Part 4 (1/2)
The fine natural instincts of the majority of American people are repelled at such physical prowess It is not necessary to introduce the eleive vent to the superabundance of youthful animal spirits
The abuse of these outdoor sports should not itimate use It is wiser to control and direct the which they call forth, and which ht find expression in less appropriate channels
It should be borne inis a failure unless the aim is to maintain and develop health, to raceful and better fitted for the duties of living
A symmetrical development involves, likewise, _the cultivation of the ion affords the broadest educational basis, because it presents the most exalted notion of personality and its development It takes account of the deepest facts of our nature, and teaches philosophical principles that are true for all created intelligences Hence it is that Christianity is essential to the best educational systeoverns true education A narrow and false conception ofonly one side of his nature The will, the conscience, the emotional and spiritual natures demand a share in the broadest culture We cannot divide these essential eleious senti that it cannot be eliminated or dethroned
It takes no subordinate place, because it is supreme There is no true theory of life without the spiritual element All theories of education and principles of action that do not recognize the relations of the human soul to the supernatural are out of har human life
These truths have been iht,” said Daniel Webster, ”that ever entered ht ofsays that ” truth, throwing all other truths into insignificance, and a truth which, however obscured and paralyzed by the norance and fraud have hitherto linked with it, has ever been a chief spring of human improvement We look to it as the true life of the intellect No man can be just to himself, can comprehend his own existence, can put forth all his poith an heroic confidence, can deserve to be the guide and inspirer of other minds, till he has risen to communion with the Supreme Mind; till he feels his filial connection with the Universal Parent; till he regards himself as the recipient and minister of the Infinite Spirit; till he feels his consecration to the ends which religion unfolds; till he rises above huher iion is in harmony with intellectual activity, because it favors application to study, and enjoins the duty of seeking truth, as well as awakens and intensifies the love of the good and beautiful In fact, the hureatest triuion has assireat formative force in modern intellectual movements It favors a broad catholic spirit, and is the counterpoise and ree of intellectual activity History teaches that it has been a strong incentive in the search after truth, and the chief factor in training the race to a higher civilized life The changes in the progress in uided by Christian knowledge
The whole trend of her intellectual circles is to apply Christian principles to the probleorated the human iven ihest types of eher institutions of learning is principally due to the Christian religion
”Froists onwards,” says Prof John De Witt, ”learning has always advanced under the fostering care of our religion In the schools of Antioch and of Alexandria, in Carthage and Hippo, in the old Rohout the period of the ancient church, religion is the great inspiration of intellectual labor How true this is of the Middle Age I need not stop to say Religion in Ansellican doctor it employs the dialectic and metaphysics of Aristotle And the true father of the inductive philosophy, who anticipated the Organon and the very Idola of his great naer Bacon, the Franciscan brother It was to this wonderful and unique power of Christianity to assimilate and employ all the triumphs of the human intellect, that the Western World is indebted for the universities by which, eneration to generation Bologna and Naples, the school of Egbert at York, the schools of Charlene in the New Christian Empire, with Alcuin as minister of education; the later universities, with their tens of thousands of eager students--Paris, Cologne, and Oxford--sprang into being obedient, indeed, to a thirst for knowledge, but a thirst for knowledge which, in turn, owed its existence and intensity to the unique fact that Christianity alone aions can assimilate and employ all the truths of human philosophy, of science, and of literature”
The ies cannot be overestimated Dr Thomas Arnold has spoken words that should be preserved in letters of gold ”Consider,” he says, ”what a religious education, in the true sense of the word, is: It is no other than a training our children to life eternal; no other than thethem know and love God, know and abhor evil; no other than the fashi+oning all the parts of our nature for the very ends which God designed for thehest truth; the teaching our affections to _love_ the highest good!” One of the greatest teachers, Mark Hopkins, on the fiftieth anniversary of his connection with Willia, lobe, and it is a sad defect in any institution of higher learning if it does not bring those under its care into the closest possible relation to it” The profound French philosopher, Victor Cousin, declares that ”any systethens the intellectual poithout supplying ious principle is a curse rather than a blessing” And President M E Gates says: ”In place of the fer despair of nihilisations of agnosticism which have cursed liberally-educated Europe, if we are to have here in A and beneficient in our social systeiate education, itin that systehest ai the best interests of one's fellow-oal of all education is fulness of stature of men and women in Christ Art and science are a vain shoithout this aim A man may have a brain as keen as a Da without piety This ht conduct which, Matthew Arnold says, is three-fourths of life
Other things being equal, the student that is touched and saturated with the religious life will be under the strongest hest culture and efficiency in life A pure heart and a clear brain are closely related ”Our education will never be perfect unless, like the ancient tehted from above” Martin Luther said: ”To have prayed well is to have studied well,” which accords with the idea of the best scholars in fore: _Bene orasse est bene studisse_
The Christian spirit is eminently favorable to culture and to the promotion of literary productivity It helps to make brilliant and earnest teachers, and lends zest to professional a equal,” says Noah Porter, ”that institution of learning which is earnestly religious is certain to est and , as well as in literary tastes and capacities”
President Gates forcibly expresses the thought in these words: ”Man is not, and was not meant to be, pure disembodied intellect True philosophy, as well as cohtful doant and spurns the aid of the other powers of the mind, not only does the man become an incomplete man, but his intellect itself inevitably loses poise and clearness Themachine, and his intellect becoitimate processes and results which the law of construction for calculating machines renders inevitable in the, worshi+ping soul”
There is nothing entleion Tennyson's poetic interpretation of this truth is thus beautifully expressed:
”Let knowledge grow from more to more, Butwell, May make onereligious life in college_ are widely varied One of the most effective ious influence of the college professors
The student enters college at a vital and perilous period of life The judgment is often immature and the life principles unsettled In this speculative period the studentto adjust his faith to his reason Especially at this tith of faith and spiritual discern doubt Ex-President Seelye, of A to a post of instruction here an irreligious norant of the topics he would have to teach” It is certainly no narrow bigotry that leads the Christian public to dees select professors loyal to the truth and the Christian Church United with their scientific culture and professional ability as teachers they should embody Christian earnestness and purity of life, and aim to send out students with a positive and rational faith
The parent who realizes that the e e, believes that it would be moral suicide to permit theious indifference, or unfavorable reht infuse the poison of skepticism, doubt, or indifference, and perhaps unsettle their early religious convictions, and ”send the notions”
The courses of study in college should be arranged so as to favor the study of the essential facts and truths of the Christian religion, and through them promote practical piety There is no valid reason why the Christian religion, which is the chief energy and force in all intellectual culture, should not be distinctly and pere curriculum The well-established and accepted facts of the Christian religion should be gathered and studied with ascare, freedom of spirit, and loyalty to truth as the scientist studies his facts and constructs his theories This method implies that the teacher and pupil hold in abeyance all those probable theories, speculations, and conjectures which are not established, as irrelevant to the work in hand When this scientific spirit is more effectively introduced into the study of the Christian religion in our colleges, it will prepare the way for the restate force to every intelligent student Christian truth is capable of being built up into a syste the earnest student in search of spiritual truth, will exercise tolerance and tact, so that he will not awaken suspicions of being actuated by a narrow bigotry, or appear as a lover of dogain, it is better to select text-books that have been written by capable ion The student with an immature mind, who seeks to build his faith and theories of life on the teachings of those whose predilections are away from Christianity, will find it fatal to his lofty ideals and aspirations, while instruction based on Christian theism tends to lift the mind upward, and to foster a hopeful and earnest rant that Christian character can only be incidentally produced through the subjects studied The saht in different ways, and with entirely different results The intellectual processes involved in study do not necessarily exert a spiritual influence The aim and spirit of the professor and student will determine whether the study pursued shall contribute to the cultivation of greater reverence and exaltation of the soul The charm of scientific study hts of the spiritual and eternal, or he h nature up to nature's God” The student may be so absorbed with the human events and ht of God's presence and guiding hand in it all
To be liberally educated in Christian Alish Bible It is the fountain and conservator of pure English and the storehouse of the ht Its classic beauty and lofty speculations and sublime morality are essential to a liberal education ”Froude calls the Bible the best of all literatures Daniel Webster read the Bible through every year for its effect upon his mind Charles Sumner kept the Bible at his elbow on his desk, and could find any passage without a concordance Great reat inspiration But not this alone--as a great and inspiring literature,--but as a source of spiritual life and power, the Bible is the basis of true collegiate growth”
The study of the English Bible in colleges is i the will and the conscience, and in evoking religious feelings which have a practical influence on conduct It certainly is men face to face with the facts of sin and its remedy The presence of Christianity in the intellectual life of the student is corrective of selfishness and other vices which enslave the intellect and render life a disastrous failure
It is encouraging to note that the study of the Bible is finding a place in the Ae curriculum on a level with other studies, and time is allotted to attain a certain intellectualand exhausting as any part of the college course The student is led to trace the historic anic character, the literary forms and personal factors in its coinal and independent students of the Word The intellectual, devotional, and practical ends attained by this study are a powerful factor in upholding andthe moral and spiritual character of the students
Anotherin a community with a separate intellectual and social life should be required to ious worshi+p and instruction The sacred e conition of the worth and power of the Christian religion, and do so to meet the spiritual needs and aspirations of the hu of the acadeestive exposition of scripture, and to unite in praise and prayer, cultivates reverence and devotion in the student, and will be regarded by htful experiences in college life If the religious services are not e, the students may pass to the university in their maturer years with devotional habits, and, likely, to avail theious exercises
The colleges should ever keep in view the original aielical power Piety, however, should not be a substitute for honest scholarly work They should never perrowth of the sciences to obscure or conceal Hiht and Life of all men Their immediate and primary aim should be to promote intellectual culture, but this in nowise involves a departure froencies for defending and propagating the gospel, and for leading the youth to re of wisdoe is to unfold the intellectual, physical,people, and especially to for out the divine purpose of life