Wichita eagle., 1886-10-10

their influence. The power of college
varies inversely as the square of its distance
from the people These schools are the re-
suit of the partiality of the legislature for
some one county in the state. The agri-
cultural college of Indiana gets 80 per cent
of its students from its own town and
county. The Indiana state university last
year obtained one hundred of its two hun
dred and eighty student from Monroe
county, where it is located To student
free tuition is of little account compared
with the barriers of travelling expenses and
board, and hence they attend the nearest
schools. They are inadequate because in
large and important class of studies they
are compelled by their very foundation
principles to profess silence, namely, relig-
ion in all its relations and in all its bearings
on human welfare and destiny. This leads
one to say that
Our fourth special reason is founded on
the obligation which we are under as
christian people and as christian par
ents to furnish higher schools for our chill
dren, the very life and power OF which
shall be derived from religious truth and
example. In the college where our youth
are trained for the nation and for eternity
we dare not make religion subordinate, we
,, dare not reduce it to zero or minus guam
titv. What class of students shall our
children assemble with, religious or lrrellg-
| ious? What kind of teachers shall they
learn to admire, praying men or profane
men? What sort of morality shall they be
| taught, one founded On divine authority
and benevolence or on goddess evolution
| of moral law from mere custom whether
right or wrong? What destiny shall be set
| before them, eternal life through we'll do.
ing or eternal nothingness without regard
to the course of life? These are questions
which, before God, we are required to an
swer. These demands of parental obliga-
tions and Christian conscience the state
schools can not meet If true to their fun
damental principle, that of neither voting
religion up or down, that of making it sub
ordinate and colorless. they would be ex
ceedingly narrow on nearly all other sub
iects as well as on religion, fol
all science enters into religion
and all religion into science They cannot
teach history, for here religion is a guild
ing spirit. nor science for this is part OF
natural theology and its history is blended
with that of religion ITSELF nor literature
for a literature with the religious part left
out might as well be out of the world; mol
philosophy, for this is saturated with
religious thought nor applied mathematics
lest they should triangulate the heaven:
and discover the infinite mathematician
They would have to cOnfine themselve
to the abstraction of number and space tC
plus and minus to Y. y. and Z. But as /
matter of fact, they are not and cannot bt
true to this organic principle. Their very
existence is a protest against making reilg-
ion paramount and all pervasive in college
life The college professor is compelled by
his very position to teach concerning relig-
ion He teaches by silence, by his absence
from the prayer meeting, by his standing
aloof from the church. Evermore ii will
be true that those who are not for Christ
are against him, and that those who gather
not with him are scattering abroad.
Another reason is found in the demand
of our churches for an educated ministry
educated elders and evangelists. The min
lister of the gospel occupies the highest
plane and laws under contribution all intel
lectual power and all science. The cause
which we profess to plead, that of bible
Christianity, is worthy of the most scrip
tural, the most scientific and the most lit
erary advocacy. Our churches are calling
for efficient pastors, while the outside fields
are white for the harvest and the laborers
are few. This demand requires school OF
our own.
A final justification Of our purpose i
found in the fact that we have the resources
which such an enterprise requires. AS the
growth of the state Shas brought up the
value of the school lands and so endowed
the common schools, is it not well that the
| Growth Of this wonderful city of Wichita