The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-10

take into their study and read patiently and
prayerfully and on the strength of which
they may make up their minds TO do or not
to do as the facts in the case may deter.
mine. / know the Methodist preachers OF
Indiana and the stuff they are made OF. IL
Is the voice OF a carper or coward which
says they are less heroic or less self-sacri-
iicing than their fathers were. Give them
the occasion. convince them or their duty
and they viii rise TO any emergency. Ana L
know the laity of to-day. They are only
waiting to see that the present incorpora-
tors mean to finish the work their fatherS
so nobly begun, and the yet undeveloped
De Pauws and Minshalls and McKimms
and Meharrys will come forward cheertulIy
for great occasions and will build ana
equip all needed plant, while the rank and
file are only waiting to be called upon an
nually to meet current expenses.
CONTRIBUTIONS NECESSARY.
"It is hardly possible at present rates of
interest to ever acquire an endowment sufi-
GENTLY large to cope with the college that
has at it's command the treasury of the
State. 1t is not desirable, even If 1t were
possible. The university viii be forever
nearer the hearts of the people while they
contribute to it's supper. The missionary
cause would be hopelessly crippled If its
support came from an endowment. Presi-
dent Bashford, of the Ohio Wesleyan Uni
versity, is not wholly right when he says:
State colleges and private colleges cannot
exist side by side. The outcome will be an
inevitable struggle and the survival of one
system or the other Not necessarily so.
In England and in other monarchies state
churches are maintained at public expense,
but the people, by voluntarily taxing them
selves maintain nonState churches which,
in efficiency, far Guido the state church. The
Christian people Of Indiana can maintain
state college If they have to, though il is in
herently non-American and needlessly eX-
pensive, and comparatively ineffective, and
they can and will maintain colleges wherein
religion has the right of way if properly
instructed. God is not dead, and infidelity
has no mortgage on religion that may be
foreclosed at pleasure
What then? AS Methodsts we must have
more money and we must have more STU
dents. The way to get more students is to
get more money the way to get more mon
ey is 10 ask for Ii, explaining why We want
il. 1t is safe to say that during our first
and most prosperous epoch in seven cases
out of ten the giving of money preceded the
knowledge when say that in the first three
years this was true of at least nine out OF
ten The giving of money will always bring
students.
I'm 1850 I was pastor of the then small
Methodist Church in Evansville. There came
| necessity for a special collection to meet
an emergency, and was asked by the trus-
tees to take a collection to help meet 1t. In
doing this / explained where Asbury Uni
versity was and what 1t stood for. In the
; congregation was young lawyer with one
| his side. He listened attentively and gave
| literally. The next day he told me he had
| never before taken much interest in the uni
versity; it was so far away. From that day
| he was interested in il. Sixteen years later
| he was made a trustee, seventeen years lat
| er that fve-year-old boy was graduated by
us, eighteen years later that three-year-old
| boy was graduated, and we have been grad
uating Igleharts off and on ever since, and
! the end is not yet in sight; and board of
| trustees without an Iglehart present would
| seem strange. And such results have fol-
| lowed the taking of collections hundreds of
times. There may be a dozen out of the
! more than 200 present incorporators of our
| university who would refuse to take the
! collection. They have mistaken their place
and should be required to give their jobs to
! some better men. Don't locate them; there
/ is room in the local ranks for drones-too
| many there now. Let them go into politics
| or the law or into something else that is
| easy; the ministry is no place for them. We
| are at the parting of the ways. Under the
| inspiration cur new president is sure to
| bring with him, we may take the way that
| will restore to the front rank or we must
| sink lower and lower relatively, until life
4 will be not worth living"