The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1895-01-03
"LIFE'S SCHOOL,
And Some of Her Teachers" by
Rev. F. A. Cone.

nnU SOmc VI nST teachers, ny
Rev. F. A. Cone.
Rev. F. A. Cone delivered his lee
ture on the above caption, before a
fair sized audience,under the auspices
of the Epworth League, at the Meth
odist church, last Friday night. The
speaker was entertaining, humorous,
at times. At other times he was SER
ious, instructive. His delivery was
excellent: forcible, eloquent. The
substance of his remarks follow:
We live in three worlds-the pres
ent, the past and the future. The
present is commonplace it's a world
of ordinary things, and its pictures
are largely done in brown. The past
is more Or less romantic has
kindly let 60 of the commonplaceisms.
The pictures she hangs in her gallery
are the brighter and more somber
hues, and time has gently blended
these with one beautiful panorama.
Time takes our tears and our laugh
ter, our mourning and our rejoicing.
presses them IN between the leaves of
our memory, and when, by and by, we
turn to them again, behold they are
one-they appeal to the same emo
tons; they are the same recognition.
Poetry and art are largely confied to
this world. What we see in the fu-
ture world depends upon the stand
point from which we view it. In early
life it is in high colors, but with the
advancing years these either fade into
the soft, golden hue of sunset-heav-
ems portals, or the darkness of the
starless night-death's despair.
In the world of the past stands the
old school house, a storehouse of
memory and a rendezvous of thought
Here we were introduced into a new
world-a world in whose increasing
vastness our individual importance
correspondingly diminishes. TIC
leave the home where you have been
the one Johnny or Mary of all the
world and enter the school where you
become only common Johnny OF
Mary is the first severe lesson in SO.
GEOLOGY. Life is a school. AS the
school house has no meaning until oc.
cupied by the teacher and pupils, sc
the world had no meaning until occu
pied by man.
First, the Department of Nature
Nature is Gods own deleg ated teacher
to man, and the lessons she imparts
are from the fountain head of truth
She is the model of patience and per
severance; she never tires of repeating
herself and never grows old in he
instruction; she is SO simple IS to b.
interesting to the merest child and 81
profound as to challenge the wisdom
of the wisest philosopher; she is 81
gentle that she rocks the flowers tc
sleep on her lap, and so mighty tha
she shakes the mountains with tn
palpitations of her heart. Nature i
articulate with thousand voices, al
of which are waiting to instruct us i
we will learn her language. And w
may learn it, not perfectly, but wei
enough so that she can whisper many
a secret into our listening ear. Nc
one is educated till he has been tt
school to nature.
Here the speaker dwelt upon ma
ture as teacher in the mechanical
arts, showed how she had been re
vealing her power to man and int
what realms of beauty she invites us
To every student in LIES schoc
history offers itself as valuaul
teacher. The present is good ant
great only as it becomes the receptacle
into which flows all the best of tn
past. Our life is but line between
two great eternities; we are to know
the past and live for the future.
No life or age is truly known unit
it is known in history. Truth shine
clearest from the grave. What tn
present is will best be known to-mo1
row, When to-day has become mat
ter of history, but the history we rea
from the printed page is only an indie
to the real history which throbs in tn
heart of the present. The old Gree
} sculptor did not speak of forming
marble into statuary, but of trans
forming it, and when he had don
with his piece of marble he ha
breathed into it thought, part 0
his own soul, and it's value to-day
not so much as work of art as
thought in stone.
The department of society is tn
one which taxes most our strength
tries our energies, and probes to tn
very quick our sensibilities. Yet it
this department which offers tn
largest rewards. Society reserve
nothing; the best she has is ours if W
can win it; society has place for u
only as we can make it. Here W
touch cords that will vibrate whe
the fingers that touched them are col
in death. Here our life flows out i
streams that will mingle with the or
flowing stream of life when we ar
forgotten. To live with those W
leave behind is not to die.