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VIRGINIA
The Presbyterian of the
Vol. 96. No. 29.
.,atuoo?
RICH *1*19 'tujiJiA
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July 19. 1922.
EDUCATION is the most valuable asset a
boy or girl can have, if it is of the right
kind. Parents can make no wiser investment
for the future welfare of their children than to
give them a good education. Money laid up lor
them may be lost or it may injure them. With
all the changes of fortune education will abide.
Education develops the mind and fits it to en
joy more fully the things of life that are most
worth while. It is the educated mind that sees
most in the wonders of nature, as it derives
most of pleasure and profit from the wisdom of
others as expressed in books and otherwise. An
educated mind will fit one far better to solve
the many great problems of life than he conld
otherwise. And when it comes to business, the
educated mind has a great advantage over any
other. It is only occasionally that an unedu
cated man makes a success, and when he does it
is usually due to the fact that ho asks for and
receives the help and eounsel of educated men.
We often hear of self-educated men. There
are some men who did not have the advantage
of going to school, or had the opportunity of
going to school for a short time only, and who
by persevering effort and hard private study
secured an education at home. But such cases
are very rare. If a man is to be a leader among
his fellows, he must have a mind as well or betr
ter trained than others, or else others will not
follow him. Those who have made a careful
investigation say that of the men who succeed
in any of the nobler callings of life, almost all
have had a college education. The proportion
of others who are successful is very small.
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CHRISTIAN education is the only complete
education. Unless the heart is educated,
the trained mind may go farther into evil than
it would otherwise. But when heart and mind
are both trained together they will be able to
accomplish the most good. The boy or girl
should get his religious training first of all at
home. But unfortunately they so often have to
leave home before their moral and religious
views are firmly established. The boy goes to
college just in the impressionable age. Ilis ex
perience is all new. He looks up with profound
respect to his professors, and if they attract him
hy their general manner, he is likely to lie
ready to accept as truth anything that they
teach, either in the class room or in their lives.
It. is therefore of the greatest importance that
the greatest care be taken to see that the l?oy is
I "laced under proper influences, as to his teach
ers and as to his surroundings. Ordinarily
these can be found more satisfactorily in the
schools and colleges owned or controlled by the
* hurch than anywhere else. Our Church is
blessed in having a number of most excellent
educational institutions. They are not quite as
large as some others, but none give better edu
ction, as is shown by the records made by their
?raduates. For the sake of the Church, for
the sake of Christian education, for the sake
our boys and girls, these institutions should
receive the most liberal patronage and support.
CRIME and education do not seem to go
ther, if the statements of the superinten
dent of the New York State reformatories is
accepted. He says that of 22,000 criminals
examined in the penal institutions of that State
only four were collcge graduates. In argroup of
1,000 of these prisoners it was found that only
T per cent, had a high school education, 25 per
ccnt. had finished the grammar school, and
(51 per cent, had attended only the primary
schools. This is certainly a strong argument
in favor of giving boys and girls the best edu
cation possible. For education is not merely
filling the mind with facts, it is developing char
acter.
WOODROW WILSON COLLEGE is the
name of a new educational institution
being established at Banner Elk, N. C. Twenty
five years ago Lees-MacRae Institute was estab
lished as a primary school. Eight years ago
a high school department was added. This
school has done a wonderful work in provid
ing a good Christian education for the boys and
girls of the mountains of Western North Caro
lina, who otherwise would have had practically
no opportunity for securing any education.
Those in control of the school feel that the time
has come to establish a junior college to give
advanced education to the graduates of the
Lees-MacRae School and of high schools that
have been established in other sections of the
mountains. An initial donation of $125,000
has been received as a begining of an equip
ment and endowment fund. One beautiful
stone building is being erected, and for the
present arrangements will be made to use a
part of the Lees-MacRae equqipment. Plans
are being made to secure a charter and to have
a board of trustees appointed by one of the
courts of the Presbyterian Church. Ex-Presi
dent. Woodrow Wilson for some time has shown
great interest in the Lees-MacRae Institute,
and at the earnest request of its principal, Rev.
Edgar Tufts, Mr. Wilson has agreed to allow
the college to be named after him. No doubt
the college will continue and advance the good
work that has already been done in that section
of the mountains, and prove itself worthy of
the honorable name it is to bear.
METHODS of finance in the churches are
attracting far more attention than they
ever did before, and many different plans have
been and ivre being tried. It looks very much
as though the plans adopted by our Church
are the l>est so far devised. The Record of
Christian Work, published at Northfield, Mass.,
has this to say on the subject: "Evidence is
multiplying among the denominations that the
plan of taking subscriptions to benevolent and
missionary causes for five-year periods is un
wise. It is probable that no denomination will
ever try this plan again. The plan of an an
nual 'Every Member Canvass' and a progres
sive program that keeps step with the ability of
the people and the opportunities that God sets
liefore them is far better."
ROMAN" Catholics in Rome and elsewhere
are very much stirred up by the fact that
the Methodist Church of this country and the
Young Men's Christian Association are doing
missionary work in Italy and especially that
they have dared to enter the sacred city of
Rome. Their wrath has l)een specially awak
ened because the Methodist Church has pur
chased a site for a college on a hill outside of
the city, which happens to overlook the Vatican.
The Pope is so much disturbed by the activity
of these two Christian organizations that he has"
appealed to the Knights of Columbus, the men's
organization of the Roman Catholic Church of
of this country, to come to the help of their co
religionists. Heretofore the Knights have de
clined all proposals to engage in work outside
of the United States, but when the land of the
Pope is in danger they dare not refuse to go to
his aid, and they have appropriated $1,000,000
for this purpose. The charge has been made
that the Young Men's Christian Association has
undertaken its work in Koine merely to. draw
away young men from the Komish Church, ami
that the chief means that they use to accom
plish this purpose is the employment of sports
and amusements. It does not seein to be un
derstood that the object of the Association, as
of the Methodish Church, is not to draw men
away from the Catholic Church, but to draw
them to Christ. If in doing this they are drawn
away from the Catholic Church, that church
and not the Association is responsible. It is
said that the head of the Knights has said that
his organization will devote much attention to
teaching sports in Italy. If sports are to be
used as a means for leading men to Christ and
building them up in their faith, they ought to
be used by all means. If they are taught merely
amusement, the assurance is that the Young
Men's Christian Association will do more for
the real welfare of Italy than will the Knights.
This call of the Pope shows that he realizes that
these Protestant organizations are realy accom
plishing something. It shtrws also that all the
influence of the Pope and of the Vatican is not
sufficient to arouse the Romish Church in Italy
sufficiently for it to take care of itself. May
the time soon come when Christ the King of
kings shall Teign supreme in all of Italy, and
throughout the world.
SUNDAY school membership and atten
dance is an interesting study. In many
churches the members seem never to have
gotten away from the idea that the Sunday
school is intended only for small children.
When that idea once gets started it is difficult
indeed to get adults.to attend, except the faith
ful few, who are teachers and officers. Under
such circumstances it is just as difficult to keep
the boys and girls in the school, when they have
become young men and young women. In some
schools there are large Bible classes, especially
of men, numbering hundreds, while in other
schools, if there is such a class at all, it is small
and often inactive. The normal condition
ought to be .to have in the Men's Bible classes
practically all the men in the church. There
are not many men, who cannot attend Sunday
school, if they want to, and others who are not
meml>ers ought to be brought in. Two things
are necessary to have a large Bible class of
men. One is to show clearly that the Sunday
school is a place in which all ages meet to study
the Bible. The other is to help the men to
realize that they will be benefited by studying
God's word. One striking fact is that we hear
of more very large Men's Bible Classes in
churches of other denominations, #in proportion
to the number and size of the churches, than
we find in the Presbyterian churches. We
shall be glad, if some one will give the explana
tion of this condition of affairs.