Who reads history knows that men always have displayed folly,
Weakness, and cruelty, and that they always will, even to their own
obvious ruin. Also he knows that every time and place have had their
few good men and women who have honored God, and whom God has
honored. Nothing so teaches a person his own insignificance and the
small part that he plays in the world as does the reading of history. Nor
is history to be found only in the book called history. If you want to
know the life of the ancients, as you know the life of your own
community, read Josephus. Do you want a glimpse of early apostolic
times, read "The Life and Times of Jesus," by Edersheim. Do you want
to see the battlefield of Waterloo, visit Paris in the beginning of the
nineteenth century, stop over night with Louis Philippe, see the English
through French spectacles, and the Frenchman through his own; do you
want a glimpse of the political despotism, court intrigue, and ecclesiastical
tyranny in France a hundred years ago; do you want to hear the crash of
the bastile, and see Notre Dame converted into a horse-stable; do you
want a picture of the "bread riots" and mob violence that terminated in
the French revolution of 1848; in short do you want a tale of French life
and character in its brightest, gloomiest, and intensest period, read "Les
Miserables," by Victor Hugo. To-day one must read current history. It
is not enough to plan, work, and economize, one must make and seize
opportunities. And this he can do only as he is alive to passing events.
In a few years one may outgrow his usefulness through losing touch
with advancing ideas and methods of work. To keep abreast of the
times one must read the newspaper and the magazine. The newspaper
is the history of the hour, the magazine is the history of the day. The
magazine corrects the newspaper, and "sums up in clear and noble
phrase those fundamental facts which are only dimly seen in the newspaper."
A serious and growing tendency is that the newspaper and magazine shall
take the place of the best books. A few minutes a day is enough for any