Arrows The True Aim
in Teaching and Study
Arrows The True Aim in Teaching and Study – In his “Song of Ascents” the wisest ruler of his own or of any time gives us what may be taken as an apt symbol of an ideally perfect education: *’As Arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.”
The rude club is no mean weapon, as “when Van Amburgh with one in his hand compels a tiger’s ferocity to submit to his will.” But rive this ungainly club into square sticks. Let the square stick be rounded, smoothed, headed, and feathered. Its effectiveness is now incalculably increased. The maximum of energy is attained by this union of strength and beauty, of firmness and grace, of tough fiber and fine finish.
The mind must be made to grow evenly and in proportion. That is rounding and smoothing the arrow. It must be armed with courage and decision. That is heading the arrow. It must be guided by unerring principle. And that is feathering the arrow. This trinity of training is needed to make a perfect arrow, or a perfect man.
The barb and feather may be right, but the arrow-stem, though strong, may be ill- Proportioned and clumsy. This makes an excellent weapon, and in the ” hand of a mighty man ” does good and brave work.
This is the self-made man with whom force, and purity of purpose make up largely for the lack of the culture of the schools. It is something to have accomplishments, but it is more to accomplish. The glory of a ” self-made ” man is not that he is self-made, but that he is made.
Again, the arrow may be symmetrical, highly polished and well feathered, but may have a weak head. This is the man of ability, culture, and good intentions, but without earnestness of purpose and strength of will. He either sinks shattered, or flies disheartened at the first onset of error or wrong. Instead of splitting the head of the foe, the arrow’s own head is split and spoilt, the pitiful spectacle of superior goodness quailing before the frowning front of falsehood, knavery, or injustice.
Or, once more, the arrow may be straight, smooth, and well-headed, but without a feather. Then you are not at all sure of the trueness of its flight. It is more likely to miss than to hit the mark. This is the man of well-trained intellect, polished manners, and force of will, but without uprightness of principle. He is the man whom you cannot trust.
He veers this way or that, according to the preponderating motive of self-interest. True principle holds this oblique tendency continually in check, causing the whole man with the full momentum of his finely disciplined powers to revolve unvaryingly about the immovable axis of right.
None are more to be honored and envied than those who in the home, school, church, seminary, or college, have in their hands the training of youth, ready at the fit moment to be launched forth on the world’s broad and hotly – contested battle – field.
” Happy the man who has his quiver full of them.” Happy the teacher whose fidelity and skill draw crowds of ingenuous youth to his presence, who has had hundreds, it may be thousand’s, shaped by his wise and loving hands to stand as faithful sentinels on perilous outposts of duty, to guard the intrenchments of truth, to face error on the open field, or to plan for new and more effective assault.
It is a striking coincidence that, answering exactly to the beautiful simile of the Jewish king, there is found among the Chinese the no doubt earlier saying that, ” When a son is born into a house, a bow and arrow are hung before the door.”
Prudent people of the world are sometimes heard to express wonder that men who might *’ do so much better” in business or in other profession’s should be contented with the small and often insignificant returns they receive as pastors and teachers.
These worldly-wise objectors remind us of the good King Alfred’s hostess in the peasant’s hut, who upbraided the king for not attending to the cakes which she had left him to turn. And what was the explanation of the king’s neglect?
It was that he was fashioning his arrows for another and more determined battle with the Danes, those insolent attackers from beyond the sea of his beloved England, and of his own rightful but disputed throne.
It was that his thoughts were busy, just then, with something more important than cakes.
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