There is, therefore, no abstract truth for truth's sake. Just as all our culture material--our science, our literature, our body of religious truth--had its rise out of the experience of men engaged in the great business of living, so all this material must go back to life for its meaning and significance. The science we teach in our schools attains its end, not when it is learned as a group of facts, but when it has been _set at work_ by those who learn it to the end that they live better, happier, and more fruitful lives. The literature we offer our children has fulfilled its purpose, not when they have studied the mechanism of its structure, read its pages, or committed to memory its lines, but when its glowing ideals and high aspirations have been _realized in the lives_ of those who learn it. And so this also holds for the Bible and its religious truth. Its rich lessons full of beautiful meaning may be recited and its choicest verses stored in the memory and still be barren of results, except as they are put to the test and find expression in living experience. The only true test of learning a thing is _whether the learner lives it_. The only true test of the value of what one learns is the extent to which it affects his daily life. The value of our teaching is therefore always to be measured by the degree to which it finds expression in the lives of our pupils. _John_, not grammar (nor even the Bible), is the true objective of our teaching. EFFECT OF THE OBJECTIVE ON OUR TEACHING Not only will this point of view vitalize our teaching for the pupils, but it will also save it from becoming commonplace and routine for ourselves. This truth is brought out in a conversation that occurred between an old schoolmaster and his friend, a business man. The true objective saves from the rut of routine.--Said the business man, "Do you teach the same subjects year after year?" The schoolmaster replied that he did. "Do you not finally come to know this material all by heart, so that it is old to you?" asked the friend. The schoolmaster answered that such was the case. "And yet you must keep going over the same ground, class after class and year after year!" exclaimed the business man. The schoolmaster admitted that it was so. "Then," said his friend, "I should think that you would tire beyond endurance of the old facts, and grow weary beyond expression of repeating them after the charm of novelty and newness has gone. How do you live through the sameness and grind?"