Boarding School Days—Enlisting for Life

Chapter 2, 1850-1853

At thirteen years of age Arthur left home, never again to return for any length of time. His parents noted their boy’s talents and tendencies and took the advice of his instructors to give him every opportunity to stir up the gift that was in him. They determined to follow the Scriptural injunction to “train up a child in his way,”—according to his own God-given bent—and at no little sacrifice to themselves they sent their son to attend the Collegiate Institute at Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson.

Life Motto and Injunction

Before his departure his father gave him as a life motto the injunction and promise from Proverbs 3:5-6—“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” Sixty years later the son said: “Since my father gave me that motto, no important step has been taken in my life without looking to God for His guidance and never have I looked in vain. I have learned that if His guidance does not come at once, it is safer to wait until He sees fit to show the way. After all it is His work, His time, His way that are of consequence. A step taken too soon will be pretty sure to be a misstep.”

Stephen H. Pierson was not a man of many words and was not given to parental lectures, but his life was clean and upright and his words carried weight.