Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-06-20

education Victor Cousin declared, Amy
system of school training which sharp
ems and strengthens the intellectual pow
ers without at the same time affording
source of restraint and countercheck
to their tendency to evil, is a curse rath-
er than a blessing" The authoritative
religious element in education, which
the church schools only can furnish. Is
of immeasurable value to the moral life Of
the nation, and it is most fortunate for
the country that all the churches have
established colleges in Which culture and
piety are looked after with equal care.
1t is a blessed thing for young man
during that impressionable period, when
habits are forming and opinions are ta-
king shape, to have at hand instructors
who are perfectly free to supply the pa
rental instruction of a religious kind that
is withdrawn, or which at best operates
under the disadvantage of distance, while
a boy is in college. Hereby multitudes
have been saved from lives of vice to
careers of christian usefulness. Who
can say how many were thus saved by
DR.. Dwight at Yale?
But besides this being moral influence
which a church college exerts bver its
students it is in position to impart hab-
it's freedom of thought in political
matters which is also fact of the great
est Importance. This phase of their mis-
sion was forcibly stated In a recent ac-
dress by President Snyder of Wofford
College in South Carolina. He said.
There are so many questions upon
which, for obvious reasons, the tax-sup-
ported institutions must keep silent.
City councils and state legislatures are
their task-masters, and they may not of
fend them. For example, what State
university president would dare take q
stand upon the prohibition issue or speak
out boldly against a reigning political
party or criticize even justly some wild
act of a demagogue-led legislature? The
possibility of decreased appropriations
and the loss of needed buildings have too
frequently gagged the convictions of hon
est men. To have institutions in every
Southern State which are not frightened
into silence when justice and righteous
ness are at stake. but which dare to
speak out upon the great questions Of the
hour, is to furnish. light, leadership and
courage. There must be, therefore, among
US institutions that, without having to
count the cost in appropriations, may
Join hands with an untrammeled press
and an uncringing pulpit in the battle
for sane, unrestricted thought and civic
righteousness. This sort of an institution
the Church College may be, II we viii
nave II SO. NlOE6ONSAs III OSSAPJhhS SUN
position it win naturally be training
men within it's walls for that kind Of
leadership which we are going TO need
more and more in the political, social.
and industrial REIMBURSEMENT through
which we are passing
These are wise and true words Of
President Snyder, to which men concern
ed for the welfare of our country win do
well to take heed. They explain why
so many of the greatest and bravest
statesmen of the past have come to the
public service from the denominational
colleges and they point us to the source
to which we must look in future for the
larger supply of such men.
The church college supplies the moral
nourishment and the political freedom
needed to produce the most clear headed
and courageous leaders Of public opinion
and national life. We have many such
leaders, and we need many more. We
do not need politicians skilled in the
arts of compromise; we do not need men
addicted to create a public sentiment
which bad men will fear and good men
will rejoice in. The most natural meth
Cd of training such leaders is to have
schools in which religious influence pre-
walls, over which moral ideals reign, and
through which freedom of political
thought penetrates. Such are the schools
of the churches. and being such they
deserve the support of all men who
seek the highest good Z of the people
and the preservation of the noblest type
of christian civilization IN the land.