Student Ideals by Hattie B. Howell

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 7, 1907

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 same

Ideal 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.