The attention that Harold Begbie's book "Twice-Born Men" received, was
to me later in life a source of surprise. One forgets that the various
religions and sects which aimed at the healing of men's souls have
concerned themselves more with intellectual creeds than material,
Christ-like ends. At first it was not so. Paul rejoiced that he was a
new man. There can be no question but that the Gospels show us truly
that the change in Christ's first followers was from men, the slaves
of every ordinary human passion, into men who were self-mastered--that
Christ taught by what he was and did rather than by insistence on
creeds and words. It has been seeing these changes in men's lives, not
only in their surroundings, though those improve immediately, that
reconcile one to our environment, and has induced me to live a
life-time in the wilds.
Another movement that was just starting at this time also interested
me considerably. A number of keen young men from Oxford and Cambridge,
having experienced the dangers that beset boys from big English public
schools who enter the universities without any definite help as to
their attitude toward the spiritual relationships of life, got
together to discuss the question. They recognized that the formation
of the Boys' Brigade in our conservative social life only touched the
youth of the poorer classes. Like our English Y.M.C.A., it was not
then aristocratic enough for gentlemen. They saw, however, that
athletic attainments carried great weight, and that all outdoor
accomplishments had a strong attraction for boys from every class.
Thus it happened that an organization called the Public School Camps
came into being. Its ideal was the uplift of character, and the
movement has grown with immense strides on both sides of the
Atlantic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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