The times., 1894-02-09
Niags5sl Yet i is not immortal and

Niagaral Yet It is not immortal and
the child is
The world is mine" cried Monte
Cristo, emerging from his dungeon.
The world Is NINE" may now exclaim
the boys and girls who leave our ad-
vanced grades. The universe, grand
land magnificent as it is, is but the nur-
sery to man'sinfant soul, and the child is
worth more than the nursery; therefore,
q living soul, with mind capable of
eternal development and heart capa-
bic OF loving and knowing Him is
worth more than all Gods universe.
Lack of appreciation of their own
powers is the reason many fail to use
the talents they possess.
Ne might look at another side of
this question. Did our all-wise Father
create this beautiful world and people
it without providing for their susten-
ancep No. Then why are the poor
crying for bread to-dayp shall reply,
giving only part of the reason. Nor
shall go to the Emerald Isle for my
answer. Marquette, in our own fair
state has been calling for help. Isn't II
a significant fact that forty saloons Q
business in that city?
These things teach us that man who
is immoral Injuries not only himself but
the innocent as well. Therefore he is
cowardly and selfish who recognizes
these truths and allows his moral ma
ture to be corrupted.
The facts in our daily papers are
making history, but do we appreciate
them? Let me illustrate my meaning.
When in Kingston, in 1892, we went on
little excursion to West Park. On
that hot summers day we were induced
to climb hill, at whose base we had
stopped fordinner. Before we reached
the top, only two miles, we felt that we
had climbed a mountain. But we were
fully repaid for our exertiOns; for, as
we looked about in all directions over
the landscape, we could detect relations
between distant points which we had
not thought of before. While we tar
ried in the lowland we could see blue
peaks rising here and there against the
sky and follow babbling brooks bither
and thither through the forest.
Of course it was more homellke down
below, but by climbing to our lonely
vantage ground. we had learned the
'lay of the land" and had become in an
So, in the history of our own nation.
we cannot see the meaning of the
events of our own times he facts are
too near us; we are down among them
like the man who could not see the for
est because there were so many trees.
But when we look back over a long
interval of years we can survey distant
events and persOnages like points in
vast Landscape and begin to discern the
meaning of it all.
History is full of lessons for us. Very
few things have happened in past ages
with which our present welfare is not
in one way or another concerned. In
deed, John Fiske says if we ask what
caused that "hurry of hoofs in village
street" we are not simply led back to
the Boston tea-party or to the stamp
act, but to events that happened more
than century before the revolution
can properly be said to have begun.
Again, if we were going to take very
wide view of the situation and try to
point out its relation to the general his
| tory of mankind, we should have to go
| back not only across the ocean to
the England of King Alfred, but keep
on still farther to the ancient market
! places of Rome and Athens, and even
to the pyramids of Egypt.
In all this long journey through the
ages we should not be merely gratify-
ing our idle curiosity; but at every step
of the way could gather sound practi-
cal lessons, useful in helping us to act
intelligently in matters of government.
Ie would teach largely from biOgra-
phies. History has furnished us exam
pies that demand our admiration and
reverence, and remind us that "we can
make our lives sublime"
| We acknowledge that the moral life
of one who bears the honored name of
teacher should be irreproachable.
o, that we loved the world as John
Wesley loved it, that we had the patri-
otism of our immortal George Wash
| ington and the indOmnitable will of Jas.
| Wolfei Then would textbooks be to
the rising generation what the star in
the east was to the wise men,
Our pupils ought to see that "The
Chambered Nautilus they have been
required to commit is daily illustrated
in their lives.
| "Build thee more stately mansions, my soul.
| As the swift seasons roll,
Leave thy Ow-vaulted past,
Shut thee from heaven with q dome more vast,
! Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine .outgrown shell by life's unresting
| sea-"