History, as well as in the Word of God. 
 
 If my sermon leads any to pay more thoughtful 
 
 attention to this Divine teaching than they have 
 
 yet done, it will have answered one of its chief 
 
 purposes. 
 
 W. H. L. 
 
 Hagley Rectoky, 
 
 March, 1860.
 
 SERMON. 
 
 John v. 19. 
 
 " Then answered Jesus and said unto them, 
 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do 
 
 NOTHING OF HIMSELF, BUT WHAT He SEETH THE FATHER 
 
 do; for what things soever He doeth, these doeth 
 also the Son likewise." 
 
 f HESE words of our Lord may be applied in 
 a most important sense and manner to the 
 
 g^ great work of Education. 
 
 But first I will endeavour to explain their pri- 
 mary sense. They seem intended to express that 
 great characteristic of our Lord's words and works, 
 that they are like the zvorks of God the Father — 
 like in principle, and in spirit. In the verses 
 immediately preceding my text we read that the 
 Jews brought a charge against Him that He had 
 broken the law of God by working on the Sabbath 
 clay ; and that He answered by an appeal to the 
 example of His Heavenly Father, as seen in the 
 great works of creation and of Providence, which 
 He carries on on the Sabbath, as well as on all other 
 days : " My Father" He says, " worketh hitherto,
 
 2 
 
 and I work." The sun does not cease his march 
 in the heavens, the seasons do not interrupt their 
 orderly course, the plants do not stop covering 
 the earth with their rich abundance of flowers or 
 of fruit, nor do all creatures cease to be fed, on 
 the Sabbath, any more than on other days. 
 u Therefore" says our Lord, " I, too, being the Son 
 of God, the express Image of the Heavenly 
 Father, may also carry on My works on the Sab- 
 btah day; because they are one with the works 
 of God — holy as His are holy, done in Him, and 
 for Him, and agreeing perfectly with His ; and 
 therefore beneficent and right on all days alike." 
 
 And then He enlarges this great saying, by 
 affirming, in the words of my text, that so all 
 His sayings and doings were imitations, or rather 
 reflections and repetitions, in spirit and purpose, of 
 the works of that great God who originally built 
 the world, and is still for ever governing it. 
 
 And who can deny that this is one of the great 
 wonders and glories of Christ's life and works, 
 that they do so wonderfully harmonize with all 
 nature and history ? Why is it, for instance, that 
 so many of our Lord's doctrines could be illus- 
 trated by parables taken from God's great works of 
 nature, but because both these — Christ's words and 
 God's works — came from one Being, one Author : 
 were only the same truths written in two languages, 
 one the language of facts, the other that of words, 
 but both equally Divine ? And, therefore, Christ's
 
 3 
 
 words did not need arguments to prove them true. 
 They could stand by their own divine right, 
 carrying, like the works of God, evidence of their 
 divine origin in themselves ; and were sure, in the 
 end, to be believed by all true children of God, of 
 every race and tongue, because they were true ; and 
 because all nature in every place and time would be 
 found in the end to bear witness to them. " He 
 spake with authority, and not as the scribes." 
 
 And so again the words and the life of our 
 Lord agreed with the course of the Heavenly 
 Father's Providence. He did not come to stop 
 the onward march of God's Providence, as it was 
 at that time going on, but to carry it forward in 
 orderly course ; to help on, if I may so say, every- 
 thing that He, with His Divine insight into the 
 Heavenly Father's mind, saw that He was then 
 doing in the world. Other teachers and workers 
 may seem to have been sent to do some special 
 work for God. But who shall say what was 
 Christ's special work? Who shall limit the 
 applicability of Christ's words to any one nation 
 or time ? They belonged to man as man. They 
 had no national character. They were great 
 human, as well as Divine words. Therefore they 
 have " gone forth," like the light of the sxm," into 
 all lands, and their sound into the ends of the 
 earth." They belong to all the world, and have 
 a marvellous breadth and simplicity as well as 
 depth in them, which fits them for all ages and
 
 4 
 
 places. And not only in respect of the Jewish 
 Law and Prophets, but of every work which at 
 that time God was carrying on in the world, yea, 
 or ever should carry on, it was true that Christ 
 came " not to destroy but to fulfil " — to work with, 
 not against it — to conform Himself to it, because 
 it was His Father's work, and He would work 
 with His Father in all things. So did He set 
 forth that perfect image, in which man was 
 originally made — the image of a reverent and 
 loving child, and disciple, of the Maker and 
 Governor of all things. 
 
 In this sense, as well no doubt as in many other 
 and deeper and more mysterious ones, the words 
 of my text were true : u the Son could do nothing 
 of Himself," — nothing, that is, separately from 
 God, or independently of His Heavenly Father, 
 " but what things soever He sazv the Father doing, 
 the same did the Son likewise." 
 
 Now, my brethren, in their measure, these words 
 apply to all teachers. For we ought, as teachers, 
 to work with God and after God's example and 
 model in all things. Let us apply the words in this 
 sense. 
 
 " What things soever He seeth the Father do, the 
 same doeth the Son likezvise." But some may ask, 
 do we ever see God do any thing ? Christ may 
 have seen God do many things, because His eyes 
 were opened to discern the spiritual world. Or, 
 again, those who lived in the time of our Lord
 
 5 
 
 may have seen God do things, because they 
 looked on at miracles — real Divine works. But do 
 we ever see God do any thing 1 
 
 My brethren, I fear some in our time might be 
 inclined to ask this question, and to think that 
 they never saw God work. What ! is not nature 
 God working 1 What else is this mighty world in 
 the midst of which we live, but a vast infinitude 
 of things which God is doing, and has been doing 
 from the beginning ? Or are miracles only God's 
 doing, and all else chance ? Or what is the course 
 of man's history, but the record of His Providence, 
 "who sitteth in the Heavens over all from the 
 beginning? and who is now, and for ever, "judging 
 among the nations, executing judgment and righ- 
 teousness in the earth ? " 
 
 My brethren, never forget that God is living 
 in all creation around us, and moving in all 
 history about us. We cannot escape from His 
 presence ; we are in it always, and cannot help 
 seeing Him work every moment, and for ever. 
 
 And if so, then observe this most important truth ; 
 that we can also, within the limits of our faculties, 
 imitate and follow the lead of His zvorks. We can 
 see how, in all we do, to work with, not against, 
 the Will that governs all. You know that man's 
 best models in all mechanical or other art, are 
 God's works in nature. The highest and most 
 perfect contrivances of our skill are found in the 
 end to be only poor and weak imitations of some
 
 6 
 contrivance that has existed, in perfection, from 
 the beginning, in what we call the works of 
 nature. And so, my brethren, in the moral world 
 also, the model of all the best works we ever can 
 do is that of God's original order — the order of 
 primeval nature, as seen in the great works of God 
 about us, studied in the light of His written and 
 inspired Word. If you want to see what human 
 life in all its parts ought to be, look for the 
 original order of things, as God in the beginning 
 had established it, when " He saw every thing that 
 He had made, and behold it was very good ; " when 
 He had made " man upright " and before he had 
 "sought out so many inventions " whereby to conceal 
 the original order of nature. 
 
 Look, then, at the work of a schoolmaster 
 or teacher of children in this way. 
 
 What was the original school, God's model- 
 school, in the beginning of the world ? Evidently 
 a family. The trainers of children, according to 
 the order of nature, are their parents, their bro- 
 thers, and sisters. 
 
 And depend upon it, except so far as we conform 
 our schools and places of education to a family, in 
 spirit and character, they will be imperfect ; they 
 will bear the impress of human, rather than of 
 Divine, wisdom. 
 
 I remember a remark made by a master of a 
 reformatory, speaking of his work, which expresses 
 a great thought upon this subject : " You see," he
 
 7 
 said, "my work here is not easy, for I have to be 
 father and mother, brother and sister, all in one, to 
 these boys — -father, to enforce law sternly and inflex- 
 ibly, yet lovingly too — mother, to represent the 
 divine tenderness, and gentleness, and compassion — 
 brother and sister, to be their sympathizing playmate." 
 
 Now did you ever think of your work, as school- 
 masters, so ? Did you ever take this view of it ? 
 
 Depend upon it this is the true, the Divine, view 
 of it, and only so far as you act upon it, are you 
 working with God, in the mighty work of educating 
 and training God's children. 
 
 And now consider what, if the first human family 
 had never fallen, would have been the view of the 
 work of a teacher, which the parents of the first 
 children would hve taken. 
 
 When, in the glorious dawn of the world's 
 existence, the first man and first woman looked 
 on a child, and, guided by that Divine, instinctive 
 wisdom of God, which grew up in them (I am 
 not taking into account here the perverting effects 
 of sin after the Fall, but am speaking of man, as God, 
 in the beginning, made him), held converse with it, 
 what would have been the first thought or wish that 
 would have occurred to them ? Would they have 
 begun by thinking of teaching it knowledge of mere 
 external things ? Would that have been their first 
 thought ? No, surely ; but the first thought would 
 have been about the child itself — the wonderful 
 creature that stood before them. What was this 
 being ?
 
 8 
 
 "A heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord." 
 Do not these great words, better perhaps than 
 any other, express what they would have felt it to 
 be? Wonder at the child itself; earnest enquiry 
 what kind of being this was, which God had here 
 given to them ; a feeling of personal interest and 
 personal love — would not these have been the first, 
 the irresistible feelings, inspired by the sight of a 
 child, into the minds of the first man and first 
 woman ? — and only subsequent and secondary to 
 these, the thought of any thing they were to teach 
 the child. 
 
 But are we not in danger of altogether losing 
 any such feeling ? May you not become so taken 
 up with technical rules and arts of education as to 
 learn to think of a schoolmaster, or teacher, rather 
 as a professor of sciences, than as a trainer, or, 
 indeed, stepfather, of children ? And if so, do 
 you not lose the whole heart of the matter — lose the 
 chief part of the value of the very study of science 
 itself — since that is chiefly to be valued as a 
 channel of human sympathy ? Yes, my brethren, 
 and unless you can learn to return, in a great 
 degree, to this natural and original idea of 
 your office and calling — unless as you go, day 
 by day, into your school, and see it filled with the 
 speaking faces of children, your first and great 
 thought and feeling is one about themselves — one 
 of personal love to them ; and of lively, personal 
 interest in themselves, as your companions through
 
 9 
 
 life and death, living with you in a wondrous and 
 even terrible world, which it is your blessed 
 function to try to make safe and happy for them, 
 you will do no real good. The dry view of a 
 schoolmaster's office and work, which makes you 
 look upon him chiefly as a man set to teach 
 children certain arts and sciences, and not rather 
 as the loving trainer and guide of certain living 
 persons, growing up under his love, and learning 
 from him the meaning of their life and being, 
 is a miserable perversion of the truth.* " Covet 
 earnestly the best gifts," all gifts of power, of 
 knowledge, and of art — all are good and useful 
 in their place — " and yet shew I unto you a more 
 excellent way" — something more important than 
 all these put together, without which they all 
 become but (( as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal," 
 — that is charity or love. 
 
 And now apply this a little in detail. 
 
 First, then, what are the qualities necessary in a 
 teacher ? Just those necessary in a parent. First, 
 Love of God ; secondly, Love of the Children. 
 
 First, Love of God. If you do not yourself love 
 God and goodness, how will you ever make any 
 one else do so ? " Like priest, like people " is 
 awfully true. And not less so is " like teacher, 
 
 * See Note I.
 
 10 
 
 like pupil" The contagion of character is mighty. 
 It is a mere truism to say that you see the charac- 
 ter of the master, if he is at all fitted to be a 
 teacher, reflected in the whole tone of his school. 
 And, therefore, he who is himself cold in heart 
 towards God, and has no real enthusiasm for 
 what is good, no earnest hatred of what is 
 evil, in his own soul, will only, so far as his 
 influence is concerned, bring up children in the 
 likeness of his own coldness, and spiritual dead- 
 ness. This is the reason that so many masters 
 do no real work for God. They fill many 
 heads with knowledge, and send forth many 
 pupils full of accomplishments ; but they never 
 bring one soul really nearer to God. What 
 they sought and tried for, that they obtained ; 
 but then it was not the salvation of any soul; 
 it was not the establishment of Christ's blessed 
 kingdom in the places they lived in. Brethren, 
 awful is the account such a man will have to 
 render hereafter. He was called on earth a 
 Christian teacher, but where was Christ's spirit — 
 the spirit of the great Lover of Souls, in him ? 
 It has been well said, I believe by Archbishop 
 Whately, that a physician of the body, if he is an 
 impostor is soon detected ; because the mischief 
 he does is visible — soon stopped because soon 
 known. But a physician of the soul — and this 
 every schoolmaster ought to be — if he is an im- 
 postor, may work all his life, and do incalculable
 
 11 
 
 and even eternal mischief, and omit to do inealcu- 
 ble good that he might have done, and never be 
 detected till the Last Judgment. Never forget, my 
 brethren, that your great work is to do good to the 
 bodies and souls — not to the intellects only — of all 
 the little ones committed to your loving care ; and 
 that for this, one grain of simple goodness is worth 
 tons of cleverness, and human craft. And, there- 
 fore, many a stripling David, who cannot walk in 
 the cumbrous armour of human skill and training, 
 " because he has not proved it," has yet, with the 
 " sling and the stone." of simple love of God, and 
 the elementary truths of God's word, earnestly be- 
 lieved by himself, slain Goliaths of evil, working 
 untold mischief in the world, whom all the hosts of 
 an unconverted, ungodly, and unloving Israel, with 
 all their paraphernalia of human art and skill, 
 could never touch. Some of the best of all 
 schoolmasters have been those of God's making, 
 rather than of man's manufacture. 
 
 The love of God then, and of goodness, this 
 is the first, the great, essential quality, for every 
 teacher who is to be a fellow worker with God. 
 God grant you may be persuaded of that ! 
 
 And the second essential is like unto it — the 
 Love of the Children. Without this, too, what is 
 your work ? Can you influence children if you do 
 not care for them ? Can your work be pleasant to 
 you or to them, if you do not love them ? No, 
 
 B
 
 12 
 
 my brethren, the holiest man in the world, who 
 had not love of the children committed to him, 
 (if such a thing could be conceived), would be 
 powerless to influence them for good, because he 
 had not the one key to their hearts, i.e., per- 
 sonal love. 
 
 Bearing upon this point, there is a great saying 
 of one of the wisest of men, Lord Bacon, which 
 deserves to be written in letters of gold over every 
 schoolmaster's door, to be read by him as he goes, 
 day by day,, into his school, and to be carried with 
 him as a light and warning in all his work — the 
 sentence I mean, in the Essay on Friendship, in 
 which he says, "A crowd is not company ; and faces 
 are but a gallery of pictures ; and talking is but a 
 tinkling cymbal, where there is no love" A great 
 and weighty truth. And is it not too true that 
 to many teachers, their school full of children has 
 seemed but an uninteresting, wearisome " crowd " — 
 the living "faces," out of each of which really 
 looks an immortal soul, with all its infinite capa- 
 bilities of good and evil, of hope and fear, with — 
 as it has been said, " its history and prophecy" — 
 history of the past, written in the expression of 
 the countenance — prophecy, of the probable future, 
 written there also — these " faces," so awfully inter- 
 esting but a dull gallery of lifeless " pictures ; " and 
 all the " talking " they had to go through with the 
 children but as a ff tinkling cymbal," — a dull form, 
 that might be repeated by rote, that had no more
 
 13 
 heart in it than a dead instrument of music has — 
 simply for this reason, because there was no love in 
 their own heart. Brethren, let it not be so with you. 
 Pray, and strive by all the means in your power to 
 keep brightly burning within you the feeling of per- 
 sonal love for your charge — such as ever was in the 
 Great Teacher. Then indeed that dull " crowd" as it 
 might otherwise be, will turn into real, most de- 
 lightful " company " to your very heart and soul ; 
 that gallery of unmeaning "pictures " into a set of 
 windows, out of each of which an undying spirit, 
 for whom you are mysteriously responsible, is look- 
 ing at you — appealing pathetically to your ripened 
 wisdom for guidance and training, that it may be 
 saved in this world, and the next ; and all that 
 " talking" — yes, even the driest parts of it, into a 
 channel of sympathy, and living fellowship between 
 you and them. 
 
 Make your school a godly family, and it will be, 
 as every such family is, the scene of the deepest 
 and truest earthly happiness. Then every little 
 face that meets you in the town or village, in 
 which you live, will light up at the sight of you 
 with the light of joy and affection ; and, in the 
 years that are coming, many a grown man will 
 rise up and call you blessed, because by your 
 thoughtful wisdom and kindness, he was started 
 on the only right road through the great journey 
 of life. And then, too, may you humbly hope for a 
 greater and more wonderful joy, when, in another
 
 14 
 
 and higher state hereafter, you will see, if it may 
 be, the same human faces glorified for ever ; and 
 will know that you were one of the instruments 
 in God's hand, to bring them there, by guarding 
 them betimes against the manifold evils and 
 dangers of time and of the time-world. 
 
 I might go on, did my limits allow, to apply my 
 text in another way, and point out how every true 
 teacher will conform himself to the will of the 
 Heavenly Father, not only in respect to those 
 points in which children are alike, but also in 
 those in which they differ from one another; 
 how he will study in each case the peculiar inward 
 as well as outward divine calling of each child 
 committed to him ; and not try to do violence to 
 it, but yield and conform himself to it, and work 
 with it. I might thus shew you the vast import- 
 ance of your studying, so far as you are able, 
 first, the peculiar character of each child, so as to 
 love it, and have pleasure in it ; and, secondly, the 
 peculiarities of its future occupation and calling 
 in life, with a view to qualify the child, as much 
 as may be, for effectively and pleasurably follow- 
 ing this its divine calling. For so, too, does 
 every true teacher obey my text, "doing nothing 
 of himself" in mere arbitrary and obstinate self- 
 will ; not trying to do violence to nature, or to 
 Providence ; but first ascertains, by careful and 
 reverent observation, what things the Heavenly 
 Father is doing in that child — what peculiar nature
 
 15 
 
 He has gifted him with ; and secondly, what are 
 the peculiar Providential circumstances with which, 
 whether we will or no, he is in fact surrounded; 
 and then conforms himself, lovingly and in faith, to 
 these ; believing that they must be good if rightly 
 used, since they are ordered by God. The chil- 
 dren are primarily God's children not ours ; we are 
 not " lords over God's heritage" but must work 
 with Him, Whose they are, if we would do any 
 real good. Else shall we be " kicking against the 
 pricks," and working mischief, by our unchastened 
 self-will. 
 
 I might also shew you more of the example of 
 the Great Teacher, in whom we see the mind of 
 the Heavenly Father perfectly mirrored; and 
 point out to you how His great instruments of 
 education were not books, written by man, but 
 the Book of God, and the Works of God ; how 
 He loved to teach out of doors, thus guarding 
 against that substitution of words for things, to 
 which our natures lead ; and speaking as God's 
 mighty parables of nature speak ; so teaching us 
 that we should use nature to give life to books, 
 rather than books to cover over the living face of 
 nature with an artificial dress of pedantries. 
 
 All this, however, I must be satisfied with sug- 
 gesting for your consideration, hoping that I am 
 speaking to many who are in the habit of endea- 
 vouring to meditate earnestly on their work, and 
 on the best manner of conforming it to the will of
 
 16 
 
 God ; and who, therefore, value any hints that may 
 come to them from any quarter, which may help 
 them in so doing. 
 
 But before concluding, I will dwell for a time 
 on the one great means of moral and spiritual, as 
 well as of intellectual education, that is, sympathy, 
 and the mighty and inevitable contagion of charac- 
 ter. No amount of human art or system with 
 which the work of the teacher may be overlaid, 
 will much affect the power of this influence. As 
 according to the old saying, " there is no royal 
 road to knozvledge" so it is equally true that 
 " there is no patent way of doing good." Art may 
 be, and is, of great use — furnishing us with many 
 powerful weapons; but after all sympathy is the 
 great moving power. 
 
 This is true, even of intellectual education. 
 You never educate a child's mind to work well and 
 pleasantly, and with all its power, except when your 
 own mind and heart and whole nature are also, 
 with life and spirit, studying the subject with 
 him. True intellectual teaching is not so much 
 magisterially dogmatizing to your pupils, as bring- 
 ing your pupils with yourselves to be taught by God 
 and facts ; and depend upon it, the moment you 
 cease to be a learner yourself, you will cease also 
 to be a teacher to any good purpose. For the 
 main instrument in intellectual, as in all other, 
 education is sympathy. And in no school are 
 the children learning much mental activity, or
 
 17 
 lively force of mind, where the master himself has 
 ceased to be a student, and to take lively pleasure 
 in the subject he is teaching. 
 
 But if, in intellectual education, the greatest 
 instrument is the contagion of the teacher's own 
 state of mind, much more is this the case with 
 moral and spiritual education. Indeed, the chief 
 value of intellectual education is, if I am not mis- 
 taken, as an instrument of moral sympathy. The 
 teaching of arts and sciences, of grammar, of 
 arithmetic, of reading, and the like, has many uses : 
 but remember, all the words you speak in teaching 
 these, or any other subject, not only convey infor- 
 mation; but are also so many conductors, down 
 which the electric current of life, of love, of 
 thought, must be ever flowing from one soul 
 into another. Indeed without some such con- 
 ductors, how can the current flow ? Stand before 
 a man of entirely unawakened mind, what channel 
 of communication have you with his soul ? There 
 is no bridge between your soul and his — no com- 
 mon currency by means of which you can carry on 
 commerce with his mind. For this currency is 
 language rightly understood; and this understanding 
 of the meaning of language, which alone turns the 
 counters of words in his mind, into the solid gold 
 and silver of ideas, comes from intellectual educa- 
 tion. Therefore the more you cultivate his mind, 
 the more channels of communication, the more 
 electric wires have you laid down, between
 
 18 
 
 his soul and yours. But what avails that, if 
 there exist in you no healthy life and feeling 
 to communicate through them ; or, worse still, 
 if the life of your soul is unhealthy or poisonous ? 
 Do we not feel this as we are teaching anything, 
 however dry or merely intellectual in itself? Do 
 we not know, in every lesson we give, that we are 
 all the time, as I have said, inevitably communi- 
 cating to the children something else, of infinitely 
 greater importance, besides intellectual knowledge 
 — even our own state of mind and feeling — our 
 own temper ; or, in short, our own character and 
 spirit of mind ? Oh ! brethren, marvellously, yea, 
 awfully, is this true. Words, and sometimes even 
 more than words, looks, are the channels through 
 which, in mysterious ways, the inmost life of your 
 own soul must always be flowing, whether you will 
 or no, whether you are conscious of it or not, into 
 the souls of other immortal beings. 
 
 Therefore, I repeat, inevitably the influence you 
 will all of you exert, for good or for evil, will 
 depend infinitely more upon what you are than 
 upon all you do or say by rule. And, therefore, 
 the whole real work of education must ultimately 
 depend, utterly and entirety, upon the grace of 
 God. 
 
 Amidst all the noise and stir of systems and 
 devices, new-found inventions and contrivances, 
 for carrying on the Divine work of education, 
 one is afraid men will forget this. No artificial
 
 19 
 system, according to which a schoolmaster may 
 guide his outward words and actions, however 
 ingeniously contrived, can possibly conceal from 
 the children the real character, feelings, and spirit 
 of the man. 
 
 No, you must be good if you would do good ; 
 and though by the energy of your own will you 
 may indeed put on the outside of goodness — do 
 and say the acts and words that belong to goodness, 
 it is God's creative Spirit only — the one sole 
 " Giver of Life " — who can give you that inside of 
 it, without which the outside is worthless and 
 repulsive. Stir the limbs and muscles of a dead 
 body by galvanism, or move them by a cleverly 
 contrived system of wires from without, and you 
 may succeed in giving it a semblance of life ; but 
 all the time there will be a "savour of death," an 
 effluvium of corruption, proceeding from it. Such 
 a "savour of death" is there in all hypocrisy — 
 in all unreal words — in all expressions of opinion 
 or of feeling, however sound and excellent in 
 themselves, that are repeated by rote, by one who 
 does not feel them. They may be admirable 
 in themselves, but if you do not feel them 
 they are not your own ; therefore they are 
 repulsive from your lips ; you have no right to use 
 them. " Jesus I know, and Paul I knoza ; but who 
 are ye ? And the man- in whom the evil spirit was 
 leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed 
 against them, so that they fled out of that house
 
 20 
 
 naked and wounded." These words are a true and 
 awful expression of the sure effect of hypocritical 
 professions of religion and unreal religious words 
 upon the evil they attempt to attack. You must 
 obtain from God the heart of goodness before you can 
 preach goodness to others with any power. "That 
 which is born of the flesh is flesh" only " that which 
 is bom of the spirit is spirit." God Himself must 
 ". breathe into your nostrils the breath of life" if you 
 are to live unto Him yourself, or to commun- 
 cate life to others ; and if " the love of God" is 
 to be " shed abroad in your heart" or by means of 
 you into the hearts of others, it can only be " by 
 the Holy Ghost which is given unto you." Only 
 love can beget love ; only life can produce life ; 
 only the Spirit of God can give Divine life. 
 
 Nor, again, can any rules tell you how to deal 
 with children. Does a loving mother want rules to 
 tell her how to deal with her child ? * Would the 
 best system in the world fit the multiplicity of cases 
 that continually arise to be dealt with, or give the 
 tone and manner without which the best words 
 are nothing, or worse than nothing ? No ; the 
 mother's instincts — God's own guidance within her 
 — can alone safely guide her. Before the Fall the 
 instincts of nature were a safe guide. After the 
 Fall, it is still instinct that must guide ; but now, 
 that of renewed nature; a* nature brought under 
 the influence of the Spirit of Christ, the Second 
 
 * See Note II.
 
 21 
 
 Adam, the " nezv man" in us, by a Christian life of 
 faith and love. Systems and rules may indeed help, 
 but cannot supersede this guidance. They may, 
 if artificially adopted, do infinite mischief — for 
 what is more miserable than one person's words 
 and practices slavishly copied by another whose 
 whole inner life is different? But if God made 
 her a mother, He is also willing to give her His 
 Spirit to guide her in doing a mother's duties. 
 And if you believe that you, too, have a divine call- 
 ing — that it was God who called you to be a school- 
 master — do not doubt that He is willing also to 
 give you His guidance in fulfilling the functions of 
 your office, if you live ever seeking that guidance 
 in real sincerity and humble faith. Use all human 
 helps ; but never think they can be any substitute 
 for that grace and guidance of God Himself which, 
 under all the manifold changes of the world, and 
 under all varieties of human systems, is the one 
 eternal, indispensable guide in education. All 
 other guides, without the Spirit of God within us, 
 are delusive. There is but One " Giver of Life." 
 
 But I must hasten to conclude. Remember, 
 then, I beseech you, that you are sent forth not 
 mainly to teach science, but, far more, to train God's 
 children in goodness ; to work with God's Ministers, 
 and all good men, at establishing Christ's kingdom in 
 the midst of the kingdom of Satan. I know, my 
 brethren, that these are truths which have been
 
 22 
 
 continually impressed upon you in this place. And 
 perhaps what shews, more than all the results of 
 examinations, that here the true idea of education 
 is kept in view — is the fact of these annual social 
 meetings, in which old pupils are invited to take 
 part. For whatever gives the members of a school 
 a collegiate feeling; whatever binds them in affec- 
 tion and respect to its head, and in brotherly feeling 
 to each other ; makes the school, so far, healthy, 
 and a power for deep and lasting good ; because it 
 assimilates it to a family. May you all carry this 
 idea of a school with you to your several charges. 
 May you all feel that you have a mission of 
 parental love to all the little ones that shall be 
 committed to your care ; and endeavour to inspire 
 them with a feeling of loyalty to the schools of 
 which you will be heads. And in all you do, 
 remember that you " can do nothing of yourself" — 
 nothing contrary to the order of God in nature and 
 providence — nothing without the continual co-opera- 
 tion of God's Spirit and God's power, obtained by 
 faith and the means of grace. " Lord, what wilt Thou 
 have me to do ? " What wouldst Thou have each 
 one of these Thy children to do ? Let this be the 
 prayer ever uppermost in your soul. So, in that 
 greatest and most blessed of all earthly works — 
 that in which all good men are labouring, each in 
 his appointed place and way — the work of building 
 up Christ's living temple in the world — of estab- 
 lishing Christ's blessed kingdom — you, too, will
 
 23 
 
 bear your part, and that a most important one. 
 Let this be your noble, your blessed ambition. 
 Remember that you have common cause with all 
 the " saints that are in the earth," with all good and 
 Christian men ; that you are banded together with 
 them against the evil and the misery of the world. 
 Whatever place you live in, " enquire who in it is 
 worth?/ ; " be always enquiring for such ; be in 
 sympathy with them ; learn from them — for every 
 good man is taught of God how to do good ; 
 and try for their friendship. 
 
 Bearing such principles in mind, and acting in 
 this spirit, you may hope that because you will 
 have worked under the One Great Master Builder, 
 — with the materials, and according to the method, 
 which He, by His divine precepts, and by His perfect 
 example, has pointed out — you will have due 
 measure of success ; and that your lives will be a 
 source of happiness, deep and lasting, yea, eternal, 
 not only to yourselves, but even, it may be, to 
 uncounted thousands.
 
 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE I, p. 13. 
 
 These remarks are I think important to be borne in mind by School- 
 masters' Associations, in the selection of topics for discussion, or on which they 
 procure papers to be read at their meetings. Papers of which the object is to 
 help members to understand the characters of children better, and the best 
 and most Christian means of guiding and training them, are evidently of 
 higher value than any which merely throw light upon any of the sciences 
 which the schoolmaster has to teach. Moral Philosophy, the application of 
 the Bible to the peculiar moral and spiritual needs of children, Bible 
 Biographies, and their lessons for Christians : and whatever helps and 
 inclines men to study human character in all its varieties, and the methods 
 of the Divine dealings with men, as our models in our own dealings with 
 our pupils : all these furnish a countless variety of subjects for papers. 
 
 With respect to the duties of Inspectors of Schools, these remarks are, I think, 
 also important. Evidently, since inspectors are required, or expected, to 
 pronounce judgment as to the comparative merits of schools, the temptation 
 must be considerable to pay more attention to those characteristics, 
 on which the relative degree of merit admits of easy comparison, and may 
 easily be numerically and exactly stated (such, for instance, as proficiency 
 in knowledge of sciences), than to those other and far more important 
 ones which, being moral and spiritual, and relating rather to the tone of the 
 school, do not admit of being tested by any such coarse or simple standard. 
 I am very thankful, however, to be able to bear witness that the inspectors 
 with whom my own experience happens to have brought me in contact, 
 here or elsewhere, have seemed to me to be blameless in this respect. They 
 have been men of free minds, sincerely wishing to pass judgment on 
 truly Christian grounds, and in the light of the earnest love of God and man ; 
 and have been quite above any temptation to value cleverness more than 
 goodness, or to attend to the intellectual proficiency of the members of a 
 school, more earnestly than to its moral and spiritual tone. May God grant 
 that our government may always select men for inspectors who have this 
 mind!
 
 25 
 
 NOTE II, p. 24. 
 
 Some for whose judgment I have great respect have criticized what I 
 here say, as to a mother not wanting rules to guide her in dealing with her 
 child ; observing how many mothers bring up their children foolishly, for 
 want of knowing better. They love, indeed, but " not wisely." So also 
 might untrained masters. 
 
 This is no doubt true ; but what I meant to insist upon was chiefly this : 
 that the wisdom which is needed cannot be learnt only, nor even perhaps 
 chiefly, from formal rules ; but rather from a right spirit of mind. Still 
 definite rules in some cases, and in all " general principles applied with varia- 
 tions in detail," are undoubtedly of great value. 
 
 I meant only to protest against what are sometimes designated by the 
 forcible expression, "cut and dried" rules. This is evidently a comparison 
 taken from a flower or leaf cut off from the plant, of which it originally 
 formed a living part, and kept in a dried state in a collection of curiosities. 
 It has lost all its life and beauty. Just such are words or practices which one 
 man formally copies from another, without entering into their spirit and 
 and meaning. Our words must be " the abundance of our own heart" to have 
 any power. The multitude of books and artificial helps for education in our 
 time is for this reason dangerous ; that it makes it so easy for a teacher to get 
 on with mere second-hand knowledge or thought, unappropriated, unassimi- 
 lated ; parrot-like repetitions, and lifeless echoes of other men's words and acts; 
 " cut and dried " words and forms, either of science or, worse still, of expres- 
 sion of belief or feeling Let a man sew the skins of dead grapes and figs on 
 living thorns and thistles, and think he has made vines and fig trees ; or let 
 him stick apples on a crab tree, and think he has a fine orchard. They will 
 all tumble off in the first high wind, and leave nothing behind— not even 
 the natural crabs. Just such orchards are many schools, where each child's 
 mind is covered over with professions of other mens' opinions, and know- 
 ledge, and feelings, which do not the least belong to him. "'Pour new wine into 
 old bottles," said our Lord, and the effect will be that " the wine will be spilt, 
 and the bottles will be burst." Try to pour one man's opinions and feelings 
 into another, by force, you do not succeed in your purpose : the opinions and 
 feelings are altered, and spoilt in the process, and the genuine character of 
 the man — the only one of which God made him capable — is destroyed. How 
 powerless is a rebuke administered by one man in words, or even according 
 to a method, prescribed by another : it is but a piece of new cloth sewed on 
 an old garment — it does not fit into the context of the speaker's manner or 
 character. The only true teaching is Socratic midwifery — helping our pupils 
 to bring forth their own children, not exactly like ours. " Cleanse first that 
 which is within, that the outside may be clean also;" do not reverse the process 
 by putting on the outside before the inside is ripe for it. These are great truths 
 to be borne in mind with respect to your own mind and that of your pupils. 
 What teacher does not value an answer from one of his pupils in bad or
 
 '26 
 
 idiomatic English, more than the most correct answer out of a book ? 
 because it is evidently of native growth. " The earth must bring forth fruit of 
 herself" and that not suddenly, but "first the blade, then the ear, then the full 
 corn in the ear," gradually, naturally, from within, else shall we have not a living 
 harvest of God's making, but a miserable human imitation of it. Above all 
 things avoid " cut and dried " forms; unreal, artificial words; and stiff, unbending 
 rules, that have no life or reason in them. Love good and wise men, and live 
 with them, and then gradually the contagion of their wisdom and goodness 
 will assimilate you to them; and you will speak their words and do their acts, 
 because you will be like them. Pray, and strive for that real and inward like- 
 ness, not for its outward and delusive semblance : get theirs/ace, not a mere 
 mask like it, hiding your own living face, utterly unlike it. 
 
 Still, wisely chosen rules of life and practice, duly studied in their prin- 
 ciples; and followed, not slavishly, but intelligently; are undoubtedly of great 
 value. Only they should not go into many minutiae ; they should leave room 
 for much variety within their limits. A living tree always conforms to a 
 certain type — that of the class to which it belongs ; and so far follows miles of 
 growth. But within the limits prescribed by that type, there is room for 
 great individual and characteristic variety. If you see what at first sight looks 
 like a tree, but in which all the lines are straight lines, you are sure it cannot 
 be living ; for life, though it follows laws of growth, yet always retains much 
 freedom within the limits of those laws. And one living tree is never exactly 
 like another. So it should be with rules prescribed to men; they should leave 
 room for much variety in detail ; and they can never be a sufficient sub- 
 stitute for a right spirit of mind. 
 
 PRINTED BY BENJAMIN HALT.. HIGH STREET, BIRMINGHAM.

 
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