[Leon E. Smith, in the Advance, Boston, Massachusetts]

We are standing today in the midst of a storm-swept world. Wreck and waste line the highway which we travel. Moral ideals have been shattered; business standards have been broken; political expediencies have been violated; and religious doctrines have been cast aside. Truly, this world must be rebuilt. ... It would, indeed, be wholesome and helpful if every school to which young people come, and if every teacher to whom young people listen, could realize fully that they are helping to shape characters that will determine the destiny of nations.

Will our present-day educational systems, standards, and curricula fit our young people for the task? Will they give to our young people the blueprints—the plans, the purposes, the standards, and ideals—by which the building is to be done? Will they give to our young people the materials—ambition, ability, vision, and courage—out of which the building is to be erected? Will they give to our young people the tools—faith, trust, expectancy—with which the building is to be built? They will, provided they are undergirded and supported by the doctrines of truth and righteousness. They will, provided the whole structure is Christian in reality and in presentation.

Education is the presentation of salient facts with such clarity and precision as to secure the most complete mental reactions. You may stand and reiterate with force the facts of history or present with clearness the hypotheses of scientific structure; but if you do not secure a definite mental reaction, you have done but little educating. Education, to be complete and to meet fully the demands that are made upon it, must be Christian. Education, however, that does not recognize God as standing at the beginning of all things, that does not exalt Christ as the Prince of teachers, or embrace the Christian gospel as the Magna Charta of the kingdom, could hardly be called Christian....

The teachers are the instructors. They are also the leaders and the examples for those whom they teach. A non-Christian faculty could hardly be credited for producing Christian alumni; nor could a Christian faculty be accused of producing non-Christian alumni. As the teacher believes, so will he teach; as he teaches, so will he live; and as he lives, so will his life bear fruit in the lives of those whom he teaches.

[Editorial in the California Daily Bruin, Los Angeles]

"Not one faileth," says Isaiah in his fortieth chapter as he expostulates on the benefits to be derived from using God's power and wisdom.

In university class work, written examinations are the major test of a student's knowledge, and the fearful student, on taking his periodical quiz, mid-term, or final allows himself to be confronted with the disturbing thought of failure. If he could overcome this negative thought, a more successful showing would result, for then all his attention would be focused on actual answering of the question before him. To reverse this fear, students must acquire confidence in their ability. This comes so easily and refreshingly if the individual has demonstrated for himself during the term that he can find time to study, that he does understand the subject, and that he can remember the facts sufficiently for an adequate answer.

Biblical references have been perpetual challenges through the ages, and have invited application with the same old-time efficacy in every set of new circumstances. Therefore, in spite of ambiguity and imaginations used in most interpretations of the Bible, there can be no doubt of the absolute truth of the above prophet's promise to presentday students who are faced with final examinations next month.

If students have conscientiously completed assignments and whole-heartedly cooperated with the demands of the course's work they have gone a long way in fulfilling the requirements outlined by Isaiah, as well as the instructor. If assignments have been neglected, there is still time to catch up before the ax falls.

Cynical students will no doubt be tempted to dismiss the above quotation as inappropriate for anything outside the realm of religion. ... But even the most introductory course of philosophy reveals the only true religion to be that of right thinking.

Upon this basis, what is the "power" bespoken of? It must, then, not be any intangible, supernatural force, but merely the everyday good indulged in by everyone. And doing assignments is doing good, and therefore the necessary "power" is simply acquired by tolerance in the matter of study.

What, again, is the "wisdom"? Right thinking begets right activity, and choices must ever be made to determine just what is the right path. Herein is the loop-hole to hidebound assignments. Here is the equity that will allow discrepancies in the letter to be overcome by an abundance of spirit. ... This affords the opportunity to delve into the omniscience of an Almighty Power.

Put these two together, and no one could possibly fail any examination. Isaiah's word is no intangible promise or unattainable combination that will net a student something for nothing. Thus one formula is brought into practice for everyday life, and makes other Bible truisms available for daily application.

[Sir John Power, M.P., in Recovery, as quoted in the Lecture Recorder, London, England]

The main avenues to be traversed are those of good will and unselfishness and a recognition of the plain and obvious fact that the happiness and decent comfort of multitudes of human beings is of more consequence than all the gold the world has produced or ever will produce.

[From the Free Press, London, Ontario, Canada]

The story of a storm at sea is often among the most thrilling anyone can read, but perhaps among the most graphic ever written was penned by St. Luke, the writer of the Acts of the Apostles. He was a master of description, and his narrative of a ship's adventure on the Mediterranean in the teeth of a gale for fourteen days, with St. Paul as a noted passenger, is a marvelous portrayal and all too little known by lovers of Biblical literature.

There is one fragmentary phrase in the story which carries a great spiritual idea of value for our day. It reads, "Fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day." This can as surely be applied to the soul as to the sea. In fact, it offers counsel for the perilous and distressing times through which we have been passing, for ships of state as well as individuals have been dangerously near falling upon rocks, and the whole world has been anxiously waiting "for the day." The passenger list of those who have experienced stormy seas has been large. Circumstances have been unfriendaly. Difficulties have swept over people in tremendous waves in driving them out of their course, causing them to lose their bearings, and they have been floundering with faith and hope diminished.

As one turns to the youth of our day, we see many, especially in student life, struggling in seas of intellectual bewilderment. The clouds of academic mysticism have shut out their guiding star while the splashing storm of skepticism has deadened the voice of the spirit. What is a person to do amid experiences like these? The phrase quoted above suggests a way. Let a man find out what real anchors he has on board his life. Let him get back to that of which he can be sure, and casting his anchors, he must wait "for the day." ...

The anchors of faith and hope are never thrown out on the storms of life in vain, but one of the great unfailing anchors is that of the conscious presence of God. In the midst of the storm described by Luke, ... he reports St. Paul's words: "There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve." Here was a man who stood in the teeth of the tempest, with the assurance of the conscious presence of God. Men and women today need to get that conception of God. They have been led to picture God in some far-off haven of calm and seclusion. ... God in the sunshine; ourselves in the storm. This is not the God of the Christian faith. He is transcendent and secure on the throne of glory.

[From the Evening Democrat, Fort Madison, Iowa]

To Chesterfield is credited the statement: "Wear your learning like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out and strike it, merely to show you have one. If you are asked what o'clock it is, tell it, but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman." ...

To be in possession of learning is not only to be commended, but encouraged. To use it is good judgment. But to display it merely for the sake of displaying it is never to be pardoned or condoned. The needless display of learning, or intellectuality, is evidence of the possession of intellectuality without the balance wheel of common sense, which frequently is the most uncommon thing in the world.

The truly learned man or woman never displays his or her learning for the humiliation or embarrassment of the one with less learning. Neither does the truly learned man or woman think that mere learning, regardless of the degree obtained, can serve as a substitute for sincerity and humility in living the Christian life. There are no substitutes for the various characteristics of true Christianity.

[From the Kenosha Evening News, Wisconsin]

Parents who fancy their ultramodern children are lacking in respect for them may be greatly deluded. Parents of college students are especially prone to regard their children as growing away from them, and in cases where the parents have lacked educational advantages, coming to "look down on them."

Here is a remarkable bit of evidence to the contrary. Seven years ago, and again just recently, a poll was taken among one thousand girls in Simmons College, Boston, to learn the relative respect in which the students held the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament. The girls were allowed to rearrange the order of the Commandments as they liked. Both times they placed first the fifth commandment, "Honour thy father and thy mother."