PACIFIC CHRISTIAN MESSENGER, FRIDAY, FEB, IS, 1880.
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The Teacher's Dream.
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young face, and an ample brain ready
to be stowed with valuable im
pressions. He transgressed one day
—was naughty. For the very love I
bore him I detained him and reasoned
with him, and urged upon him in the
utmost kindness how beautiful it is to
be good, and how noble it is to always
do right. It would have been much
easier, and occupied far less time for
me to have boxed his ears or struck
him a dozen blows with a whip and
sent him home in disgrace. The next
day, unfortunately for me, I accidently
overheard that same boy heaping
curses upon me for detaining him
after school. Curses more deep and
crushing could not have been used if
I had whipped him severely. Verily
in this case
i
Not long ago I came across a poem
with the above title. I read it, and
since it has been recited in my
school room by a thoughtful pupil,
who desired, no doubt, to contribute
something consolatory to the teacher
who for days and weeks struggles
with his pupils, of whom the de-
claimer is one, without receiving
much material reward. The child
thought that his teacher could gain
great comfort from hearing of the
wonderful changes that came upon
the pupils of this dreamer’s class, and
take new courage, hoping that he
might, at some distant day, yet con
"Love’s sacrifice wee loss.”
cealed in the mysterious vale of
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futurity, realize what this careworfiT
Let ns review the teacher’s profes
weary teacher only dreamed.
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sion df it actually appears, divested of
With all the confidence that youth that peculiar sentiment, with which,
possesses when conscious of good in for the sake qf euphony, it is so often
tentions, and full of the belief that he clothed.
First, years of ^invaluable time
is doing a noble deed this pupil step
ped upon the platform one Friday must be spent, and untold agonies of
afternoon and in a clear full tone hard work must be done in preparing
for the field. Then when life is
uttered these words:
brightest and hope looms highest, the
The weary teacher sat alone.
teacher enters upon his duties at a
Unnerved and pale was he ;
Bowed ’neath a yoke of care
salary of, say $50 per month, or six
He speke in sad soliloquy.
hundred dollars per annum. In ten
Another ronnd, another round
years from his first hour’s teaching, if
Of labor thrown away ;
he has been steadily employed in the
Another drain of toil and pain
meantime, and has been successful,
Dragged through a tedious day.
just in the prime of his life when
Of no avail is constant zeal,
his powers are at their best, he may
Dove’s sacrifice is loss ;
command sixty dollars per month, or
The hopes of morn so gelden,
seven hundred and twenty'dollars
Turn each evening into dross.
per
annum. Alas! this is only too
I squander op a barren field
true.
My strength, my life, my all;
Then what extravagant castle
The seeds I sow will never grow,
They perish whore they fall.
building can a . teacher indulge, in I
What' visions of future happiness
He sighed, and low upon his hands
His aching brow he pressed ;
must pass before his mind in his con
And o’er his frame ere long there came
templative moments! Can be, like
A s >othing sense of rest.
the young physician, look forward to
And then ho lifted up his face,
a joyous home oi‘ wealth and luxury,
But started back aghast,
surrounded by a happy family and
The room by strange and sudden change,
everything else to make life blissful.?
Assumed proportions vast.
Or like the young farmer, know that
It seemed a senate hall, and
his labor will be rewarded with sub
One addressed a listening throng ;
stantial fruits and that in his ojd age
Each burning word all bosoms stirred,
Applanse rose loud and long.
he will be able to enjoy peace and
comfort ? Or like the young lawyer,
The ’wildered teacher thought he knew
The speaker's voice and look ;
who has no more intellect and
“And for his name ” he said,
not so much education, anticipate
“ The Bame is in my record book.”
fame and fortune, and step gradually
The stately senate hall dissolved ;
up through his profession to the
A church rose in its place,
forum, to the bench, to the Senate
'Wherein there stood a man of God
hall ? I pauSe for a reply.
Dispensing words of grace.
Such a venture as marriage, for the
And though he spoke in solemn tone.
man
who has chosen teaching as his
And though his hair was gray,
life-long
work, is entirely out of the
The teacher's thought was strangely
question. It is a luxury of which he
wrought,
“ I whipped that boy to-day.”
must deny himself. In the first place
he can’t afford it, and»—in the second
The church, a phantom, vanished soon,
What saw the teacher, then ?
place—if he should be so reckless as
In classio gloom of alcove room
to think he can, the woman who
An author plied his pen.
would be willing to join her future
•• My idlest lad,” the teacher said,
with his cannot be found. If she can
Filled with new surprise ;
I have only to say, that the fortitude,
*' Shall I behold his name enrolled
and pure unadulterated and deliberate
Among the great and wise ?”
bravery possessed by such a woman,
The scene was changed again, and lo I
amounts to that which is beyond sub
The school house rude and old ;
limity itself, sublime.
Upon the walls did darkness fall,
The evening air was cold.
Then the professional teacher, gen
erally
speaking, must be a celibate,
“ A dream,” the speaker, waking said,
Then paced along the floor ;
without a home, because his income
And whistling slow, and soft and low,
won’t permit it, a wanderer on the
He locked the school house door.
face of the earth, contented to pass his
And walking home his heart was full
best years—his life—in preparing
Of peace, and trust, and love, and others to win fame that he may have
praise ;
the honor, if it will bear so exalted a
And singing slow and soft and low,
title,
of being himself aware, for few
He murmured " after many days.”
others
will ever know it, that he one
When the boy had finished speak
time
away
back when he was young,
ing and was passing down the aisle to
taught
some
boy arithmetic and
his seat, ringing in my ears yet wer#
grammar, who now makes the world
the words:
ring with his eloquence or entrances
•• I squander on a barren field,
mankiqd-'With his enrapturing poetry.
My life, my strength, my all.”
But to return to the dream. Soon
And I have thought so much on these after the weary teacher fell asleep,
words that it really seems to me, I there appeared to him in his vision, a
should forget everything else I know, vast room.
before I could forget them. The line, " It seemed a senate hall, and
" Love’s sacrifice is loos.”
Touched a responsive chord in my
heart and vividly called to remem
brance a boy whom I had loved—a
sweet appealing child, with heavenly
Hue eyes, an honest look in his fair
One addressed a listening throng ;
Each burning word all bosoms stirred,
Applanse rose lond and long.”
And after he took a good look at the
speaker, he recognized him and de
clared his name was in his record
book. Now suppose this had not scurely as the autumn leaf, passing
been a dream, but that the teacher from earth, alas 1 " unwept, unhon
had been a teacher ever since, and ored and. Ainsung.”
that he really had heard burning* “ In the beautiful words of a silvery-
words of eloquence fall from the lips tongued poet,
“ Close his eyes, his work is dope ;
of him whose name eould be found in
What to hjm is friend or foemas,
one of his old record books. The
Rise of mom, or sot of son,
teacher would be an obscure old man,
Hand of man, or kiss of woman.
wrinkled and grizzled, leaning upon a
“
As
man may, he fonght his fight,
staff, and moving with slow and falt
Proved his truth by his endeavor;
ering steps. He would probably ap
Let him sleep in solemn right,
proach the distinguished senator and
Bleep forever and forever.”
remind him that at one time he had
Select Reading.
the honor of being his teacher^ The
senator would receive him with 'a
—Over 20,000 car leads of poultry
gracious smile, shake his hand heart are carried to New York yearly, and
ily, look admiringly upon him and be 25,000,000 dozen eggs.
as pleased to see the good old man as
—One of the largest Sunday schools
he would to see the trundle bed upon in the world is the “ Union Bethel,”
which he slept when a boy, or the at Cincinnati. The attendance is
cradle in which his mother rocked him over 4000.
when an infant Each occupy about
—Franklin College, Ohio, kas for
the same relative position in the mind fifty-four years sent 84 per sent, of
of the senator. After a brief conver its students to theological seminaries.
sation he would bid his old teacher a Which of our other colleges can show
good afternoon, inviting him to call such an honorable record ?
some day, and with a coach-and-four
—There are 38 people to every car
be conveyed to his palatial residence. riage on wheels in this country, ac
At dinner he would sip bis wine at a cording to statistics.
table glittering with silver and china,
—Only two manufactories devoted
backed up by a salary of eight exclusively to making plate glass
thousand a year, and then in his exist in this country—one at New
princely parlor he would. recline upon Albany, Ind, and the other at Lenox,
magnificently upholstered mahogany Mass.
and listen to “ music’s voluptueus
—Tennessee is shipping timber
swell,” as it arose from a three- logs to Germany.
thousand dollar piano, discoursed by
—Great Britain imported 2,000,000
an accomplished daughter, beautiful eggs a day last year.
as Venus; and as the hour draws late
—The Russian government spends
would lose hiinself in sleep on a couch five and a half million dollars an
soft as downy pillows are, and awake nually upon military schools.
in the morning <to read of his fame,
—The New York Sun consumes
that while he was sleeping had circled 3,800,000 pounds of paper per aanura.
the globe on the wings of the light
—France, it is said, will soon con
ning.
struct a railroad to the interior of
- How with the teacher ? It is soon Africa.
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told. He hobbles away to his obscure
—The family home of Bayard Tay
and lowly dwelling, enters, its cheer lor, called Cedarcroft, and surrounded
less and chilly precincts and drops by 150 weiLimproved acres, is offered
wearily into an uncushioned chair to for sale.
think of “ wha.t might have been.”
—-The total number of both writ
He partakes of his frugal meal, and ten and printed copies of the Bible
-retires , to rest—not amid laces and extant at the beginning of the pre
linen, satins and down—but upon a sent century did not exceed 3,000,000;
bed, fortunate indeed, if it be even but since that time 116,000,000 have
comfortable.
been printed by the British and
Next, in his dream, he sees a American societies alone.
clergyman dispensing words of grace,
—Charles F. Brush, of Cleveland,
whom he found upon dose examina Ohio, has just sold his English patents
tion to be a boy that he had flogged for electric-lighting apparatus, to a
the same day. Yes, but the boy had large incorporated company in Lon
decided not to follow teaching for a don far £30,000.
living. He rather had opened a gate
—The king'of Burmah has turned
into a field where are found a Luther, the S. P. G. mission house at Manda
a Spurgeon, a Talmage and scores of isy into a lottery office.
others with a brilliant fame that will
—There are in alt England between
go down to the end of time, not to 50,000 and 60,000 Jews, of whom
say anything of a Beecher with a about 30,000 live in London.
hundred thousand a year.
—The total earnings of Sing Sing
Then he saw another who had been prison for December, 1879, were
his idlest lad, and he ? He was an $18,261; expenditures, $15,209 ; pro
author. Ah, yes, my good old friend; fits, $3,052.
he prefered to go along with a Walter
—It costs $30,000 a year to keep
Scott, who could make a hundred St. Peter’s at Rome in repair.
thousand a year and astonish the
—It takes $58,<>OO,(MIO a year to
entire civilized world with his mar support the State Church in England.
velous stories ; and a Byron, a Long
—A photograph has been issued by
fellow, a Tennyson or a Bryant, who a Boston house, representing a
captivate humanity with their tran Chinese hotel, intelligence office,
scendental verses, or with the laundry, mercantile houses, and dis
authoress of Daniel Deronda, who has pensary, with a whole cloud of China
acquired a name that can never die> men rushing across the continent to
as well as two hundred thousand dol ward it. It is reported that the
lars with her pen.
pictures are selling fast, which is
Indeed these are better company— taken as an indication that Chinese
at least most persons, strange to say, immigration is not approved.
would rather be found in the com . —A severe earthquake shock was
pany of suclr people, than in that of felt at Yankton, Dakota, Dec. 28th,
teachers.
and one occurred the day before at
- When the teacher’s days are num Charlotte, N. C.
bered, and the time comes when he is
—The annual net profits of the
called hence, the country is not Lon Ion Daily Telegraph are $650,000.
thrown into mourning, the telegraph
—There are now over 2,000 con
wires are not made hot transmitting victs in the Texas penitentiary.
the intelligence of the sari fact
■—Of the 143 daily newspapers now
throughout the length and breadth of published in Great Britain as against
our broad land, public meetings are 151 last year, 18 are issued in Lon
not called from the Orient to the don, 85 in the provinces, 2 in Wales,
Occident to pass resolutions of condo 21 in Scotland, 16 in Ireland, and one
lence, as at the death of a Morton or a in Jersey.
Chandler. No grandeur displayed at
—Robert Mitche’l, a rich msn of
the funeral, no memorial poemi from Cincinnati, distributed half a million
all quarters of the globe as if a Bryant dollars among hrs family for Christ
were to die—no, none of this. He mas presents.
sinks down to rest quietly and ob
—The olive has, after several
years' trial, been proved profitable in.
Victoria county, Texas.
—Among quite a num bar of valu
able ways ia which different portions,
of the sunflower are utilised in Lithu
ania, is the making from the seed re
ceptacles a species of blotting paper,,
and from the inner part of the stalk a
fine writing paper.
—A Russian physician named M..
Malarevsky has satisfied himself, by
experiments with fifty persons, that
if books were printed in white ink on
black paper, the strain upon readers’'
eyes would be lees, and short-sighted
ness not so prevalent
—The widow of the late ProL
Louis Agassiz of Harvard College wan-
the first wMHi to east her veto at
the reeent municipal election in Bos
ton.
—Harvard University Library han
received nearly 150,600 addirienal
volumes since 18M.
” Poor Richard’s Almanac ” was-
first published in Philadelphia, in
1732, by Benjamin Franklin.
—New Hampshire has 2,535 public
schools, with an average daily atten
dance of 43,910 pupils.
Private
schools instruct 3,066 pupils, while
3,988 children between five and
fifteen years attend no school at all.
—The New York Congregational-
i»t, takes up the cudgel against the
free exchange of newspapers, and says,
that there is no more reason, why
newspapers should exchange publica
tions with each ocher than there is
for hardware dealers exchanging jack-
knives.
—Caxtoa'a " Game and Play of the
Cheese ” is claimed by many to be
the first book printed in England.
An edition of St. Jerome’s “ Expoeicio
in Simbelum Apostolarum ” bears, to
be sure, an earlier date, 1428, but it
is generally believed that the correct
figures should bo 1478.
' —The memory of Benjamin Frank
lin is honored in Booton, the city of
bis birth, in the name of a square, a
court, an avenue, four streets, a school
bouse, an insurance company, a
foundry, a woolen company, a savings
bank, a typographical society, a.
lithographic company, a lodge of Odd
Fellows, in the Christian and sur
names of numerous citizens, in books
that he printed, letters that he wrote»
and a suit ef clothes that he wore on
a historical occasion, which are pre
served. Now it is to be further
honored by a Frankliniana Collection»
to include everything which he wrote-
and was printed ; everything that
has been written about him ; por
traits, prints, medals, autographs, and
other personal memorials. ThiVcol
lection has been begun by a gift of
more than two hundred pieces made
to the Public Library by Dr. Samuel
A. Green.
-—It is stated of postal money
orders, that not even one rightful
claimant has lost a single dollar under
this system from the date of its organ
ization until the present time, al
though during the last fiscal year
alone the post-office department
issued over $90,006,000 worth of
these orders. Of misdirected orders»
or orders not called for on account of
death, the aggregate worth now
amounts to $700,000.
h ifty thousand acres of the hop
plant are cultivated in England, the-
inhabitants of Bavaria also devote
much time and pains to its raising»
while in the West great fields are
covered with it. Besides the great
demand for the blossom used in mak
ing yeastj the stem can also be utiliz
ed, in that it yields a long, fine, soft»,
aud elastic fibre similar to fl^v : The
tow obtained from the stems, which
are hackled and bleached, makes an
excollent material for stuffing furni
ture.
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Japanese publisher recently
printed in his native country an edi
tion of the book of Genesis in the
Chinese languages the first publica
tion ot any portion of the scriptures
-er allowed by the Japanese govern-