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atioru* of the moral and religious life of Ike ns
ing generation.
UKAVK SITUATlUN LN COLLEGES*,
in a measure, now ever, the Christian home
can counteract the tuhuuicea which ought to
strengthen rather than weaken (as is often the
ease), the. teachings of the hreaide. The real
MBChief of the lack of positive moral and re
iig.uus instruction in the state schools begins
when the young men and young women leave
home and enter college. Here there are no
wholesome home induenees to counteract the irreligious
teachings of the class-room and of the
Life examp'es of the teachings force. It takes a
. strong man, strong woman, to react against such
tendencies successfully. The religious life of
some becomes positively antagonistic to the
church, of the gicat majority ceases to grow,
ripen, and expand, of the almost negligible minority
continues to develop and gain ctrength from
the oppos.ng tendencies that have to be overcome.
Tile sumzestion that the Sundav school
should supply the deficiency of their formal education
is not realized in fact, for their teachers
neglect the Sunday school and so do they. Nor
can the Y. C. A. or any other voluntary quasireligious
organization among college students
supply the moral and religious sustenance needful
for the fruition of soul-power and the development
of Christian character. The Y. AL C.
A. in such institutions fast gravitates into a
social cluo countenancing practices condemned
by the church, and the other organizations follow
rapidly the same religious deterioration. By the
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study Psychology, Ethic#, Social Science, and
Philosophy, he is either without any religious
convictions, or in short order, except in rarest
instances, toon will be. The sad part of it is that
the young men regard the skeptic's air as the
proper attitude to religious truth and are taught
to persevere in it by their teachers, who are convinced
that the scientific method of investigation
the chief ingredient of which is doubt as to
the truth of every positive statement until it is
proved, is the only proper method of examining
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we close onr eyes and fold our hands while the
leaders in many of our churches send their children
to these veritable religious divorce courts,
in which it is the rare exception that the marital
vows of allegiance to the church, given in life's
morning time in the old church at home, are not
forever severed, or at least permanently lessened
in vital affection.
THE IMPOSSIBLE HAS BEEN ATTEMPTED
1 go a step further. I affirm that it is absolute
iy impossible 10 Teacn wunoui prejudicing ine
student for or against religion, and, in so far as
the church represents religion, for or against the
church. We have attempted the impossible in
this country. We have tried in separating the
church and state, to separate education and religion,
and the operation has been unsuccessful
and must ever be so. Only quacks and charlatans
and educational patent medicine vendors
will dpnv this statempTit and thpv pnnnnf art.
dace a single argument to support their denial.
Aside from the personal character of the teacher,
the subjects taught- have direct religions bearings,
and they can be made to bear for or against
the Christian faith, and they will be made to do
so in spite of the insistence that it will not be
done. It is impossible to teach literature without
getting from it certain standards of character
and certain ideals of life and conduct.
History and Natural Science cannot be presented
without touching vitally the attitude toward
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* Pedagogy, Ethics, and Psychology involve directly
the investigation of questions that are inseparable
from the Christian religion, and which .
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must be settled in accordance with its faith and
doctr. lies or against them. There is no midway
ground. It is religion or irreligion in higher
education, and we Know wuieh it is that the
church schools are giving us.
LET THE SKF.raCS PROVIDE T1LE1B OWN COLLEGES.
But what shall the man do, who belongs to no
church and wishes his children bj-ought up under
sceptical influences or free l'roin in nuances tending
in any way to impress iliom favorably toward
the religious life I .Should not the state
provide for him! Mot at ail. lie will not grant
that the state should provide the type of education
called ChrisUan for those who believe in it,
they, too, being in the majority in the state, and
how can he consistently expect the state to pro,.:.K
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I would go further than this. I would claim that
the State ought with greater right to furnish me
with the Christian type ol' education, because
ours is a Christian land and the Christian type
of education will produce a finer type of citizenship,
aud the state is certainly standing in the
way of its own progress not to foster and encourage
and provide the conditions productive
of the noblest, best type of citizens possible.. If
he objects to the state's doing this on the ground
that it would be a union of the state and the
church, while we deny his premises, we grant his
contention and agree through our denominational
college to furnish the state this very type of
citizenship, and we bid him do likewise for the
type he believes in. Let him and those who believe
with him do as we propose to do. Let them
build a college of their own and maintain it at
their expense, but let not him or them suppose
that the public treasury and the taxing power
of the state are to be at their disposal forever
for the state's undoing and the church's subversion.
This is fair; it is more than fair, because
in this proposal the majority would refuse
to exercise a right because the minority
raised objection. Our present arrangement is
extremely iniquitous in that the minority exercises
a privilege to which the majority is clearly
opposed, and rightly.
LET US HAVE HEAL STATE UNIVERSITIES.
But what then will you do with your state
institutions of higher learning, your state technical
schools, and your stale universities? Have
tiiey no place in the educational uplift and de
veiopment ot the state 7 les, a real place. The
state universities should become real universities;
that is, they should abolish their college departments
and confine themselves to graduate
work in the Arts and Sciences and to instruction
in the learned professions through their
special schools for these branches. They admit
Ihose only who are mature in years and so of
settled religious convictions and gradually
should receive none exeent those who have re
eeived their first degrees from colleges of recognized
standing, not even to their professional
schools. If these universities prefer to maintain
college departments as they now do, they
should be willing to publish the religious affiliation
of their professors and instructors in their
catalogues. The public would then be able to
understand that it is religiously dangerous for
immature young persons to go there and that
only those whose religious convictions are solid
and immovable for or against the church could
go without risk of having the character disastrously
affected from their individual standpoint.
If the state colleges would acknowledge
their incapacity under prevailing conceptions as
to the state 'a relation to religion to give to immature
persons the needful environment for the
development of Christian character, much less
mischief would be wrought on an easily beguiled
and willingly fakired public, and in fairness
they ought to do it.
) o x H I April 9, 1913
THE PLACE OF STATE TECHNICAL SCHOOLS.
Much tlie same should be said oi* the State's
technical schools. They ought to be maintained
for those who are mature and gradually should
adjust their courses in such a way that only those
who had taken their first degrees in reputable
colleges could be admitted. 1 will not raise the
question, raised by many thoughtful persons,
as to the propriety of the state's giving atten1
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some others equally as desirable. " Why," say
they, "should a state try to educate farmers and
mechanics any more than preachers?" If the
state universities and special schools will tell the
whole situation with reference to their internal
conditions and confess their limitations in religious
matters and maintain acceptable standards
of scholarship for admission, they will become
the allies and not the competitors of the
private and church institutions and the state's
morality and religious progress and prosperity
as well as its commercial and industrial interests
will he nrovide<l fnr nnrl nrrmlv sMfecrnnrrle/l
THE CONDITIONS DEMAND CHANGE AND TILAT BIGHT
EARLY.
The prospect calls for sober thinking, consistent
reasoning, concerted action, on the part
of the nation's religious forces. Nothing should
be done rashly, nothing narrowly, nothing inconsiderately,
nothing from prejudice. But when
a great state spends more money out of its
treasury for the support of institutions of higher
learning serving only a few hundred students,
who can get the identical advantages supposed
to be offered there in the denominationally and
privately supported colleges within its borders,
than it spends on the education of the thousands
of its children who do not even enjoy the advantages
of the three It's, it is time for soberthinking
and,consistent reasoning. And when it
is considered further that these same institutions
do not produce the highest type of Christian
character, and Christian citizenship, it is
time for something more than sober thinking and
consistent reasoning; it is time for concerted
action, that the greater good to the greatest number
may ultimately result.
UNSHAKEN.
By S. Addison McElroy, D. D.
Call Religion but a dream?
Hallucination's maddened vision;
Then arraign the Cross of Christ,
Heap upon Him your derision.
Call all Christians hypocrites;
Declare the Church a superstition;
Rend its doctrines to bits;
Deny its God-appointed (mission.
Then array in martial order,
All the science of the ages:
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Ix>glc and Psychology,
Physics and Biology,
Wit and wisdom of the sages,
Higher critics acumen;
Bring these miselles fresh and hoary.
All the wisdom of each cult.
Hurl them with the catapult
Of transcendent oratory,
Full against the old, old story.
Follow then their devestatlon
And the cry of exultation
In the rout of Revelation,
By the army of the pen,
"Worse than sword in ranks of men
But with History's open pages,
8tlll upon th'o Rock of Ages,
Faiths strong cnstle shall atblde
High above the noise of -battle,
Far above all human pride,
And by power of Grace Divine
I still answer, He Is mine.
Ttiicii. T?*??
Live in a thankful spirit and you ivill find
more to be thankful for.?Brooke Herford.
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