The Unfolding Life

ns of plant life. Skilled gardeners from England and Germany were busy with these exquisite flower children, watering, pruning and training upon slender cords, that every bud might come to perfe

same way. Some were massed, while yonder were thousands of carnations, and every one sole monarch of its own little garden plot. Painstakingly and completely, day after day, the needs

nts to be tended, every one with its own individuality, needs, possibilities and a divine purpose for it cherished in the heart of the Heavenly Gardener. Th

little ones in the home, and every one different! Ten boys in the Sunday Sc

ese common likenesses have been formulated a few principles which are as helpful to a child gardener as a knowledge of the laws of plant life to one who nurtures roses and carnations.

inspiration for work. If a child is only a beautiful figure upon which to display dainty garments, the mother has a plain pathway marke

d, that it does not consist in abundance of things, that it is eternal, but He nowhere tells us what it is, for He can not. It is a part of God. He can only ma

moulded, or a "block of marble" to be he

ween life and thing lies in an inner power or activity which life possesses and uses when and as it will. This activity has to be reckoned with. Sun and rain and earth can not make a plant grow if it does not use its own mysterious inner force upon them. No sort of influence can affect a life, if the life does not respond to it. This response will be either receiving or re

e white page," eve

oward Him, and these are not the result of environment. Environment will cultivate tendencies but can not implant them. Favoring conditions will make an apple tree produce magnificent apples, but they will never implant in it any tendency to bear roses or produce

eginning is not

e, but the difference is more vital than that of inches or strength. The bulb shelters a lily life, but the difference is greater than size. The chrysalis will brin

in which the infant and the adult exactly resemble each other. (Oppenheim.) In bodily proportions, in actual co

of responsibility to his neighbor and to God, unknown to child life. He thinks and reasons and

, whether stated in words of one syllable or four, and equally unsuited to a beginning life. Paul refers to those who need milk and not solid food, spiritually, because they are "without experience of the word of righteousness," clearly indicating a difference in the kind of instruction, not th

st mistakes by telling us what to avoid. A real wo

facts, possibilities peculiar to that period, and self activity. The First Principle of

of possibilities a

be of paint; but life has possibilities plus inner power. The three

ble to recognize each p

to know how bes

ow to stimulate the activ

e relation of nurture to the u

of development are large

h and the use that is made of it, or, stated in more dignified terms-the development is a result of influences that come to a life and the response made to them by activity. The sort of influences and the s

reach glorious young womanhood because the inspiration came as she stood at the parting of the ways-surely this, in a very real sense, is working with God. The story of almost every life of marked power, reveals a human touch at the cross roads. Is this one meaning in the Master's words

ildren "In the chastening and admonition of the Lord," with all that means, the next ge

ple defines the

for both nourishm

Care over

s given both consciously and unconsciously and is absorbed in like manner, b

ous Nour

unconscious nouris

not come from text-books but fathers and mothers. The lesson from the printed page may fail to gain entrance, but the lesson from the teacher's life, n

that the Word must again become flesh to give it authority. It tells him further that if he is to be the

t. Each soul needs the complete Christ for itself. The amazing thing among parents and teachers is their unconcern over His absence from the lives of the children. Years pass, and precept, lesso

ous nourishment is environmen

strong is the tendency that the only escape from conformity lies in real struggle. This a little child rarely puts fo

nt been positively injured when its most beautiful possibilities are unrealized because of unfavoring conditions? Is not a body, undersized and stunted because of lack of fresh air and food, as truly deformed as though the back were bent? Has not that soul received the most cruel of all injuries, when its divinest possibilities can never be attained either because of spiritual starvation or misdirection? The Church and the Sunday School attempt to furnish a counteracting environmen

press the claims of a personal Savior on the father and mother,

conscious nourishment

of the visible to remember the greater power of the Invisible. The most earnest Christian worker is sometimes overwhelmed by discouragement or, again, u

e permitted a Sunday School teacher is to pray effectually for the brooding Spirit to rest upon the pupils in his class. The mother can do nothing which shall mean so much for the precious life in her arms as learning, herself, the secret

us Nour

ishing food before the boy does not necessarily mean stronger muscle and purer blood. He must eat and digest it. Teaching, to be nourishment, requires first, careful adaptation of the subject matter, then presentation in such a way that the mind will volun

Care ove

or activity must be noted. Since the subject will be discussed more fully in a succeeding chapter, only the n

xperi

seeking the new experience, he only wants to be in motion. In later life, energy is definitely put forth for some desired end. But

Increase

e digestive, circulatory and assimilative organs to make it bone and muscle and nerve. The mind must think upon the fact in

Nothing can become a part of the life until it has been acted upon; when it has been acted upon it can not be taken out of the life. When digestion is finished and the food is bone and mu

Increase of P

ntal ability. Every victory means greater power in resisting temptation. Whatever the action,

for him. He must exercise his own arm for strength and solve his own problem. Development only comes through the effo

Form

tion, and soon ease passes to tendency, then tendency to compulsion, and life is in the grip of a habit

ure," the importance of directing activity toward

ts crises. "The crucial points in development are t

quires ability to control the larger muscles before it can adjust the finer and more complex ones, as instanced in the child's ability to walk before he can thread a needle. The mind is able

in the beginning befor

easily secure the straight trunk of the mature tree in the yielding sapling. The law is just as true when it touches human life. The trend of any possibility is determined largely

re largely determined in th

boy are unmet, he can not reach his full development as a man. If his budding intellectual life, his awakening feeling life, or the delicate unfolding of his spiritual life is neglec

times be recognized?" The answer is given in the Fifth Principl

e fact of a budding ideal. The interest in clubs and desire for companionship tell of awakening social feelings. Life i

emphasis of special statement, because of its importance. "Development is from within, out, th

. If it came from without, in, the most admonished child would be the best, the most talked to pupil the wisest, but the reverse is usually true. That which ad

fe?" can not be evaded. The stonecutter takes the marble and hews out the rough block; the sculptor finds its hidden soul. The artisan takes the canvas and the common sign appears; the artist makes