Morning journal and courier., 1890-06-23

he possibility and hope of the future. It is Dr this reason that we sometimes speak of l he acquisition of one's native language in ! he very earliest season of life as being one- alf of our entire education. It seems but Q l ttle thing as the child learns tho language l lowly from day to day. But when 1t Is used l fterwards 1t proves itself to be the greatest 1 1hieh makes 1t possible that all other things | hall become real to the mind. So 1t Is, lso, of tho later season of the preparatory l ducation. We have secured for ourselves In he years just previous to our manhood's york, not what we gain afterwards, but . rue part of it.. We know more at sixty han at twenty; but it is only more. The eality is possessed ct twenty, If we have ,sen in the right line of knowing and have 'een faithful. More of tho same reality is experienced ct the later time. The child Is ather of the man here as everywhere. The 1outh goes forth from the place of study and preparation with precious life force in his mind, quickened into living energy by what he has learned. The living energy accom- plishsa all results for him e he passes on through the years, because 1t has been measureless importance of the auickening, and sf the possession of the reality which education gives. The apostle says we zee as in mirror, indeed, but yet he says we see. We know only in part, but we know. The ehild thinks as Q child, but he truly thinks; and the man, in putting away the childish things. puts aside only the forms or the methods. and never of thinking. The pass tho matter of knowing Is like the passing away of ohilhood itself-not change from . friction or an imagination into . reality un- known before, but the vanishing of less into greater thing in development toward perfection-the one reality growing ever Into larger fullness of itself. This larger full ness, indeed, may be at sometime and some.
 where SC great that the old things of the earliest stages will seem almost like dream ings, but 1t will be because of the greatness of the development and of the far distance of the past. And not because there was no
 beginning of reality within them. The apos- ties words in their larger significance may also suggest to us at this point another
 thought. In connection with this reality of the first professions in knowledge as related to the peculiar character of their passing away of which we have spoken may find our joy and satisfaotion as knowing men: we are creatures of limited nature, nos inn mite. And our Joy, like our development,
 must follow along the lines of the limitation.
 And God has ordered 1t thus. Life Is pro- gress. Childhood passes into youth, youth
 into manhood, manhood towards maturer years, and these again toward old sgs. In every department of the life the partial is continually giving away to that which is
 more perfeot-fadinR away gradually into 1t:
 How evidently, yet steadily, the physical
 man changes from one stage of the course to another. The youth who leaves this place to-day will return to 1t quarter of oentu- " hence Q man of years. with all the indica- tions h his. face and form of the time which
 has elapsed. And yet the trar sformatien
 will have taken place in such a mysterious and secret way, as 1t were, that he scarcely knows, at the end, anything respecting 1t, except that 1t has come; and of this he only can half persuade himself. It Is the same with the mental life. It is always partial, 1t ing man is arrested at any point in his course of thought of what he is at that hour. the great advance which he has made sincs the earlier time seems to his mind as of 0 sHd- den revelation. But what I would now speak of is the joy and satisfaction connect- cd with all this. I turn to your experience once more. A few years ago you thought and felt, and reasoned, as child. Now yon have put away childish things. You have become man. Was there anything mean or little, or unworthy of your nature in the childhood, or Is there In the nnanhoodf l mean in the childhood and manhood censid- cred, each of them, in itselfi There were unworthy things and little things mingled in the life, no doubt, at that time, and there
 may be now. But these were wrought into the life or were additions to it. The life it. self, as God made it, was good. You did not put away the childish things because they had no good in themselves, but simply because you had outgrown them. Therefore you rejoice in all the progress. The joy was in full measure in the former days, and 1t Is in full measure now-enly the measure is larger to-day, according to the widening of the powers and possibilities. look back ward over moro years than you do, because am older-but the progress between your age
 bring under your own survey. We put away what is behind us because we have finished our using 1t. We move on to something new. But we rejoice all the time. Now this Is . part of the Roed in our knowledge, and the aspect in which our present thought of Paul's words brings 1t before us. The child learns and then thinks and reasons after his owa manner, and 1t seems perfect to him. There Is an unmingled good in his knowl- edge, when his life in this regard moves in accordance with hls unperverted nature. He may we'll desire earnestly the gift. It is a joyful gift. A little later the man begins to learn as c man, and he begins to think and reason after his manner. His manner is dif~ ferent. The old one is put away because he cannot further use 1t. He has grown and it has consequently outgrown. But the new old one appeared to be at the earlier season. The progress in leaving is continuous, and ss happy ss 1t is unbroken. We call our selves educated men, my friends, and we have manly pride in the thought that we can do so. Let us enter into the blessings of our inheritance. The blessing of our life is that the knowledge which is partial grows; kHak tua kkzl k~< ment-ths child reasoning and thinking ao- cordinR to his childhood, and the man ace cording to his manhood, and the joy and sat- isfaction continuing all the time. This is the divine method for our living. We turn our eyes backward and the outlook is beauti- ful. We turn them forward and 1t is even more beautiful. The knowing mind knows more and more, and tho movement is ever onward.
 But how inconsistent 1t ii with this thought-which lies at the foundation at the blessings of knowledge the man, at the early stage of his development, thinks that he has attained all, and believes in noth- ing beyond. We reach here third sugges. tion of the apostles words, and . very em- phatie one. One of the chief dangers in the intellectual sphere to which the educated young man just passing from his preparato- " years into tho work of his manhood Is ex- posed, is found in the pride of his present knowledge. He has put away childiah things. He has the greater gifts. His pow CTS of acquisition have been revealed to him, and they have already secured for him . great possession. He Ia man now. Not to
 be taught, but to teach. He must bring ev-
 cry subject to the test of his knowledge, and
 by his power of knowing he must determine
 the truth respecting it. What can there be
 beyond that which he sees, or beyond the
 fsrthest limits in the line of movement in
 which he is now moving. And so he be- comes Q doubting questioner where he does not see; or distrust what he once accepted
 because it requires faith in the invisible; or
 begins to think of himself moro highly than he ought to think; or loses the dooility which
 belongs to the scholar as truly as to the be. liever. Let him wait little. The things of today will be put away as his childish
 things, and the man will move on to other
 things. The limits of the present knowl-
 edge will be passed and perhaps the form of
 1t also laid, while the thought and the reason
 will change as the knowledge changes. How
 strange and uniting it would seem were the
 child, in the confidence of his thinking and
 knowing-the perfectness of it for his ago.
 to do what the young man is tempted to do
 in this regard. He would be determining all
 questions for himself on the basis of his
 present attachments, or the present develop
 ment of his power. In forgetfnlness of .
 great fact, lying little distance beyond him
 namely. the putting away of childish
 things. That little distance beyond us, my
 friends of the graduating class, Is one of the