Studying the rise of the Dutch republic, Motley notes how the shocks
and fiery baptisms of war changed those peasants into patriots. This
explains society's enthusiasm for its hero, all scarred and gray. We
admire the child's innocence, but it lacks ripeness and maturity; it
is only a handful of germs. But every heart kindles and glows when the
true hero stands forth in the person of some Paul or Savonarola, some
Luther or Lincoln, having passed through fire, through flood, through
all the thunder of life's battle, ever ripening, sweetening and
enlarging, his fineness and gentleness being the result of great
strength and great wisdom, accumulated through long life, until he
stands, at the end of his career, as the sun stands on a summer
afternoon just before it goes down. All statues and pictures become
tawdry in comparison with such a rich, ripe, glowing, and glorious
heart, clothed with Christlike character.

Life's teachers also includes newness and zest. First, man lives his
life in fresh personal experiences. Then, by observation, he repeats
his life in the career of his children. A third time he journeys
around the circle, re-experiencing life in that of his grandchildren.
Then, because the newness has passed away and events no longer
stimulate his mind, death withdraws man from the scene and enters him
in a new school. Vast is the educational value therefore attaching to
the newness of life. God is so rich that no day or scene need repeat a
former one. The proverb, "We never look upon the same river," tells us
that all things are ever changing, and clothes each day with fresh
fascination. "Whilst I read the poets," said Emerson, "I think that
nothing new can be said about morning and evening; but when I see the
day break I am not reminded of the Homeric and Chaucerian pictures. I
am cheered by the moist, warm, glittering, budding, melodious hour
that breaks down the narrow walls of my soul, and extends its life and
pulsations to the very horizon."

Thus, each new day is a new continent to be explored. Each youth is a
new creature, full of delightful and mysterious possibilities. Each
brain comes clothed with its own secret, having its own orbit,
attaining its own unique experience. Ours is a world in which each
individual, each country, each age, each day, has a history peculiarly
its own. This newness is a perpetual stimulant to curiosity and study.
Gladstone's recipe for never growing old is, "Search out so