The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-01-28
DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
BY TIE REV FRANK DE WITT TALMAeE. 9. 9.

I buy your papersg T gets them at the of flee for half a cent and sells them for a penny Indeed, I say. Then how do | you make change when you sell those papers unless you know how to count? | With that the boys eyes will begin to ! open. and he will begin to see that mak- 1 ing change Is arithmetic and buying pa- , pers is counting figures. And thus I lead | him on until he realizes that he himself | can count and do something"
 Not Sponge.
 The human brain should be something | more than a sponge. The brain should be | able to give out as well as take in. The ! brain should be like mountain side, | gushing forth with brooks and springs, | rather than a great cavity or reservoir, | capable of holding a lot of water. which | fin time becomes nothing more or less than i a stagnant pool. It is just at this point ! that Friedrich Froebel, the great German | educator, has been able within the last | few years to absolutely revolutionize the | educational system Of the world. The | gist of his teachings is this: ITO have ! found one-fourth of an answer to a ques- | tion by his own effort is of more value | and importance to 8 child than 1t is to | half hear and half understand that an- l swer in the words of another" Thus we | find the average school room for our | children Il AdE ullitINHl pAhSe AiRAi that l we used to attend. We there find the | children playing games and building 1 blocks and working at carpenter benches 1 and bending over kitchen stoves and | drawing pictures and singing songs. They 1 work with their heads; they work with !, their hands and fingers. The school room | is place where our children are fought ! not only theories but practiealities. That , is true education.
 nd al mo state something directly ! to the parents in reference to this law Every father and mother ought to be the public school teachers assistants. They ought to supplement the work of the school room in the home. How are they to do that? By Inspiring their children in every way possible to do something for ! themselves. Buy them all the games they 1 are able to play. Checkers and domnoes | and parchees and authors and chess and l croquet and golf and tennis are not time wasters, but brain developers. The striv- | ing for the mastery in games develops the power to succeed in life. When the Duke | of Wellington was prime minister of Eng | land he paid a visit to his old school of Eton. While he was watching the boys play football upon the field he said to the principal, ''The battle of Waterloo was won here" If Arthur Wellesley had never contended for mastery upon the play ground he would never have been able | to conquer England's greatest foe. | Furthermore, not only should parents | stimulate the activities of their children | by games, but also get their children tool | boxes. and scroll saws and printing presses. and magic lantern slides, and ko- | daks, If they will be the means of help | ing to decide your children's future llyes ' Aye. more than this-if possible let them raise chickens and doves and rabbits and go fishing and hunting. Let them take | care of a horse or pony, Let them do everything and anything that Is right i which will stimulate the action of the brain. A child develops more by what he
 does than by whatN you do for him. Thank God that our school teachers can | inspire their scholars Into doing as well ! as into receiving!
 Training the Child.
 see the teacher training the practical child. see him also training the aes- thetic child or the student of the beauti- full. I hear him saying to the young stu dent; Young man, there is something more in life than plating cabbage patch, or hoeing corn os digging an oil well, There Is something more in life than in owning a mortgage upon your neighbours farm and squeezing him out of his prop erty in hard times. There Is other liter ature in life than that found in the stock columns of the daily newspapers. There Is something higher than the rattle of the mlser's gold" The true teacher tries to lead his scholars into the higher realms of the beautiful He inspires them with the harmones of nature of sound and of color. He gets the best pictures he can and hangs them upon the schools walls.
 He tries to do for his class room what Mary A. Livermore did for her scholars when she was a teacher In Duxbury, Mass. She did not go into her class room and say. Now, children, you must go | to work and work hard and have just ! oc ,,,fc Ia ftn1a a q an'' Oh
 She made play out of work When she | was teaching botany, she gathered the beautiful flowers out of the fields and took them into the class rooms Then on | certain Saturdays she took her class out into the woods to find the flowers and to study them in their home retreats
 Then. instead of studying the stars by books alone, she would meet her class on | a clear night, and together they would roam through stellar worlds. Then, in- stead of making music a bore, she formed her scholars into singing classes, and ever and anon the teachers and scholars | would go off on picnics taking their games and their violns along. Do you wonder that Mary A. Livermore worked her way into the hearts of her scholars and inspired them with the love of the beautiful.
 Love of the Beautiful.
 While. on the other hand, have not all l of us had teachers of history or of Eng fish literature or of oratory or of botany or of art so dead to their themes that we never entered their classes unless 1t was with leaden feet? Even when we i studied Goethe or Macaulay or Ruskin | we felt 1t was a drudgery because our | teacher himself was stolid and unrespon- sive to the harmonies of the beautiful. Oh, the teacher who does not inspire his people with love for the beautiful has lost half of his or her mssion Some time ! ago l was in the home of a very intell- gent lady. During the conversation she nearly all the standard works" .Js that so?" I answered. Do you pay her for