The teacher who has a desire to ennoble the character of his pupils will seek a place where Nature in her silent language gives lessons which no human tongue can utter. Parents who desire the best good of their sons and daughters, will, when the light of Christian education dawns upon their minds, hasten into the country, that the youthful minds over which they are keeping guard may be influenced by the natural rather than by the artificial. [Sidenote: Value of the farm in education] It is not surprising that the best educators who have opened their minds to truth have taught that cultivation of the soil, with the training of the eye and the hand in the shop, should accompany mental discipline. Prof. James R. Buchanan, says: “Blessed is the _farmer’s boy_.... The industrial feature, not limited to handicraft, but embracing all forms of useful exertion, _is the essential basis of a true education_; as it insures, if rightly conducted, a worthy character, a healthy constitution, a solid intellect, and a capacity for practical success; for it gives vigor to the entire brain, and a far better invigorating mental discipline than can ever be obtained from text-books. The boy who has constructed a wagon, or a bureau, or _raised a small crop_, as instructed, has more independence of mind and originality than the one who has only studied text-books. The boys of Lancaster, Ohio, who gave half their time to useful industry, made better progress in school studies than the common school pupils who had their whole time for study, and at the same time presented a model of conduct in all respects unequaled in any non-working school in this country.”[182] Close adherence to the text-book is the papal method of teaching, and is a necessary accompaniment of prescribed courses, while the humanistic tendency is well developed. Christian schools, because of the truths they advocate, are forced to depart from the established order in the educational world, and their education is rendered practical by joining _the farm and the school_. This method of teaching is already followed in some places, showing that that system so often designated Christian education is not a thing of recent birth, neither is it the product of some man’s mind. Its principles have been made known from time to time, and these principles have been followed more or less carefully in all periods of the world’s history. [Sidenote: School Gardens of Modern Europe]