Morning journal and courier., 1886-06-28

iooIS ieSeIl III the one ana eXpanOS 1tSel within the other, purifying and elevatini both. While it addresses man as an individ | ual 1t presupposes that he draws much of hi l life from his social relations. Society i'm plies letters and laws and manners and nor | als: religion, that God is manifested througl | nature and perhaps In history. Society ant l religion presuppose schools-which can d. | more than home or neighbors in teachin| language and history, science and art. Tn church in it's way is also a school, in whicl | religious truth is defended, explained ant applied to the duties of this life and tn hopes of the next. Had there been no pa triarchs, no lawgivers, no scribes, no school
 of the prophets, no synagoogues, there hat been no Christ, no cross and no redemption The college, however, trains and teache | the young on still higher scale than tn family or the church. If the elementary in struction of the lower should be positivel Christian why should not that of the higher Looking at this question from a Christian standpoint we can give but one answer; tn school of the highest grade should be em phatically and positively Christian. That should be wisely Christian need not be sug gested; that it should not undo by overdoinI is self-evident; but that Christian aim should animate and control it's life is equally mani fest That the realization of these aims in wolves peculiar difficulties we do not deny that it may call for special sagacity is very
 
 about reason and faith, and right and wrong in conduct and character, is not only proba ble, but certain. Similar difficulties occul in the family and the church, but that Christianity should found colleges seems at first as natural and necessary as that it should seek to animate the family and the church with it's truth and it's life.
 As we have already seen, the influence ot the one is but prolongation of the influence of the others. To the college student and the scholar the story of the gospels that has been read in the home or heard at the church must take it's place as true or false in the long roll of general history, which every stu dent must learn to acceps or reject with some measure of instructed judgment. The spec ulative conceptions of God, of duty and i'm mortality, of government, law and religion, of the origination of the earth and the spirit of man, which the educated men must for mally accept or reject, are necessarily theis- tic or atheistic. They must be consistent or inconsistent with the Christian creed The practical principles, the theory of manners and of morals, which the student more or less intelligently receives or rejects as the living springs of his own moral life, must be sharply Christian or on-Christian, as many-shaded and as inconsistent as the hues of the chameleon, which is colored by what it chances to feed on.
 We confess that we cannot understand the
 
 admit the propriety and necessity of positive Christian influences in the home and semina- ", but would omit or exclude them from the college. The reason which they give is that the pupil is no longer child and therefore should be treated as man. It is true that he is no longer & child and perhaps not a youth; but neither in character nor in con victions has he become a man. Moreover, just at this period of life he is doomed to pass through that fermenting and transition period, in which he must form for himself his practical convictions and his theoretical judgments in the light of independent thought. It may be that less be done in 8 formal way for either at this time than at any other. It may be and doubtless is true that oficious and ill-timed intermeddling will do more harm than good; and yet for all that there is no time or condition of life in which wise Christian influences are more needed or are more effective than when the spontaneous impulses of childhood and youth are confirmed or rejected by distinct acts of intelligent volition-the judgments of the growing man. The moment the youth enters college he finds himself in a new country. Even if the pupil lodges and eats at his own home the public opinion of the college will yet penetrate into his cham Der with it's pervasive and stimulating at mosphere. This is trebly true if his own home is exchanged for a home within the college, charged as this always is with the electric force of young and buoyant life. It may be that often the teacher is impotent to use any direct moral or religious influence. We know very we'll that he may often over do by ill-timed zeal and injudicious obtru- siyeness, and that in contrast with mis- directed speech silence is indeed golden. For we know as we'll that if the teachers own character is elevated and refined by Chris tian earnestness, single word or sentiment that breaks this golden silence will go fur ther to confirm the halting faith or to re- kindle the smouldering fervor than sermon from any preacher or homily from any ex- horter; or, unhappily, contemptuous word or sarcastic utteranee- may rend the feeble fabric of a failing faith and poison the heart with distrust or scorn of what is noble and good. The teacher who is worthy of the name can reach the inner life of his pupil by what he says and does as no other person can. He can strengthen and renew the springs of that life sometimes by look or a word just as it takes the second adjustment which shall be final.
 This is not all. During his college and university life the pupil must at least begin the critical revisal of his religious and philo- sophical creed in the light of all that science and history and philosophy and criticism can say in their latest discoveries and reports. To the searching brig htness of these blazing lights the pupil must bring all that he has hitherto received without question. Into this fusing crucible he must cast all his tra- faiths, to receive them back as they shall leap forth in purer metal and brighter luster, or to reject them as worth less dross or base alloy. He cannot hold these faiths from this fiery trial, though rooted in the convictions of his father and ha1lowed by the love and prayers of his mother, and made sacred by the aspirations and VOWS of his youth He ought not to de- sire to do so. It is better that they should be reviewed and revised by the light of his judgment.
 To withdraw them from this light would dwarf his intellect and enfeeble his convic- tions. It would open widening and deep ening chasm between his practical and intel lectual life It would dishonor truth, which will not submit to be divided. This process of adjustment must and ought to go on. While it is proceeding the college or univer- sity becomes of necessity the church, and the teachers and associates are for the time being priests and oracles; for it is in the light of what these attest and prove that the old creed is reafirmed, or questioned or re- And what if this church has no religion and the priests have no eonsecra- ton? What, again, if they are thoroughly and unaffectedly Christians In these times of crises-and they are always present-a word or look from the living teacher, a
 
 other, an earnest and candid spirit or a scof fing and dogmatie doubt, or the combined impression of his intellectual temper and personal spirit-have in thousands of in- stances been fraught with bane CT blessing to his confding pupil. Of many, in this crisis of their spiritual history, it might be said that so far as human council and help can come at all in this critical and transition period, they must come through those intel lectual activities which are the absorbing and controlling element of the students life.
 3. Christianity needs the college to inn prove it's own spiritual quality and enlarge it's attractiveness and power. For this req son the Christian college is an essential ap- bondage to the church and therefore ought to be emphatically Christian. It is now more generally conceded than formerly that education and culture are essential to fur nish armor for the defense of the church and weapons for its advancement It is not so clearly recognized as it ought to be that both are requisite for the development of it's own varied and highest perfections. W hile it is granted by all that certain measure of each is required for the existence and growth of the kingdom of God, it is at the same time feared by many that too much of either will bring hindrance rather than help to the strength and beauty of the Christian charac ter We hold the contrary. Knowledge