The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-15
IMPORTANCE OF
 COLLEGE TRAINING Rev. l. D. Steele Breaches on Subject of Education. THE HOME A GREAT FACTOR  Interesting Figures Given to Show the Advantages of a We'll Train
 ed Mind in the Conner.
 ciaI World.
 
THE HOME A GREAT FACTOR

preached on the importance and value of college training. His text was in Prov. S:39: Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not" He said:
 Ignorance Is the hotbed of supersti- tion and wickedness the mother of cruel ty. The development of the religious and intellectual life should go hand in hand. There can be no great and useful people without great minds and great hearts. The most fragrant and charming flower of our civilization are fruits of the cul tured minds and uttered hearts. The child's head and heart must both be edu- cated to make him the best and most worthy citizen.
 Factors in Education.
 The agencies of education are the home, the school and the church. Of these the home is the first and most im- portant The foundations for all things good and all things bad are laid here or made possible. If opportunities are lost in the home they may be lost for all time. The best child books. the best child pa- pers young peoples literature, should be placed in the home. In this matter quail ity rather than quantity should be care fully guarded.
 "As the home Is the first agency of ed- ucation, it is of the greatest importance that the young unfolding life be suitably guided in all things All future life will be influenced by the first few years in the home. It will repay mothers care and patience and doubly pay fathers time to wisely teach and vigorously ct tir1aTI1 fo he, true light of mental and spiritual life
 Elementary work in an education is of supreme importance. It should be given, for when well given it is cheap at any price. In books a knowledge of the Eng fish grammar, the dictionary and the word of God are absolutely essential in the foundation work of an educated life.
 They are never to be eliminated from the longest life of study. Every child should have good common school train- | Ing, whether 1t be possible or not pos sible. It is too vital to be neglected. | Every child should be put through the high school at least. The state educates her children because ignorance Is a menace to good government and danger ous to free institutions. No ignorant peo- l ignorant people can be great and use full people in solving the problems of hu- manity and Providence.
 Importance of College Training.
 College training Is of the greatest im- portanee to the young man. It pays the greatest dividends in influence and use- fitness. I plead for well equipped small colleges and also for great universities. The great university is indispensable, but so far as being in helpful touch with the great mass of humanity they might as well be located in mid-ocean. The small colleges should be set thick all over the south, but we'll equipped. They are the hope for intelligence to the average as- piring boy. While say this, yet I speak for a most thorough college training. Getting money for moneys sake and being rich for luxury's sake is not to be mentioned in connection with the bless l ings of usefulness to a well college train | ed mind.
 Some men great in the commercial l world have sneered at the college in- 1 fluence in a successful life. The most useful, most influential and most powerful men of the nation are men of the college There is no influence that molds and dom- mates this nation like the press. It Is | wlelded by college men, Fourteen out of l fifteen of the greatest monthly magazines | have college men for chief editors. Seven l out of eight of the great New York dalies | are steered by the same class of men. | "Of MT. McKinley's cabinet six out or eight men were college graduates and the seventh a college professor A majority l of the men in the senate are graduates l from colleges. Sixteen out of twenty-five Presidents were college men, and of the remaining nine, seven were memebrs Of learned profession and self educated. From the best that can be learned of the 1 three hundred and sixty members of con- gress, hundred and sixty-eight gradu- ated at college.
 College Men In Railroad Work.
 "Out of fifty of the great railway sys- tems taken at random 1t has been found that eighteen of these presidents of the great roads are graduates from colleges. l This is a greater per cent than we would expect in a purely business matter. You l cannot get the force of this unless you | know that only one-half of one per cent of boys take college course.
 1 "So a class so small as less than one per cent, give the nation the majority in molding opinions and making laws for the other ninety-nine per cent. Our ignor- ance is yet great. The census of 1900 shows of the men of Alabama over twen- 1 ty-one years of age. IA per cent are illit- I crate Tennessee is a little lower and Kentucky lower still. Intellectual culture alone will not save the boys character or morals.
 Need for Gods Word. He needs the great truths of Gods word interwoven into every fiber of his education. What is a boy to the state, to l the community, to the home, if he be- comes a drunkard, a gambler or a thief? l As Ruskin says, he better not read at all if he Is to be corrupted by bad read ing. President Elliot has recently com 1 plained bitterly that education has not met the need of imbuing good habits and l righteous lives in boys.
 "The ten thousand murders year In l our nation tell of a need of heart and mind culture. There is an influence in a l Christian education that cannot be dis counted. I was surprised when Professor | Skinner of the New York state schools stated that all but seven states opened school by reading from some part of | Gods Word. The New York city charter requires it. The other seven should come | into line. To make the common schools merely intellectual and commercial is a mistake. I fear we tend to make them intellectual that they may be commercial and military. Soldiers are to kill, destroy and to conquer; schools and churches are