Scouting, Volume 8, Number 4, February 12, 1920 Page: 14
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14
SCOUTING, FEBRUARY 12, 1920
The Value of the Boy Scout Movement
to the Churches
And the Light of Its Seven Lamps
By Henry Alford Porter,
YEARS ago Ruskin lighted his Seven
Lamps of Architecture to show us
that the laws of buildings are moral
laws, whether they are used in erecting a
cathedral or in making a character.
In similar manner I want to liken the
Boy Scout movement to the seven lamps
on the golden candlestick which shed
light throughout the temple of old, and
to show how the Boy Scout movement af-
fords light for the guidance of our
churches in dealing with boys.
A Big Fact
The first lamp that the Boy Scout move-
ment lights is that boyhood is a great
fact. It is possible to make boys feel
that they are nuisances, encumbrances,
weights instead of wings.
The Boy Scout movement holds that
a boy is the biggest fact in the world.
Down yonder is the Chattahoochee River,
quite a river. It carries commerce, it
drains a great section of country, it is a
fact. But a boy is a bigger fact than the
Chattahoochie River. Over there is
Stone Mountain, one of the wonders of,
the world. But a boy is a bigger fact
than Stone Mountain. He may grow up
to span the river with a massive bridge
or tunnel the mountain. He is a fact
that may one day be a factor in the com-
mercial or political or religious world.
He may run a factory. He may become
one of the leaders of our modern civiliza-
tl0The attitude of the Boy Scout move-
ment is that of the Spartans of other
days. When a conqueror asked the de-
feated Spartans for fifty of their boys as
hostages, they replied, "We would rather
give you a hundred of our most distin-
guished citizens, for they have been de-
feated, while our boys may yet live to
conquer. Our citizens have done their
best; our boys may yet live to do better.
A Path to God
THE second lamp that the Boy Scout
movement lights is that nature is a
path to God. Hugh Miller, the scientist
used to say, "There are two records, and
both were written by one hand—that oi
the pages and that of the ages.
them, when properly studied, leads to
G<The Boy Scout movement is a call to
God's great out-of-doors.. Powers of ob-
servation are awakened, and resourceful-
ness and skill developed The boy is
taught to love nature and to interpret it
aright. And when he has learned this
lesson he will become not only a wiser
man, but a better and a gentler man. 1
believe in the words of the poet.
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast;
He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the great God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
Pastor, Second Baptist Church,
Atlanta, Ga.
Play and Religious Education
THE third lamp the Boy Scout move-
ment lights is that play is an essen-
tial part of religious education.
> Many of our churches have forgotten
how to use the spirit of play. They have
forgotten the place of play in the develop-
ment of character. They have forgotten
that beautiful version of the holy (city
given in the words of the prophet, "The
streets of the city shall be full of boys
and girls playing." They have forgotten
that the Bible "takes to" athletics, and
that Paul understood the games of his
day and got illustrations of profound
truth from the runner, the wrestler and
the boxer. .
The Boy Scout movement has reminded
us that play, rightly directed, is religiously
educational.
Scouting gives the boy opportunity for
healthful self-expression. It teaches care
of the body. It teaches self control, to
govern one's temper, and to keep one s
wits about him and not lose one's head.
It trains to cheerfulness, tenacity, endur-
ance and grit. It sets before the boy high
standards of honor by teaching that win-
ning the game is always a secondary mat-
ter, that the first thing is to play fair, and
that honesty and honor outrank success.
It teaches self-sacrifice and loyalty, that
it is better sometimes to sacrifice for the
team than to star for ourselves.
Are not these Scoutmasters who guide
the play life of the boys rendering a con-
spicuous service in preparing them to be-
come good players of this wondrous game
of life?
The Dignity of Work
THE fourth lamp in the Boy Scout
movement is that work, all work, is
holy and divine.
The Boy Scout learns the joy of work.
He learns that the joy of doing one's
work well is the purest and the most
permanent joy in life. One of the mottos
of scouting is "Work well done is the
best of fun."
The ranks of criminals are recruited
from those who hate work. It is a well-
known fact, ascertained by exhaustive in-
vestigation and careful analysis of fig-
ures, that in the United States the average
male criminal is formed between the ages
of fourteen and eighteen. Youths who
have escaped criminal tendencies until they
reach their nineteenth birthday are prac-
tically safe. This fact, of such tremen-
dous import to our whole social and eco-
nomic system, has been recognized by the
Boy Scout movement, and it determined
that one of its principal lines of instruc-
tion and inspiration should be to instil
into the minds of the boys the joy of
work.
But the Boy Scout learns even more
than that. He learns the idealism of
work. The street cleaners of New York
were once but the scavengers of the city.
They wore slovenly clothes and had
neither joy nor pride in their work. Then
Colonel George E. Waring took charge.
He called the street cleaners together.
He told them that they were the prophets
of cleanliness, the custodians of the pub-
lic safety, the guardians of the public
health, the defenders of little children
from the wolves of disease. He dressed
them in white uniforms, symbolic of the
purity that was to be their aim. He sent
them out as the knights errant of the met-
ropolis to fight disease and filth. The
result is known everywhere. The men
were fired with the ideal set before them,
and went forth like a white army on a
holy mission. The atmosphere was clari-
fied, the death rate went down and New
York became one of the cleanest cities in
the world.
A similar service is being rendered the
boys of America by the program of prac-
tical activities presented by Scouting.
They are taught that all work is noble
and sublime, if looked at in the right
light and from the ideal point of view.
What all this teaching as to the joy and
the idealism of work means in the mak-
ing of manhood and in the building up
of a sense of resources and of power to
defy difficulties can readily be imagined.
Junior Citizens
THE fifth lamp the Boy Scout move-
ment lights is that discipline is neces-
sary to the creation of good citizenship.
A woman who had raised seven noble
Christian sons, with not a black sheep in
the fold, was asked how she did it. Her
answer was, "I did it with prayer and
hickory." There is little hickory in the
homes of today and there is none at all
among the Boy Scouts. But there is
discipline there, and obedience is expected
and required.
There is something of the gypsy in nor-
mal boyhood, something of the Indian,
something, we ocasionally think, of the
barbarian. He needs discipline. But re-
pression is not the high road to success
with him. Scouting does not discipline
him through "don'ts." The pride of
Scouting is that it has no don ts. It is
all "do." „ ,
We have heard much of morale these
days. It is morale, we are told, that wins
battles and saves nations. It _ is morale
that makes men; the want of it that de-
stroys them. The quality of the morale
of the youth of today will determine the
quality of the manhood of tomorrow. The
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 8, Number 4, February 12, 1920, periodical, February 12, 1920; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth283134/m1/14/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.