DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL IDEAS 45 



that bodies are controlled by the law of gravitation, or that moral 

 truth is of infinitely greater import to the spirit which is a man's 

 self than is the physical fact. No one really believes that a bad man 

 can be happy here or hereafter, and the highei our view of life the 

 less we think of our pleasures and interests. 



It is only when he walks in the light of this ideal that the teacher 

 is uplifted by a profound and abiding enthusiasm for his work, which 

 he feels to be a cooperation with God for the salvation of men. The 

 greatest of educational problems is how to induce the best men and 

 women to make teaching their life-calling; and it is the most difficult. 



If considered merely as a career many more inviting ways open 

 before the eager eyes of the young who have brave hearts and lofty 

 aims. For the most part the teacher's task begins and ends with 

 drudgery. It is monotonous, wearisome, ungrateful, and obscure. 

 He must himself create the taste and the ability in those he instructs 

 to appreciate the good he does them; and when appreciation comes 

 it is like hope deferred. He is tired and outworn and no longer 

 cares. His very soul has become subdued to the crude brains he has 

 so long labored to suffuse with light and to open to all the glories of 

 heaven and earth. How shall he persevere, how shall he become 

 daily self-surpassed, how shall he retain the freshness and elasticity 

 of youth in the dull air and routine of the schoolroom? Will it be 

 possible for him to keep alive faith in the potency and beneficence of 

 education? Will not the power to vivify, to create life unde* the 

 ribs of death, depart from him, and he be degraded to the function 

 of an attendant upon a machine? 



Surely this will be the result if freedom of the soul is denied to him, 

 if he is forbidden to impart the fruits of his holiest and most helpful 

 experience, the thoughts he most loves, the hopes he most cherishes, 

 the very life which is his strength and joy. 



The great educators have not striven to make earth a lubberland, 

 but to found here a kingdom of heaven wherein truth, justice, and 

 love should prevail; wherein men should do the will of God, as in 

 unseen worlds it is done by higher beings unhindered and untempted 

 by human weaknesses and passions. They are the world's guides, 

 the saviors, the inspirers of the multitude, the leaders out of cap- 

 tivity and bondage. 



An infinite hope has descended upon the world, undreamed of by 

 the philosophy of Greece, and like the memory of most blessed days, 

 or like remorse, it cannot die. Individuals may become atheists 

 and materialists, but the mind and heart of Christendom can never 

 abandon faith in God who knows and loves and is good, and in the 

 immortal soul of man. The wisest and the best will not cease to 

 yearn and to labor for the coming of His kingdom on earth. In the 

 growth of science, in the spread of knowledge, in the increase of 



