The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-11-15
DESTROY IT NOT"
sermon ON the Normal school by Rev
H. C0rdIey, Sunday Evening,
November 10th.


not for what it is, but for what it is to be.
/ have thought how many things can
be symboliZed by this cluster of grapes.
The corn you plant in the spring is but
a blade of grass when it first appears.
The pillow may tear ii up, and the foot
may tread it down. But let all these ten
der blades be destroyed in April, and
famine will come in December.
In travelling over these prairies our
eyes are often delighted by the sight of a
magnificent orchard, whose abundant
fruit is source of luxury and profit. As
we pass on we wonder why the next ten
farms are as bare of trees as the Arabian
desert. Why do not all plant trees, and
all have orchards, as well as this one
Inquire as you pass along, and you will
find that each one of them did plant an
orchard, and that fortunes have been ex-
pended on trees for these prairies. But
because they were small they received no
thought, and because they gave no fruit
they received no adequate protection and
care. Thus they feebly grew for little
while, and then, one by one, they died.
So it appears that where ten planted
trees only one has an orchard.
From indications / see all around, I
judge there have been shade trees enough
planted in Emporia to have made this
\
might have been a very grove from boun-
dairy line to boundary line. But because
they were only sprouts, with a promise,
giving no present shade, they were not
deemed worthy the careful protection
they needed, and they were destroyed,
and the blessing in them persisted.
The development of all new countries
is retarded by this failure to appreciate
the germs of things. The prairie cabins
are not made hOmelike, and adorned
with flowers and vines, because they are
not deemed worth the trouble Little
churches in school houses are despised
OF their own members, because they are
so weak. Christians who were liberal
and active and thoughtful in the strong
churches from which they came, are in
different to these new beginnings, be-
cause they are not full grown and strong.
A writer in an eastern paper ridicules
the feeble colleges of the west. He does
not complain of their multiplication so
much as of their weakness. He insists
that no new college should be established
until it can have at least a $500, 900 en-
dOwment. But what was Yale college
in its beginning? A few Connecticut
ministers met and determined to found a
college, each contributing few books
from his own private library to form the
beginning of a college library. They
opened the college with one professor
and no established income. 1t was some
twenty years before it secured any en-
dowment, or any very material expan-
sion. No doubt visitors from over the
waters, familiar with the magnificent
foundations of Oxford and Cambridge,
had many laugh at the pretensions of
these American colonists, who insisted
on calling such an institution "a col
lege." But "Wisdom is justified of her
children" and history has put these no.
BILE men among the prophets and heroes
of their time.
The population of these western plains
will be as dense as that of the eastern
hills. The institutions that are now
germinal and small will soon be full
grown and strong. The cabins and open
fields of to-day will soon give place to
homes of comfort and productive farms,
and the little christian gatherings in
school houses and private rooms will be
the influential churches of few years
hence. The small things of to-day will
be the great things of tomorrow, and
they who toll for them today will be the
heroes of their history tomorrow. A
man who comes here must take the fIl-
ture into his thought, or else he will miss
all the grandeur and inspiration of his
position.
We have just been permitted to see one
of these germs of the future in an unu-
sual light. The building that stood at
the head of yonder street never looked
so imposing as when its outlines were
seen in the flames that were consuming
1t. The institution itself never seemed
so rich in possibilities as when we saw
those possibilities go off In smoke. AS
the flames leaped up over turret and
dome, they seemed to prefgure posi-
BILE prosperity that never revealed itself
to us before. We have had a new illus
tration of the old saying that BLESSINGS
brighten as they take their flight"
l doubt not we have all asked our
selves, as we have looked on the ruins,
what will the result be? Is our Nor
NAL School all destroyed? Is it all gone
Is there not a germ left which we can
foster, and which may grow and yet re-
| aliZe to us all that we ever hoped for
| from it? AS one looks over the ruins
they seem blank enough But is there
anything LETT which is worthy of a new
shelter and new provisions?
The papers say the destruction is com
plete, and in the sense intended it could
scarcely be more complete. But there
IL always something that fire can not
burn. When a mans home is eonsum.
ed, his family, energy, and good name
remain, and they will soon be housed
again. The great fire at Chicago seemed
to destroy the city. But it left her rail
roads, her lines of trade, and the energy
and credit of her citizens, and the city
was restored as fast as money and activ
ity could restore it. Let US see what
there is left of our Normal School which
the fire has not consumed:
I. The fire has not destroyed the fac
that the state of Kansas must have
Normal School. With her grand schoo
system, equal In completeness to that o.
any state in the Union; with her mag
nihcent school fund, reaching up already
among the millions, and soon to be large
enough to give every child in the state q
free education; with her multiplying
school houses and thousands of teach
ers, she can not do otherwise than crown
the whole with Normal School for thu
training Of teachers. The logic of hel
system demands this, and the demand
will be met.
More than this, Normal school Is al
ready part of the educational system @
the state as defined by her laws. Tn,
educational system of the state, as orig
inally devised, contemplated three inst
buttons of the highest order-the Uni
versity, the Agricultural College, and tn,
Normal School. The University, wheI
completely developed, should includ,
J the whole circuit of general learning
and the learned professions, and should
furnish the opportunity and the fscilitie
J for the pursuit of knowledge in any di
! rection and to any extent. The Agri
: cultural College should be broader thai
! its name implies, and should teach no
, only the principles and practice of agri
J culture, but the principles that underli
: all the industrial Rrts-the principle
} that underlie architecture and building
} mining and the working Of metals, tn
: manufacture and coloring of fabrics, an,
: other branches Of industry. The MOI
NAL school should concern itself with ey
: erything that pertains to teaching, an,
make it its special work to elevate tn
teachers and the teaching profession i
the state. This system, adopted by tn
] state at the outset, is so reasonable an
, practical that it will commend itself Z
e the best thought of the state. There is
! place for each Of these three schools
s there IS distinct work for each of ther
to do. Somewhere this threefoId wor
l must be provided for. In some forr
: there must be, and there will be, MOI
] NAL School. can not believe that th
: great state of Kansas will forever vacci
E late, sustaining one plan one year an
another another year; but believe al
v--sll l. ~-~so..t- -,