Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1910-06-02

of family life as the real secret Of
nations prosperity. AS Burns SAM
of the Scotch peasants home in bill
""Colter's Saturday Night"
From scenes like these old Scotia'I
grandeur springs,
That makes her loved at home, rever
ed abroad;
Princes and lords are but the breath
Of kings;
An honest mans the noblest wori
of God"
i Our text also suggests second
characteristic of national prosperity
viz, that 1t depends less upon social
well-being than upon the right Of up
bringing of children. 1t is the stal.
wart sons and blooming daughters
which Hebrew parents, like the moth
er of the Graechi, pointed to as their
most precious jewels, the Jewish
race has always been model to all
others in its tender fostering Of fam
lily life. A Shylock might cheat in
the market place and numerically
demand his pound of flesh" next to
the Gentile's heart. The human
kindness which he denied to the
stranger he reserved for his own fire.
side and his love poured itself out
in lavish prodigality upon beloved
Jcssica. He had two gods. his duca.s
a.d lis. augAter; Il. one passion WAS
DIS base end seryi.. as the other was
Giss Al the Jew strong domestic
attachments we read the scent Of
his races perennial vitality, and the
admonition for ourselves that, If we
would perpetuate our American ma
tionality, we must look well 10 the
quality of the sons and daughters
that we rear.
The symbolism of our text deserves
passing mention. plants" and "cor-
nerstones" are suggestive or strength
and beauty. the strength that comes
with well developed character, bear
ing the symmetry of tree; the beau
ty that resembles, in its classic delica-
cy and finish, those high wrought
capitals which we're the pride and
glory of-ancient architecture. The
blending of these two figures sug-
gests the need of proper combina-
ton Of character building with cul-
ture in any true education. OF this
combination three things should BEL
said:
First, that culture without char
acter building falls short Of being
true education. For what is culture?
Nat, as once was thought, an over
laying with learning, as the person
with garment; or the filling Of the
mind with facts and figures, as in
volved in the modern pernicious habit
of "cramming." The new education
states as its prime purpose the devel-
opment of the whole man, body and
mind and spirit, and all this by the
man himself as the chief actor in the
process. Froeble, the father Of the
kindergarten used to say: Come,
let us play with our children" mean
ing that thereby we might most sure
ly discover the laws by which to train
their self-developing minds.
When we come to ask what bent
is to be given to this self-developing
process, the new education becomes
specially emphatic, and asserts in no
uncertain tone that the chief and ultl- !.
mate goal Of training should be char
acter building. And this for that
obvious reason that what we are to
become depends far more upon what
we do than what we say, or even what
we think. LAS a man thinketh in
his heart SO is he" Not the maxims
to which he may give careless assent,
nor the sentiments to which he may
give eloquent utterance, but the prln-
ciples and purposes which shape his
plans and guide his actIons-these
determine what he really is. Not
what we preach but what we practice
truly measures what we are. Shakes
peare's Aphella cries out in .vexation
over the pious advice of Polonius;
1T is q. good divine that follows his
own instructions. would rather tell
twenty men what were good to do
han be one of the twenty to follow
mine own teaching" Advice ami I
.heory are as cheap now as in
day, despite the rising
prices of breadstuffs, and quite as
Useless to help the world toward bet. /
er living. We surely need today the {
moral discipline behind those words Q
which Chinese Gordon wrote in his 4
liary, Resolved, that l will DO the c
.