[Editorial in the States, New Orleans, Louisiana]

The whole struggle of education is to correct the false ideas we get from the things visible with the truths that can only be found in the things invisible—to replace the false, shifting authority of material so-called laws with the stability of the divine law that is "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever"—for nothing permanent can be postulated of things visible. Even the atomic theory has been revolutionized, and what was once supposed to be the smallest particle of invisible matter has become a sort of whirling dervish that mystifies natural scientists.

So all learning that magnifies the mere shifting standards of men above the eternal laws of God has to be unlearned before life can be lived in triumph and peace....

If learning has nothing more to offer than the shifting standards of men, it becomes a vain process of accumulating knowledge that shall vanish away. If time spent in empirical studies—courses in modern psychology and many man-made isms—could be diverted to the study of the law "that centers in the throne of God," to use Dr. Harper's fanciful figure, there would not be so many social problems to perplex us.

We are confused on every side by so-called laws: laws of heredity, of health, of social reforms, of legislative enactments for the public good. But the law of God is not complex. It is so simple that we overlook it and try to work our way to heaven by more arduous modes. Only one condition is required for the fulfillment of that law, as expressed in the Decalogue, upon which no human code has improved. And that condition is, as Paul profoundly expressed it, "Love is the fulfilling of the law."

All the economists in the world can find no other solution of the problem of poverty except in the rule of universal love. Wisdom, health, peace, prosperity, are not attained by chemical reactions, but by conscious, loving unity with the divine Life that forgiveth all our iniquities, and healeth all our diseases.

[Superintendent Frank Cody, in the Journal of the National Education Association, Washington, District of Columbia]

Education is not a cold, austere duty, but a journey down a friendly road. Such education has no traffic with race prejudices or dogmatic differences in creed. It strives always to maintain a proper balance between individual freedom and the welfare of the group. The teacher is not a severe taskmaster in a dreary round of discipline, but a kind, companionable leader in a congenial and inspiring place....

Education has a twofold duty to the community. It must reflect the will of the people and at the same time strive to raise the standards of life of the community.... Teachers and parents must strive together for the betterment of our children.

The bringing together of all the peoples of the earth so that the daily news circles the globe, will undoubtedly bring about unprecedented cooperation. This is already evident in the present movement for world peace....

Education must aim high. The ultimate ideal of true education is to develop character, to lure young people on to the highest and strongest spiritual grounds, to keep ever before them the loftiest, most challenging conceptions of human worth, and above all to elevate their own estimate of their individual worth and possibilities. Education that has failed to do this has lost its own soul. As we would have life, so must our education be....

President Hoover, who continually stresses the responsibility of education for future growth, says, "With the growth of ideals through education, with the higher realization of freedom, of justice, of humanity, of service, the selfish impulses become less and less dominant."

Surely the teacher of to-day stands in a very responsible position.... If he is progressive, practical, dynamic, recreative, friendly, cooperative, and idealistic, our schools will be likewise, and we may more nearly reach the ideal of the great Teacher who came that we "might have life, and... have it more abundantly."

[Robert J. Trevorrow, in the Christian Advocate, New York, New York]

Education, then, aims to prepare for freedom—to give that background of world experience, that analysis of conduct, that breadth of vision which shall enlarge wise judgment, and which shall not so much limit freedom as confer power to use it. So stands education, the friend and counselor of the young! Not nearly so much concerned about making a living as with making a life; not so much a task as an opportunity to satisfy curiosity as how best to live; not an enforced burden, but a way of escape from the defeat, regret, and unhappy memories of foolish conduct! ...

Immediately there comes to our minds the fact that education is dedicated to the search for truth and obedience to it. Let us recognize that it is neither fundamentalism nor liberalism which will make us free. Only the truth will do that. Anything else than truth will make you a slave. So while men are committed to systems and philosophies and religions, they are valuable as guides for human conduct only in the proportion in which they contain truth. Error, time-bent and mossgrown, is still error—the unreal, the false, the undependable. Dress it in any robe, it is still an enemy.

Truth is infallible—to find it is to find the sure road to a successful life. Truth is the supreme wealth, the secret of the stars and of the atom, the message of the soul and of the soil. To gain it is to obtain the peral beyond price. It is the foundation of the universe and the very throne of God.

The business of education is to create a new aristocracy, to raise the individual, however born, to the company of the elect—to the scholars, the poets, and the saints. It seeks to initiate him into the fraternity of the great minded and the noble hearted. That is its real task; ... for education must forever build character, and it must build a pride in service which shall be the world's true aristocracy....

We need education perfectly to equip the individual with all the essentials of wise judgment and efficient performance. Among these essentials there is one which our age needs to learn. It is the responsibility of the individual for his behavior and a willingness to face the results of action—good or bad, present or to come. If education can but teach that, much will be gained for the world.... So it is the glory of our heroic minorities—the martyrs, the explorers, the reformers—that, facing consequences, ... they went bravely forward in the performance of appointed duty. Consequences, fortunately, are not always penalties; sometimes they are glorious rewards. Many a martyr has lighted a candle for the illumination of all subsequent generations. So, balancing ease against suffering, present against permanent, education teaches a soul resolutely to do its duty, and then calmly to face the future. If it must stand alone, then to have the heroic proportions to stand alone, as a lighthouse faces the storm. Only as one is equipped for sane, heroic, independent action, can one reach his destiny.... Crimes may have been committed in freedom's name, but think also what victories have been won for the individual and for the world by men courageous enough to step out from the coils of convention and thus, by the independent use of freedom, to serve mankind.

We must remember that education's gifts to youth for the better use of freedom—truth—world experience—selfknowledge—are inadequate until one more gift completes the circle—religion. We do not say that because our fathers have said it, but because of the real values (highly appraised by human experience) which are resident in religion and may not elsewhere be obtained. It is not tradition; it is life that perpetuates religion. Not yesterday alone, but to-day, asks for its wisdom and guidance.

The best and most permanent religion is the one which gives its followers the most to live for, that is, that sets forth the finest ideals. The religion which can set the objectives of life must inevitably have a tremendous influence upon the use of personal freedom, an influence too great to be ignored by any intelligent educator.

As we approach this subject from a religious point of view, we can see how education can join with Christianity in defending the ideals of life and in making them alluring and attractive.... One who was the perfect master of the uses of freedom, who embodied in his personal life all the objectives worthy of a place in human endeavor, one whose self-determination was so modest and yet so adamant that he would rather die than be disloyal—this was Jesus, the perfect student, the perfect teacher, the perfect ideal for us all. He is the concrete example of all that we have said.

So as we face to-morrow, education gives us four friends to bear us company on our journey—truth, experience, selfknowledge, and religion. They come to us neither as masters nor servants, but as friends—content to take any place we assign to them, to walk before or behind us, to be silent or to speak as we bid them. Our successes and our failures will vary as, in our personal use of freedom, we hear or refuse to hear their counsel. Their message is the solid stone of life which we may build into the similitude of a palace—and with our building stands or falls our civilization.

[Professor Campagnac, as quoted in the Brighton and Hove Weekly News, Brighton, England]

If you want to speak well, you must also listen. Listen to the great writers of prose, to the great historians; listen most of all to the great poets. But occasionally I would ask you to listen more intently to something else. Shed all your books and withdraw into the secret of your own mind. Shut the door, and be quite silent. Listen to the voice in your own heart—a voice that is not of the moment, but of all time; the voice of God. Suppose you heard that, what would you not have gained? You would have got serenity, strength, endurance, and the habit of work sustained by inspiration and the power of obedience to a law greater than yourself.

[Rev. Dr. Alexander Lyons, in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York

God as a being made in man's image must be displaced by one that shall with irresistible impressiveness indicate what man can and should become.

If we are to have this more exalted and inspiring conception, our homes must become wayside shrines on the way to church. Every father and mother must become priests at the altar of religion. By precept and, more especially, by practice, they must exemplify the God they would have their children worship and emulate.