Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-02-11
LEARNING HOW TO LEARN.
The Slow Process of Education In tha
Realm of Conduct and Religion.


Realm of Conduct and Religion.
A boy who intends to enter some
learned profession spends at least Is
years learning how to learn. Seven
years in elementary schools, four years
in nigh school or academy, and four
years in college are given up to training
boys and girls how to think for them
selves. A considerable amount of in
formation is of course acquired during
the process, but the main purpose of all
these years of discipline is to make the
mind master of itself, that the profess
sional studies, which may occupy three,
four or five years more, may be grasped
by an intellect able to assimilate them
and transform knowledge into activity
with the minimum waste of energy.
Thus q full third of life is given to prep
aration.
No less true is it in the realm of con-
duct and religion that education is
slow process. The young Christian
often wonders that he seems to make
so little progress from month to month
in understanding the ways of God, the
weakness of his own heart, the mys-
teries of salvation. He grows impatient
because he finds himself falling into
the same sins, lingering in the old un-
belief, and wandering constantly from
the light. But If for natural life Of
three-score and ten we must spend 25
years in merely getting ready
whether in school or outflow much
more must the endless life which opens
before tho SoI,1 yaor;ra n fra;p;no Ion,r
thorough and sometimes irksome. The
further one goes in that training, the
more clearly does he see this truth. A
recent story of Pope Leo relates that
among the Americans recently pre-
scented to him at an audience were three
who spoke of the beauties of Rome.
"How long have you been in Romeo"
he inquired of one. 1.-TWO weeks" was
the reply. "Ah, then you have seen
Rome" said the pope. "And you?"
The second had been there six months.
Then you have begun to see Rome"
But to the third, who had lived in the
city ten years, the pope said: "You
have not yet begun to see Rome" It is
so with the student of the Bible, with
the learner in the school of Christ, it
must DO so with the saints and angels of
Heaven. Paul at his conversion doubt
less had a conception of God loftier and
more profound than that of his fell
lows; but it took % years of strenuous
experience, suffering, endurance and
communion with the Lord to bring
forth those words he wrote to the
Romans: 'Oh, the depth of the riches
both of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God! how unsearchable are His
judgments, and His ways past tracing
out! For who hath known the mind Of
the Lord? or who hath been His coun-
selor? or who hath first given to Him
and it shall be recompensed unto him
again? For of Him, and through Him,
and unto Him, are all things"
Let not the believer forget the bound
less future for which life's brief years
are all too short to prepare him. With
the Lord thousand years are as yester-
day when it is past. If ones earthly
work is nearly done and ones hair is
white before the lessons of simple
trust and denial of self and charity to-
wards mankind are learned, there is no
cause for encouragement. If those
lessons are learned at all, the cost has
not been too great; and there remains
eternity for the higher education of the
soul.-Chicago Standard.