Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1921-09-23
RECORD MIDDLEBURY
UNDERGRADUATE BODY
[Continued from page fourl

tCOnunued from page 1our
me. Another officer and myself visited
a family i'll which we understood there
were two boys one or both of whom
should serve their country 1t was one
Of those farms typical Of Vermont
broad acres on great hilltop, looking
off in any direction for twenty, thirty,
N forty miles. We found the two
boys and had no trouble persuading
them of their duty The only thing
which had held them back was the
question of which of the two should 60.
Because their farm was making a vital
contribution to the country in food
stuffs, they had reason to believe that
the farm should be operated Both
wanted to 90, both felt that one should
stay. Later one of them joined the
regiment and left his brother to serve
his country in more prosaic way, but
with equal patriotism.
We left that farm and plunged Town
INTO the valley where there was an
other farm not so large, with three boys
upon it. 1t was a farm completely shut
in bv hills, at the bottom of a valley,
and you could not see in any direc-
ton for more than half or three-quar-
tiers of mile We found absolutely
no interest on the part of these three
strapping lads 1t was not their war,
they didn't care what the enemy did,
and they were firmly resolved thai they
themselves would not fight. 1t was
not for any lofty, conscientious scru-
pies, but just sheer narrow-nindedness
and indifference.
have often wondered since, if the
difference between the outlooks in these
TWO farms was not the result of their
geographical situaton-the broad, far
seeing view beng developed in the men
who lived on the hilltop and looked out
! Tor many miles, the utterly narrow,
selfish squalid viewpoint belonging to
those who lived in the valley and never
found themselves stirred by the sight
Of great stretches. This is what edu-
cation does or ought to do 1t takes
men out Of the narrow valley to the
h lltop where long looks into the past
and CONCENTRATIONS of the future pre-
pare him better ior the duties of the
dav
And finally, there is verse which
sums it all up better than any words
of mine-a verse which some of you
as YOU 90 on in life are going, ike my
self, to love more and more with each
passing year, Chine eyes shall see the
King IN His beauty, they shall behold
the land that stretches afar" There is
no such factor in education as God.
The love of truth has been implanted
in men by God and the great lovers
of God in history have always been
those men who dared most for truth.
It has been when men made for them
selves narrow, impossible conceptions
of God that they became hostile to
the truth. There have been times to
the discredit of the church when it
has been hostile to learning. But it
has always been at time when her
spiritual life was at its lowest. God
fearing men have from the beginning
been the founders of colleges and the
men who have made sacrifices for them.
II was not the gay cavaliers of Charles
who are responsible for the colleges OF
New England, but the believers in God
who were willing to risk their lives for
the sake of the truth as they saw it.
If your days of study are what God
wills they should be, then you will see
the King in His beauty, God Himself
VIII be more real to you. The telescope
and the microscope will reveal His
workings to you, and you will see the
land which is afar off The breadth of
view will be yours, which lifts you
above the common, the petty, and
makes life worth while.