A young boy learns to play golf largely by taking the sticks as he has seen some one hold them and whacking at the ball in a haphazard fashion. Sometimes he hits it squarely, and then he gets a satisfaction that tends to impress on him the memory of the movement resulting in this satisfaction. He tries the next time to reproduce this feeling and to locate the point of difference, tho he is or may be conscious of none of these efforts on his part. He keeps trying and trying until he succeeds, noting meanwhile the ways other people stand, hold their clubs, and swing, and comparing them with his way. An old man, on the other hand, tries this method but makes no such progress. He is not free to establish a dozen new ways of getting a swing as the boy is. He has one or two already established ways of turning on his feet and of swinging his arms, but these unfortunately are not such as to help him in his golf. He must, therefore, not merely recognize and strive for the details of the right way, but he must more or less consciously break up the old ways. His chances are poor of success unless he is wisely directed; i.e., taught.—Stuart H. Rowe, “Proceedings of the Religious Education Association,” 1907.
(1776)
Learning Transformed Into Life—See [Principles, Mastering].
Leisure—See [Time, Improving].
Lessons, Class—See [Encouragement].
LETHARGY
In some parts of Africa the natives are attacked with “sleeping-sickness.” The first symptom is drowsiness, and the following days and weeks drift past in sleep. The sleep grows deeper and heavier until the sufferer has passed out into the unknown, to the sleep that knows no waking.
Sleeping-sickness, in a moral sense, is a common disease in the world. It is often as fatal to activity and character as the dread plague of Africa is to the body. The temperature of the heart falls, the soul sleep deepens, God is forgotten, Christ forsaken. (Text.)
(1777)
LETTER OF GOD