The word culture is used first of land – the act of tilling and preparing it for fertility. The ground is cultivated in order to make it yield the best harvests. The word is applied also to the act of promoting growth in plants, especially with a view to the improvement of their quality and the production of new varieties. It is wonderful what results are obtained in flowers, for example, by culture.
The word is used also of the improvement of the mind and the refinement of the character, under the influence of education. It is not only the acquiring of knowledge, the becoming familiar, for example, with literature, that is meant; it includes also the effect on the life, the thoughts, the feelings, of familiar contact with refinement. We all know the influence on the nature of intimate association with those who are intelligent and refined.
There is also a spiritual culture, the improving, enriching and refining of the spiritual part of our being. We begin our Christian life as children, in the lowest forms at school. Yet we are to grow in all the qualities which belong to the beautiful Christian character. Spiritual culture is the process by which our nature is softened and mellowed into the gentleness of love, our talents are developed into their best possibilities of usefulness, and our whole life is transformed into the beauty of Christ.
Page 1