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Gary G. Hoag
“It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.”— Luke 17:2
“For every one pupil who needs to be guarded against a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defense against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head.”
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in The Abolition of Man (London: Oxford University Press, 1943) 15.
Click here to download this classic work compiled after C.S. Lewis delivered a series of three lectures on 24-26 February 1943 at the University of Durham.
Today’s marks the second of seven meditations from The Abolition of Man. This one comes from the heart of the first lecture entitled, “Men Without Chests.”
If you are a teacher or have any level of influence on younger people or children, this reflection is for you. Pay attention.
Your job is to irrigate deserts. Let’s stay with that word picture. What does a desert do when watered? It soaks it up and propagates life in a desolate place.
And Lewis keenly notes that if you do not do your job well, those you hope to influence will remain famished and look for help in all the wrong places.
The only way to be sure not to starve the sensibilities of those you serve is to feed on the Word of God so that it is dripping from your tongue.
Read God’s Word daily and see for yourself. You will not only find the nourishment you need, you will bring life to hungry souls in needy places.
What more generous thing can you do in this generation? In every generation?
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