The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-05-12
The Educational Revival.
Continued from First Page.)

place of the normal school and the teach
ers' institute to say that the end of educa-
ton and SO the object of the school is the
development of character. And what Is
the end of religion? What the object OF
the Church?
And he gave some, apostles; and
some, prophets; and some, e~vangelsts;
and some, pastors and teachers:
till we all come unto a perfect man
hood, unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ.
No one could have attended the recent
meetings of the Southern Educational Con
ference without ~perceiving that this char
acter-building was the common chord from
which every theme started and to which
every theme at last returned. Whether the
| topic was common-schOol education or uni
versity education, the rural school or the
city school, agriculture, mechanic arts, or
literature, as there was on the one hand no
call for catechisms or creeds. no sugges-
ton even of denOminational divisions. so
there was on the other hand constantly
manifest as a part of the subconsclous
thought Of the Conference, reappearing
every now and then in explicit statement,
the idea that the end of education always
is dIlu always HuSC NC III uldhluS Vi Hltlt
and women. Our Protestant churches
have separated earnest and devout souls
by purely conventional distinctions and
definitions, for which practical Americans
care but little. Debates and discussions
in ecclesiastical assemblies concerning
terms of union do little more than accent
uate the fact that the causes for discussion
are wholly inadequate to justify the divis-
ions which ayiGf Moanuhi1o tho chil5ron
Of all denominations, and of zone at all,
are growing up in the common school
together and are learning that honesty,
justice, truth, hope, benevolehce, and faith
are the peculiar inheritance of no one
denominations; and it will not be strange
if the school-house should prove to be the
center which the church is not, and bring
US, despite our varying creeds, together,
on the common basis of a manhood en-
lowed with intelligence and integrity,
philanthropy and devotion, which are al
ways essentially one. however different
their forms of expression.
We do not, indeed, think that the school
house will ever take the place of the
church, as we are quite sure that intellect
ual and industrial education can never
take the place of that inspiration whose
fountain Is God, whose Interpretation is
worship. But education will purify and
cleanse the religious life; will direct reljg-
lous emotion into channels Of practical
service, and eliminate the mere useless
emotlOnafsm; will measure p~hiIosophies
by their practical results, and so emanci-
pate from the tyranny of traditionaIsm
and convent;onalism: will accustom men
and women to see truths in their right
proportions, and not quarrel about termi-
nologles and formularies while thew are
united IN love for their Father and their
brethren. In brief, the revival of educa |
ton as a method of character building
be expected to recall the Christian
world to the truth that the end of religion |
Is also character-building, and TINS be
also a revival of a religious spirit as free !
from a hysterical emotionalism on the
one hand as 1T is from a dogmatic and dry
lntellectuallsm on the other.
We may we'll hope that the present |
educational enthusiasm NAV
spread to the Northern States. wbere ed,, |
cation IS IN danger of becoming somewba+
perfunctory, may inspire it with new and /,
deeper life, and may end by creating |
the Nation an educational ro
modern analogue Of the evan
eellstic REVEALS OF a past epoch. and oar
rylng with 1t the promise and potency ~,
d revival OF industry, freedom, domestic
life, and a purified religious spirit.