The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1904-05-05

itself supported by little barrel OF Hour
in the grain out of which it springs. Inc
young caterpillar waking up to begin IT'S
life finds itself provdentialiy deposited by
its winged mother on some green leaf on
which it can feed while yet too weak to tor
age for itself. Take your own children, You
can count up "these things OF trial thaJ
beset the child to an extent that would
make YOU sigh with pity. They have come
into a world fraught with pain, prlvatlon.
dangers to body and to mind. They are
wrapt in no furs, furnished with no
weapons. provided with no stored up food
in themselves. How can they bear these
things and net he moved: How can they
bear them and be happy: Yet they are
happy. Scarcely is the tear, dry. on the
little face when the wreathed smile OF an
angel comes there. For the chlid a.So :So
draws its first strength from outside
sources. God hath set the solitary. in
families God let's down on the child IN
normal society the protection and Dro,,
vision of home. This is the necessity and
sanctity of the home: not only that 1t IS
Christian. law, not only that 1t Is moral
law. but simply that it is natural law.
There are inside sources OF strength.
Neither God nor nature snolls the child.
Bv 9 O'Clock nature withdraws her morning
dews leaving he growing things to flnd
new sources of strength IN which to stanu
unmoved in the suitry or tn: stormy noon.
Not now the outside dew. but the inside
sap Nature giving the sproutlng grain an
outside supply for its first few DAYS now
leaves it to send its own roots into the
earth. it's green leaves into The air, and by
its own inward activities transmute them
into life and growth. The first green leaf
exhausted the caterpillar must now move
off to find a new leaf for itself. From the
children of men, too, God withdraws the
early baptism. The youth must ono day
leave home and its protection and pro-
vision and by the exercise OF his own pow
ers wiring living for himself. II now ne
is to meet these things and not be unduly
moved, if he is to meet them ike a true
man with courage and strength and trl..
umph he must develop the sources Oh
strength within himself.
Here exactly is the weakness Of this pres
ent day. Every age has its own strength
and pre-eminence The strength OF our day
has been the discovery and application OF
the forces of nature by art and science: TO
our daily living in all its branches. we
have turned the bullock cart into the auto
mobile, the tardy sickle into the steam
harvester. the postman gong three miles
an hour with letters into the telegraph and
the telephone. Yet it is always true that
from the greatest strength falls a shadow
ing weakness. Our fathers had out lew
outside forces on which to rely. Not long
were they allowed to lie in the cradle. not
long to play in the nursery. Nature was
rugged and rough with them. The Old
farm house stood far from its nelghhor,
drifts of snow or swollen streams often lay
between. When the wintry night closed
in there was no public place OF amusement,
no stirring procession of multitudes under
the electric lights of the streets. but moon
LIGHT and shadows on the lonely country
road. If the family would pass a genial
evening they must develop the INSIDE
sources of the home, of the hearthstone IN
the log cabin. and find the comedies and
tragedies of life on the stage OF their own
minds and hearts. No newspaper OF mag
azine allured them out OF themselves.
There. in their own little world, at their
own fireside. they thought out their poi
tics, their literature and their theology. III
education the schools were poorly. 1ur'
nished. the teacher but poorly trained, the
text books but few and serving the sue
cessive members of the family IN turn:
If they were to be educated they must nnd
their education by the painful development
of their own powers Of memory and renee
ton. You have seen pictures OF the poor
school house in which Daniel Wester or
Henry Clay was trained, or, gong gen.
Grafton further back, we may think OF the
simple school in which George Washington
or Patrick Henry was educated;, yet out
Of such school houses came leaders VINO
founded States, wrote constitutions, built
a republic, grappled with the diplomacy of
Europe; out of them came orators whose
eloouence, though dead on the printed
page, still thrill the reading soul. Gather
them out of this primitive school house,
closet them in the Colonial Congress IN
Philadelphia to fashion out OF their own
minds, their own destlnles and that OF
their own nation and what was the re-
suit?
were bare and cold, no fresco on the WALL
no inward vision of spiritual things; no
organ rolled its music to lead their PRAISE
no gifted voices in selected choir hlteo
them out of themselves on, the "aAen
wings of Icarus; no grace OF rhetoric, mace
theology easy. They were left to the de.
ye,opment of their own inward sources OF
praise, of prayer and OF thought. ana
what Homeric characters they were! Jona'
than Edwards in barren Stockbrldge made
himself the first philosopher OF his age:
IT NAV we'll be feared that the Church OF
today is doing for the young people just
what the schools are doing for them, sur
rounding them with ever increasing OUTSIDE
religious props and stays-socletles, CLUBS,
bro;herhoods, guilds, and now, ,to, add to
this, comes the threatening addition OF
scientific pedagogy for the simplicity OF
the Sunday-school Some OF You we're
brought up in Sunday-school where there
were Just two outside sources TO help, the
Bible and a question book without an
swers. You learned to know your Bible,
YOU came out of that school into the
church and into Christian service, that
has tilied the world with Christian phl!an-
thropy. The Sunday-schools of our chill,
dren are furnished with Vallombrosa of
lesson leaves-primary, intermediate, quar-.
terly, and the teachers with variety OF
helps, ready made expositions, to be famil;,
iarized in the hour between breakfast and
Sunday-school. Ask the average scholar to
turn to the second chapter OF Zerhanlah
or OF Titus. and see the vain turning over
Of unfamiliar pages. What can you ex-
pect? How should they cultivate the in
ward sources of memory and reflection
when you have excused them by supplying
them with all conceivable outside supports
that make memory and reflection super
i.uous. Do you remember that solemn
parable of the seed falling on stony ground,
quickly growing on the shallow soil and as
quickly whitening before the heat and the