"Then," said his friend, "I should think that you would tire beyond
endurance of the old facts, and grow weary beyond expression of
repeating them after the charm of novelty and newness has gone. How do
you live through the sameness and grind?"

"You forget one thing!" exclaimed the old schoolmaster, who had learned
the secret of the _great objective_. "You forget that I am not really
teaching that old subject matter at all; I am teaching _living boys and
girls!_ The matter I teach may become familiar. It may have lost the
first thrill of novelty. But the _boys and girls are always new_; their
hearts and minds are always fresh and inviting; their lives are always
open to new impressions, and their feet ready to be turned in new
directions. The old subject matter is but the means by which I work upon
this living material that comes to my classroom from day to day. I
should no more think of growing tired of it than the musician would
think of growing tired of his violin."

And so the schoolmaster's friend was well answered.

Unsafe measures of success.--It is possible to lodge much subject
matter in the mind which, once there, does not function. It is possible
to teach many facts which play no part in shaping the ideals, quickening
the enthusiasms, or directing the conduct. And all mental material which
lies dead and unused is but so much rubbish and lumber of the mind.
It plays no part in the child's true education, and it dulls the edge
of the learner's interest and his enjoyment of the school and its
instruction.

It is possible to have the younger children in our Sunday schools from
week to week and still fail to secure sufficient hold on them so that