The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-02-08

Day at Newberry College,:
When Cicero began his memorable
speech in behalf of Pompey he con-
graduated himself. and his audience
on the richness and glory Of his
theme-and we'll he might. But what
would that immortal orator have said
had my theme been given him on
which to shower his matchless elo-
quence? Not one hero, not one
proud victor Of a hundred battles,
but a mighty host, aetuated by the
sublimest purpose that ever throbbed
in the human breast; men Of God,
realizing that the most Important
thought, possible Of expression IN
any language of the world is that OF
Christian Education. Not the ab-
sorption of knowledge in itself con-
sidered, not the simple cleaning OF
facts from the great storehouse OF
the worlds literature; nor yet the
mastery of arts and sciences, or the
acquisition Of that culture which
opens to men the marbled halls Of
polite society. These, and more
than these: The training Of the head,
the heart. the soul, the conscience,
and the life for God and the right
fitting men for service to the church,
to the State, and to the world, cul-
minating in a glorious Immortality
hereafter. lat was the high pur-
pose of the Founders of this school,
the one thought along whose plane
they moved. ard that the need they
sought to supply.
And I shall attempt to show that,
as the gulf stream moves onward
through the mighty seas, never ma
terially swerving from its course, so
the founders of the Institution In
whose interests We have net were
never DETECTED from their purpose
by the storms which met them in the
way, but moved ever onward to the
= goal.
And let me say, in passing, That a
distinctively Christian education is
ju t as important now as in the days
of our fathers. No observing mind
can have failed to note that much OF
the education Of our time is skepti-
cal in essence ard misunderstanding
away from the transcendental to the
material, from the spiritual to the
purely natural, undermining the faith
of the God Of our fathers, ard push
ing men to the verge of that dark,
cold abyss, down which they gaze,
and exclaim, "I don't know
Many teachers now openly deny
the miraculous, and attempt to dis
place the eternal truth Of God by the
improved theories Of men; when, as
a matter of fact, the skepticism Of
the world demands Of us belief in far
more incomprehersibls and difficult
things than our holy religion re-
QuireS at our hands.
Accept the doctrine Of the one Su-
preme God-creator, preserver, and
ruler Of adj, and you have a basis on
which to reasonably explain all the
phenomena Of the world.
Deny that primal truth, and you
drift out on a sea Of darkness from
whose gloomy waves rescue is i'm
possible.
,. Far be it from my purpose to dis
parage the work of the schools of the
States, for we'll do I know that the
first teacher in the school from which
this college grew was an honor grad
uate Of the old South Carolina col
Iege; that the sainted DR.. O. B.
Mayer, Sr., came out from its classic
halls-and many others whose MAN.
ties We we'll might covet; but the
general fact remains that the great
universities Of today are in large
part the incubators of the rankest
sSeptlcism, not to say, infdelity.
The educators even of the State
schools Of the generations back Of
us were spiritual leaders, builders Of
character, intent On a high degree of
spiritual culture; but that cannot |
now be said Of many of the great sec
ular schools Of this age. Agnosticism
is the pole star Of many present day
scientists, and the classroom is not
always eongenial to religion. Chris
tian parents now ask "Where can
we safely send our boys to be educa-
teo?" Many go to Oxford, or Yale,
or Harvard, or even nearer home,
and return without any keen sense Of
RELIGIOUS responsibility, and often