comprehensive and inclusive, and the superintendent may well promulgate it
in his directions to his teachers. All teaching has to do with Truth and,
in the presence of Truth, whether in mathematics, or science, or history,
or language, the teacher should feel that he stands in the presence of the
Burning Bush and hears the command, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet,
for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." It seems a thousand
pities that even college students rush into the presence of the Burning
Bush in hobnailed shoes, shouting forth the college yell as they go.

The man who is reverent disclaims everything that is cheap, or vulgar, or
coarse, or unseemly. He is so essentially fine that the gaudy, the
bizarre, and the intemperate, in whatever form, grate upon his
sensibilities. He respects himself too much to be lacking in respect to
others. He instinctively shrinks away from ugly vulgarization as from a
pestilence. He is kindly, charitable, sympathetic, and sincere.
Exaggeration, insinuation, and caricature are altogether foreign to his
spirit. In his society we feel inspired and ennobled. His very presence is
a tonic, and his tongue distills only purity. His example is the lodestar
of our aspirations, and we fain would be his disciples. We feel him to be
something worshipful in that his life constantly beckons to our better
selves. To be reverent is to be liberally educated, while to be irreverent
is to dwell in darkness and ignorance. To be reverent is to live on the
heights, where the air is pure and tonic and where the sunlight is free
from taint. To be reverent is to acknowledge our indebtedness to all those
who, in art, in science, in literature, in music, or in philanthropy, have
caused the waters of life to gush forth in clear abundance. To be reverent
is to stand uncovered in the presence of Life and to experience the thrill
of the spiritual impulses that only an appreciation of life can generate.
If this is reverence, then the school honors itself by giving this quality
a place of honor.