The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-07-18
TOTHE GRADUATES
Address at Kindergarten
Training School.
Delivered BY Rev. NJ. L. Berger.
Developing From Within to
Right Thinking.

/
by Rev. Martin Luther Berger at the
closing exercises of the kindergarten
training school on Miller street on
June %. DR.. Berger's interest in edu-
cationaI work. and his earnest efforts
TO promote a religious life among
young people made his address one
of deep interest to the graduates:
\ thousand years before the Angels
song announced the advent of the Babe
of Bethlehem the wfsest of the O1d
Testament sages declared Train up a
| child in the way he should go and
when he is old he Will not depart
from it, This is the keynote of kin
| dergarten work, this gives the law
| of its advance and ensures its great
| harvest of good. This suggestion of
training carries our thought at once
| in Nature to the slender and tremu-
| lous vine which we twine and secure
! to the strong support and so prevent
| its being whipped off by the wind or
grOVelling along the ground. The sue
cess or failure of the vine, as a thing
upon the wisdom and thOrOughness
with which this work is done. 1t &C
cords with the true theory of educa
ton, as a process, not of examining
and forcing, but patiently regarding
and leading out in beautiful order the
natural forces that are evolved from
within. 1t regards the young mind,
not as a receptacle for thought so much
as thought producer and it looks
for its finest results in that which IS
evolved from within, only aiming to
direct the process and by wise touch
here and there conduct it along the
nOblest lines.
Now the New Testament expression
of the same idea is fuller, bringing in
an additional force to ensure the de-
sirable result. 1t is not simply Train
the child" evolving, developing from
within, the right thinking which pro-
duces the right feeling and this the
right action and so secures the right
kind of character, but Bring them
up in the nurture and admOnitiOn of
the Lord" A new motive is here in
trOduced which is to effect power
fully for good both the teacher and the
taught. The process is to be "a nur-
ture," nOurishing process, a feeding
of the mind on that which shall best
adapt it to the nObIest activities. 1t is
in the Lord" that the teacher is to
find her inspirations, her motive for
a patient. self-fOrgetful life of sacri-
fee, not ''wearying of her we'll doing
and not regardfuI of the praises or
rewards of men,-and by acquainting
her pupils with Him, his power, per-
sOnal interest in them, compassion
sympathy: lead them to know and
regard Him in such way that He be-
comes a most potent and all control
Ting motive force in their lives. 1t is
only where He is known, loved and
adOred that "The Child Garden" is
found and its results secured. Human
nature is too narrow, selfish, ignorant
and self-indulgant to do a work like
this apart from the Lord. And so the
true Kindergarten teacher has ever
ringing in her ears the sweet words
of Jesus, Suffer the children to come
unto Me" and she has the best and
most satisfying success as their con
tact and acquaintance with Him is
promoted, and they learn to look to
Him every hour for help, and to 90 all
things I'm His Name"
She herself in gentle firmness strives
to be an embodiment of this beautiful
by unwearying diligence and a conf
dence which eventually sweeps all OBJ
stacles of temper, evil association and
bad habit before it, and transforms
the IawIess waif of the street into the
cOnfidng, cheering sunbeam Of the
Kindergarten.
1t is a work of faith. She only who
can look beyond the external, the
transient, the hOmely and too often
commonplace will prosecute it to sue
cess and secure its abiding result in
character formed for usefulness and
God. The rest viii grow weary and
drop out.
1t is a work OF unselhshness. Self !
glory and self promotion are necessar- |
lily ruled out. The true glory of self |
surrendered sacrifice is discovered |
and the nOblest altruism is a service |
rendered to these little ones. the least |
in the Kingdom of God is embraced.
1t is a work for the future While !
the immediate results are not incOn- |
siderable in Frightening the lives that
otherwise would be sad and impure
and filing minds that would otherwise !
be vacant, with beautiful thoughts Of
Nature and God, the great end is to
fashion Well-balanced character that
Sudll We iSdOS u iE0pUuu any mere ~ |
the cries of the worlds need for help |
in solving its great problems and doing
its necessary work.
1t is a work for God. He who said |
taking little child and setting it in
the midst 'Of such is the Kingdom
of Heaven" also added Take heed
that We despise not one of these little |
ones" No one can guess how princely
the soul may be that is being trained |
for the future, nor how much the use |
fulness of that great future may be |
determined by what may here be i'm |
pressed upon it.
L think if Jesus should revisit our
earth one Of the very first places He |
would go to would be, not the Halls !
Of Legislation nor the great Ecclesias- |
teal Assemblies of experienced and |
learned men, but these little. modest
/ ,Ly,r,-