THE UNIVERSITY OF EXPERIENCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 58, 5 February 1938, Page 2

THE UNIVERSITY OF EXPERIENCE

(by t. e. ruth.) : (Copyright.) AVe are all attending classes in the university of experience. Education js expansion of experience. Experience is extension of life. And religion is life. Religion is not restraint. It is liberation and liberty. It is a creative power, a growing mind, a clearer vision, a surer grasp of reality. » * i * * * Saintship does not scorn scholarship. On the contrary, religion needs brains. Religion without intelligence is like salt which has lost its saltness, fit only to be cast out. It is being cast out.

Civilisation can’t stand it. Neither can God. If you can’t worship God with all your mind worship is not worth while to you nor acceptable to Him. It doesn’t . fit in with His nature nor with yours. Religion which isn’t reasonable js never right. Religion which is right is not only reasonable—it is radiant. The whole realm of religion, as of science, must be open to inspection and investigation, it is meant to be explored. It calls for experiment. There is no evangel and no education that does not begin—“ Come and see” or “Taste and see.” That is initial. It is initiative. It is initiating. It i§ the ABC of knowledge of every kind, the foundation of all wisdom. * * * * # *

“Come now, and let us reason together.” Nature says to man, “Be a scientist and sit down before this fact, as a little child.” “Come now and let us reason together” is the invitation of God to the soul of man. “Change your mind” is the cry of the prophet. Turn round. Change your point of view. Lift up the eyes of your mind. You may find God afoot on the hills.

“What think ye?H is the persistent question of Christ to men, and “How think ye?” The enquiring mind passes from one interrogation point to another. To check a child asking questions may be to check a coming genius or the Christ spirit in the -temple of the intellect. “Come unto Me . . . learn of Me and ye shall find rest.” . . Rest is not all He has to give. It is not all we have to learn. “Take my yoke upon you” means more than saintship means to-day. That word has suffered so severely that we may wonder if it can be kept in common circulation. Its only chance is to be yoked with scholarship in common service. Saints must step down from stained glass windows into the streets. The world needs no plaster saints but real persons, saints without a halo, with only seeh canonisation as can' be earned in a carpenter’s shop or some other department in the university of life. Zeal without knowledge, even if it ,is zeal for God, plays the very devil with religion and civilisation, leading to all kinds of useless sacrifices, emotional orgies and mob hysteria. And the tyranny of the senses is just as terrible as the cold-blooded and calculated tyranny of knowledge without zeal.

The saviour is always the teacher. The Master of men not only says “Come unto Me” but “Go learn what that meaneth.” Learn. Strive—"strive to enter in at the straight gate”—too straight for you at the moment. Do what you can’t do. Strive till you can!” Life is a schoolhouse, a . university, perhaps of hard knocks, but concerned with the wholeness of things.

The world we live in is the first factor in our education.

The savage Jives in it, too. He has all the materials of art, science and religion—all the raw materials of everything that goes to make life rich and glad for us. At the moment be lacks the mental power to appreciate, organise, and use them.

He has not yet mastered the movement of the stars of which he stands in some sort of awe. He is afraid of lightning—he has not learned to make it run his errands:

Presently lie will learn the use and value of raw materials.

He will drive his car, fly his ’plane. At the moment there is a great gulf fixed between him and you. It will be bridged by education. He does not know what that is. He will know.

John Ruskin used to insist that the entire object of true education is to make people not merely do the right thing but to enjoy the right things, not merely industriou-s but to love industry . . to love knowledge, to love purity, to hunger and thirst after, righteousness. That .is what we have to learn.

Dr Fosdick tells of a Polish girl in New York who wrote in >a school essay:—“An educated man gets his thinks from someone else, but an intelligent man works his own thinks.” Intelligence must be cultivated. We have to work our own “thinks.” There are laws of mental hygiene. We exercise the muscles of the mind, train ourselves to think, keep mentally fit. We should occupy the whole of our intellectual house, furnish every room, claim the complete territory of time, and trade with all our talents.

It is excellent discipline always to have a big book on hand, other than a novel. A course of history is a cure for doubt, depression, and defeatism. The best biographies transform ambitions into ideals. Great words of Scripture shed light on our path. Some poetry with lilt and laughter in it will send us singing through some dark hours. And, as we value our sanity, we must cultivate a sense of humour. Life is meant for health and happiness. * ik • * . ■* * We may learn to use the mind as we learn to drive a motor-car. The mind is a more complex and a more dangerous - machine. Tt is high-powered. Properly managed it may be smooth running. Badly driven it is a terrible menace. It claims constant attention. We must know the rules of the road and have social vision, mental alertness. moral control, a sense of resnonsibility, and a certain poise of character. _ ’ It is a big business this of “working our own thinks.” But we live to learn. And we learn to live. But that is another story.