[Walter R. Hepner, Superintendent of Schools, in the Bulletin of City Schools, San Diego, California]

One of the most common errors in the thinking of many people is that education consists chiefly of memorizing something. In our schools and homes we can see to it that our children memorize the Constitution, but it does not mean that they will respect law. We can teach the eternal verities, but we may produce citizens whose habits do not conform to their knowledge. Education is more than content. It is method also. The public often misunderstands the schools because of changed methods, but the schools are trying to train a generation of children who will obey the amendments to the Constitution. . . . Not only must we know the law, we must obey it. The development of this desire to understand and to obey the law is one of the most important aims sought in the new methods of civic teaching in our schools.

[The Baltimore Southern Methodist, as quoted in the Literary Digest, New York, New York]

Buy good magazines, surround your children with wholesome books, and support that which is worth while, including the church press, and . . . dangerous literature wil not find lodgment in our own families. The tastes of a home are formed by the atmosphere and surroundings of that home. Children, when grown, put on their walls the same sort of pictures their mother kept before them in their childhood; read the same sort of books; carry out the same "tastes."

Steep your home in an atmosphere of love and refinement, and the bitter and sordid will always be repellent to the children.

"As a twig is bent—" Give children the good, and when they grow up they will not naturally choose the bad.

[Rev. Dr. J. D. McCormick, as quoted in the Newark Evening News, New Jersey]

Are the young people following too closely the example of their elders? There is still a call to heroic thinking, willing, and living to all who consider themselves interested in religion. Your religion is whatever you give first emphasis in your life. If that emphasis is wealth, high position, dress, social prestige, or whatever you may choose, that ambition becomes your God and your devotion to it your worship.

Let no one slight you because you are a youth, but set the believers an example of speech, behavior, love, faith, and purity.

The virtues of faith, hope, and love which St. Paul urged as vital to the Christian life are as winsome and important today as ever they were. They are the earmarks of religion. We are told that as one thinks in his heart so is he. Therefore, conduct is the reflection of thoughts. What one thinks, makes him what he is.

Do the young people of today give attention to religion? Are they thinking about it? Does religion determine their choice? Recently a man was heard to say, "Oh, these young folks don't know what they want nor what they think." Is it true? Do young people show any evidence of being religious?

Recently an effort was made to discover what some young people do think about religious matters. More than one thousand young people answered an inquiry in which, they were asked to indicate their reactions to certain statements concerning religious matters. Their replies show what they think about God, Jesus, the church, prayer, immortality, and certain social responsibilities connected with the Christian life. In general it may be said that these young people exhibit attitudes toward concepts of religion, that is, about God, Jesus, the church, and immortality, such as are taught and encouraged by the church. The majority of them seem to be orthodox.

But is that all which concerns us here? What do they think about their responsibility in life? Do they consider that they owe the world a life of usefulness, or are they willing to be mere getters? When it comes to the area of adventurous thinking and of relating experience to theory these young people are not so positive in their responses. And who would be? No one is so sure of his conduct as he may be of his words.

[W. T. H., in the Presbyterian Magazine, New York, New York]

A life may be made abundantly rich by the religious conceptions it receives in its baby years. The Psalmist's definition of God was the impress of early childhood days ; [while Moses said], "Underneath are the everlasting arms;" and Jesus' word for God was the word "Father."

The secular systems of education have made vast advancement in the last few decades. The Sunday school, in the last ten or fifteen years, has made great strides pedagogically. Meanwhile, the . . . forces of material civilization, the automobile, the country club, the movies, and the new place of women in industry, have played havoc with the old-time home. Christian education in the home, especially in the early childhood years, has almost broken down.

And yet religion began in the home. . . .

No matter what changes in economic and social life the future may bring forth, as long as human nature is what it is, the home training and Christian example of father and mother in early childhood years constitute the supreme factors in the Christian character-building of the child. . . .

The paramount need in the church is a revival of Christian education in the home, especially in the early, impresionable years, before the child goes to school and the whirl of outside influences begins to take effect on him. Let us begin a revival of Christian education in the home!

[The Dean of Exeter, as quoted in the Guardian, London, England]

There are some, I suppose, who regard universities as factories for the mass production of teachers, doctors, engineers, and parsons, and I have heard of institutions bearing the great name of "university" which were, in fact, little better than this. But the true aim and purpose of university work is something higher and, in the long run, more useful than that. It is to liberate the mind and spirit of man; to train thinkers whose thought is free and independent and informed; to educate minds to take a position above the conflict and seek truth for its own sake. If that is the function of a university, who would deny that we need its services in our present difficulty? We shall never be led into any promised land by party catchwords or parrot cries. Prejudice and passion may ruin us if they are at the helm. The future, in human probability, depends on the number of men and women of good will who can see clearly and think straight and who know the hard discipline of the search for truth. As always, the truth and nothing else will make us free.

Or, think of the coming order which, as we hope, will supervene in the present. When our economic and social disorders are overcome we shall have a different crisis—the crisis of leisure. The old order has been based upon the necessity of labor. The opportunity of culture and the enjoyment of the higher satisfactions of life have been the privilege of the few. Then they will be the possession of the many. But observation of our own leisured classes is sufficient to show that opportunity and freedom from task work brings no automatic blessedness. We know many people who, as we say, would have been decent persons if they had had to work for their living. What will humanity do with its freedom when it is achieved? The function and mission of universities will then be widely extended. To them we must look for the chief assistance in the direction of the emancipated human spirit. For they exist to maintain and foster those higher values of culture which make men great. They can open the worlds of science and literature and art to the multitudes who will then be able to enter them. We shall need many universities then, and they must be strong and vigorous — not the creatures of a day, but with a tradition of sound learning and research. Whether we look at the troubled present or the hoped-for brighter future we can see that we need universities of the right kind.

[Rev. James Reid, M. A., in the British Weekly, London, England] "Hearts may beat and eyes be met And the souls be strangers yet."

This want of real understanding is the root of much needless suffering and cross-purpose. The difficult boy may be only difficult because no one has taken the trouble to find the key to that locked door where his real self is imprisoned. That cynical manner may hide the most tender heart. That fiery criticism may cover the sigh of a disappointed seeker after God. That careless smile may mask a secret battle-field. It should, at least, make us less critical and very chary of hasty judgments. Christ [Jesus] bade us not judge at all. "He knew what was in man."

But we ought to make an effort to understand, to get behind the barrier. We cannot force our way through. The door will not open to force. The lock cannot be picked. It will only open from within at the persuasion of understanding love and patience. And — this is most important — the surest way to get to know and understand others is to be willing to reveal ourselves. . . .

The world at this moment needs a campaign of persistent friendliness. Our life together demands a constant adventure in understanding. Nothing else will heal those frictions that threaten to disrupt the world.

[Rev. Dr. H. H. McQuilkin, in the North Jersey Courier, Orange, New Jersey]

The deepest need of the world today is for men and women of moral conviction. Material progress has outrun spiritual development. We have piled up inventions, forces, machinery, and find ourselves incompetent to control them for the betterment of society. We are the victims of our own handiwork.

We live in an age of maladjustment. . . . There is but one remedy. Our generation will have to get back to God, back to the Bible, back to Jesus Christ. That is where moral character is to be had.

[From the Morning Press, Santa Barbara, California]

No man is really righteous, or even truly religious, who is not a positive force for good.