Wichita eagle., 1886-10-10

| beginning of a university endowment, VIZ.
from $500, 900 to $1,000 The people
of this city and of Sedgwick county are
seeing that the colleges located here will
be as good an investment as farms
and railroads We number, probably,
900 churches ard 1000 members in the
state alone, 600 900 in nation, and the
rapidity of our increase is without prece-
dent in the religious world. Why should
not a sufficient portion of our wealth be de-
voted to this purpose? All these farms. all
the cattle on q thousand plains, and all the
wealth of the whole land, belong to the
best Offering to God and the richest heri-
tage for our children will be successful
Christian university.
this work depends upon the kind of school
it is destined to be. If it is to be weak
ling; if it is TO be a hospital, where students
shall be lon ely and home-sick and where
professors shall starve in respectable indi
gence; if it is to be kept in the straight
! Jacket of moribund curriculum; if it is
to teach little more than bic, haec, hoe, and
if it is to have the form of godliness with
out the power thereof, then it will be q
failure and the sooner the better. Turn
we then to the characteristics which this
school should possess.
First in statement as first in importance.
it should be intensely religious. The very at
mosphere around it should be vital with re-
/ ligious power. The bible should have a
place in all its courses of study. All its
professors should also be possessors of
practical piety, and men OF active religious
lives. 1t should be a place of prayer. self
sacrifice and missionary zeal. 1t should
stand a citidel of christian defense against
all attacks. from whatever side they might
come.
Second, it should adopt the new educa-
ton and build on its fundamental princl-
ples. and among these principles are the
following: % There is no room and no
necessity for mere mental gymnastics. Men
tai discipline and utility are not at logger
heads. The postman does not need to
walk three miles before breakfast in order
to gain strength to deliver the mail. We
must so choose our studies that mental drill
: and the greatest utility may be combined.
{ (2) II is absurd to make all students, what
| ever their bent of mind or purposes IN life,
take the same cast iron course. (3) That
the fields of human learning are now SO
various and so vast that no student Can
master the whole, and that he must, there
fore. choose some particular line of study
, and a. That the student, under laws
of coordination and completeness which
the faculty may establish, shall be per
} mitted to elect such a course rs shall pre-
pare him for his chosen work in life. This
means that the school shall be kept fully
abreast of modern educational philosophy
and method. We are breaking away from
, the traditions handed over to Us by the Eng
lish universities Harvard, Ann Arbor
John HOPKINS and more recently Yale, as
well as the great German schools are re
modelling their courses in harmony with
their principles.
t Again, the school should be on plan
broad enough and liberal enough to mee
the wants of the people by whom and fol
whom it was established. 1t must have
buildings, libraries, museums and appara
tus in no meagre supply. 1t must have pro
t fessors of ability, both in respect to learn
ing and teaching power, who love thei
calling, and whose main endeavor Is not tt
, have less work and more salary. 1t must
have more than one dish on its table if il
expects many guests. 1t must admit wo
men to equal privileges and honors witt
men. and must open its doors to worthy
) students of every class and condition.
{ A school that is partial, that bids for The
aristocracy, that discOurageS and represSeS
worth because it comes in humble attire, i
not fit to remain upon the earth. 1t IS ;
, beneficent fact and law that such schools
, commit suicide in a very short time.
Again, it must be supplied, as far as pos
, sible, with all the general conditions OF sue
cess. Money Money not in brick ane
mortar only, but in endowment endow