power, and while there is power in the possession of material things, that the greatest power lies in character, in a strong, sturdy, upright, virtuous manhood and womanhood.

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(5). In this connection it is well for us also to remember that the agencies that are most helpful in the development of character are the family, the church, the school. I heard the President of the Board of Education of one of our most important cities say, not long ago, after listening to an address highly eulogistic of the public schools, that in his judgment the greatest asset of the nation is the family. And in this I think he was right. He meant, of course, the family properly constituted, with the right kind of man and woman at the head of it. The importance of the home, as an educational force, is seen in the fact that the children begin life in the home, and that they are under the almost exclusive influence of the home when the young life is most plastic, is most easily moulded. Where this home influence is pure, elevating, ennobling, there is no other agency that is comparable with it. The church and school also, however, are very important agencies. And I have called attention, in this connection, to these three institutions in order that, as we face the future, we may recognize their importance, and may come to feel more and more the necessity 11of improving them, and of utilizing them in the development of the race. We need better homes and must have them—homes that will not be indifferent to intellectual culture and material comforts, but that will value more highly than either the things that make for purity of heart and life. We need better churches and must have them—churches that will be more concerned about properly instructing the people in the knowledge of the Word of God, with a view to spiritualizing their lives, to lifting them to the high plane of Christian living and thinking, rather than with endless entertainments and schemes for money getting. We need better schools—schools in which the teachers will recognize that their vocation is not simply to train the head, or chiefly to train the head, but the heart also—schools in which the teachers will recognize the opportunities which their calling affords of giving shape and direction to the budding and expanding lives entrusted to their care, and who are gladly availing themselves of these opportunities. There are some teachers, of course, who are doing this, who are making their influence felt in character building; but there are others who are indifferent to these opportunities—who are not making their influence felt and who feel that it is no part of their business to do so. Not long ago I was 

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