rue Education 
 
 MATRICULATION SERMON 
 
 The Woman's College of Baltimore 
 
 October Ninth 
 1904 
 
 PRESIDENT 
 JOHN FRANKLIN GOUCHER 
 
^V. OA -^ a■'il^-y^J:i'tc^w 
 
 
"The Lord God hath given me the tongue of 
 the learned, that I should know how to speak a 
 word in season to hi?n that is weary!' 
 
 — Isaiah 50: 4. 
 
 THE two most important things in this world are 
 life and education. 
 Without life there could be no achievement, 
 no consciousness, no improveableness. Inheritance, asso- 
 ciation, ministry, enjoyment would be alike impossible. 
 Everything would be sterile, unresponsive and without 
 initiative. 
 
 Without education there would be no development. 
 Everything would remain in statu quo, or deteriorate. 
 The term education from the Latin e-ducere, to draw 
 out, designates the process or result of drawing out, train- 
 ing or developing the faculties or elements of the indi- 
 vidual. We cannot think of any form of derived life 
 without associating the idea of education with it. Life 
 always manifests itself by a series of co-ordinated actions 
 and reactions through which it is maintained and more or 
 less modified. Every form of derived life must live, if at all, 
 within conditions which react upon it. The life may be 
 superior to these conditions and largely modify them, but 
 this very act of modifying them reacts upon and modifies 
 the life. Call it nature, instinct, inheritance, environment, 
 
growth, development, or what you may, these modifica- 
 tions, whether self-determined or imposed, are included in 
 and constitute education. 
 
 Everything which one is, which he was not at birth, 
 is in the larger sense the result of education. Education 
 determines the development and efficiency of one's life and 
 is as essential as the life itself. 
 
 Our text is one of great practical value, for it describes 
 the character of true education, defines its object, presents 
 the ideal of culture and states the gauge for human 
 achievement. True education as described in our text 
 may be characterized by the one word serviceableness. 
 " The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, 
 that I should know how to speak a word in season to him 
 that is weary." 
 
 The Hebrew word lim-moodj from the root form 
 law-mad, primarily means a rod, the physical symbol of 
 discipline. As study was largely through compulsion and 
 the rod was much in evidence, the secondary meaning of 
 law-mad is to teach, to instruct, to learn. This word is 
 used seven times in the book of Deuteronomy, and always 
 in such connection as to suggest the serviceableness of the 
 education referred to. In the fifth chapter we read: 
 " Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I 
 speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them and 
 observe them to do them." The observance of them is 
 essential to learning them, as only those who " do His 
 will shall know of the doctrine." Law-mad is frequently 
 used in other parts of the Old Testament and usually with 
 this same suggestion. 
 
It has a significance similar to the Greek word man- 
 than-o, to learn by practice or discipline, as in Matthew, 
 II : 29: " Take my yoke (f. e., my service) upon you, and 
 learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye 
 shall find rest unto your souls." And again in Hebrews, 
 5:8: " Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience 
 by the things which He suffered." 
 
 The education described in the text consists not in 
 filling the mind with unassimilated information, nor in 
 acquiring mannerisms or affectations. It discourages pre- 
 tense of every sort, condemns selfishness and discredits all 
 manner of shams and superficiality. It does this by requir- 
 ing each one to think and act for himself, but to think 
 and act with the most careful regard for the need of 
 others, thus drawing out and developing his character, 
 his individuality, his personal powers of body and mind, 
 will and soul, through application and service. " That 
 I should know how to speak a word in season (give appro- 
 priate ministry) to him that is weary." 
 
 The true education affects the entire personality. It 
 is both a science and an art, calling into play not only 
 the passive and receptive faculties but also the active and 
 creative ones. It includes these four things in particular: 
 
 1. The acquisition of knowledge. — "That I should 
 know." 
 
 2. Skill in expression. — " How to speak " — not learn- 
 ing or the acquisition of knowledge simply, but — " The 
 tongue of the learned, that I should know how to 
 speak " — to minister appropriately. 
 
3. The perception of facts, conditions and relations. — 
 ** A word in season to him that is weary " — his condition 
 is to determine the what, when and how of our service. 
 
 4. It includes motive. — " That," in order that, for 
 this purpose, namely, that I may personally relieve human 
 need by personal ministry. Serviceableness is the divine 
 idea of culture and the gauge for human attainment. 
 
 It is interesting to note that this characteristic of true 
 education, which was taught through Moses to the ignor- 
 ant Israelites thirty-three and a half centuries ago, which 
 was emphasized by Christ when persecuted and maligned, 
 which was illustrated by Paul in his various epistles, and 
 is everywhere insisted upon in the Bible, is a principle upon 
 which the most advanced teachers of pedagogical science 
 agree to-day. 
 
 Mediaeval education found its aim in absorbing a 
 certain quantity or body of knowledge, i. e., in the exer- 
 cise of memory by cramming facts and statements. Mr. 
 Nicholas Murray Butler says, " It is absolutely impossible 
 for us to identify education with mere acquisition of learn- 
 ing." Mr. G. Stanley Hall says, " Love is the greatest 
 thing in the world and to fix it upon the greatest objects 
 in the world is the end and aim of education." Love is 
 always the spirit of service. Mr. John Dewey says, " The 
 most important training for the child is in habits of serv- 
 iceableness." 
 
 Mr. Thomas Davidson in " The Education of the 
 Greek People " says, " In so far as it depends upon con- 
 scious exertion, education is that process by which the 
 
human being is able to transcend his original nature and 
 be the most desirable thing that he can be. Modern peda- 
 gogics more and more strive not to make the pupil 
 informed but to enable him to make good use of the 
 information which he acquires." 
 
 In the elementary schools all over Europe, the ideas 
 of training, rather than the ideas of instruction, are 
 insisted upon, and the better schools in this country are 
 trying to develop habits of unselfish, serviceable activity. 
 The consensus of the most advanced educators is that 
 " the end of all education is right living," and the school 
 should aim at social efficiency through the development of 
 character. 
 
 " A sound mind in a sound body " was the Greek idea; 
 the development of the will was the Roman objective; 
 the idea of Christian education and the problem of peda- 
 gogics is to co-ordinate and develop the functions of m.ind 
 and body,' will and soul, so as to secure the largest serv- 
 iceableness. This is the root idea taught by our text. The 
 objective it sets forth is personal efficiency to relieve 
 human need. — " That I should know how to speak a word 
 in season to him that is weary." 
 
 This objective finds its obligation in each of the three 
 fundamental relations of the individual, and satisfies the 
 demands of each. 
 
 I. Man's first and most intimate relation is with him- 
 self. His primary responsibility is for his own life, not 
 for its beginning but in a very personal sense for its con- 
 tinuance, for its development and for its results. In this 
 
relation, if anywhere, we might expect to find a demand, 
 or at least a justification for self-seeking, but there is no 
 more urgent necessity for unselfish ministry to the needs 
 of others than in one's responsibility for his own life. 
 
 Every sane man judges the unknown by the known. 
 The only way a person can interpret others is by himself. 
 A magnanimous and gracious man always lives in a kindly 
 world. 
 
 The world is exact in its debits and credits, and sooner 
 or later balances accurately every man's account. The 
 only way to meet one's responsibilities and discharge one's 
 obligations is by living a life of helpfulness, that is by the 
 enlargement of one's virtues through service, and storing 
 one's memory with the record of kindness to one's fellows. 
 " The only competition worthy of a man is with himself." 
 
 Life is intensely practical. Conscience, like the heart, 
 is never entitled to a vacation, and conscience makes cow- 
 ards of every derelict. Love is not a fancy, but the great 
 transforming, constructive force of the universe. Lov- 
 ableness is not an accident, but an achievement, a charac- 
 teristic of the true education. Duty is more than a theory 
 and helpfulness is not a pastime. Character is no chance 
 nor transient product, neither is it a non sequitur, and 
 destiny is not an arbitrary assignment. 
 
 What a person is determines what he can do, as what 
 he does strengthens and develops what he is. Each per- 
 son is the architect and builder of his own character, and 
 its glory or its shame is his own personal inheritance. 
 Every thought expresses itself in action, unless another 
 thought supervenes and its author is responsible for its 
 
 6 
 
tendency. Every action and every thought, repeated, 
 tends to form a habit; habits constitute and reveal char- 
 acter, and character is destiny; for "as a man thinketh 
 in his heart, so is he." " Whatsoever a man soweth that 
 shall he also reap." 
 
 " The moving Finger writes, and having writ, 
 Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit 
 Shall turn it back to cancel half a line. 
 Nor all your Tears wash out a word of it." 
 
 RUBIAYAT, 71. 
 
 As has been said by another, '* Do not flatter yourself 
 that your thoughts are under due control, your desires 
 properly regulated, or your dispositions subject as they 
 should be to Christian principle, if your intercourse w^ith 
 others consists mainly of frivolous gossip, impertinent 
 anecdotes, speculations on the character and affairs of your 
 neighbors, the repetition of form^er conversations, or a dis- 
 cussion of the current petty scandal of society; much less 
 if you allow yourself in careless exaggeration upon all 
 these points and that grievous inattention to exact truth 
 w^hich is apt to attend the statements of those w^hose con- 
 versation is made up of these materials." 
 
 " Prune thou thy words ; thy thoughts control 
 That o'er thee swell and throng; 
 They will condense within thy soul, 
 And change to purpose strong." 
 
 — ^J. H. Newman. 
 
 7 
 
It is the glory of humanity that every person has as a 
 part of his original endowment an essential principle 
 which will not be satisfied with less than the best he may 
 attain. This principle is restive with error, condemns 
 any effort contrary to its accepted standard of right and 
 felicitates itself upon a generous thing successfully done 
 or faithfully attempted. Human nature and divine grace 
 are adjusted to the development of this principle. Its uni- 
 versality and persistence account for the trend and attain- 
 ments of humanity. It thrives by ministry and rejoices in 
 service. Julius Caesar said there was no music so charm- 
 ing in his ears as the request of his friends and the sup- 
 plications of those in want of assistance. Cato, at the close 
 of his eventful life, declared that the greatest comfort of 
 his old age was the pleasing remembrance of the many 
 benefits and friendly offices which he had done to others. 
 The Christ has said, and His word is final, " It is more 
 blessed to give than to receive." The greatest joy of liv- 
 ing, a joy which bringeth no sorrow, is to relieve human 
 need by personal ministry, to *' speak a word in season to 
 him that is weary." It is an investment the angels might 
 covet. No investment makes larger personal returns. 
 
 As Mrs. Browning sings: 
 
 " A child's kiss 
 Set on thy sighing lips, shall make thee glad, 
 A poor man served by thee, shall make thee rich, 
 A sick man helped by thee, shall make thee strong, 
 Thou shalt be served thj^self by the sense 
 Of service which thou renderest." 
 
The opportunities are always at hand to make such 
 investments, to develop skill and to enrich one's character. 
 
 A soul, struggling, overburdened, exhausted or dis- 
 couraged, with ability and resources dormant or tempo- 
 rarily non-productive, may be heartened by a word spoken 
 in season. All which that soul accomplishes forever after 
 will pay tribute to the word which brought sympathy, 
 counsel, admonition, reproof, suggestion, or inspiration to 
 hope and effort in the hour of its need. No wonder the 
 wise man said, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold 
 in pictures of silver." No wonder the great apostle 
 exhorts, " Let your speech be always with grace, sea- 
 soned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to 
 answer every man." 
 
 To " know how to speak a word in season to him that 
 is weary " requires perception, that we may detect the con- 
 dition and its cause; it requires resourcefulness and skill 
 that we may command and communicate the proper min- 
 istry " a word in season." Perception, resourcefulness, 
 skill come through leisure from one's self, love for human- 
 ity, consecration to God, and experience in service for 
 others. Service for others is the true enrichment of self. 
 As Mr. Martineau has said, " It is surprising how prac- 
 tical duty enriches the fancy and the heart, and action 
 clears and deepens the affections. Indeed, no one can 
 have a true idea of right until he does it, any genuine 
 reverence for it until he has done it often and with cost, 
 any peace ineffable in it until he does it always and with 
 alacrity. Does any one complain that the best affections 
 are transient visitors with him and the heavenly Spirit a 
 
stranger to his heart? Oh, let him not go forth on any 
 strained wing of thought in distant quest of them, but 
 rather stay at home and set his heart in the true order of 
 conscience, and of their own accord the divinest guests 
 will enter." 
 
 How wonderfully Jesus illustrated the refreshment 
 and power of service. This was His mission. Of Him 
 Isaiah prophesied, " Jehovah hath anointed me to preach 
 good tidings unto the poor; He hath sent me to bind up 
 the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and 
 the opening of the prison to them that are bound." Of 
 Him it was testified by the officers sent to arrest Him, 
 " Never man spake like this man." 
 
 Consider Him at the well near Sychar; He and His 
 disciples had been journeying from Judea to Galilee, along 
 the hot and dusty roads, through Samaria. Fatigued with 
 the journey, Jesus sat weary by the well while His dis- 
 ciples went to the city near at hand to buy meat. When 
 they returned they found Him whom they had left so 
 weary under a spiritual tension of deepest interest. Know- 
 ing His hunger and His fatigue from journeying they 
 urged Him to eat of the food they had procured, but He 
 answered their solicitude with the statement, *' I have 
 meat to eat that ye know not of." What was this myste- 
 rious nourishment? The joy of service. 
 
 While resting by the well a woman of Samaria came 
 for water; He perceived her restlessness of spirit and read 
 in her look her hunger of heart. She, a Samaritan woman, 
 expected scorn or contempt from the Jewish man she sup- 
 posed Him to be, but was met with supplication. He 
 
requested of her a service, simple and natural, which 
 apparently she only could render at that time — " Give me 
 to drink." Her surprise voiced Itself In an Inquiry which 
 invited the revelation He gave her. His ministry trans- 
 formed her and refreshed Him; for the passion of the 
 sympathizing Saviour is to serve. Receptivity Is His 
 opportunity, to bring joy to the sorrowing Is His enrich- 
 ment, and He was the perfect man. 
 
 Every act of selfishness, every unkind word, every 
 ungracious thought, is evidence of crudeness, unhealth- 
 fulness or deformity of spirit. Every neglect to sympa- 
 thize with the suffering, to help the needy according to 
 opportunity, evidences a thriftless spiritual life, criminally 
 wasteful of that which is essential to the soul's enrichment. 
 
 His education has been neglected, or sadly perverted, 
 and he Is practically Ignorant of the first principles of true 
 living who is guilty of these things. God's purpose In 
 your education is that you shall " know how to speak a 
 word in season to him that is weary." This and this only 
 can satisfy your obligations to yourself. 
 
 n. The second relation of the individual, and in some 
 respects the relation most complex and manifest, is his 
 relation to his fellows. Servlceableness is an obligation 
 inseparable from this relation also. 
 
 " The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the 
 learned, that I should know how to speak a word in sea- 
 son to him that Is weary." 
 
 Every person should live for others because no person 
 can live without others. What would your life be If you 
 
had no contemporaries, if there were not one human soul 
 with whom you might have fellowship, not one with 
 whom you could converse, from whom you might receive 
 approval or assistance, or to whom you might minister? 
 Which of your commonest or most personal possessions 
 would be yours if you were the first and only person liv- 
 ing? Which of your comforts or necessities or present 
 possibilities have you created independently of what you 
 have inherited from others? " Freely ye have received, 
 freely give," " as good stewards of the manifold grace of 
 God." 
 
 The argument from design finds suggestive application 
 in the varied relations of serviceableness to ability and 
 need. Th'e law of serviceableness in its simplest state- 
 ment is, " Whatsoever ye would that men should do to 
 you (under the reversal of your circumstances), do ye 
 even so to them." 
 
 Your development is the dividend upon such service as 
 you render. The investment you must make before you 
 can have the best dividends is habitually to " speak a word 
 in season to him that is weary," thus keeping alert and in 
 active use your every virtue, " walking circumspectly, not 
 as fools, but as wise, buying up the opportunity." The 
 weary one may receive relief from another. Failing to 
 render your service, that opportunity is lost to you for- 
 ever. By so much your loss is irreparable and you per- 
 petuate your spiritual inefficiency and unfitness for larger 
 usefulness. As Mr. Chalmers says, " Thousands of men 
 breathe, move and live — pass ofiE the stage of life — are 
 heard of no more. Why? They do not a particle of 
 
 13 
 
good in the world, and none were blessed by them as the 
 instrument of their redemption; not a word they spoke 
 could be recalled and so they perished. Their light went 
 out in darkness and they were not remembered more than 
 the insects of yesterday. Will )'ou thus live and die, O man 
 immortal ? Live for something. Do good and leave behind 
 you a monument of virtue that the storm of time can never 
 destroy. Write your name in kindness and love and mercy 
 on the hearts of thousands 5^ou may come in contact with 
 year by year. You will never be forgotten. No; your 
 name, your deeds, will be as legible on the hearts you leave 
 behind as the stars on the brow of the evening. Good 
 deeds will shine as the stars of heaven." 
 
 It is a law of nature that a grain of wheat must fall 
 into the ground and die to bring forth fruit, and it is a 
 law of the kingdom that he who loseth his life for the 
 service of God shall find it. God's patent of greatness to 
 Abraham was, " In thee shall all the families of the earth 
 be blessed." God called Paul '' a chosen vessel " because 
 of the great things he should suffer for the Gospel. Jesus 
 Christ hath a name high over all, because " He made Him- 
 self of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a 
 servant and became obedient unto death, even the death 
 of the cross." 
 
 " No man dieth to himself." If he attempts it his 
 unselfish ministries live on in others securing for him a 
 fruitful and honorable life. *' No man liveth to himself." 
 If he attempts that he dies; his investments having been 
 made in a congested, diseased, defaulting personality 
 become non-productive. He who would segregate himself 
 
from society by withholding seasonable service is guilty 
 of spiritual embezzlement and faces spiritual bankruptcy. 
 No life Is or can be isolated. The glory of life is in its 
 serviceableness. Its gauge is personal efficiency to relieve 
 human need. 
 
 III. The third relation of the individual is the most 
 important because it determines and makes possible the 
 other two. This is his relation to God. " As man is a 
 subject as soon as he is a creature, so he is a subject as 
 long as he Is a creature." The authority of God Is abso- 
 lute, His will is the ultimate source of all obligation, from 
 Him we have our life. He sets Its Ideals, He determines 
 its possibilities and necessities, and His approval is the 
 gauge of ultimate success. 
 
 True education must reckon with the law of the Lord, 
 which Is perfect. " In keeping of them there is great 
 reward." His revelation sets forth the nature, primary 
 obligation and objective of life. " If ye know these things, 
 happy are ye if ye do them." The knowledge of them 
 must precede obedience, but as the law of the Lord is a 
 matter of revelation, how can it be known unless it is 
 taught? 
 
 I may not discuss at this time the essential relation of 
 the Bible to true education, both in schools and in life, 
 but I may be permitted to say in passing, if " the end of 
 all education Is right living," a Godless school Is an archaic 
 form of social evolution, psychologically defective, a spir- 
 itual derelict, and a crime against humanity. No matter 
 what may be the mental equipment of a teacher, nor the 
 
 14 
 
extent or exactness of his knowledge of any special sub- 
 ject, no matter what his personality, or his reputation, if 
 he is not a disciple of and loyal to Jesus Christ, whom the 
 consensus of the world's best men and most accurate think- 
 ers recognizes as the Great Teacher, he is by so much dis- 
 qualified for the best work and his deficiency is a m.enace 
 to the development of the pupils entrusted to him. To 
 em.ploy such an instructor for youth is to commit the 
 molding of immortal souls to unholy hands. 
 
 It is inexplicable that a politico-ecclesiastical organiza- 
 tion, which has been for a millennium and a half per- 
 sistently oppressive and cruelly intolerant wherever it has 
 had the power, should secure by subtle and insidious influ- 
 ences the exclusion of the Bible and general Christian 
 instruction from the secondary and primary schools of this 
 Christian nation; and all forsooth because it cannot have 
 control of the state funds and dictate the religious instruc- 
 tion; that, too, when the percentage of illiteracy and 
 immorality in the nations where it exists is suggestively 
 proportionate to the strength of its political power. 
 
 There is in the essential nature of youth a responsive- 
 ness to and a demand for instruction in spiritual truth. 
 No education is complete without it. The highest cul- 
 ture must include the culture of the highest. So persist- 
 ent and assertive is this demand that it has come to pass 
 without legislation, and in some cases in spite of legisla- 
 tion, that the colleges and universities of America contain 
 the most Christian communities in the land. 
 
 " Taking the young men of North America as a whole, 
 not more than eight per cent., or one in twelve, are Chris- 
 es 
 
tians. In 1902 a careful census was taken in three hun- 
 dred and fifty-six of our colleges and universities, which 
 shows that of 83,000 young men fifty-two per cent., or 
 more than one-half of the student body, are members of 
 evangelical churches." — ^John R. Mott. 
 
 The objective of college education is, or ought to be, 
 to make a life, to produce clear-headed, sound-hearted and 
 broad-visioned men and women, virtuous and serviceable, 
 whose lives are quadrated with God and humanity. The 
 college stands primarily for this ideal. ** All that is taught 
 or learned should be subservient to the paramount aim — 
 the perfecting of character." Science, history, literature, 
 are to be studied not as an end but as means to personal 
 development. Whatever else one studies, if he fails to study 
 the human heart ; in whatever laboratory one works, if he 
 falls to experiment in the ministry of sympathy; what- 
 ever may be one's attainments in philosophical insight, if 
 he fails to perceive the heart's hunger and need; what- 
 ever felicity of expression one may attain, if he fails to 
 acquire the skill " to speak a word in season to him that 
 is weary," he has substituted a means for the end and his 
 education is a failure. 
 
 Our text makes two very explicit and comprehensive 
 statements : 
 
 1. " The tongue of the learned " is the gift of the 
 Lord God, and 
 
 2. It is given by the Lord God for a definite purpose — 
 in order that, " We should know how to speak a word in 
 season to him that is wear}^" 
 
 16 
 
Our obligation to God is to minister to His creatures, 
 and He says, ** In as much as ye have done it unto one of 
 the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me," 
 and " In as much as ye did it not to one of the least of 
 these, ye did it not to Me." 
 
 Because of the sovereignty of God, because of the 
 solidarity of humanity, because of the seminal character of 
 personal endowments and the relation of activity to devel- 
 opment, and because love is the regnant principle of life, 
 true education is and must be serviceableness. There is 
 a typical significance in the book of Revelation w^hich 
 teaches the exaltation of service. There we see '' the Lamb 
 which was slain " in the midst of the throne, honored, 
 worshipped, reigning, because He was worthy, having 
 redeemed us to God by His own precious blood. 
 
 When we see one doing for others, not simply as duty, 
 nor of compulsion, nor for self-advancement, but truly 
 for others, we see in process the normal unfolding of a 
 soul, the making of an ideal life, the growing of a man 
 according to the divine pattern. " He is no fool who parts 
 with that which he cannot keep when he is sure to be 
 recompensed with what he cannot lose." It is the teach- 
 ing of the Christ and the experience of the Christly that 
 " It is more blessed to give than to receive." God requires 
 for us and of us the best. Therefore, strive to attain that 
 culture which will enable you to be serviceable, which will 
 qualify you to give with a heart glowing with generous 
 sentiment, to give as the fountain gives out its water from 
 its own swelling depths, to give as the air gives its vital 
 breezes, unrestrained and free, to give as the sun gives out 
 
 17 
 
its light from the infinite abyss of its own nature. ** Give 
 and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed 
 dow^n, shaken together, running over, for with what meas- 
 ure ye mete it shall be measured unto you." 
 
 This is true education which shall secure to you the 
 fulness of life here and an abundant entrance at the right 
 hand of God in the hereafter. 
 
 i8 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS