Man and his education

Foreword

The educational ideas of our country are naturalistic rather than religious; humanistic rather than divine; materialistic rather than spiritual; rationalistic rather than of faith in God over all, in all, and working through all, blessed forever more. This little book is a brief pointing-out of the way of faith and hope and love centering in Christ, the Way, the Truth, the Life. May its glimmer and gleamings help to clearer vision of the goal of humanity. May its breath be an inspiration. May its touch verify. May its word be a live coal. May its pages sparkle with thought. May it be a little star of the morning fading away to leave the reader facing the rising Sun of Righteousness.

October 15, 19 18

Part I. The Nature Of Man's Education Chapter Page

I. What Man Is 9

II. Man, a Soul 12

III. The Will of Man 15

IV. Man a Spiritual Being 18

V. Phases of Human Life 21

VI. Moral Types 25

VII. The Essential in Man's Education ... 30

VIII. The Field of Man's Consciousness ... 35

IX. His World-Consciousness 39

X. His God-Consciousness 42

Chapter I What Man Is

WE think first of man. What is man? Often has this question been asked. Thousands of years ago it was asked by a man in whom the light of God shined. The answer given was that he was a little lower than the angels. Others have said that he is a little higher than any other creature of earth. It may be that in man heaven and earth touch each other. In him spirit and matter blend. He is akin to God who is spirit. He is related to the earth of dust. He is a spiritual organism in living touch with all the elements of the earth. Through the members of his body, his senses, he comes into communion with all his earthly environment. Through his sense of sight he gets at least eighty per cent of all his knowledge of the world and is charmed with its beauty. Through the sense of touch he gets hold upon the world and 9 utilizes its elements. Through the sense of hearing he enjoys the concord of sweet sounds. Through the sense of taste he relishes his food and drink. Thus through all his senses he comes into friendly touch and blissful communion with his material environment. What a beautiful adjustment to earth our bodies are ! So manifold is the adjustment, and so well adapted to correspondence with the earthly that we can use the earthly for our intellectual, affectional and moral growth, for the final unfolding in harmony with the Infinite.

Whence this body of man with its marvelous adaptation and power of assimilation of earthly elements? Men who see things and name them, whose business it is to note facts and gather data and classify them, be they scientists, or philosophers, or theologians, men who carefully observe, note and give a reason for what they name and classify, tell us that the visible beginning of the body is a protoplasmic germ in a white fluid enswathment so small that the unaided eye can scarcely see it. From this germ the body develops with all its members, powers, relations, functions. The beating heart with its arterial and veinous subways, the breathing lungs with their sensitive lobes, the articulated bones, the cleaving muscles, the electric nerves, all centering in the brain, the powerhouse

What Man Is n of the whole body, are all from the protoplasmic germ. Though scarcely distinguishable from other germs, it is so true to the law of its own life that it will develop only the human form. It will become the human body or nothing. There is no compromise between it and the germ of vegetable or animal.

The human germ is king among all other cosmic germs, a veritable autocrat among them. By submission to the human germ all other germs are transmuted, and elementally assimilated, and transformed into the form of man; if they yield not to the law of the life of the human germ they remain either dust or become assimilated to mere vegetable or animal form. Even here man is as the Greek philosopher taught, the microcosm, or the little world. In him all the elements of the world around him are vitalized and rationalized, and may be spiritualized. When this human life dominates all other elements they are all humanized. And thus through his body man subdues the earth and hath dominion. And thus too when the soul dominates the body the whole body is ennobled by the soul. And thus also when the body is subject to the soul, and when the soul is subject to the spirit of man, and when the spirit of man is subject to the spirit of God, man becomes a temple of God.

Chapter II Man, A Soul

WE have thought of the body of man. We now think of his soul. In the body or out of the body, or through the body, come thought power, feeling power, will power, and these we call soul powers. Soul is intellect and more. It is feeling and more. It is will and more. It is these three made potential by a personal spirit. Some say there is nothing great in man but mind. Others say that feeling, affection, love is the greatest thing in man. And others say that the will is imperative, the chief executor. In life's field of consciousness they are three, but in life's fulness of activities there are many manifestations of one personal spirit, the heart life of man.

In the Book of books men are called souls. Not that they are not bodies, but that they are more than material organisms. Over the material elements and working through them are soul powers, which psychologists have named intellect, sensibilities and will, the three recognized phenomena in

Man, a Soul 13 the field of man's consciousness. Blowing through this field of man's consciousness is a breath that is a power making for righteousness. Through the book, the paragon of literature, and of more than literature, the words of which are spirit and life there comes into man's soul a wish, a breathing prayer that he may be kept blameless in body, soul and spirit unto the coming of the Lord of glory. The body is the material ultimation of the spirit. The soul, intellect and sensibilities, and will, is the refraction of the light of God shining through the prismatic spirit of man. Intellect shows us thoughts that sparkle and flash like rays of light. In feeling, the sparkling light is melted into a flowing stream of life. The will gives direction to the sparkling thoughts and flowing stream of life, ultimating themselves in language, words and deeds, cold or hot as they may seem to the interested or uninterested seer or hearer. Thus human language is the product of the human spirit through the soul of intellect and sensibility and will. And human language is the literature of the soul. And human literature is human life in letters. Therefore the importance and power of literature in man's education. Human literature, being human life in letters, carries with it all power of humanity in thought and feeling and will — the soul powers of humanity. Divine literature, which is Divine life in letters, has in it the power of the thought and the love and the will of God. If human literature is mighty in man's education, divine literature is as much more mighty as God is more mighty than man. Therefore to neglect or reject divine literature in man's education is to neglect or reject the most powerful help. The literature of man passes and changes with the ages. The literature of God, like himself, is unchangeable. The literature of dying man fades like the grass and the flower of grass. The literature of the ever-living God abideth forever. The heavens and the earth shall pass away but the word of God shall not pass away. Man's word dies as dieth man. God's word lives as liveth God. The soul that is filled with the word of God liveth forever with God.

Chapter III The Will Of Man

THE will of man. By his will power, man chooses his course of thought and action, determines the direction to which his thoughts shall be given and his feelings shall flow. Thus the will is commander-in-chief of the forces of character and of manhood. When the will is weak thoughts scatter and waste themselves on life's arena, feelings go wild and often rush into wreck and ruin. To prevent such sad results the intellect must be busy in sending out thoughts to make discoveries to gather data for comparisons, and classifications according to the law governing such data. Hence the function of the intellect is to note the law of cause and effect, to show the easier and better way for the current of thoughts to go, to note the way of pleasure and of pain, the way of right and wrong, the way of lower and higher utilities, so the feeling of interest may be developed and begin to flow and influence the will to choose. Owing to the power that makes for righteousness in man and 15 another power that makes for unrighteousness, man must choose which he will serve. To make this choice is the function of man through the will. If the choice be an intelligent one looking to the higher and more enduring utilities and to the ultimate right, man feels ennobled and worthy, but if the choice be one dominated by excited emotions, raging passions, devouring appetite, he feels shamed and humiliated. To choose wisely and well, and to persistently maintain such a choice is the prerogative of the will. Thus a strong and robust character may be formed and man show himself a real and true man, bearing and showing the likeness of his creator, God. To fail in this, though he is more and greater than all other creatures beneath him in excellence, he is debased. When the lower elements prevail over his will, he becomes materialistic in thought, animalistic in appetite and passion, incapable of noble living, a corrupter of human society, a worry to his best friends, and a devouring parasite on the tree of human life: Such a parasitic leaf, such a blighted bud, such a blasted twig, and such a dying branch on the tree of human life is fit only for the consuming fires which are already burning within him. On the other hand, if the will choose the higher utilities, directing thoughts along the higher lines where light from above

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shines, the results are ennobling, full of conscious worthiness, man becomes a fruitful tree, whose every branch and twig has its buds of life and blossoms of beauty. Heaven smiles upon him.

Chapter IV Man A Spiritual Being

WE have thought of man as to his body and as to his soul. Of how, by means of his body he can subdue the earth and have dominion and by means of his soul of intellect and sensibilities and will he can give intelligent direction to his power of dominion. We come now to think of man as a personal spirit. As a spiritual being he is close of kin to God, who is Spirit. In and through his soul, his threefold outgoing energies of thought and feeling and will, and revealed through the body, man makes his achievements in the earth. In the center of the soul, or in the germinal and potential root thereof, is he a personal spirit. In his spirit man is conscious of God, God touches him and comes into fellowship with him. In the spirit of man God limits himself and man becomes as man a personal and responsible being to his creator and to every creature around him, the most responsible of all creatures.

The protoplasmic germ of the plant placed 18

Man a Spiritual Being 19

among the mineral elements and properly related to them, transmutes and regenerates and transforms them and makes them after its own image, glorifying them in the fragrance and beauty of the rose and the lily. We know not how the vegetable germ does this but we believe it does this very thing. This faith gives us the fruitage of the florist and of the farmer. By the power within the animal germ of life, the elements of the mineral and vegetable kingdoms are regenerated and transformed into the heart-beating and eye-glittering and walking organism of the animal. How this animal germ of life does this we know not, but we believe it does this very thing. The protoplasmic germ of human life, rightly adjusted and related, regenerates and transmutes and transforms the elements of the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms into the upright walking, talking, reasoning, spiritualizing, organism of man. How this protoplasmic germ of human life does all this we know not but we believe it does these very things. In view of all these things, is it too much to believe that the spirit of the creator of the heavens and the earth, enswathed in light, clothed with fire, moving in the wind and the water, can give breathing life to man, and regenerate and transmute and transform all the elements in man, spirit, soul and body, into the image and glory of God? Let man submit himself to the guidance of the spirit of God, following the leadership and teaching of Jesus Christ in the use of the means appointed by Him he will be renewed after the image of Him who created him. So the spirit of man receives the spirit of God and the life and the beauty and the glory of God is in and upon him.

Chapter V Phases Of Human Life

WE now proceed to note the different phases of human life as they appear in the face of man. As he passes before us he has been classified in color as white, yellow, red and black. Whence the color type of man is a mystery. The best chemical analysis ever made has not revealed the secret. And his education may have very little to do with his color type and yet it may have more to do with it than we think. The color of leaf and of flower and of fruit is more than skin deep. And so it is of man. His thought and feeling and will have much to do with the color and form of his expression in language and in life. We speak of him as black with rage, as red with anger, as yellow with jealousy, as white with fear. Thought and feeling have to do with these colorings. The whiteness of the light is deeper than the silver lining of the cloud or the bright twinkle of the star. God is light. The yellow of the golden sunset is deeper than the fleecy cloud through which it 21 shines. The red of the blushing morn comes from a source deeper than the blue sky upon which it is painted. The blackness of the cloud is more than mist in the air. The color of leaf and of flower is of more than sunshine and of air. In all this and back of all this and through all this comes a life potency working its wonders for our learning. And as these color phases of man come from a source back of that which appears on his face, so human life, flowing out through thought and feeling and will, has to do with the colorings of its material and flesh forms.

It is worthy of note that human life in its darker shades seeks the brighter and fairer faces. In the vegetable kingdom the darker colorings of life are relatively few. Black roses and black lilies are rare. And in the unfolding ages and progress of human life they may be as rare in the human kingdom. As light triumphs over darkness so may the aspirations of human life for the brighter face prevail. The educator who imparts in forms of purity of thought, kindness of feeling, benevolence of purpose helps the power in man that not only makes for righteousness but for the beauty of God in and upon man.

The true educator of man observes and notes all the forms and phases of life for suggestions in his

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work as an educator. He traces carefully the law of cause and effect, the influence of circumstances and the force of power working in and through him. He will carefully note the distribution of the different forms and colorings of life, vegetable and animal and human. He studies carefully relations and modifying causes. He will note the conditions and circumstances of the most perfect forms and most beautiful colorings, to ascertain whether they are the effects of segregating influences or otherwise. He will seek a reason for classification and segregation, noting the methods of the best development in the vegetable and animal and human kingdoms. To educate the good and all the good in man and to use means adapted to the development of the good in its most perfect and beautiful forms will be the scope of his endeavor. To use means that are adequate and methods that are effective will be his high purpose. To most surely succeed in this the educator himself must be in right attitude and relation to the power in man that makes for righteousness, — yea, to the power over the spirit of man giving light and life and love to all, working in all men to will and to do of His good pleasure, even the perfection of the creature. It may be noted here that this law of the selection of agencies and means is observed by man in all spheres of his achievements. The forester looks for the man who has been trained in the use of the axe and the saw. The farmer looks for the man who has been trained to the work of the farm. The house builder looks for the man who knows the work and the tools of house building. The tradesman wants the man who will line up well in his business. And so we might go through the whole catalogue of human enterprises and the same would be true. The man of knowledge and experience, and one thing more not hitherto named, the man who is in tune with his work is the man of highest value. He is best adapted, most effective for successful achievement. And nowhere in life's school of achievements is this more important than in what is known as the school room. The most effective teacher, and the one whose work fails not in time or in eternity, is the one who is in tune with the infinite source of light and of love and of life, the creator, preserver and governor of heaven and earth. Thus only will man be an adequate agency and use adequate means for the perfecting of human life in all its relations. Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Chapter VI Moral Types

HAVING thought of man in his physical organism of many members, and his psychic or soul powers, and of the color phases of his life all of which are related to his education, we come now to consider three moral types of his life. These are known as the carnal, the natural, the spiritual. All his physical elements and members, and all his psychic powers, with all their blendings and interblendings may be martialed under either of these types, but which depends largely upon his education and training.

We note first, the carnal type of human life. And we note here the marks of the carnal type. They are of course physical and are found where the body dominates the soul. Here the body is master and flesh ruling rather than serving, the life is carnal. As my Greek brother would say life is somatic rather than psychic or pneumatic. As St. Paul, a greater logician and philosopher than Plato, says, the life is carnal. The carnal mind is enmity 25 against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Whatever helps the enthronement of the appetites of the body over the soul and spirit of man tends to man's debasement. Appetite, in the divine order, is means to a higher end. To keep the higher end in view is the scope of education.

It seems to be true that man is born hungry. Soon after breathing his own individual life his lips give signs for food and his hands find their way to his mouth. And parenthood gratifies the hunger and thirst of the child wisely but not always most wisely. Sometimes the parent pampers the appetite, surfeits the system, overindulges the child and so starts it on the career of a self-indulgent life that works ruin in later years. Thus it is trained in the habit of the carnal mind and will be prone to live to eat rather than to eat to live. So, the first months and years of a child's individual and dependent existence may determine what kind of a man he will be at forty years of age, if he live so long. Though he live a temperate life in his manhood years and reach the sixtieth or even seventieth anniversary of his birth, he may waken up to the consciousness of having to fight over again the battles of his youth. And the parent, or the school, or the church, that neglects the

Moral Types 27 early training of the child, fails to help the old man conquer. God made no mistake when He said: "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." To neglect to so train, or to train otherwise is to make it hard for the child when he is old. The carnal mind, unrestrained in youth, becomes a destroying tyrant to manhood even down to old age.

The second type of human life involving character and destiny is known in Holy Scripture as the natural mind. Here the viewpoint is that of the soul. Self-worthiness may be the watchword. Man prides himself on what he is and what he does. He is prone to think that there is nothing great in man but mind. He says thoughts are things, and things make up the world. Mind names and classifies and systematizes all things from clod to God. Mind is great, and naturally man becomes heady, high minded, proud. He glories in his intellectual achievements and in the mastery of mind over matter. Knowledge is power. Therefore the emphasis is put in mind and its development. Education becomes pre-eminently an intellectual matter. A well-trained mind is here the goal. The affections may play their part; love may make its conquests; hate may exploit its spoils ; the will, like an imperial Caesar, may make its achievements; the body may walk forth like a giant and perform its feats, but over all these the mind is censor. The natural law of cause and effect is noted. Natural elements are classified according to their relations and potences. The realm of nature is the arena of mental achievement. Man is great in his achievement because of his mind. He sees and notes the operation of mental laws, traces the law of cause and effect among natural elements and so habituates himself to natural processes of thought as to see only that which is natural. His spiritual susceptibility, power of faculty, becomes atrophied. The natural mind is king, and knows only things of the natural kingdom, "For the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." I Cor. II:i4.

Therefore it is evident that if man's education has to do only with the natural he becomes so predominantly natural minded as to lose power to know spiritual things. That education which trains the child to think only of nature, and nature's processes, trains the child to become skeptical concerning things supernatural. However important his education in natural things may be, man's education in faith in the supernatural is of greater importance.

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As the body is more than the raiment it wears, as the soul is more than the body through which it works, so the spirit of man is more than the soul, its psychic manifestations. And that education which neglects the spirit of man, or divorces his spirit from the spirit of God in nature robs man of his highest glory.

Chapter VII The Essential In Man's Education

WE come now to consider the most important factor in man's education. Physical training is important. Our schools do well in teaching and training in the manual utilities. They do better in their teaching and training the soul in the higher utilities where mind makes its exploits and heart shows its interest and will makes its choices. But they do best of all when they teach and train to faith in God over all blessed forever more.

Man is essentially spiritual. God is spirit and man was created in His image, a personal spirit. As such God communes with him and he with God, receiving illumination, endowment and induement for achievements. God is the absolute and universal dynamic. And thus man as a spiritual being comes into working harmony with God. To neglect this point of spiritual power, of this relation of the human spirit to the divine spirit is to fail in the highest and most comprehensive and most enduring education of man. 30

The Essential in Mans Education 3 1

There is an abiding affinity between the spirit of man and the spirit of God. The spirit of man, in this fluxing, restless world, finds not rest until it finds it in God. In order that the spirit of man might have this rest the spirit of God came into this world chaotic before God said: Let there be light. The coming of light was a sequence to the coming of the spirit of God into the material world. The creative process from light to the breathing spirit of man had for its immanent dynamic the spirit of God. This power of the Highest has to do with every atom of the world from chaos to final consummation when infinite harmony shall prevail. By the influence of this immanent power of God man is kept conscious of the Supreme, is called to God, and endued with power divine. So it was with the prophets, apostles and evangelists whom God called, qualified and sent forth to preach and to teach. The gentleness of God made them great in power for righteousness. Their work abides as the work of God. They were pre-eminently of the spiritual mind. Their spirits were attuned to the spirit of God. And we today must come into harmony with this dominant chord of God in His world if we would sing the song of the perfect humanity, the song of Moses and the Lamb.

Let us now note some marks of the spiritual mind. The spiritual mind is the prevalence of the spirit of God in the mind of man. When man yields himself to the Spirit of God, and is guided by the Spirit, in the use of the means of the Spirit, he is of the spiritual mind.

Jesus the Christ is God's revelation of Himself unto His world as the Father of our spirits. The work of the Spirit of God is to take the things of Christ and show them to the spirit of man to guide him into all truth. Note the words "all truth." Thus the Spirit conserves all law in creation and revelation processes, helps man into harmony with God in Christ in whom man has complete redemption. And thus man is guided into the goal of all his education. This then we note as a mark of the spiritual mind. Looking unto Christ who is the way, the truth and the life. He says: "Look unto me all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me and ye shall find rest unto your souls." And the spirit through the apostle says : "There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." The spiritual mind looks to Christ, comes to Him in faith, learns of Him, follows Him.

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Another mark of the spiritual mind is this: Guidance by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. "By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." "He spake and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast." "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the Word of the Lord abideth forever." "The Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." "To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." So saith the Spirit of God to the spirit of man. And the Bible, the Holy Scriptures is the Word of God. "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." "All Scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Given therefore by the spirit for this very purpose, the spiritual mind is guided by Holy Scripture in faith and life.