Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-12-11

LEARNING HOW TO LIVE.

By Henry F. Cope.
Whose findeth me (Wisdom) f1ndeth
life."-Prov. 8 :35.
If you desire to have your boy be-
come a skilled engineer you send him
to a school where he may be trained
as an engineer; but if you desire to
have him keen to the difference be-
tween right and wrong, If you desire
to have him become a man Of high
character, you are quite likely to take
chances on his picking up such difficult
attainments
There is no difficulty in discovering
agencies and MEANS by which one
may learn how to make a good living,
but if one would learn the great art
Of a good and worthy life, that is
different matter, apparently one of
less Importance. 1t seems to be gen.
orally assumed that you have to make
the acquaintance Of the natural
sciences by educational processes, but
the greatest of all the arts and
sciences you get by accident.
Character the fruitage Of the whole
life, the crown of all, is the last thing
considered in education. A child
learns to play the piano by persistent
less SO to others, but the practice of
virtue, no one knows how that is gain
ed; it is supposed you must wait I'M
til the lightning Of goodness happens
to strike you.
Can character be developed by edu-
catlonal methods? We can train dogs
and cats and pigs to whatever habits
we wish; can we train men and wo-
men? We know how to produce ex-
pert machinists, bookkeepers, and
handlers of iron and wood; do we
know how to produce good citizens,
worthy parents, just employers, dill
gent workmen, kindly neighbors?
Are goodness and uprightness the re-
suit Of intent, or the fruitage of ac-
cident? 1t is worth while to make
up our minds as to this. If some are
good and some are bad and no one
knows just why, then we are in a most
iamentable situation. If the good can
be developed and perfected and the
evil eliminated, if rightness Of life is
subject to processes in our control, the
development and training of such right
ness is the largest business we have in
hand at any time.
We need definitely to test all our
educational, our cultural agencies,
schools, colleges, churches, press, art
galleries, clubs, by this: Are they
training those whom they reach to
fuliness of living, to right social adj
justments, to such life as makes one
the possessor Of all his high heritage
and the servant of all his great oppor-
tunities, q whole man doing all mans
service for men?
What of the educational influences
of the church? Is it doing any more
than making children in the Sunday
schools walking warehouses of bibli
cal information? Is it training it's
men and women to take their places,
and do their common work in the
world? Has it any high, clear, pro-
phetic message for our day? Is
it stirring the souls of men, inspiring
them with visions so high that they
never find content until they have
poured out their lives seeking to re-
alize them? Surely this is it's educa-
tionaI work
There is a danger that in the rush
of our modern life we lose sight Of
the things that ought to come first.
We ought to know that this life of
ours is not for the building Of cities,
nor for the heaping up of fortunes.
but all these are only that we may
produce the glories of character, we
may raise men and women of high
living.
What shall our learning, all our
boasted educational advantages be
worth to us if we miss the great prize
of life, if we fail to come into that
fullness of living which belongs to us
as children of the infinite? Let Meth
er learning nor making living stand
in the way of the chief thing, which is
simply living, living Alright and finding
the larger life.