The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-08-02
THE THOUGHTS OF YOUTH.
Sermon Before the Chautauquans
at Fryeburg.
The One Way to Save the Young
from the Tempter's Wiles.
president William Dew. Hyde of Bowdoin Col


Empty, swept and garnshed. Matt. IL. "A
Filled with all the fulness of God. Eph. 3. 10.
Nature abhors vacuum. Space refuses
to be empty. The moment one substance is
removed another wishes to take its place.
When the air is exhausted from receiver
its surface is subjected to q pressure of 10
pounds to the square inch by the attempt
of the outside air to rush in and occupy the
empty space. If the gardener does not
plant flowers and vegetables, weeds and
tares plant themselves. The normal state
of space is fullness. The only way to keep
out one thing from given space is to fill
that space with something else. You can
not drive the hot air back from the register.
You must open the windows and let cool air
in.
This adherence of vacuum is just as
much a principle of the soul within
as of space without. The mind
is as constantly occupied with thought,
with Imagination and feeling as spacewith
solid, liquid or gas. Emptiness is only
momentary; rather theoretical condition
of mind The moment the mind is emptied
of one set of ideas multitude of new ones
come thronging in. Says John Locke, Il
grant that the soul in waking man is never
without thought, because thought is the con-
dition of his being awake" The majority of
philosophers, among whom are Pythagoras,
Leibnitz and Descartes, go still further and
assert that even in sleep the mind is con-
stantly occupied with train of thoughts and
images, most of which, however, are too fee
BILE and incoherent to be remembered. The
familiar fact that when sleeping in strange
place where there are unfamiliar noises, as
for instance, when countryman sleeps near
paved city street, the noises at first wake
up the sleeper, but afterwards do not, seems
to indicate that the mind takes notice Of the
sounds in both cases, but only stirs the other
powers to action when unfamiliarity gives
rise to alarm.
This truth that the empty state is only a
temporary, or rather imaginary one, while
the SOULS real and permanent condition is to
be filled is one of obvious practical signif-
cance As this assembly represents at least
three distinct, yet closely allied interests,
the Sunday School, the .Chatauqua Circle
and also company of individual Christians,
l shall consider this truth in three general
aspects-in its relation to the training of the
young in its bearing on the Improvement of
society, and in its application to the saliva
zion of the individual soul.
First, in the training of the young it is of
vita! Importance to keep the mind well filed
The theory of both secular and religious ed
ucation which our Puritan ancestors adopt
ed, with all its strength in some directions
was fatally defective in that it left so many
chambers OF the soul empty, swept and gar
nished. Send child to sit on pine slab
for seat, with another pine slab in front of
MIN for desk; live him several pages of
descriptive geography to learn by heart; a
column of long unfamiliar words to spell and
define; rules in arithmetic to repeat without
understanding what they mean; withal tell
him that he must not move nor whisper nor
look about the room; give him a savage mas
ter with a hardwood ferule as his main reli-
ance both for discipline and for instruction,
and it is needless to say that there will be
large gaps in the mental and moral nature of
child which such regime fails to fill up.
Who wonders that under such system the
child turned elsewhere than to either books or
teachers for the thoughts and ideas with
which to fill the aching void in mind and
hearti Thus day-dreaming became habit.
Who has not found out this device for filling
the empty chamber of his soul? And what
is the character of these day-dreams? What
sort of pictures are summoned before the
busy imagination? What part does the ju-
venile actor play in the scene his fancy calls
up at will? This is perhaps the most vital
question you can ask about boy or girl.
Fichte the German Philosopher, lecturing to
his students at Jena put the question. thus;
"Tell me what direction thy thought
take-not when thou with frightened
hand constrained them to a purpose
but when thou allowest them freely to roam
abroad; tell me what direction they then
take, where they naturally turn as to their
most loved home, in what thou thyself find
est thy. chief enjoyment; and then l will tell
thee what manner of man thou art. Are
they directed toward the God-like and those
things in nature and in art wherein the God
like most directly reveals itself in imposing
majesty? Then is the God-like not dreadful
to thee, but friendly, thy tastes lead thee to
i, it is thy most loved enjoyment. Or do
they when released from the constraint with
which thou hast directed them towards Sc
rious pursuit eagerly turn to brood over SEN
sual pleasures and find relaxation in pursuit
of these? Then hast thou vulgar taste,
and must invite animalism into the inmost
receSSeS of thy soul before it can seem well
with thee there" 1t is what the pupil will
lingly, allows to fill his mind that determines
the child is himself ultimately master, and
the problem of modern education is to inter-
est the pupil and awaken an enthusiasm for
study.
This filing of the empty mind, through the
full cooperation of the pupils own heart and
teaching and learning is likewise the ideal of
religious training. To leave child's mind
empty of good thoughts and ambitions is to
leave it the certain prey of evil spirits.
Emptiness in child,s mind is the Devils
vantage ground. Fulness of good thoughts
and innocent delights and right desires and
noble aims is the only safe condition. The
imagination should be filled with pictures,
the heart should be stirred with the scenes
and incidents of Robinson Crusoe, Uncle
Toms Cabin, Miss Alcott's Little Men and
Little Women. Abbott's Biographies. Bun
vans Pilgrim ssProgress, the Bible stories of
Joseph and Elijah and Daniel. Then there
will be no room for less noble images in his
well filled and busy brain. Then at home he
must be provided with an abundance of play
things and games and good companions. By
confidence and sympathy the parents and
teacher must enter into the child's inmost
secrets, knowing his tastes and habits of
thought and action his likes and dislikes.
sharing his childish ambitions moulding his
youthful ideals, guiding his choice at the
ever-recurring crossroads of youthful life
Teaching the catechism and enforcing few
prohibitions is not enough. According to
the true standard of moral and religious ed
ucation child is perfectly trained only
when all his thoughts and ambitions and af-
fections are so guided and moulded and di-
rected that they are occupied with what is
true and pure and noble and generous. Set
that before you as the ideal to be attained in
the training OF the young committed to your
charge and | am sure you will not be temp
ted to lightly esteem the work of training up
single child. 1t will require all your ma
ture powers, reinforced by all the eXterna-
helps in the way of works, prayers, companl
ions and books that you can summon.
Without dwelling further on this subject,
let me conclude by telling what the teacher
of the infant class in my New Jersey church
did for one pupil, as an illustration of what
if need be, every teacher who has this con-
ception of filling up emptiness with goodness
Will be ready to do. girl, who when very
young had been member of this teachers
class, and since then had been away, had
returned to the city at the age of 16. Her
adopted parents were poor and obliged to
live in part of the city where the influ-
ences were not the best. The girl fell; be-
came one of that class of women whom Jesus
was reproached by the pride of guilty Phari-
sees for allowing to approach him. The
girls teacher remembered her out of hun
dreds whom she had taught in her infant
class. She went to the girls home and in
vited the girl to her own. She learned the
whole story. She learned, too, that her
adopted parents were not kind to her; did
not understand her; tried to rule her by
force rather than by kindness. The teacher
talked with the father and mother; showed
them their error; showed them the Christian
life as the only salvation both for themselves
and their daughter; prayed with them: then
came 10 me as her pastor and told me about
them, that | might do what could and in
terest other members of the church in them.
She then arranged to fill up the girls Sab
baths and evenings, so as to free her from
temptation. She invited her to sit in her
e. - oh.