The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-12-16

uQQ6SlTdUlS COuulIioho' NaoS
err cause, more deep-seated and more
serious, is the growing commercial
spirit Of the day. The dollar Is the
circle of life. Men sell their "
souls and put under tribute their
children's for dollars. There Is great
need for resolute struggle against
the allurements Of dollars. Too many
affairs are being builded to the: god OF
gold; too many souls are being sacri-
feed upon these affairs. 1t Is hard,
yes, we'll nigh impossible, to trans
mute commercial ideals, dollars and
cents into more abundant life.
Our course Of study may well neel
revision, may require q radical change
in content. But our greatest need Is
larger and truer ideals established
firmly in the hearts and minds OF our
boys and girls. A greater emphasis
must be placed upon moral and Ideal
than upon material and commercial
values. The voice in defense of the
child's i%nalienable rights, his heritage
Of moral and religious ideals, should
ring deep into the hearts OF parents.
Parents need to learn that the dollar
Is not the goal of life, that the child
Is more than the victim OF a parents
base ideals; that he Is more than q
money-making machine. They need
to learn that tho child has a self-hood
to be developed, a soul to be cultured,
and a destiny to be achieved. To
take q child out of school and compel
him to earn money Is to deny him his
rights, is to degrade him. For
parents to do;so is selfish, brutal, I'M
moral. I repeat that one Of the great
est evils that threaten our nation is
our too complete allegiance to COM
mercial Ideals. Our mad rush for
gold makes us O nation Of individuals
rather than q democracy. Christ
says, "No man liveth unto himself
In New York 1t sometimes seems as
though every man reversed that prtn-
ciple. Individualism Is q menace to
the life Of the republic. There is, as
never before, a, crying need for
parents and teachers to exalt moral
and spiritual values; a need to de-
throne the god of gold and to re-
enthrone the God Of old; q need to
upon the very physical and
spiritual fiber Of the child's nature
the exceeding, the Incompatible
worth Of moral character. Parents
themselves need to possess and prop
erly estimate these ideals and then to
instill them and give them first place
In the hearts Of their children. Such
ideals Of truth and righteousness, i'm
plying as they do a profounder sense
of social obligation, will contribute in
the highest degree to the enrichment
Of human life, to a more abundant
life.
Mighty possibilities are resident in
tho teachers vocation because Of the
material with which he works. Eter.
nal consequences follow therefrom.
The true teacher spends little time
waiting for pay day to come. His Is
a Worthier work than that Of a mere
wage Garner. He ia q maker for
social betterment, not q mere hire
ling. As with the preacher, right
eousaess Is his concern; with God he
Is a co.worker. That our teachers
might teel that they are called OF God
and are doing Gods work, there was
q Man sent from God who was named
Teacher, He Himself says His mis-
sion was to give a more abundant
life, That was His mission, that was
HiS religion, that was His life. The
religious aspect of the teachers work,
the religion. of education, If you will,
Is O subject worthy of more thought
than 1t has received.
While there Is an imperative need
for teachers with ideals, we must not
forget that the ideals must be of pos
sible attainment. We need, then,
sane teachers, teachers balanced by
perspective. False ideals, ideals be-
yond the realm Of the possible, held
up before the young, defeat the
teachers purpose. Hold up before a
boy an impossible ideal, making him
struggle toward It's realization until
one day its utter absurdity dawns
upon him, and with what result? His
cherished idol falls and with 1t there
come tumbling down all his ideal con-
structs. In this day when our college
presidents are little more than money
%gatherers, when our school principals
are little more than clerical workers,
there Is a positive need for teachers
with lofty ideals, but ideals within
the realm of possible achievement.
Impossible ideals made for lawless-
hess rather than for righteousness
and the betteTment Of life.
We need, finally, to r~ediscover the
meaning of life, to learn that a mans
life CONSISTENT not In the abundance
of the things that he possesses. We
need to redlscover the fact of God.
and that In Him we live and move
and have our being. He is the source
Of our life and to find Him Is to find
fuller life. There Is need to re-em-
phasize the fact Of Christ as the Re-
vealer of the true life which is the
life Of service. The life of the world
has received a rsw impulse in Him.
His faith and practice were that the
only way to find life is to give life.
Christ gave His life In deeds of loving
service even unto death that the life
heritage Of humanity might be en-
riched. He thus emphasized in teach
ing and in life social obligation. For
Him every enriched life was an in
creased social asset. From Him we
learn that the inheritance Of life into
which we have come must be shared
with our fellows and passed on to
others enhanced in value by reason
Of our participation. To give life Is
to make life more abundant.
We live in thoughts and deeds, not
in days. Tense in grammar refers to
action rather than to time. That an
action Is either perfect or imperfect
gives US tense. Time Is a convenient
means by which we indicate the pro-
gressive stages Of life. Too frequent
lY we beat time and count DAYS and