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VIRGINIA The Presbyterian of the Vol. 96. No. 29. .,atuoo? RICH *1*19 'tujiJiA r 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. f { 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.