In the winter of 1899 and 1900, Sister Laura E. Neilson, and Sister Edith Miller, who is now Mrs. Dr. Law Keem of China, graduate nurses of Battle Creek, came to Madison at the earnest request of Mrs. W. D. Stillman, who had been in the truth a long time, and was an acquaintance and friend of Sister Ellen G. White and her husband.
A number of years before at the camp-meeting at Madison, Brother and Sister White had spoken very enthusiastically with reference to this city as a favorable location for a sanitarium, and had selected a piece of property for which Dr. Stillman was to negotiate. The papers were ready to be signed, and Dr. Stillman was on his way to have them executed, when he picked up a morning paper in which he saw a notice of the death of Elder White. As Elder White was interested in the proposition, Dr. Stillman decided to wait a little while before executing the papers. The matter was dropped, and until these nurses came at the request of Sister Stillman, nothing was done in the way of medical missionary work in Madison.
These nurses secured work before they had been in the city twenty-four hours, and did such excellent service that there was an immediate demand for them all over the city. About this time Brother and Sister J. H. Bramhall, also nurses from the sanitarium at Battle Creek, joined the work at this place. They secured treatment rooms at 118 Monona Avenue, in May, 1900. From the beginning, the treatment rooms were crowded.
In September Mrs. Farnsworth and I, in response to a call, came to this place to assist in taking care of the growing patronage. About this time a wealthy manufacturer of the city became interested in the work, and sent for Brother Bramhall, who was the business manager of the institution, to call on him. He proposed to give twenty thousand dollars toward building a sanitarium and hospital in the city of Madison. As there was no regular hospital here at that time, it seemed to us an opportune moment. Ten thousand dollars was promised by another citizen of Madison, and ten thousand more was promised by one of the brethren in Illinois, making, altogether, forty thousand dollars. Some serious objections were raised to starting the work on this basis. The workers were much disappointed and dropped the matter at that time. Had we who have been here during these years, had more experience at that time, we would have certainly organized the institution on the basis of all these gifts, but the opportunity passed.
Mrs. Farnsworth and I were called to take charge of the Guadalajara Sanitarium in Mexico, and Dr. Harry B. Farnsworth came to take our places here.
The work progressed satisfactorily, and a restaurant was opened on State Street for the benefit of the university students, in order to teach them the principles of health and open a missionary field among them. The Lord greatly blessed this work.
In the spring of 1902 we returned from Mexico, and again united with the work in Madison, at the request of the Wisconsin Conference, and it was soon decided to build an institution. They secured five acres of land near the Monona Assembly grounds. Plans were drawn up for the institution, and presented by the writer at the Grand Rapids camp-meeting in the summer of 1902. It was enthusiastically voted by the conference in session to established a sanitarium at Madison; but the time had gone by, it seems, for securing donations, as only twenty-two hundred dollars was secured, of which more than half was donated by the helpers of the sanitarium.
In order to prosecute the design of the conference in the institution, the Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association of Wisconsin was formed at the camp-meeting, the constituency being composed of every one in good standing in the denomination in Wisconsin.
The building was erected entirely with borrowed money, about fifty thousand dollars being required, and was dedicated June 7, 1903. There were thirteen patients and seventeen helpers at the institution at the time it was opened. Within four months the institution became self-supporting, and during the first year earned nearly ten thousand dollars more than the running expenses. It was found that it would be necessary to build a dormitory for the nurses, as they had been rooming outside of the building at great expense. This was presented to the conference in session at Oshkosh, and the decision was that if somebody could be found to donate all the money necessary, the dormitory would be built. Brother M. E. Bautelle, of Lake Mills, Wis., who had been suffering for some time with a severe form of rheumatism, made the generous gift of six thousand dollars for this dormitory, in which two rooms were to be built for him and his wife, they to make their home at the sanitarium the rest of their days. The conference accepted this donation, and the dormitory was built during the fall and winter succeeding. In all, there has been given eleven thousand five hundred dollars.
The Lord has blessed the work, and an excellent class of young people have been engaged in taking the nurses' course. A number of patients were converted in the sanitarium, twenty-two accepting the truth, and others being favorably impressed. Up to the present time, there have been about twenty-one hundred patients received in the institution. Nearly four hundred major operations have been performed, without a single death either from the operations or from disease complicating them.
Several helpers not of our faith have been admitted the past two years, among whom there have been ten conversions. Brother Joseph Scott, of Chetek, Wis., was sent here as chaplain. He has been untiring in his efforts to bring the truth before the patients, and uphold the right principles before the helpers. It was due largely to his efforts that these conversions have taken place.
During the last eighteen months the conference has been untiring in its efforts to secure workers for this place, but owing to the general depression which sanitarium work has been under the last two or three years, it was not until this fall that a large class of enthusiastic workers was secured. The institution has earned about twenty-five thousand dollars above the running expenses during the three and a half years of its activity, and in addition to this it has given away in free work an aggregate of about thirty-five thousand dollars, which, considering the size of the institution, is without parallel as far as we are able to ascertain.
These results were attained only through the faithfulness of the graduate nurses, the untiring efforts of those who are in training, and the efforts of the business manager and domestic helpers. Of eighteen graduate nurses we know of only one who is not actively engaged in medical missionary work at the present time. The reputation of the sanitarium is becoming wider and more firmly established every day, with no advertising at all. We praise the Lord for the opportunity of making this report to those who are interested in medical missionary work.
The opportunities for work are increasing in this place. At the present time every room and nearly every bed in the house is filled with patients.
The following is a list of the medical staff and workers of the Madison Sanitarium: Drs. C. P. Farnsworth, Anna Farnsworth, W. Lindsay, W. E. Bliss. Business manager, J. H. Bramhall. Graduate Nurses: Mrs. H. N. Garthofner, Misses Laura Neilson, Myrtle Smith, Mary Rathbun, Alzaide Abbott, Harriet Kathan, and Mr. William Patton. Undergraduate Nurses, third year: Christiana Christenson, Rupert Babcock, Sarah Getchel, Alyse Wirth; second year: Misses Julia Hoveland, Tomenia Nelson, Clara Holford, Lillian Watson, Ethel Thompson, Mattie Smith, Mildred Clark, Helen Peterson; first year: Misses Shanks, Gross, Snyder, Shorey, Catherine Eydle, Hazel Roe, May Melish, and Mr. Cleve Pulver.
C. P. FARNSWORTH.
Medical Missionary Department
Conducted by the Medical Department of the General Conference
W. A. GEORGE, M. D., - - - Chairman
W. A. RUBLE, M. D., - - - Secretary
Every Teacher May Succeed
By F. G.
THE trite saying, “Nothing succeeds like success,” has back of it another truth,— nothing wins success except hard work and the overcoming of difficulties.
Teachers, as well as workers in every other vocation, keenly enjoy their work when “all goes well, and nothing goes wrong.” And yet it is the experience of conquering when nothing seems to go well, and all seems to go wrong, that brings success. We admire the skilled worker in any occupation or profession, but in our admiration we often overlook the lesson we might learn from his skill. We forget that that ability which enables him to do so easily that which is difficult, was acquired by patiently studying his work and learning how to avoid or to master those things which go wrong.
Why is it that one teacher succeeds in the same school under precisely the same conditions where another had failed?— Simply because he delights to meet and conquer the difficult features of his work. These difficult features are generally found somewhere in the dispositions of his pupils. This delight is not that experienced by Alexander and Cæsar in their victories. It is that experienced by Christ and his faithful disciples as they see of the travail of their souls and are satisfied. Many a teacher fails because he has a selfish delight in getting the better of a pupil.
There is undoubtedly a way of mastering every problem in one’s school work, and it is for the teacher who would ultimately have things run well in his work to find that way. To find it one needs to be dissatisfied, but not discouraged. We should always be dissatisfied with our present attainments, but full of courage in believing that we may find the right way out. It is this dissatisfaction with ourselves, not with our work, that leads us to see the points that need to be made strong. We can not be too critical with our methods provided we do not allow our criticisms to discourage us. If we thus patiently and ploddingly pursue our way in a steady, good-natured manner, we shall certainly find our reward.
This reward is given to the teacher in the consciousness of victories won. In many little ways may he see an improvement, and this may be a constant source of courage. Thus, not overestimating his successes, nor underestimating his dangers, he acquires that careful confidence which makes him a success in his work. The true teacher never reaches the point where he can say, “I have reached success; this is the place.” On the contrary, it is ever like a will-o’-the-wisp—just before him, but not within his grasp. But it leads him, not into the marshy lowlands, but to the invigorating atmosphere of the highlands. In his struggle upward he daily passes points where others have stopped and turned back, and the higher he goes the more beautiful is the view beneath him. Success is ever giving its reward. F. G.
Another Calamity and Its Lesson
By F. G.
The book of Job is indeed beginning to mean more to us than ever before, and we are thankful for the comfort of its lesson in this hour of our losses. The burning of the Bethel Academy is a sorrow not alone to the brethren and sisters of the Wisconsin Conference, but to our whole people as well, for all mourn, and sincerely too, its great loss.
This school has been doing very excellent work, and to be thus interrupted is a most serious matter. It is certainly hard for us to understand why this must be. We all seek for the lesson which we are to learn, and this lesson is by no means alone for the brethren and sisters directly connected with the Pacific Press, the Huntsville school, and the Bethel Academy. It is a lesson for every man, woman, and child connected with this closing message of mercy. These institutions have each been endeavoring to walk in the light of the counsel of the Lord. The Pacific Press had just established itself away from the city, under the direct counsel of the Lord. The Huntsville school was planted and established by the Lord. We have had no school among us that has been endeavoring more earnestly to follow closely all the instruction which the Lord has been giving in the past few years upon education than has Bethel Academy.
Now as these calamities come upon us, we must not allow ourselves to feel that the Lord has abandoned us to the fury of the adversary. The Lord loved Job none the less because he permitted fire and destruction to come upon him. We also do well to remember that because of the faithfulness and trust of Job in the midst of the calamities that pressed upon him, God was able to give to him far greater mercies and riches. The Lord in great kindness has pointed us to the experience of Job in the midst of our troubles, and it is well that we read and learn and be comforted by the lesson.
One thing the Lord is certainly showing us in all these experiences, and that is that the message is not dependent upon buildings and institutions for its promulgation. It will go steadily forward to certain victory. It is not dependent even upon men; but we, in its giving, are dependent upon the power of the truth of the message itself. In this strength we are to trust, and move steadily forward.
We pray that there may be given to our faithful coworkers at Bethel an abundant supply of grace and wisdom in this affliction. There is here given us all an opportunity to help, not alone by our sympathy and prayers, but by our means as well, for the grand work of this good school must not stop, though it be hindered. F. G.
Parents' Meetings
By F. G.
MANY. teachers fail in their work because they do not enter into sufficiently close and cordial relations with the parents. Many things are required of the children by the teachers, both in their studies and in discipline, which are not understood by the parents. As a consequence of this there is often a working at cross-purposes; and, while there may be no serious friction or ill feeling begotten, there fails to be that hearty co-operation which best advances the interests of the pupils. One of the best ways of securing this co-operation is by holding parents' meetings occasionally. The time of these meetings need not be occupied by the teacher, though she may have her part in them, but the program may consist of papers and talks by any who can present something of a helpful nature. Many parents have been teachers23and have good ideas concerning the training and rearing of children, not only in the home, but in the school.
These meetings may be made very profitable to both teachers and parents. Such questions may be considered as the Health of the Children; The Relation of the Schoolroom and the Home to Health; The Best Means of Creating in the Hearts of the Children a Love for the Missionary Work; What to Do with the Dull Child; How to Treat the Wayward Child; Modes of Correction of Wrongs in Children; in fact, there is hardly an end to the valuable questions which may be considered. Time might be given in these meetings for questions.
If everything is taken from the positive side, and there is an effort to avoid all questions which would engender strong differences, these meetings will certainly result in great benefit to the school work, and to the home work of our children. We live in a time when the hearts of the fathers and of the children are to be turned to each other, in a time when God's people should make a great endeavor to so educate their children that they may be a help to the cause of truth which we have espoused.
If these meetings are held once a month, and ample preparation is made for them, and thorough work done, they will certainly be an inspiration and a practical help to those who have to do with children.
F. G.
Our Need Definite
By James E. Shultz
A SUPPOSED training which does not qualify the individual being trained practically to demonstrate the lessons studied does not constitute an education. The proof of an education is the practise of it. That school which exists to prepare students for definite fields of endeavor, which most rapidly qualifies them for places of usefulness, is the school which commends itself to the favor of the world. The world needs men,—good men, trained men, men who can do because they know how to do. The school which can supply them will be rewarded by success; but that school is doomed to failure which gives the world no good men, and over its doorway will surely be traced “Ichabod.”
Schools are established because they are needed. Unless a school is established to fill a definite need, it is premature. Unless this need is felt, its work will not be appreciated.
The presence of countless students is no evidence of a school’s effectiveness, else the Jesuits would claim our approbation. The students may not appreciate what they are losing, having had nothing better; but when they appear to claim their share in the world’s activities, then will the school’s true merit be revealed.
The United States government has established at West Point a school for the training of young men for places of responsibility in its regular army. That school has been maintained because the need of well-trained men demands it. Because it has been able to supply this demand, it has been regarded as a success; but how long would it be maintained were it to fail in its mission?
Its mission is uppermost in the minds of every teacher. It is their studied effort to impress that mission on the mind of every student. The students are led, not to see themselves, nor their school buildings, nor their teachers, but the great work for which their training is shaping them. Do you wonder that those students are possessed of the “military spirit”? But you say, “That is perfectly natural,” but do you realize the potency of Christian schools in the training of the youth? Paul recognized the value of such schools, for from Acts 19:9, 10, we learn that he taught daily in the school of one Tyrannus for two years. It was from among his students of this school that he chose Timotheus, his “own son in the faith,” to become a teacher of righteousness. Verse 22. This young man’s home training had been in accordance with the will of God. Not only had his mother been faithfully instructed in the Holy Scriptures by her mother, Lois, but they united in training him that he might be “wise unto salvation.” Yet he could still study with profit under such an able teacher as Paul. Paul not only “showed how” to study, but he also “showed how” to work. He impressed his student’s mind with the importance of the lesson studied, by working it out before him. The methods which Paul used led to the conversion of souls. The great need of the world was impressed upon the minds of the students. Then were they shown that God had raised them up to fill the need.
To-day our schools have been established because of a definite need. The great need of the world causes us to need workers. Our youth must be trained to meet this need. The cause of God seeks workers; it must have workers. God asks that our schools prepare young men and women for his service. Their success will be measured by the number of young people who are trained for service. We can not fail to recognize that in order to do the most effective work, we must, as in the experience of Timothy, begin the training in childhood. The mother’s work, well performed, will materially aid in preparing for that which is to be done by our schools.
JAMES E. SHULTZ.
The Largest University
“BARBARA ALLEN must give up her college course and take the whole family upon her shoulders. I should think she would completely collapse under the responsibility,” Florence Holliday said.
“Good substitute,” remarked her father, laconically. “Next best thing to a college course.”
“Why, Papa Holliday, what can you mean? How can Barbara’s going out into the world, to teach in a little country school or keep books, and at the same time be eyes and ears for her sick sister, and brain for a worn-out, nervous mother, and pocket-book for a whole family, ever take the place of those lovely higher mathematics and classics, and everything that a girl gets at college?” And Florence paused to take breath.
“You have said it yourself, dear, in your question,” answered her father. “We have all noticed Barbara’s development since she has had the responsibility of bringing the outside world to her sick sister and mother. She sees and hears everything with keener senses, and is becoming very clever and skilful in reproducing the best points of every concert, lecture, or entertainment she attends. She tries to get out of these pleasures that which she feels her mother or sick Harriet would select, and she has unconsciously trebled her powers of enjoyment and of entertainment.”
Responsibilities borne in the right spirit are among the greatest educators God gives to his children. In the place of the discipline of higher mathematics, they offer the necessity for dealing with the commonplace, every-day problems of the support and care of others. As a substitute for the finished culture of a classical course, responsibility teaches a habitual forgetfulness of self and thoughtful consideration for others.
This University of Responsibility does no advertising, and can not be called popular. Its curriculum is varied and difficult, and the tuition is high, but upon the youth who take its training, and take it bravely and faithfully, it confers a degree which gives him high rank among the noblest of earth.—Classmate.
Student Ideals
By Hattie B. Howell
(Concluded)
In the ideal school the instructors are apt to teach,—men of whom it may be said, “Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them.” “High art in teaching requires the teacher to become submerged, and the school to be a place, where, under unconscious direction and inspiration, the pupil shall find results awaiting his own pleasurable investigation,”—a place, in other words, where he learns to think for himself, and to bear responsibility both for himself and for others.
Of course the ideal school requires hard work. It has no derrick to hoist out knowledge in large lumps and distribute to its pupils. Knowledge never was had for the asking, but like every other mine must be worked, and may always be had for the working; and every student has an undisputed title to a claim. Let us get consecrated ambitions, and then more of the Cæsar spirit—“I came, I saw, I conquered.”
After the school days are ended, the student is able to appreciate the force of the poet’s words,—
“I slept and dreamed that life was beauty;
I waked and saw that life was duty.”
In real life the student sees things not as he expected. Life is pretty much of a humdrum for anybody. There is no need, however, of blindly grinding in the prison-house of the Philistines.
“The situation,” says Carlyle, “that has not its Duty, its Ideal, was never yet occupied by man. Yes, here, in this poor, miserable, hampered, despicable Actual, wherein thou even now standest, here or nowhere is thy Ideal: work it out therefrom, . . . Thy Condition is but the stuff thou art to shape that same24Ideal out of: what matters whether such stuff be of this sort or that?”
It is an axiom of fate that “a man’s best things are nearest him.” However different is your view of life when student days are gone, open wide your eyes, for beauty is found most in “unregarded things.” And “whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”
But till earth shall be restored to her ideal conditions, the wilderness shall “blossom as the rose” mostly in men’s hearts. Not till Jesus comes, and our bodies are changed, can we realize all our ideals for external and physical beauty. Till then God has given us the transforming power of noble thoughts, aims, and purposes, to build the “waste places” of our lives. Have you never seen faces or lives which had otherwise been very plain but for the fragrance of the rosebud garden of the heart? I have seen yellow freckled faces worn by such beautiful souls that every freckle seemed to be one of God’s own beauty spots. The prophet said of Jesus, “There is no beauty that we should desire him.” Some of us might have felt that Jesus was unapproachable if he had been a man of imposing appearance. Some of us might have thought that we could not imitate him if he had been born into one of life’s highways, instead of being a poor man, the son of a carpenter. Some of us whose opportunities for student culture are limited might have thought God had no work for us if Jesus had been a university graduate, instead of a lad of whom it was said, “having never learned.” And some of us who have not been reared among good influences, might have felt, if Jesus had not lived in such a very wicked town that it was proverbially asked, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” that perhaps it was out of the question for us to keep ourselves “unspotted from the world.” Jesus has fully demonstrated to us that the ideal existence is in no way dependent upon circumstances for its realization. He, if no one else ever has, has solved the problem of idealizing the common things of life.
It is worth while to pray about our ideals. There was once a student king, nineteen years old, who asked God to give him his ideal to qualify him for the greatest functions of his life. “I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people, which thou hast chosen, a great people, that can not be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart, . . . that I may discern between good and bad.”
The Lord was so pleased to learn that “a wise and an understanding heart” was to Solomon the “greatest thing in the world,” more to be desired than fame or riches, that the Lord answered him immediately, “Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; . . . I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honor.”
Peasant as well as king may as appropriately pray this prayer as did earth’s greatest sage, for to do their large work the great ones need only a greater degree of the same wisdom which a little one needs to do his smaller work. And “a thing is great or little only to a mortal’s thinking.”
To every student agreeing with King Solomon that “wisdom is the principal thing,” there is a standing offer written large, where all may read, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally.” To any one rightly appreciating the wisdom which cometh not of words, but of the Lord, such an endowment from the Lord is more valuable than all the riches that either a Carnegie or a Rockefeller could bestow.
I admire a student who aims high, and who lives up to the top notch of his aims, who is satisfied with nothing short of excellence. I admire the student who is seeking for culture and refinement of both heart and manners. Culture as well as beauty is more than skin deep. “Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws, makes that and the action fine.” Genuine culture pertains not to drawing-rooms and leisure and books and lectures only. “To be cultured is to be genuine,” to be sincere.
Upon the student are imposed greater obligations and responsibilities toward society, than to others of fewer opportunities for the training of their God-given ability. Let him that is greatest among you, be servant of all. No one should know so well how to serve as the trained youth.
Every youth has dreams of greatness for himself; and why not? so has God for him. Why should Nehemiah more than any other young man have been able to say, “I am doing a great work”? Why should it have been said to Queen Esther more than to any other young woman, “Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Find your mission, and be able to say, “This is the thing that I was born to do.” Be careful what thou reckonest as greatness.
What higher ideal can we have than “to love him, to imitate him, to be like him”? “While I pray . . . God make thee beautiful within,” may every heart respond, “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.”
MRS. HATTIE B. HOWELL.
Preparation for the Work in Catholic Fields
By W. J. Tanner
Our work of late has been making great progress in Catholic countries. No doubt dissatisfaction with concordats, and discontent with clerical domination over soul and body, have had something to do with this progress of the message. But granting this, it still remains clear that the unrest that at present exists among Catholics in many parts of the world, is providentially opening up the way for the proclamation of the last message to these people. In view of this, the question may appropriately be raised as to what our schools and colleges can do in the matter of preparing suitable young people to fill the rapidly growing demand for increased forces in these countries.
For the successful preparation of workers for Catholic fields, careful attention must be given to two things above all others; namely, personal piety and Bible doctrine. In a sense, of course, these two essentials are one and the same, for personal piety is but the manifestation of the Word of God in the daily life. But it is these two manifestations of the Word that constitute the only sure and effective weapons for encountering the papacy. That Rome herself recognizes this is evident from the fact that in all her history, she has been equally bitter in her efforts to destroy, not only the Bible Christian, but also the Bible itself, so far as its influence is concerned.
From the foregoing it is safe to conclude that the school or college that does the strongest and most comprehensive work with the Bible, will furnish the best-qualified missionaries for Catholic countries. In this respect Seventh-day Adventist institutions of learning should be the best in the world, from the fact that they have been established for the express purpose of developing a people who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,” which includes all that pertains to the knowledge of the truth and to practical godliness.
We have nothing different to present to Catholics from what we have been presenting to Protestants. The power to reach all nations with the message is in the fundamental principles of the message itself, rather than in some elaborately devised scheme or theory for presenting it. Let all who wish to do a thorough work of preparation for the regions beyond, build upon the foundations of the third angel’s message just as our pioneers taught it.
And not only do the fundamental principles of our faith furnish us with irresistible weapons against the papacy, but the method of expounding and explaining the Scripture which is followed by our people, is hardly less important. This is illustrated by a case reported by our worker in Rome. A gentleman from a high position in the Catholic Church was “impressed,” not only with the truth taught, but also with “the method we employ of letting the Bible explain the Bible.” Those who have carefully read “History of the Reformation” by D’Aubigné, will have observed that it was this method of Bible interpretation that was followed so effectively by the early Reformers.
Among other reasons why this method of Bible teaching is so essential in a Catholic country is the fact that it is the quickest and surest way of gaining the confidence of the intelligent Catholic listener, who soon sees that it is not a Protestant pastor, or Protestant sophistry, but the Bible, the Word of God, that is arraigned against the tenets and doctrines of his church. When he thus sees that the Book, of which, wrongly of course, he believes his church has been the sole and lawful guardian, is not only comprehensible by the “unconsecrated,” but that it is also diametrically opposed to the fundamental principles of his faith, he naturally loses confidence in his former “consecrated” teachers, and becomes possessed with a desire to understand the Word of God for himself.
Preparation for work in Catholic fields, then, includes, among other things, godliness, a knowledge of the Bible, and ability and perseverance to discreetly disseminate the truth according to Scriptural methods. An army of such young people is needed for these fields at the present time.
W. J. TANNER.
Cape Haitien, Hayti.
Sincerity and Greatness
No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.— Lowell.
Real Attention, and Its Importance
How to get attention, and how to hold it, are matters in the art of teaching which are to be studied wisely. Attention is something more than looking straight at the person or the thing needing attention: staring at vacancy gives all the fixity of gaze that the best attention calls for; but staring is by no means the giving of attention. Attention is something more than hearing: one may hear the clatter of the steam-cars in which he rides, the din and rattle of the city streets along which he walks, or the rush and roar of the storm outside his house as he sits at home on a wintry night, and yet give no attention to that which he hears. His attention may be wholly on the book he is reading, the business matter he is considering, or the picture he is examining, while the discordant sounds about him are heard without being heeded.
If you think that attention is easily secured, or that it is commonly given by listeners of ordinary intelligence, test the matter, some time, in your home circle, at family prayers, when you are reading a lesson. I have tried it this way scores of times, and almost always with the same result. When all were seated, with the understanding that this was a religious service, and that the Bible reading was worthy of the attention of all, I have read a verse or two from the Bible, and then have suddenly asked a question as to the particular statements of the verses just read, in order to see how many of my hearers had given their attention to the reading. Not one time in ten have I ever obtained a correct answer from even my more intelligent and thoughtful hearers, on such a test as this. And this is only one of many proofs that close attention is not easy to secure, nor is it commonly secured, in ordinary religious services. Yet without having attention, the teaching process must still wait for its very beginning.
Holding the attention is as essential to a teacher’s work as keeping his balance is to a walker on a tight rope. In either case the loss is fatal to success. This being so, it is evident that a vital question to the teacher, as he begins his class work, and at every moment as he goes on in it, is not, Am I saying what needs to be said, and saying it so that these scholars ought to take it in? but, Am I holding the attention of my scholars? Failure at this point is, to say the least, a complete suspension of the teacher’s work, and it ought to be so recognized by all.—Selected.
