Master the Lord Jesus Christ, whose I am and whom I serve, get down
at your feet and beseech you to meet the greatness of this ideal. It
is not enough to be a ship, it must be launched. It is not enough to
have all these great qualities that God may give to you, you need to be
consecrated. Hear the word of God to Abram amidst the din and clatter
and roar of this age, hear him say, high out of the clear heavens, “I
am the Almighty God, walk before me, and be thou perfect.” And that
this may be your and my happy lot, is my earnest prayer.
FOOTNOTE:
[E] A sermon delivered in the Amphitheater, at Chautauqua, Sunday,
August 20, 1882.
MY OWN GIRL.
By FREDERICK LANGBRIDGE.
Fifteen shillings—no more, sir—
The wages I weekly touch.
For labor steady and sore, sir,
It isn’t a deal too much;
Your money has wings in the city,
And vanishes left and right,
But I hand a crown to Kitty
As sure as Saturday night.
Bless her, my own, my wee,
She’s better than gold to me!
I must be honest and simple,
I must be manly and true,
Or how could I pinch her dimple,
Or gaze in her frank eyes’ blue?
I feel, not anger, but pity,
When workmates go to the bad;
I say, “They’ve never a Kitty—
They’d all keep square if they had.”
Bless her, my own, my wee,
She’s better than gold to me!
One day she will stand at the altar,
Modest, and white, and still,
And forth from her lips will falter
The beautiful, low, “I will.”
Our home shall be bright and pretty
As ever a poor man’s may,
And my soft little dove, my Kitty,
Shall nest in my heart for aye.
Bless her, my own, my wee,
She’s better than gold to me!
C. L. S. C. WORK.
By J. H. VINCENT, D. D., SUPERINTENDENT OF INSTRUCTION, C. L. S. C.
Read all of the required books for outlook and inspiration but _study_
one of the books at least for discipline. Read it as you do the rest.
Read it more carefully than you read the rest. Read it over and over.
Read it to recall what you read. Read it with critical helps of every
kind. Having read it _think_ about it. Think _and_ think. Think beyond
it. By some thought in it be led out to some other thought not in it,
but thought of because of the book. Such chosen book out of each year’s
list will become dearer to you than all the rest and will make the mere
reading of all the rest more profitable.
* * * * *
Which book shall I select out of the “required” list for 1882, to
read thus thoughtfully and critically? All need not choose the
same. Follow your “bent.” Take a part of one of the larger books.
Begin with a limited amount. Try pages 124-199 in Prof. Wilkinson’s
preparatory “Greek Course in English,” or choose one chapter in Bishop
Warren’s “Recreations in Astronomy,” or one period in “Geology,” or
“Evangeline.” Try the plan.
* * * * *
Have you seen Prang’s C. L. S. C. Mottoes? Three of them at one dollar
each. In exquisite taste. He issues nothing finer. Friends of C. L. S.
C. people could do no more graceful thing than to hang one or more of
these mottoes, in Prang’s best style, on the Christmas tree. A good
idea!
* * * * *
A busy housewife says: “I must write you one thing I have found out,
for perhaps you have never heard it, certainly no one ever told it me:
If a woman wants to find time for almost everything, she must keep
house and do her own work.”
* * * * *
The real object of education is to give children resources that
will endure as long as life endures; habits that will ameliorate in
disaster; occupation that will render sickness tolerable, solitude
pleasant, age venerable, life more dignified and more useful, and death
less terrible.—_Sidney Smith._
* * * * *
A little girl in Silver Creek, N. Y., has organized a “Good Grammar
Society.” She has excluded words used by her father (who is a
Presbyterian minister), 744; her mother, 107; herself, 98; a little
friend, 59; her brother Edward in three days, 14.
* * * * *
Remember the five o’clock Sabbath C. L. S. C. Vespers. A few members
lingering at Chautauqua through the winter will sing our “Day is Dying
in the West,” and join in a prayer in the “Hall in the Grove” at five
o’clock every Sabbath.
* * * * *
I have decided to offer a _white seal_ to those graduates of ’82 who
are already striving for a _white crystal seal_. This white seal will
be given for the reading of the following books:
Wilkinson’s “Preparatory Greek Course in English.”
Packard’s “First Lessons in Geology.”
“Evangeline.”
“Hampton Tracts.”
“Chautauqua Text-Book No. 34.”
“How to Make a Living.” By G. C. Eggleston. Price fifty cents.
* * * * *
Let every student of the Circle work for the people who most need the
C. L. S. C., to enlist them: the idle rich, the busy poor, the college
graduate, the uneducated, the old, the young—all who would make head
and heart and hands keep harmony in this world of sorrow and weariness
and sin.
* * * * *
Pardon a personal suggestion. Nothing gives to the Superintendent of
Instruction greater pleasure than to greet members of the C. L. S.
C. Traveling widely as I do, I often come in contact with members. I
receive letters occasionally saying: “We saw you on such a train, or in
such a place, but did not like to speak to you.” I earnestly ask every
member of the C. L. S. C. to introduce himself or herself at once, and
by simply using the magic letters C. L. S. C., you have a watchword by
which acquaintance may at once be formed.
C. L. S. C. TESTIMONY.
_Michigan._—I have been teaching school in one of the burnt districts,
Huron county, Michigan. The school was very large, and the school
house very small, and my school work, with a three-mile walk morning
and evening, made me feel too tired to study much at night; but, I am
very glad to say, I have finished my second year at last, and am ready
to commence my third. I commenced the course when I was sixteen, and
at almost the same time began teaching. The course of study was just
what I needed. It has helped me very much, and I do not intend to be
discouraged, even if one year does creep into the next. I have read and
studied alone. The nearest local circle, and, I think, the only one in
Huron county, is at Port Hope, several miles from my school.
* * * * *
_New York._—A lady writes: As I am a printer, and use my eyes all day
and every day in the week, setting type, I am not sure I shall be able
to stand examination, but I am enjoying the Chautauqua course very much.
* * * * *
_Illinois._—The Chautauqua readings are a great blessing to me, as well
as to the world at large. I have a great many days of illness. I can
not walk or use my hands or arms much, and am prevented from benefiting
my kind, except by trying to be patient under my sufferings, and in
learning to _wait_. The Woman’s Missionary Society of our little church
meets in my room, and I preside over the few ladies as best I can,
endeavoring to imbue them with the spirit of missions, and aiding them
in studying the mission fields intelligently.
* * * * *
_Connecticut._—I’ve had to do the most of the work during vacations,
which accounts for my being behind. I thoroughly believe in the plan,
as much to _quicken_ and _keep alive_ college graduates as anything
else, just what _they_ need. I found that for me it bridged over many a
break and filled up many an awkward opening left by a college course.
And I must further avail myself of odd minutes for systematic reading
in the line of special courses. An uneducated dry-goods clerk, to whom
I told the plan, said he could not express his pleasure in knowing of
the scheme, and that it was an incentive, such as he had never known
before. He joined this term.
* * * * *
_Ohio._—I find on my floor beside me now “Elizabeth’s Progress to
London,” from Abbott’s book—in effigy—made from building blocks, with
octagon wheels and elegant chariot, a gay dolly on a made-up chair,
with dainty parasol over her. This his majesty, Master Harry, tells
me is Queen Elizabeth, and he tells everybody she had a thousand
dresses and ought to have been very good. At the right I see cavalry,
extractions from Crandall’s menagerie, one steed mounted with an
athlete in costume and the feet secured by small blocks. This they
proclaim for “William’s horse stepping on embers.” They’ve been at
Abbott’s book I see, and so we may be called a family as well as local
circle.
* * * * *
_Massachusetts._—I like the course very much and have seen many things
in the CHAUTAUQUAN in praise of it by the students. But one thing,
which I think will be a great help to me, I have not seen mentioned,
that is the use of the books for reference. If in our hurry we are not
as thorough as we would like to be, I think we can remember enough when
we find things in our future reading we do not understand, to know
which book and where in it to find the information we need. I feel very
thankful for the privileges of membership in the C. L. S. C.
* * * * *
_Tennessee._—I must send you a few words of thanks for the C. L. S. C.
I have only been a member one year, but I don’t know how I could do
without the reading now. I think I am growing in knowledge—yes, and
in the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. With the new year’s
reading I begin life with fresh hope to attain a greater height in the
study of God and his works.
* * * * *
_California._—The C. L. S. C. has been an unspeakable blessing and
comfort to me. It has been an eye-opener, a mind-opener, and a
soul-opener in the deepest and broadest sense of the word.
* * * * *
_New Jersey._—The diploma received; it is a beautiful memorial of the
C. L. S. C., which I shall greatly prize, and to whose value I shall
seek to add, year by year, in the form of “seals” you are so good as to
bestow.
* * * * *
_Minnesota._—I found among my daughter’s papers—Miss Harriet A.
Lathrop, a member of the C. L. S. C.—a blank for examination, with an
earnest request to hear from her as to her progress. This is to inform
you that she passed to her final examination and was promoted May 7th
last. She struggled with disease for three years, and then, having
fought a good fight, she received the crown of life. I desire, if you
please, that you record on your register, not that she fell out by the
way, but that she pursued the course as long as she had strength, and
then entered into rest. It was through no indifference that she did not
respond regularly, but from sheer physical inability. She was patient,
faithful, true, tried, and trusty.
* * * * *
_Massachusetts._—My letter will inform you of the death of a member of
the C. L. S. C.—Miss Mary Thurber, of this place [Attleboro]. She was
about twenty-three years of age, a young lady of rare value; beautiful,
physically and intellectually, and of fine spiritual attainments. She
was a helpful member of the M. E. Church, and a teacher in one of our
public schools. She had a large circle of friends, but in her home,
among her brothers and sisters, she was the fixed star whose brightness
hallowed, and the special joy of her parents. She suffered intensely
for a few days only, and though shut out from her friends from the
contagiousness of her disease (diphtheria), she was patient to the
last, and passed from this to her higher associations in peace, last
March. She was very devotedly attached to the C. L. S. C., read with
eager enthusiasm, and worked for and expected great results from her
connection with it. How blessed that the hope of immortality opens up
to those who are seeking broader fields of truth, and assures fuller
development to the hedged in of time! The entire community sympathize
with the sorrowing family.
LOCAL CIRCLES.
[We request the president or secretary of every local circle
to send us reports of their work, of lectures, concerts,
entertainments, etc. Editor of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, Meadville,
Pa.]
The growth of the C. L. S. C. has been without restraint of any kind.
The organization is simple, but few officers, a brief constitution,
and indeed none of the paraphernalia is required which we usually find
dictated from the center of a wide-spread organization. No creed to
sign, no shibboleth to pronounce. A person has simply to make out an
application for membership, send it to Miss Kimball at Plainfield,
N. J., and then read the books. It was natural that kindred spirits,
doing the same work, should invent local circles, which, while they
are not required, yet are helpful to the students. Mind coming in
contact with mind will produce an intellectual quickening. Students
will get more out of the books by a system of questioning. Bonds of
union will be created by meeting together, and the strong will have
opportunity to help the weak, and the weak will learn to appreciate the
local organization because of the real helps it affords them in their
studies. We invite secretaries to send us carefully prepared reports
of the work done in their local circles. Do this for the benefit of
others. The calls upon us are numerous for information about how to
conduct local circles to make them interesting and profitable. Below we
furnish our readers with some suggestive items sent us from flourishing
circles. They will bear studying and in most instances are worthy of
imitation.
* * * * *
This is the fifth year of the local circle in Oswego, N. Y., and it
numbers about twenty-five members of all denominations, and meets
every Monday evening. We bring nearly all our studies into the circle
meetings in this way. Each Monday evening a lesson is announced by the
President to be studied the following week, and a member appointed
to act as teacher, who conducts the lesson on the appointed evening,
using maps, blackboard, etc., having a regular class drill. A good
deal of enthusiasm and interest is manifested. A critic is appointed
each month. We have a literary committee, which reports each week with
selections from poetic or prose writers. This committee is appointed
each month. We have adopted a new plan of arranging the lessons, which
distributes this part of the work among the members. A member is
assigned, for instance, the work on geology with instructions to divide
it into lessons, which is done and a report handed to the president,
with the name of member opposite each lesson to act as a teacher. We
occasionally have social gatherings at the homes of members, one of the
most enjoyable of which was the art social of last winter. A resolution
has been adopted naming our circle “Markham C. L. S. C. of Oswego,” in
honor of Rev. W. F. Markham, who organized our circle.
* * * * *
Members of the C. L. S. C. in Augusta, Me., made no effort to form a
local circle here till April, 1882, when the Rev. Dr. J. H. Vincent
was present and gave us a talk on the C. L. S. C. work. The outgrowth
was a strong sentiment in favor of forming a circle here, and after
several preliminary meetings, a local circle was organized September
25. At the last meeting, October 10, the membership was increased to
twenty-seven. On that evening we had essays, questions and conversation
upon the reading in the course. The order of exercises is prepared
by the committee of instruction, and is varied in character, only
confining the topics to the subjects of the required reading. We have
decided to hold meetings once in four weeks. The members anticipate a
very interesting winter’s work.
Our circle in South Marshfield, Mass., was not organized till a year
ago, although we were then beginning the third year of our course. Our
organization was a direct result of the Round-Table held at Framingham
Assembly. We meet every week. The required readings are divided into
six parts; each member takes one, on which she prepares questions for
the next meeting; the questions in THE CHAUTAUQUAN are read, and parts
of the little text-books. The meetings are enlivened by the reading
of two or three short essays, and by relating interesting incidents
suggested by the lesson. We sometimes sing C. L. S. C. songs, and
have readings from standard authors. Our meetings are usually closed
by playing one of the Chautauqua games, which we consider not only
pleasant, but healthful, as they give us a constant review of our work.
We organized our circle this year the first of September, instead of
the first of October, in order that we might take up the whole of the
first volume of Grecian history, and have found that our interest is
continually increasing, and our meetings this year are even superior to
those of the previous year. By circulating the “Hall in the Grove,” we
have gained one new member, who seems intensely interested.
* * * * *
In Michigan City we have a membership in our local circle of
twenty-eight, twenty-three of whom intend to read the entire course,
and five will do as much of the work as they can. The officers are
president, vice president, and secretary. Our method of work is, no
doubt, similar to other circles. We meet twice a month to review the
work. Members are given topics to study and to prepare to ask the
circle such questions as they may formulate. In this way the work is
not left for a few to carry on, but all become interested and active
working members.
* * * * *
Our local circle of the C. L. S. C. in Bradford, Pa., is one of
several in this place, and is designated the “Longfellow Class,” in
distinction from the others. We have limited our number to ten members,
thinking by that means to promote individual interest. We have but
two officers, a president and secretary. We meet weekly, at the homes
of the different members. We have no leader appointed for the year,
but every four weeks one member of the class is elected conductor of
exercises for the ensuing month. The manner of reviewing the lessons
varies. The conductor sometimes asks questions, when the topics are
freely discussed by all; sometimes the subjects are apportioned to
individual members to be talked over, or a synopsis of certain portions
given by them. At the close of the lesson, fifteen minutes is devoted
to discussing all rhetorical errors made during the evening.
* * * * *
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, “Centenary Circle” numbers about thirty
members. The officers are president, vice president, secretary and
treasurer. Meetings are held at the house of the secretary on the first
and third Wednesday evenings of the month. Thus far this year the
president has conducted the meetings, asking each member of the class
questions on the lesson, from which discussions often arise. Last year
members of the class were sometimes asked to conduct the meeting. No
essays were ever written, but sometimes each member was asked to be
prepared on given topics to be recited at the next meeting. No concerts
or public entertainments have been given, nor did we observe any of the
memorial days except Longfellow’s. We were quite in the dark about the
work when we commenced, but very anxious to take up some systematic
course of reading, and would not give it up now for any consideration.
* * * * *
The Hockanum, Connecticut, C. L. S. C. met informally last year,
and was organized September 25. Three years ago there was but one
member of the C. L. S. C. in the place, the year following three, and
last year six. Our membership is now eighteen, and the interest both
excellent and increasing. The circle meets every Monday evening at the
house of the secretary. At 7 p. m. promptly a brief Scripture reading
and prayer opens the meeting. After a few moments given to business,
the questions in the text-book and THE CHAUTAUQUAN are asked, and a
record kept of those who have done the week’s required reading and
memorizing. We are notified that many and varied are the household
duties performed with the little text-book perched in divers nooks.
The president appoints four readers and a critic for each evening. The
reading is selected from some portion of the weekly required reading.
This is followed by questions, remarks, or general conversation
relative to the subject, etc. The reading closes at nine o’clock, after
which we have music and a social chat. The circle has arranged and
entered upon a course of ten public lectures on Geology, given every
Wednesday evening by the president, in the vestry of the Congregational
Church. The occasion is made interesting by the use of black-boards,
maps, the Packard plates, neatly mounted on easels, and a cabinet
of rocks and shells illustrative of Dana’s “Geologic Story Briefly
Told.” The room is also made cheery by a conspicuous grouping of the
class mottoes framed in gilt, and other ornamentation luminous with
the monogram, C. L. S. C. The attendance is good, and the attention
held closely by the youthful tyro who has won laurels by his clear and
happy presentation of the subject. It is always a most instructive and
enjoyable evening to the circle and their friends. Our circle early
voted to observe “Memorial Days,” the observance to fall on the regular
evening nearest memorial date. For Bryant’s Day we have arranged for
two essays by young ladies, one on the life, the other on the works of
the poet. The other members are each to give recitations of choice or
favorite selections from Bryant. We are looking forward to a pleasant
social time.
* * * * *
NORWALK, O., October 30, 1882.
We have held two regular meetings of our circle since November 1st and
we are now fairly at work. The membership has more than doubled in the
last two meetings and may double again before the books are closed.
There never was a time before when the circle was under half so good
headway at this time of year. Members who are joining now are doing so
more understandingly than it was possible to do in the experimental
stage of the C. L. S. C. and the results are proportionately more
reliable. We meet once in two weeks in a music store at 7:30 p. m.
and close at 9 p. m. Our order of exercises is prayer, roll, minutes,
business, program, adjournment. We have the geological charts and
begin to realize the need of a suitable place of meeting where we can
accumulate maps, charts, cabinet and museum; we need just such a room
in connection with and a part of our public library, convenient of
access and open to visitors on this and all other occasions. There
could scarcely be found a city whose people would more appreciate such
a resort. Norwalk has a very fine public library, and the librarian
states that since the organization of the various reading circles there
has been a revolution in the class of books in demand; that while the
lighter literature is seldom called for, standard works, shelf-worn for
years, are now in frequent use; that she knows from the effect on the
library that a change has come over the reading public. So far as we
are able to discover from reports elsewhere, our circle rather excels
in developing the individual talent of its members. In our entire
circle there will probably not be one who will not present one or more
topics in papers or addresses during the year, as time permits, and
equal opportunity is given to all. Our plan is to follow down the
class roll, beginning at the top, and the leader is handed a list of
ten or twelve names from which he selects six or eight persons to whom
he assigns topics, the roll itself being prepared for that purpose.
Each member is expected to make a minute of all the topics assigned
that he may prepare for the conversation, or visiting and questioning
which follows each topic. From five to eight minutes is allowed for
each paper, address, selection or conversation, and the president, who
keeps an open watch, is expected to give notice when the time is up
to persons not otherwise aware. The roll is prepared with a margin at
the top for dates, and the presence of each member is marked with a
cross, while those late are marked with a diagonal line; each person
who discharges program duty is marked with a dot supplementing the
cross of that date. The next list is made as the first, passing over
the dots, always working the roll from the top and leaving it complete.
The minutes are kept on the body of each page, leaving the margin on
the left of the red line for anything intended for an annual report,
such as number in attendance, number of visitors, number of members
and a list of those in program numbered, opposite whose names, in the
regular minutes, are their topics or themes. In this way a complete
record of each member is kept, and by referring from each dot to the
minutes of that date an individual or annual report can be readily made
which otherwise would be tedious at least. Our officers and leaders
are elected by ballot and we rely entirely on the leader to conduct
the exercises as he thinks best. Last year, from a list of forty-six
names, thirteen were reading for diplomas; this year, with a present
membership of forty-one, thirty-six are reading for seals or diplomas,
twelve having graduated in 1882.
[_Not Required._]
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.