Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1864-05-06
Educational.
EDVCITIOS AND CHRISTIANITY.
Fourth Article.

For the Bedford Inquirer
Education and Christianity acting in concert,
the one sanctifed by the other, constitute the
chief agency Of that eiyilzation toward which our
efforts tend, and our hearts aspire. Repudiating
the theory that Education is the chief instrument
Of civilization, and that other doctrine that Chris
tianity can do the whole work itself we have in
sisted upon union Of the two, not conventional,
but living and operative, going forth IN harrnoni-
Gus conjunction to work out the world deliver
ance from ignorance and sin.
From the lake which Geneva, the home and
conseryator Of Christianity overlooks, there flows
river, clear and majestic, Fastening on TO the
sea. Down from the proud, cold Alps, FIT type Of
an Intellectual greatness which Christianity hasnot
clothed With beauty and animated with life, there
flows the tubid Acre, boisterous as it is shallow.
By and By, the two streams enter the same chan
mel, but, by reason of a mutual repellance, the
Rhone presents the singular spectacle Of two riv-
ers rushing along within the same banks as if
some invisible barrier separated the one from the
other. Thus Christianity and Education are too
| often disunited, man having put asunder what
G9d designed should exist as beautiful and pow
erful unity.
With few remarks relative to the superiority
of Christianity as civiizipg agency, andits par
amount importance, / shall close the present Sc
ries OF articles.
| Christianity has ever been favorable to Educa-
ton. Most other religions have kept their sub
jects il ignorance and have maintained that It is
the mother of DEVOTION But Christianity ex-
tends its hand to Science, and aids inquiring
minds in their seaIeh after knosoLelge. The Re
formation enanqpated learning from the hands of
the priests and gave nelo impulse to letters and
| the fae arts. Poetry and painting came ont from
the din cIoisters, where they had been concealed
for ages, and walked forth through a regenerated
world
! UNIVERSALLY is peculiar to Christianity
Other religions ar5 adapted to certain people, and
suited to certain degree of Cicilt9ation. Their
jpts hare been circunscr1bed, and their eristence
precarious. But Christianity is suited to al
classes. It's simplicity brings it within the COM
prehension Of the illiterate, whilst its sublime re-
Violations have occupied the attention of the most
intellectual.
"Pety has found
Friends in the friends Of Science and true prayer
/
Christianity visits the Esquimaux in their huts,
and has sat on the throne of the Caesars. Itfour-
| ishes alike in regions of everlasting snow, and
amid the vineyards of the Campania 1t enters
the humble sanctuary, which poverty dedicates to
| the Triune God, and may be found ia the still
Cathedral where piety kneels in dim religious
| light before the altar.
| Christianity unites all mankind ia one brother
hood. Across the channel, Germany and Eng
land shake hands Lapland sends greeting to the
| far off isles of the sea- Though the Atlantic
rolls between the Mother country and America,
yet there are invisible cords of love, more durable
! than the submarine telegraph holding the heart
of the mother to the heart of the child, and
/ though there seems somewhat of estrangement
now, Christianity viii meyer suffer those bonds to
be broken. One Lord, one faith, one baptism
no,c the good time i coming when all nations
shall be united into one family, patriotism merged
| into worldwide philanthropy
Christianity is also imperishable in its nature
The religions of Egypt Greece and Rome have
passed away. Their temples, which were the
/ glory of their times, are now magnificent ruins
and the winds chant their wild requiem in
groves sacred to heather deities But Christian
| ity is imperishable For six thousand years it
has dEeIt among men 1t survived the food, and
held on it's way after the scepter had departed
from Judah. Ii concealed itself for a time among
| the mountains of Switzerland, thence, at the
dawn Of the Reformation, as giant walked from
refreshing sleep, vent forth from conquering unto
=