textbooks first was _lived_ by
men and women in the midst of the day's activities. The deep thoughts,
the beautiful sentiments, and the high aspirations expressed in our
literature first existed and found expression in the lives of people.
The cherished truths of our Bible and its laws for our spiritual
development appeal to our hearts just because they have arisen from the
lives of countless thousands, and so have the reality of living
experience.

There is, therefore, no abstract truth for truth's sake. Just as all our
culture material--our science, our literature, our body of religious
truth--had its rise out of the experience of men engaged in the great
business of living, so all this material must go back to life for its
meaning and significance. The science we teach in our schools attains
its end, not when it is learned as a group of facts, but when it has
been _set at work_ by those who learn it to the end that they live
better, happier, and more fruitful lives. The literature we offer our
children has fulfilled its purpose, not when they have studied the
mechanism of its structure, read its pages, or committed to memory its
lines, but when its glowing ideals and high aspirations have been
_realized in the lives_ of those who learn it.

And so this also holds for the Bible and its religious truth. Its rich
lessons full of beautiful meaning may be recited and its choicest verses
stored in the memory and still be barren of results, except as they are
put to the test and find expression in living experience. The only true
test of learning a thing is _whether the learner lives it_. The only
true test of the value of what one learns is the extent to which it
affects his daily life. The value of our teaching is therefore always to
be measured by the degree to which it finds expression in the lives of
our pupils. _John_, not grammar (nor even the Bible), is the true
objective of our teaching.

EFFECT OF THE OBJECTIVE ON OUR TEACHING

Not only will this point of view vitalize our teaching for the pupils,
but it will also save it from becoming commonplace and routine for
ourselves. This truth is brought out in a conversation that occurred
between an old schoolmaster and his friend, a business man.

The true objective saves from the rut of routine.--Said the business
man, "Do you teach the same subjects year after year?"

The schoolmaster replied that he did.

"Do you not finally come to know this material all b