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LIVING FOUNTAINS OR BROKEN CISTERNS

An Educational Problem for Protestants


   “My people have committed two evils; they
   have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and
   hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that
   can hold no water.” Jer. 2:13.


by

E. A. SUTHERLAND

President of Battle Creek College






Review and Herald Publishing Co.
Battle Creek, Michigan
1900

Copyright, 1900,
by E. A. Sutherland




PREFACE


There are few books which treat of the history of education, and fewer
which attempt to show the part that the educational work has ever borne
in the upbuilding of nations. That religion is inseparably connected
with, and upheld by, the system of education maintained by its advocates,
has been recognized by many historians in a casual way; but, to the
author’s knowledge, no one has hitherto made this thought the subject of
a volume.

In teaching the history of education and the growth of Protestantism, the
close relationship ever existing between the latter and true methods of
education led to a careful study of the educational system of the nations
of the earth, especially of those nations which have exerted a lasting
influence upon the world’s history. The present volume is the result of
that study.

D’Aubigné says that in the Reformation “the school was early placed
beside the church; and these two great institutions, so powerful to
regenerate the nations, were equally reanimated by it. It was by a close
alliance with learning that the Reformation entered into the world.”

True education, Protestantism, and republicanism form a threefold union
which defies the powers of earth to overthrow; but to-day the Protestant
churches are growing weak, and the boasted freedom of America’s democracy
is being exchanged for monarchical principles of government.

This weakness is rightly attributed by some to the want of proper
education. The same cause of degeneracy would doubtless be assigned by
many others, were effects traced to their source.

The author has attempted, by a generous use of historical quotations, to
so arrange facts that the reader will see that the hope of Protestantism
and the hope of republicanism lies in the proper education of the youth;
and that this true education is found in the principles delivered by
Jehovah to his chosen people, the Jews; that it was afterward more
fully demonstrated by the Master Teacher, Christ; that the Reformation
witnessed a revival of these principles; and that Protestants to-day, if
true to their faith, will educate their children in accordance with these
same principles.

Due credit is given to the authors quoted, a list of whose names appears
at the end of the volume. A complete index renders this work easy of
reference.

                                                                 E. A. S.




CONTENTS


    CHAPTER                                                           PAGE

       I GOD THE SOURCE OF WISDOM                                        9

      II THE HEAVENLY SCHOOL                                            15

     III THE EDENIC SCHOOL                                              22

      IV THE HISTORY OF FIFTEEN CENTURIES                               42

       V THE SCHOOL OF ABRAHAM                                          54

      VI EDUCATION IN ISRAEL                                            68

     VII THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF THE PAGAN WORLD                      92

    VIII CHRIST THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS                              117

      IX EDUCATION IN THE EARLY CHURCH                                 139

       X THE PAPACY—AN EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM                             156

      XI EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES                                  184

     XII THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY REFORMATION AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM       214

    XIII THE REACTION AFTER THE EDUCATIONAL REFORMATION                248

     XIV AMERICA AND THE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM                           288

      XV AMERICA AND THE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM (Continued)               316

     XVI CHRISTIAN EDUCATION                                           339

    XVII CHRISTIAN EDUCATION (Continued)                               380




I

INTRODUCTORY: GOD THE SOURCE OF WISDOM


“Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they
fine it. Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the
stone.... As for the earth, out of it cometh bread; and under it is
turned up as it were fire. The stones of it are the place of sapphires;
and it hath dust of gold. There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and
which the vulture’s eye hath not seen. The lion’s whelps have not trodden
it, nor the fierce lion passed by it....

“_But where shall wisdom be found?_ And _where is the place of
understanding?_ Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found
in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea
saith, It is not with me. _It can not be gotten for gold_, neither shall
silver be weighed for the price thereof.... The gold and the crystal
can not equal it; and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of
fine gold.... _Whence then cometh wisdom?_ And where is the place of
understanding?... _God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the
place thereof._”[1]

Man sometimes feels that _he_ understands the way of wisdom, and boasts
that he _knows_ the place thereof. He may indeed understand it in a
measure, and he may ascertain its abiding place; but that knowledge
comes in one way, and only one. He who understandeth the way thereof and
knoweth the place thereof, opens a channel which connects earth with that
fountain of life.

In the creation of the universe that wisdom was manifested. “When He made
a decree for the _rain_, and a way for the _lightning of the thunder_;
then did He see it, and declare it; He prepared it, yea, and searched it
out.” Written on the face of creation is the WISDOM OF THE ETERNAL. “And
unto man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, THAT IS WISDOM; and to
depart from evil is understanding.” In other words, when man lives in
harmony with God,—that is, when physically he acts in accordance with
the laws of the universe; when mentally his thoughts are those of the
Father; and when spiritually his soul responds to the drawing power of
love, that power which controls creation,—then has he entered the royal
road which leads direct to WISDOM.

Where is the wise? There is implanted in each human heart a longing to
come in touch with wisdom. God, by the abundance of life, is as a great
magnet, drawing humanity to Himself. So close is the union that in Christ
are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In one man—a man
made of flesh and blood like all men now living—there dwelt the spirit of
wisdom. More than this, in Him are “hid all the treasures of wisdom;” and
hence the life of Immanuel stands a constant witness that the WISDOM OF
THE AGES is accessible to man. And the record adds, “Ye are complete in
Him.”

This wisdom brings eternal life; for in Him are “hid all the treasures of
wisdom,” “and ye are complete in Him.” “This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee the only true God.”

Christ, at Jacob’s well, explained to the woman of Samaria, and through
her to you and me, the means of gaining wisdom. The well of living
water, from the depths of which the patriarch had drawn for himself,
his children, and his cattle, and which he bequeathed as a rich legacy
to generations following, who drank, and blessed his name, symbolized
worldly wisdom. Men to-day mistake this for that wisdom described in Job,
of which God understandeth the way and knoweth the place. Christ spoke of
this latter when He said, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it
is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of Him,
and He would have given thee _living water_.” “If any man thirst, let him
come unto Me, and drink.”

Why, then, if wisdom may be had for the asking, if that spiritual drink
may be had for the taking, are not all filled? The fountain flows
free; why are not all satisfied? Only one reason can be given: men in
their search accept falsehood in place of truth. This blunts their
sensibilities, until the false seems true and the true false.

“Where is the wise?... hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this
world?” “Howbeit we speak wisdom among the perfect (full-grown): yet a
wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this age which are coming
to naught: but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that
hath been hidden, ... which none of the rulers of this world knoweth.”[2]

There is, then, a distinction between the wisdom of God and that of this
world. How, then, can we attain unto the higher life,—to the real, the
true wisdom? There are things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard,
which eyes should see and ears hear, and these “God hath revealed unto us
by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things
of God.”

To man, then, if born of the Spirit, is given a spiritual eyesight which
pierces infinitude, and enables the soul to commune with the Author
of all things. No wonder the realization of such possibilities within
himself led the psalmist to exclaim, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for
me; it is high, I can not attain unto it.” And Paul himself exclaimed, “O
the depth of the riches both of the _wisdom_ and _knowledge_ of God!...
For who hath known the mind of the Lord?” “The things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God.” And “we have received, not the spirit of the
world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God.” Hence to us _is_ given the power
to commune with Him and to search into the mysteries of the otherwise
unfathomable.

Dealing with wisdom is education. If it be the wisdom of the world, then
it is _worldly education_; if, on the other hand, it is a search for the
wisdom of God, it is CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.

Over these two questions the controversy between good and evil is
waging. The final triumph of truth will place the advocates of Christian
education in the kingdom of God. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship
Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

That education which links man with God, the source of wisdom, and the
author and finisher of our faith, is a spiritual education, and prepares
the heart for that kingdom which is within.




II

THE HEAVENLY SCHOOL


God’s throne, the center around which circled the worlds which had gone
forth from the hand of the Creator, was the school of the universe. The
Upholder of the worlds was Himself the great Teacher, and His character,
love, was the theme of contemplation. Every lesson was a manifestation
of His power. To illustrate the workings of the laws of His nature, this
Teacher had but to speak, and before the attentive multitudes there stood
the living thing. “He spake, and it was; He commanded, and it stood
fast.”[3]

Angels, and the beings of other worlds in countless numbers, were the
students. The course was to extend through eternity; observations were
carried on through limitless space, and included everything from the
smallest to the mightiest force, from the formation of the dewdrop to the
building of the worlds, and the growth of the mind. To finish the course,
if such an expression is permissible, meant to reach the perfection of
the Creator Himself.

[Sidenote: Angel teachers]

To the angelic host was given a work. The inhabitants of worlds were
on probation. It was the joy of angels to minister to and teach other
creatures of the universe. The law of love was everywhere written; it was
the constant study of the heavenly beings. Each thought of God was taken
by them; and as they saw the workings of His plans, they fell before the
King of kings, crying, “Holy, holy, holy.” Eternity was all too short to
reveal His love.

[Sidenote: Lucifer’s place in the school of Christ]

The Father and Son were often in council. Wrapped together in that glory,
the universe awaited the expression of Their one will. As one of the
covering cherubim, Lucifer stood the first in power and majesty of all
the angelic host. His eye beheld, his ear heard, he knew of all except
the deep counsels which the Father, from all eternity, had purposed in
the Son. “Christ the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the
eternal Father,—one in nature, in character, in purpose,—the only being
that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God.... The
Father wrought by His Son in the creation of all heavenly beings. ‘By Him
were all things created, ... whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers. All things were created by Him, and for Him.’
Angels are God’s ministers, radiant with the light ever flowing from His
presence, and speeding on rapid wing to execute His will. But the Son,
the anointed of God, the ‘express image of His person,’ the ‘brightness
of his glory,’ ‘upholding all things by the word of His power,’ holds
supremacy over them all.” Lucifer, “son of the morning,” who “sealest up
the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty, ... every precious stone
was thy covering.” “Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; I have
set thee so; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up
and down in the midst of the stones of fire.”[4] He who had hovered over
the throne of God, who had stood on the mount of the congregation in the
sides of the north, and walked up and down among those living stones,
each flashing with electric brightness the glory of reflected light,
looked upon the council, and envied the position of the Son.

[Sidenote: Reason takes the place of faith]

Hitherto all eyes had turned instinctively toward the center of light. A
cloud, the first one known, darkened the glory of the covering cherub.
Turning his eyes inward, he reasoned that he was wronged. Had not he,
Lucifer, been the bearer of light and joy to worlds beyond? Why should
not his might be recognized? “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day
that thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee.” “Thine heart was
lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason
of thy brightness.”[5] “Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: _I_ will sit also
upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the Most High.”[6]

[Sidenote: Character of the true Teacher]

While Lucifer thus reasoned, Christ, wrapped within the glory of the
Father, was offering His life for the world at its creation. Sin had not
yet entered, the world was not yet created; but as the plans were laid,
the Son had said, “Should sin enter, I am, from this time, one with those
We now create, and their fall will mean My life on earth. Never has My
heart gone out for any creation as I put it into this. Man in his earthly
home shall have the highest expression of Our love, and for him My love
demands that I lay My life beside his in his very creation.” O wondrous
gift! O unselfish love! How could that covering cherub, at the moment
when the Son of God laid down His life, plan on his own exaltation?
Sorrow, the first sorrow that was ever known, filled heaven. The angel
choir was silent; the living stones withheld their shining. The stillness
was felt throughout the universe.

[Sidenote: Creation chooses teachers]

An offer was made to return, but pride now closed the channel. Pity and
admiration for the leader of the hosts led many to feel that God was
unjustly severe. The universe was on trial. “Satan and his sympathizers
were striving to reform the government of God. They wished to look into
His unsearchable wisdom, and ascertain His purpose in exalting Jesus,
and endowing Him with such unlimited power and command.” Those who
before, inspired by love, took God at His word, and found their highest
pleasure in watching the revealings of His love, now put their own minds
in place of God’s word, and reasoned that all was wrong. The unfoldings
of His love, which had meant their very life, now looked but darkness
and despair. God’s wisdom, darkened by placing self between the throne
and them, became foolishness. “All the heavenly host were summoned to
appear before the Father to have each case decided.” “About the throne
gathered the holy angels, a vast, unnumbered throng,—‘ten thousand times
ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,’—the most exalted angels, as
ministers and subjects, rejoicing in the light that fell upon them from
the presence of the Deity.”

[Sidenote: Birth of the rival system of education]

The principles of God’s government were now laid bare: it was nothing
but a great, broad system of educational development, and angelic hosts
then and there decided whether faith in His word would be the standard
of their obedience, or whether finite reason would bear sway. Even
Satan himself was almost won, as the notes of praise resounded through
the domes of heaven; but again pride ruled. Here was born the rival
system,—supreme selfishness facing the utter self-forgetfulness of
Christ, reason over against faith. After long pleadings, and amidst deep
mourning, heaven’s portals opened to close forever upon the one who, with
his followers, turned from light into the darkness of despair.

A new era was ushered in; a controversy was begun. High heaven, with its
eternal principles of love, life, progress, was challenged by a subtle
foe, the father of lies. Deep as is the misery attending the step, yet
coexistent with the downward move was formulated the plan which, after
the lapse of ages, will prove in a greater degree, and manifest eternally
the truth, that “GOD IS LOVE.” The pathway is the way of the cross. It
is a retracing of the mental degradation occasioned by the fall, but the
process is according to the law of the school of heaven,—“according to
your faith.” If ye believe, all things are possible.




III

THE EDENIC SCHOOL


[Sidenote: Creation]

“He spake, and it was; He commanded, and it stood fast.”[7] Forth from
the throne of the Infinite passed the decree, and life flashing out into
space, a world stood forth. Myriads of other worlds, held in their orbits
by the ceaseless power of love, made their circuit about the throne of
God. But one space in the universe had been reserved for the highest
expression of His love, where was to be manifested the depths of this
divine attribute. “And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was
upon the face of the deep.”[8] But even into the darkness His presence
penetrated; and as “the Spirit of God was brooding upon the waters,” He
said, “Let there be light,” and darkness scattered before the word. The
light, reflective of His own being, pleased Him; and He willed that it
should be ever present, accompanying every form of life. The first day’s
work was done,—a day such as the future man would know, and which, even
in his fallen state, would measure off his years.

The second day heard the mandate for the water to separate; and a
third gathered the waters into seas, with the dry land appearing.
And then “God said, Let the earth put forth grass,”—the lowly blade
covering the earth’s nakedness with a robe of living green, itself so
humble, yet a part of His life; for his life-breath formed it, and it
partook of that life. Then came the herbs and lofty trees, each bearing
seed,—self-productive,—for _life is_ reproductive; and as the living
coal kindles a sacred fire, so each tree bore within itself the power
to reproduce its kind. “And God saw that it was good.” Then, that His
own light might ever be the cause of growth, He placed luminaries in the
heavens, each being the reflection of His own countenance. By this should
life be sustained.

Into the moving waters passed the power of life. “God said, Let the
waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let fowl fly above the
earth in the open firmament of heaven.”[9] At His word an abundance of
life filled earth and sky and sea. Every drop of water sustained life;
every square inch of air supported its myriads. And from the mighty
leviathan that sported in the waters to the mote that floated in the
air, all life proclaimed the love of God; and the Creator, viewing with
satisfaction the work of His hand, pronounced each form of life perfect
in its sphere. Each held within its own body the breath of life; each in
its every movement sang hallelujahs to the Maker of the heavens and the
earth.

[Sidenote: Mind—the highest form of creation]

But the work was not yet complete. A mind controlled the universe; and
its powers could be appreciated, its heart-love returned in the fullest
sense, only by mind,—by beings made in the image of God Himself. And so
“God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.” He can then
hold dominion over the lower orders of creation, and standing to them
as We do to the universe, all nature will see Our power in him. “So God
created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male
and female created He them.”[10]

As if the moment of supreme endeavor had been reached even by God,
He molded the form of clay,—one, only one, in the image of Himself.
He breathed into its nostrils His own breath,—that breath which,
vocalized, moved the worlds; before which angels bowed in adoration. That
all-pervading element of life surged through the mighty frame, the organs
performed their functions, the brain worked; the man Adam stood forth,
strong and perfect; and instead of the piercing wail which now announces
the beginning of a new life, his lips parted, and a song of praise
ascended to the Creator.

Standing by his side was his Elder Brother, Christ, the King of heaven.
Adam felt the thrill of unity and harmony; and while for a “little time
inferior,” yet within him lay the possibilities of attaining greater
heights than angels held. He was to be the companion of God, the perfect
reflection of His light and glory; there was no thought of God that
might not have access to the brain of man. The universe spread out in
panoramic view before him. The earth, newborn, presented untold beauties.
By his side stood his companion, the other half of his own nature, the
two forming a perfect whole. The harmony of thought brought strength and
life; and, as a result of this unity, new beings like themselves would
be brought into existence, until the earth was peopled.

[Sidenote: The Eden home]

God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and from the beauties of the
earth chose the most beautiful spot for the home of the new pair. In the
midst of the garden stood the tree of life, the fruit of which afforded
man a perfect physical food. Beneath its spreading branches God Himself
visited them, and, talking with them face to face, revealed to them the
way of immortality. As they ate of the fruit of the tree of life, and
found every physical want supplied, they were constantly reminded of the
need of the spiritual meat which was gained by open converse with the
Light from heaven. The glory of God surrounded the tree, and enwrapped in
this halo, Adam and Eve spent much time in communing with the heavenly
visitors. According to the divine system of teaching, they were here to
study the laws of God and learn of his character. They “were not only His
children, but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator.”

[Sidenote: Subjects taught in the first school on earth]

Angels, beholding the wonders of the new creation, delighted to fly
earthward; and two from the heavenly host, by special appointment, became
the instructors of the holy ones. “They were full of vigor imparted by
the tree of life, and their intellectual power was but little less than
that of the angels. The mysteries of the visible universe—‘the wondrous
works of Him who is perfect in knowledge,’—afforded them an exhaustless
source of instruction and delight. The laws and operations of nature,
which have engaged men’s study for six thousand years, were opened to
their minds by the infinite Framer and Upholder of the universe.

[Sidenote: a. Botany b. Zoology c. Astronomy d. Physics e. Meteorology f.
Mineralogy]

“They held converse with leaf and flower and tree, gathering from each
the secrets of its life. With every living creature, from the mighty
leviathan that playeth among the waters to the insect mote that floats in
the sunbeam, Adam was familiar. He had given to each its name, and he was
acquainted with the nature and habits of all. God’s glory in the heavens,
the innumerable worlds in their orderly revolutions, ‘the balancing of
the clouds,’ the mysteries of light and sound, of day and night,—all were
open to the study of our first parents. On every leaf of the forest or
stone of the mountains, in every shining star, in earth and air and sky,
God’s name was written. The order and harmony of creation spoke to them
of infinite wisdom and power. They were ever discovering some attraction
that filled their hearts with deeper love, and called forth fresh
expressions of gratitude.”

As new beauties came to their attention, they were filled with wonder.
Each visit of the heavenly teachers elicited from the earthly students
scores of questions which it was the delight of the angels to answer;
and they in turn opened to the minds of Adam and Eve principles of
living truth which sent them forth to their daily tasks of pleasure full
of wondering curiosity, ready to use every God-given sense to discover
illustrations of the wisdom of heaven. “As long as they remained loyal
to the divine law, their capacity to know, to enjoy, and to love would
continually increase. They would be constantly gaining new treasures of
knowledge, discovering fresh springs of happiness, and obtaining clearer
and yet clearer conceptions of the immeasurable, unfailing love of God.”

[Sidenote: Method of instruction]

The divine method of teaching is here revealed,—God’s way of dealing with
minds which are loyal to him. The governing laws of the universe were
expounded. Man, as if looking into a picture, found in earth, sky, and
sea, in the animate and inanimate world, the exemplification of those
laws. He believed, and with a heavenly light, which is the reward of
faith, he approached each new subject of investigation. Divine truths
unfolded continually. Life, power, happiness,—these subjects grew with
his growth. The angels stimulated the desire to question, and again led
their students to search for answers to their own questions. At his work
of dressing the garden, Adam learned truths which only work could reveal.
As the tree of life gave food to the flesh, and reminded constantly of
the mental and spiritual food necessary, so manual training added light
to the mental discipline. The laws of the physical, mental, and spiritual
world were enunciated; man’s threefold nature received attention. This
was education, perfect and complete.

The magnetic power about the tree of life held man, filling his senses
with a thrill of delight. Adam and Eve lived by that power, and the
human mind was an open channel for the flow of God’s thought. Rapidly
the character of the Edenic pair was being formed, but strength could
not come from mere automatic action. Freedom to choose God’s company and
spirit was given; and while He wooed them with His tenderest love, He had
placed in the midst of the garden a tree of another sort.

[Sidenote: A lesson in faith]

To the man He said, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die.”[11] What was the meaning of this command? As the angel
teachers heard the question from man’s lips, a cloud seemed to dim the
brightness of their glory. Did not Adam feel a strange sensation, as
if the fullness of divine thought was suddenly checked in its course
through his brain? He was preparing himself to accept teachings of a
different character. Then was told the story of the one sorrow heaven
had known,—of the fall of Lucifer, and the darkness it brought to him;
that while he lived, the decree of God was that he could no longer remain
within the walls of Paradise. In low tones it was told how some could not
see the justice of this; that Lucifer had been given the earth as his
present home; that he would use his arts to capture them; but that light
and power had been placed about the tree of life, and remaining true to
the teaching given within the circle of its rays, no evil could overtake
them. “Faith, have faith in God’s word,” said the angel, as he winged his
flight toward heaven.

The word “death” sounded unnatural to human ears, and as they sat
together talking of the angel’s words, a longing to understand filled
their hearts. Fear?—they knew no such word. Was not their Maker _love_?
Eve, wandering from her husband’s side, found, before she knew it, that
she was nearing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She stood
gazing from a distance, when from the rich verdure came a voice of
sweetest music:—

“Beautiful woman, made in God’s own image, what can mar thy perfect
beauty? What can stop that life now coursing through thy veins? ‘Hath
God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?... Ye shall not
surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil.’”
Speaking, he plucked and ate. Was this the deceiver? Had she not been
promised a knowledge of all things? Was she not to be with God? Perhaps
this was some new revelation of his goodness. She felt no danger. He ate,
why should not she?

[Sidenote: Effects of doubt]

Her curiosity was aroused, and she was flattered by the words of the
serpent. Instead of fleeing, she argued with him, and attempted to
decide in her own mind between right and wrong. But God had told her
what was right. That moment of indecision, of doubting, was the devil’s
opportunity.

Unable to reach the soul of man by direct means, Satan approached it
through those outer channels, the senses. He had everything to win,
and proceeded cautiously. If man’s _mind_ could be gained, his great
work would be accomplished. To do this he used a process of reasoning—a
method the reverse of that used by the Father in his instruction at the
tree of life. The mind of Eve was strong, and quickly drew conclusions;
hence, when her new teacher said, “If ye eat, ‘ye shall be as gods,’”
in the mind of Eve arose the thought, God has immortality. “Therefore,”
said Satan, “if _ye_ eat, ‘ye shall not surely die.’” The conclusion was
logically drawn, and the world, from the days of Eve to the present time,
has based its religious belief on that syllogism, the major premise of
which, as did Eve, they fail to recognize as false. Why?—Because they
use the mind to decide the truth instead of taking a direct statement
from the Author of wisdom. From this one false premise comes the doctrine
of the natural immortality of man, with its endless variations, some
modern names of which are theosophy, Spiritualism, reincarnation, and
evolution. The sons and daughters of Eve condemn her for the mistake made
six thousand years ago, while they themselves repeat it without question.
It is preached from the pulpit, it is taught in the schoolroom, and its
spirit pervades the thought of every book written whose author is not in
perfect harmony with God and truth. Now began the study of “dialectics,”
so destructive to the Christian’s faith.

[Sidenote: Eve was deceived because she depended upon sense perceptions]

Having accepted the logic of the serpent, and having transferred
her faith from the word of God to the tree of knowledge at Satan’s
suggestion, the woman could easily be led to test the truth of all his
statements by her senses. A theory had been advanced; the experimental
process now began. That is the way men now gain their knowledge, but
their wisdom comes otherwise. She looked upon the forbidden fruit,
but no physical change was perceptible as the result of the misuse of
this sense. This led her to feel more sure that the argument used had
been correct. Her ears were attentive to the words of the serpent, but
she perceived no change as a result of the perverted use of the sense
of hearing. This, to the changing mind of the woman, was still more
conclusive proof that the words of Christ and angels did not mean what
she had at first thought they meant. The senses of touch, smell, and
taste were in turn used, and each corroborated the conclusion drawn by
the devil. The woman was deceived, and through the deception her mind was
changed. This same change of mind may be wrought either by deception or
as a result of false reasoning.

[Sidenote: A change in the mind of Adam]

Eve approached Adam with the fruit in her hand. Instead of answering in
the oft-repeated words of Christ, “In the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die,” he took up the logic of the serpent. Having
eaten, his mind was also changed. He who from creation had thought the
thoughts of God, was yielding to the mind of the enemy. The exactness
with which he had once understood the mind of God was exemplified when
he named the animals; for the thought of God which formed the animal
passed through the mind of Adam, and “whatsoever Adam called every living
creature, that _was_ the name thereof.”

[Sidenote: Evidence of a changed mind]

The completeness of the change which took place is seen in the argument
used when God walked in the garden in the cool of the evening. Said Adam,
“The woman gave me to eat. Thou gavest me the woman. Therefore Thou
art to blame.” This was another decidedly logical conclusion, from the
standpoint of the wisdom of the serpent, and it was repeated by Eve,
who laid the blame first on the serpent, and finally on God himself.
Self-justification, self-exaltation, self-worship,—here was the human
origin of the papacy, that power which “opposeth and exalteth itself
above all that is called God.”

[Sidenote: Spiritual death the first result of sin]

The spiritual death which followed the perversion of the senses was
attended, in time, by physical death. Indeed, the fruit had scarcely
been eaten when the attention of the man and his wife was turned toward
externals. The soul, which had enveloped the physical man as a shroud
of light, withdrew, and the physical man appeared. A sense of their
nakedness now appalled them. Something was lacking; and with all the
glory they had known, with all the truths which had been revealed, there
was nothing to take the place of the departed spiritual nature. “Dying,
thou shalt die,” was the decree; and had not the Saviour at this moment
made known to Adam the plan of the cross, eternal death would have been
inevitable.

God, through His instruction, had taught that the result of faith would
be immortal life. Satan taught, and attempted to prove his logic by a
direct appeal to the senses, that there was immortal life in the wisdom
that comes as the result of human reason. The method employed by Satan is
that which men to-day call the natural method, but in the mind of God the
wisdom of the world is foolishness. The method which to the godly mind,
to the spiritual nature, seems natural, is foolishness to the world.

[Sidenote: True education and redemption]

There are but two systems of education,—the one based on what God calls
wisdom, the gift of which is eternal life; the other based on what the
world regards as wisdom, but which God says is foolishness. This last
exalts reason above faith, and the result is spiritual death. That the
fall of man was the result of choosing the false system of education can
not be controverted. Redemption comes through the adoption of the true
system of education.

Re-creation is a change of mind,—an exchange of the natural for the
spiritual. “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by
the renewing of your mind.” In order to render such a change possible,
Christ must bruise the head of the serpent; that is, the philosophy of
the devil must be disproved by the Son of God. Christ did this, but in
so doing, his heel, representing his physical nature, was bruised. The
result of the acceptance of the satanic philosophy has been physical
suffering; and the more completely man yields to the system built upon
that philosophy, the more complete is the subjection of the race to
physical infirmities.

[Sidenote: Physical degeneracy]

After the fall, man turned to coarser articles of diet, and his nature
gradually became more gross. The spiritual nature, at first the prominent
part of his being, was dwarfed and overruled until it was but the “small
voice” within. With the development of the physical and the intellectual
to the neglect of the spiritual, have come the evils of modern
society,—the love of display, the perversion of taste, the deformity
of the body, and those attendant sins which destroyed Sodom, and now
threaten our cities. Man became careless in his work also, and the earth
failed to yield her fullness. As a result, thorns and thistles sprang up.

It is not surprising, after following the decline of the race, to find
that the system of education introduced by Christ begins with the
instruction given in the garden of Eden, and that it is based on the
simple law of faith. We better appreciate the gift of Christ when we
dwell upon the thought that while suffering physically, while taking our
infirmities into his own body, He yet preserved a sound mind and a will
wholly subject to the Father’s, that by so doing the philosophy of the
archdeceiver might be overthrown by the divine philosophy.

Again, it is but natural to suppose that when called upon to decide
between the two systems of education, the human and the divine, and
Christian education is chosen, that man will also have to reform his
manner of eating and living. The original diet of man is again made
known, and for his home he is urged to choose a garden spot, away from
crowded cities, where God can speak to his spiritual nature through His
works.

[Sidenote: The false science and death]

God does use the senses of man; but _knowledge_ thus gained becomes
_wisdom_ only when enlightened by the Spirit, the gateway to whose
fountain is opened by the key of faith. Beneath the tree of life
originated the highest method of education,—the plan the world needs
to-day. Beneath the branches of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil arose the conflicting system, having ever one object in view,—the
overthrow of the eternal principles of truth. Under one guise, then
under another, it has borne sway upon the earth. Whether as Babylonish
learning, Greek philosophy, Egyptian wisdom, the high glitter of papal
pomp, or the more modest but no less subtle workings of modern science,
the results always have been, and always will be, a savor of death unto
death.

[Sidenote: The true science of life]

As was the unassuming life of the Saviour of man when walking the earth
unrecognized by the lordly Pharisees and wise men of his day, so has
been the progress of truth. It has kept steadily on the onward march,
regardless of oppression. Men’s minds, clouded by self-worship, fail to
recognize the voice from heaven. It is passed by as the low mutterings
of thunder at the gate. Beautiful when the Father spoke to his Son,
and the halo of heavenly light encircling eternal truth is explained
by natural causes. Man’s reason is opposed to simple faith, but those
who will finally reach the state of complete harmony with God will have
begun where Adam failed. Wisdom will be gained by faith. Self will have
been lost in the adoration of the great Mind of the universe, and he who
was created in the image of God, who was pronounced by the Master Mind
as “_very good_,” will, after the struggle with sin, be restored to the
harmony of the universe by the simple act of faith.

“If thou canst believe, all things are possible.”




IV

THE HISTORY OF FIFTEEN CENTURIES


As a stone, hurled from some mountain peak, crashes its way toward the
valley beneath, gaining velocity with each foot of descent, until,
wrapped within it, lies a power of destruction unmeasured, so man,
turning from the gate of Paradise, began a downward career which in
intensity and rapidity can be measured only by the height from which he
started.

[Sidenote: Two schools before the flood]

Giant minds held mighty powers in abeyance. Before the strong will of
men of the first ten centuries few forces could stand. As the plane to
which it was possible for him to attain was perfection, so the level to
which he descended was confusion itself. Men’s lives, instead of being
narrowed by the brief span of threescore years and ten, were measured by
centuries; and intellects, mighty by birth, had time as well as power
to expand. The man of seventy was then but a lad, with life and all its
possibilities spread out before him. Adam lived to see his children to
the eighth generation; and when we think that from his own lips Enoch
learned the story of the fall, of the glories of the Eden home; when
we bear in mind that Enoch probably saw this same ancestor laid in the
earth, there to molder to dust, we better understand the relation he
desired to sustain to his God. After a life of three hundred years, in
which, the Sacred Record says, he “walked with God,” earth’s attraction
grew so slight that he himself was taken into heaven. This was less than
sixty years after the death of Adam. Passing beyond the gate of Eden, two
classes of minds developed. Clear and distinct as light from darkness
was the difference between the two. Cain, by exalting his own reasoning
powers, accepted the logic of Satan. Admitting the physical plane to
be the proper basis for living, he lost all appreciation of spiritual
things, and depended wholly upon feeling. True, for a time he adhered to
the form of worship, coming week by week to the gate of Eden to offer
sacrifice; but his eye of faith was blind. When he saw his brother’s
sacrifice accepted, a feeling of hatred sprang up in his breast, and,
raising his hand, he took that brother’s life.

Men are startled at the rapidity of the descent from Edenic purity to a
condition where murder was easy, but it was the natural result of the
educational system chosen by Cain. Reason exalted above faith makes man
like the engine without the governor.

[Sidenote: Character developed in the worldly school]

Murder, however, was but one result of the decision made by Cain. He fled
from the presence of God, and, with his descendants built the cities of
the East. Physical needs predominated, so that the whole attention of
this people was turned to the gratification of fleshly desires. Pride
increased, love of wealth was a ruling passion; the artificial took,
more and more, the place once occupied by the natural. In the place of
God-worship was self-worship, or paganism. This was the religious aspect,
and here are to be found the first worshipers of the sun, the human
progenitors of the modern papacy.

[Sidenote: Affects government]

As there was a change in religion, so there was a change in government.
There could no longer be a theocracy, the father of the family being the
high priest unto God; for God had been lost sight of, and his place was
filled by man himself. Hence, these descendants of Cain flocked together
into cities, where the strong bore rule over the weak, and thus developed
an absolute monarchy, which is perpetuated to-day in the kingdoms of
eastern Asia.

The education which upheld paganism in religion and monarchy in
government was the same as that which in later days controlled Greece,
and is known by us to-day as Platonism. It is but another name for an
education which exalts the mind of man above God, and places human
philosophy ahead of divine philosophy.

[Sidenote: Origin of false philosophy]

The philosophy which was thus exalted,—this science falsely
so-called,—deified nature, and would to-day be known as evolution. You
think the name a modern one. It may be, but the philosophy antedates the
flood, and the schools of those men before the flood taught for truth the
traditions of men as truly as they are taught to-day.

We think, perhaps, that there were no schools then, but that is a
mistake. “The training of the youth in those days was after the same
order as children are being educated and trained in this age,—to love
excitement, to glorify themselves, to follow the imaginations of their
own evil hearts.” Their keen minds laid hold of the sciences; they delved
into the mysteries of nature. They made wonderful progress in inventions
and all material pursuits. But the imaginations of their hearts were only
evil continually.

[Sidenote: City life unfitted minds for truth]

Children educated in the cities had their evil tendencies exaggerated.
The philosophical teaching of the age blotted out all faith; and when
Noah, a teacher of righteousness, raised his voice against the popular
education, and proclaimed his message of faith, even the little children
scoffed at him.

So polluted were the cities that Enoch chose to spend much time in
retired places, where he could commune with God, and where he would
be in touch with nature. At times he entered the cities, proclaiming
to the inhabitants the truth given to him by God. Some listened, and
occasionally small companies sought him in his places of retirement, to
listen to his words of warning. But the influence of early training, the
pressure brought to bear by society, and the philosophy of the schools,
exerted a power too strong to resist, and they turned from the pleadings
of conscience to the old life.

[Sidenote: Antediluvian science teaching was contrary to God’s word]

As Noah told of the coming flood, and as he and his sons continued to
build the ark, men and children derided. “Water from heaven! Ah, Noah,
you may talk of your spiritual insight, but who ever heard of water
coming out of the sky? The thing is an impossibility; it is contrary
to all reason, to all scientific truth, and to all earth’s experience.
You may think such things were revealed to you; but since the days of
our father Adam, no such thing ever happened.” Such statements seemed
true. Generation after generation had looked into a sky undarkened by
storm-clouds. Night after night dew watered the growing plants. Why
should they believe otherwise? They could see no _reason_ for it. To
those antediluvians, the possibility of a flood seemed as absurd as does
its recital as a matter of history to the modern higher critic. It was
out of harmony with men’s senses, hence an impossibility.

The student in the nineteenth century finds in the earth’s crust great
beds of coal, or the remains of monsters which once lived upon the face
of the earth, and he accounts for these by saying that “_time is long_.”
In the words of Dana, “If time from the commencement of the Silurian age
included _forty-eight millions of years_, which _some geologists would
pronounce much too low_ an estimate, the Paleozoic part, according to
the above ratio, would comprise thirty-six millions, the Mesozoic nine
millions, and the Cenozoic three millions.” Modern text-books are filled
with these and related ideas of evolution, which account for the effects
of the flood by gradual changes consuming millions of years.

[Sidenote: An education of sight and not faith]

The Word of God is again laid aside, and man by his own power of
reasoning draws conclusions contrary to the testimony of the Inspired
Record. The theory of evolution is thus substantiated in the human mind;
and as the antediluvians were, by their scientific research and wisdom,
falsely so-called, unfitted to receive the message of the flood, so
people to-day, by pursuing a similar course, are unfitting themselves for
the message of Christ’s appearance in the clouds of heaven. When will man
learn that there are things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and
yet which exist as really as do those _few things_—few compared with the
_many_ in the regions beyond—which fall within our range of vision?

Before the flood, no peal of thunder had ever resounded among the hills,
no lightning had ever played through the heavens. You who to-day have
read the works of earth’s greatest authors, who have delved into the
secrets of science, have you discovered the soul of man? Have you yet
found the golden cord of faith? Should the Almighty question you as He
did His servant Job, how would you pass the examination? To you would
befall the fate of the generation of Noah. Four men built the ark. Such a
thing had never been seen before. “How unshapely,” say they. “How absurd
to think of water standing over the earth _until that will float_!” But
in the ears of the faithful four whispered the still, small voice of God,
and the work went steadily on.

[Sidenote: Flood a result of wrong education]

The controversy was an educational problem. Christian education was
almost wiped from the earth. Worldly wisdom seemed about to triumph. In
point of numbers its adherents vastly exceeded those in the schools of
the Christians. Was this seeming triumph of evil over good a sign that
evil was stronger than truth?—By no means. Only in the matter of scheming
and deceiving does the devil have the advantage; for God can work only in
a straightforward manner.

The tree of life was still upon the earth, an emblem of the wisdom of
God. Man, however, had turned his back upon it. Eating the fruit of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil brought death, and this the
inhabitants of the earth were about to realize, although their worldly
wisdom taught them the contrary.

[Sidenote: Wrong methods of education cause the withdrawal of God’s
Spirit]

The tree of life was taken to heaven before the flood,[12] thus
symbolizing the departure of true wisdom from the earth. The flood came.
Deep rumblings of thunder shook the very earth. Man and beast fled
terrified from the flashes of lightning. The heavens opened; the rain
fell,—at first in great drops. The earth reeled and cracked open; the
fountains of the great deep were broken up; water came from above, water
from beneath. A cry went up to heaven, as parents clasped their children
in the agony of death; but the Spirit of the Life-giver was withdrawn.
Does this seem cruel? God had pleaded with each generation, with each
individual, saying, “Why will ye, why will ye?” But only a deaf ear was
turned to Him. Man, satisfied with schooling his senses, with depending
upon his own reasoning powers, closed, one by one, every avenue through
which the Spirit of God could work; and nature, responding to the loss,
was broken to her very heart, and wept floods of tears.

One family, and only one, bound heaven and earth together. Upon the bosom
of the waters rocked the ark in safety. God’s Spirit rested there, and
in the midst of greater turmoil than angels had ever witnessed, a peace
which passeth all understanding filled the minds and hearts of that
faithful company.

[Sidenote: Faith the basis of the new education]

The waters subsided; the earth lay a desolate mass. Mountains stood
bleak and barren where once stretched plains of living green. Trees,
magnificent in their towering strength, lay dying as the waters left
the earth. Great masses of rock covered places hitherto inhabited. This
family came forth as strangers in a strange land. The plan of education
must start anew. Each successive step away from God rendered more
difficult man’s access to his throne; it had lengthened, as it were, the
ladder one more round. There was at first this _one_ lesson to be taken
by faith,—that God was true in saying, “In the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.” It was a lesson of faith versus reason.
Next came _two_ lessons of faith: first, faith opposed by reason; and,
second, the plan of redemption through Christ. Then came the _third_
lesson,—the flood. Would that man could have grasped the first, or,
missing that, he had taken the second, or even losing hold of that, he
could have taken the third by faith, and prevented the flood.

From beginning to end it was a matter of education. Christians to-day
exalt the material to the neglect of the spiritual, as surely as did men
before the flood. Shall we not look for similar results, since similar
principles are at work?

The education of the popular schools advocated nature study; but, leaving
God out, they deified nature, and accounted for the existence of all
things by the same theories which are to-day termed evolution. This is
man’s theory of creation with faith dropped out of the calculation.

“This they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens
were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept
in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment.”[13]

“As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the
Son of man.”[14]




V

THE SCHOOL OF ABRAHAM


[Sidenote: Rapid decline after the flood]

The ease with which men fall into evil habits is illustrated in the
history of the world after the flood. Upon leaving the ark, four families
who had known God, had committed to them the peopling of the earth. But
evil tendencies, the result of years of acquaintance with the iniquity
of the antediluvian world, gained the ascendency, and the sons of Noah,
failing to carry out the principles of true education in their homes, saw
their children drifting away from God.

True, the bow of promise appeared often in the heavens as a reminder of
the awful results of sin, and telling them also of the God-Father who
sought their hearts’ service. But again the logic of the evil one was
accepted, and men said, “We shall not surely die.” As a sign of their
confidence in their own strength they built the tower of Babel. They had
been scattered in the hill country, where nature and natural scenery
tended to elevate their thoughts. They followed the valley, and built
cities in the low plains.

Not more than a single century had elapsed since the flood had destroyed
all things. The change was a rapid one. The successive steps in
degeneration are readily traced. They chose an education of the senses
rather than one of faith; they left the country and congregated in
cities; a monarchy arose. Schools sprang up which perpetuated these
ideas; paganism took the place of the worship of God. The tower was
a monument to the sun; idols filled the niches in the structure. Men
offered their children as sacrifices.

The slaying of infants and children is but carrying out in the extreme
what is always done mentally and spiritually when children are taught
false philosophy. That man might not bring upon himself immediate
destruction, the language was confused, and education in false philosophy
thus rendered more difficult.

[Sidenote: Abraham called from Ur]

It was from this influence, as found in the city of Ur of the Chaldees,
that Abraham was called. Although the family of Terah knew the true God,
and His worship was maintained in the home, it was impossible for him to
counteract the influence of the city with its idolatrous practices; so
God called Abraham into the country.

He was obliged to go forth by faith. The removal meant the severing of
every earthly tie. Wealth and ease were exchanged for a wandering life.
How he could make a living Abraham did not know. How he could educate his
children he did not understand. But he went forth Terah, his father, and
Lot, his nephew, went with him. They halted at Haran, a smaller city,
and remained there until the father’s death. Then came the command to go
forward. Out into a new country he went, a pilgrim and a stranger.

“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he
should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; _and he went out, not_
knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as
in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the
heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked for a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” “He staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith.”[15]

[Sidenote: Called to teach]

It was when the patriarch had journeyed into this strange land, and
knew not whither he was going, that his work as a teacher began. The
commission of Christ to the apostles, “Go ye therefore, and _teach_ all
nations,” was not more emphatic than the command to Abraham. God called
him to teach, and he was to be a teacher of nations. To the disciples it
was said, “All power is given unto Me; ... go ye therefore, and teach
all nations.” A power was to attend their teaching. Power is synonymous
with life; there is no power without life, and a teacher has power in
proportion as he _lives_ what he wishes to teach.

Abraham was to be a teacher of nations, hence he must have power. Power
could come only as the result of a life of faith, and so his whole life
was one continual lesson of faith. Each experience made him a more
powerful teacher.

[Sidenote: God prepares Abraham to teach]

His faith grew by trial, and only as he mounted round by round the
ladder which spanned the gulf twixt heaven and earth, and which had
seemed to lengthen with each succeeding generation. A period of not
less than twenty-five years—years filled with doubt, fear, anxiety—was
necessary to bring him to the place where the name _Abraham_—the father
of nations—could be rightly claimed by him. Another quarter of a century
rolled over his head, years in which he watched the growth of the child
of promise; then the voice of God called him to raise his hand to take
the life of that same son. He who had said that in Isaac should all
nations of the earth be blessed, now demanded the sacrifice of that life
at the father’s hand. But He, the Life-giver in the event of the child’s
birth, was now believed to be the Life-giver should death rob him of his
child, and the father faltered not.

These fifty years, with God and angels as teachers, reveal to us, as
no other period does, the results of true education, and merit careful
attention. If the workings of the Spirit ever wrought changes in the
human heart, those changes came to Abraham. It is not strange that when
God called the first time the voice seemed far away, and but partially
awoke the slumbering soul. As if in a dream, he, his father, his nephew,
and his wife, broke away from earthly ties and from the beautiful
Chaldean plains, where luxury and learning were daily things of life,
and journeyed toward the hill country.

[Sidenote: How God taught faith]

It has been stated before that God teaches by the enunciation of
principles, or universal laws, and the spirit which comes by faith
enlightens the senses that they may grasp the illustrations of these
laws in the physical world. That is heaven’s method of teaching the
angelic throng, and it was the method applied before the fall. With
Abraham the case was at the beginning far from ideal. Here was a pupil
lacking faith. How should he be taught the wisdom of the Eternal? God
leads in a mysterious way. As Christ lived His visible life, because
the eye of faith was blind in Israel, so, in the time of Abraham, God
taught inductively, as He now says the heathen are to be taught. To him
who had no faith, God came visibly at first, and, leading step by step,
developed a faith which before his death enabled Abraham to grasp eternal
principles of truth if God but spoke.

In Ur, God said, “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless
thee, and will make thy name great.” Years passed, age crept on, and
still there was no heir. Could he have mistaken the voice which bade him
turn his face toward Canaan, and promised to him and his descendants all
the land from the “great river, the river Euphrates, ... unto the great
sea toward the going down of the sun”? “And Abraham said, Lord God, what
wilt Thou give me, seeing I go childless? Shall it be that my steward,
Eliezer, shall become my heir? Shall he be the child of promise? Behold,
to me Thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine
heir.”[16]

This was man’s way of working out a promise made by the Maker of the
universe. Have _we_ passed beyond this elementary lesson of faith? Can
_we_ grasp God’s promise of faith, and, with no fear or thought, leave
results with Him who knows?

No, Abraham; think not that heaven is limited by the line which bounds
thy horizon. “This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come
forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.” And, standing under
the starry canopy of heaven, Abraham’s soul grasped the power of the
Creator. He himself to be a father! His face lighted with a holy joy as
he related to Sarai his experience with God.

But Sarai bare him no children; and that she might help heaven fulfill
its promise, she forsook the divine law of marriage, and gave to Abraham
her handmaid, Hagar, to be his wife. Would that man could grasp at least
the beginnings of the possibilities of God! Untold suffering was the
out-growth of that one step of unbelief. Not one, not two people, but
generations then unborn, had their destinies marred by this lack of
faith. Hagar, sitting over against her dying child, and weeping because
of the bitterness of her fate, is a constant portrayal of an attempt to
live by sight.[17] Again, the approach of the angel and the rescue of the
child records in burning characters the longing of Him who pities our
blindness, and awards us far above what we can ask or think.

[Sidenote: Birth of Isaac]

Ninety-nine years passed over the patriarch’s head, and still the voice
of heaven’s messenger was greeted with a laugh when the promise was
repeated. Sarah turned within the tent door when the angel guest, whom
they had fed, repeated to Abraham the promise concerning his wife. But
she bare to Abraham a son whom God named Isaac, in whom the nations of
the earth were blessed. Joy untold filled the heart of the mother and
father as they beheld the babe.

This was the joy of sight. Twenty-five years before, the thing was just
as true, and Abraham might lawfully have worked upon the basis of its
truth; but the stubborn human heart requires many lessons. Twenty-five
years after this, the strength of Abraham’s faith was tested at the
altar of sacrifice. Leaving home early one morning, he carried fire,
laid wood upon the young man’s shoulders, and journeyed toward Mount
Moriah. “Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt
offering?” asked the son. “God will provide himself a lamb,” answered the
man who had at last learned to believe God. It is but the simple story
of an ancient patriarch; but the word of God bears record that “Abraham
believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.”

And “if _ye_ be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according
to the promise.” Herein lies the value of this lesson to us. We are his
heirs if we link ourselves to the power of the Infinite by that cord of
faith. Only by a life and an education such as his can the kingdom of
Christ be set up within. Such lessons made Abraham a successful teacher.

[Sidenote: Abraham’s school]

Those who wished to worship the true God gathered about the tents of
Abraham, and became pupils in his school. God’s word was the basis of all
instruction, as it is written, “These are the commandments, ... which the
Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land
whither ye go to possess it.”

This WORD was the basis for the study of political science, and Abraham’s
“methods of government” were “carried out in the households over which
they [his students] should preside.” The equality of all men was a lesson
first learned in the home. “Abraham’s affection for his children and
his household led him ... to impart to them a knowledge of the divine
statutes, as the most precious legacy he could transmit to them, and
through them to the world. All were taught that they were under the rule
of the God of heaven. There was to be no oppression on the part of
parents, and no disobedience on the part of children.” His was not a
school where theory alone was taught, but the practical was emphasized.
In studying political science they formed the nucleus of a divine
government; in the study of finances, they actually made the money and
raised the flocks which brought recognition from surrounding nations.
“The unswerving integrity, the benevolence and unselfish courtesy, which
had won the admiration of kings, _were displayed in the home_.”

[Sidenote: This school was the beginning of a nation]

The influence of country life and direct contact with nature, in contrast
with the enervating influence of the city with its idolatrous teaching
and artificial methods, developed a hardy race, a people of faith whom
God could use to lay the foundation for the Israelitish nation. We see,
then, that when God founds a nation, he lays that foundation in a school.
The nation of which Abraham and his followers formed the beginning,
prefigured the earth redeemed, where Christ will reign as King of kings.
The education of the school of Abraham symbolized Christian education.

“If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according
to the promise,” not only of the kingdom, but of the education which
prepares the inhabitants for that kingdom.

As faith was the method employed in teaching in the days of the
patriarch, so in the schools of to-day faith must be the motive for work,
the avenue to the fountain of wisdom. There are to-day those who can not
harmonize their feelings and their ideas of education with the plan which
God has committed to his people. Likewise in the days of Abraham there
was at least one family which withdrew from the influence of the school.

[Sidenote: Lot chose a worldly school]

Lot had felt the effects of the teaching of Abraham, but through the
influence of his wife, “a selfish, irreligious woman,” he left the altar
where they once worshiped together, and moved into the city of Sodom.
“The marriage of Lot, and his choice of Sodom for a home, were the first
links in a chain of events fraught with evil to the world for many
generations.” Had he alone suffered, we would not need to follow the
history; but the choice of a new home threw his children into the schools
of the heathen; pride and love of display were fostered, marriage with
Sodomites was a natural consequence, and their final destruction in the
burning city was the terrible but inevitable result.

“When Lot entered Sodom, he fully intended to keep himself free from
iniquity, and to command his household after him. But he signally failed.
The corrupting influences about him had an effect upon his own faith,
and his children’s connection with the inhabitants of Sodom bound up his
interests in a measure with theirs.”

The statement is a familiar one, that schools should be established where
an education differing from that of the world can be given, because
parents are unable to counteract the influence of the schools of the
world. The experience of Lot is a forcible reminder of the truth of the
statement. And the injunction to “remember Lot’s wife,” should serve as a
warning to Christians against flocking into the cities to give children
an education. The words of Spalding are true: “Live not in a great city,
for a great city is a mill which grinds all grain into flour. Go there
to get money or to preach repentance, but go not there to make thyself a
nobler man.”

The two systems of education are nowhere more vividly portrayed than in
the experiences of Abraham and Lot. Education in the tents of Abraham,
under the guidance of the Spirit of Jehovah, brought eternal life.
Education in the schools of Sodom brought eternal death. This was not an
unnatural thing. You can not find here any arbitrary work on the part of
God. To partake of the fruit of the tree of life, imparts life. But of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil it has been said, “In the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

The system of education revealed to Abraham, would, if fully carried
out, have placed Israel on a plane of existence above the nations of
the world. It was a spiritual education, reaching the soul by a direct
appeal to faith, and would have placed the people of God as teachers
of nations. Not a few only were intended to teach, but the nation as a
whole was to teach other nations. The second Israel will occupy a similar
position, and they will be brought to that position by means of Christian
education.




VI

EDUCATION IN ISRAEL


“Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many
as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the
seashore innumerable.” As God dealt with the one man, so He dealt with
the nation. As He had led the man from a lowly plane to an exalted
position, so He led the nation until they stood a spectacle to the whole
world. He chose them not because of their great numbers, but, taking the
fewest of men, He wished to show to the world what could be done by the
power of love.

[Sidenote: Israel a peculiar people]

This small people, however, were intended to lead the world, and lead it
in every sense of the word. That they might lead instead of being led,
He made them a peculiar people unto Himself, giving them in the first
place the rite of circumcision, which put a barrier forever between the
believer in the God of Israel and all the nations of the world. This
separation was for a purpose. The fact that they were to be peculiar
in the eyes of the other nations was merely a precautionary step, not a
thing of importance in itself. God had a mission for the nation; and in
order that it might be accomplished, every effort must be bent in that
direction. Oneness of purpose is a divine law; and that Israel might
lead, Israel must occupy a position in advance of all other peoples.

[Sidenote: Planes of existence]

Men live on various planes. There are those so constituted physically as
to be content with the gratification of physical wants and desires. These
can readily be led by men who live on a mental plane; for mind has ever
been recognized as superior to matter, so that without knowing it, the
physically strong yields to his mental superior. Almost unconscious of
his power, the man on the mental plane guides and controls those on the
physical plane; he can not help it. It is a natural law; the one leads,
the other follows. Two individuals, one living in one of these spheres
and the other in the sphere above, will never contend on account of
principle; for the man physically organized finds it natural to follow
the dictates of the other. This is, and always has been, the condition
of society. Nature herself singles out the leaders. They are born, not
made, for leadership. They are the few, it is true; the masses always
prefer to be led.

But it was not as mere mental leaders that God called Israel. There
is above the mental a still higher plane, the ladder to reach which
is scaled by very few. As the numbers decrease while passing from the
physical to the mental plane, so they decrease yet more in passing from
the mental to the _spiritual_ plane.

[Sidenote: How men reach the spiritual plane]

Man reaches this highest plane of existence only by faith. It requires
constant self-denial and continual development. In reality it is living
as seeing Him who is invisible. The physical man depends almost entirely
on knowledge gained through the senses. The mentally developed depends
upon reason. Many combine these two natures, and such individuals are
guided by the sense of reason just in proportion as the two natures are
developed. Knowledge as a result of sense perceptions and finite reason
capture the majority of mankind. The life of faith, the walking with God,
takes in the few.

[Sidenote: Israel should live on the spiritual plane]

Do you see why God chose a small people? He chose them, as a nation,
to be priests or teachers unto Himself. As individuals, and as a
nation, Israel was to stand upon the spiritual plane, attaining and
maintaining the position by a life of faith. Standing there, it would be
in accordance with the natural law for all on the lower planes to yield
obedience. As the mental controls the physical without any friction, so
the spiritual controls all others. Therefore (for this reason) said the
Lord, “I have taught you statutes and judgments.... Keep therefore and do
them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the
nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great
nation _is a wise and understanding people_.”[18]

[Sidenote: Israel as teachers of the world]

Statutes in themselves can not command respect for any people, but God
gave Israel a manner of life which linked them with Himself. Living on a
spiritual plane, all the world looked to them for guidance. As one can
not reach up and help those above him, but must come from above and lift
others to himself, so Israel was pointed to a life which made others
follow in spite of themselves, while at the same time they were following
what they knew to be the truth. This is the exalted position which truth
has ever held.

[Sidenote: Peculiarity depended upon the system of education]

Granting it clear that Israel would lead by virtue of the plane of
existence upon which they stood, and that this was attained by a life
of faith, it is easily seen why there was marked out for the nation a
_system of education_ differing as completely from the systems of the
other nations of the world as the spiritual life differs from a purely
physical or a strictly mental existence. It made it impossible for
any mingling of systems to take place without the utter ruin of the
spiritual; for as soon as this came down to the level of either of the
others, it ceased to be spiritual, and lost its power to lead.

[Sidenote: Result of mixture in educational systems]

Should Israel attempt to adopt the education of surrounding nations, that
moment her education would become papal in character, for it would then
be a combination of the divine with the worldly. If a man-made theocracy,
a church and state government, is papal in principle, the divine and the
worldly combined in educational systems is no less a papal principle.
Israel formed such a combination more than once, but with the results
recorded in Ps. 106:34-38: “They mingled among the heathen, and learned
their works. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters into devils, and shed
innocent blood, even the blood of their _sons_ and of their _daughters_,
whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan.”

Truth and error never form a compound, although they may be mingled.
The union of the two never produces truth, and the end is death. Truth
amalgamated with error, as gold with mercury, lies dormant until
released. Israel could not positively forsake her God-given forms of
education without relinquishing her place as leader of nations. Destined
to be the head and not the tail, she immediately reversed her position
when she adopted a mixed system.

[Sidenote: Spiritual nature of their education]

The education which was outlined for the children of Israel was
soul-culture, pure and simple. Its object was to develop the soul which
is God in man; and Divinity so planned that every true Jew should be
a God-man. Education was to develop the spark of divinity bestowed at
birth, and it was the privilege of every Jew to have, as did that _One_
Jew, Christ, the Spirit without measure.

Let us see, then, what the plan was which would take the newborn babe,
and follow him through life, making him one unit in a nation of spiritual
beings. God recognized prenatal influence, and so gave directions and
laws concerning the life of the parents. This is illustrated in the story
of Hannah and the wife of Manoah, in Elizabeth, and in Mary the mother of
Jesus.

[Sidenote: Jewish schools]

In the early history of the nation, “Education,” says Painter, “was
restricted to the family, in which the father was the principal teacher.
There were no popular schools nor professional teachers. Yet the
instruction of the Jew ... embraced a vast number of particulars.”[19]
Hinsdale says: “Jewish education began with the mother. What the true
Jewish mother, considered as a teacher, was, we know from both the
Testaments and from many other sources. The very household duties that
she performed molded her children in accordance with the national
discipline. ‘The Sabbath meal, the kindling of the Sabbath lamp, and
the setting apart of a portion of the dough from the bread for the
household—these are but instances with which every _Taph_, as he clung
to his mother’s skirts, must have been familiar.’ The bit of parchment
fastened to the doorpost, on which the name of the Most High was written,
... would be among the first things to arrest his attention.

“It was in the school of the mother’s knee that the stories of patriarchs
and prophets, of statesmen and warriors, of poets and sages, of kings and
judges, wise men and patriots, and of the great Law-giver Himself,—the
whole forming the very best body of material for the purposes of
child-nurture found in any language,—were told and retold until they
became parts of the mind itself.” He then mentions the case of Timothy,
and adds: “As teachers of their children, the women of every country
may learn lessons from the matrons of Israel.”[20] This was evidently
the original plan, and had the families proved faithful to the trust,
the greater part, if not all, of the education would have been in the
_family school_. Always, however, as long as Israel was a nation, the
child (and the term covered the first twelve or fifteen years) was under
the instruction of the parents.

[Sidenote: Jewish church schools]

From the home school we follow the Jewish child to the synagogue or
church school. Moses was instructed by the Lord to make every priest
a teacher, so the nation had a whole tribe of teachers. As every town
had its synagogue, so “a town in which there is no school must perish.”
Quoting again from Hinsdale: “The children were gathered for instruction
in the synagogues and schoolhouses, where the teacher, generally the
Chazzan, or officer of the synagogue, ‘imparted to them the precious
knowledge of the law, with constant adaptation to their capacity,
with unwearied patience, intense earnestness, strictness tempered by
kindness, but, above all, with the highest object of their training ever
in view. _To keep children from all contact with vice; to train them to
gentleness, even when bitterest wrong had been received_; to show sin in
its repulsiveness, rather than to terrify by its consequences; _to train
to strict truthfulness_; to avoid all that might lead to disagreeable
or indelicate thoughts; and to do all this without showing partiality,
without either undue severity or laxity of discipline, with judicious
increase of study and work, with careful attention to thoroughness in
acquiring knowledge—all this and more constituted the ideal set before
the teacher, and made his office of such high esteem in Israel.’”[21]
These teachers took the youth at the most critical period of their
development. And how thoroughly they understood the needs of the
developing minds!

[Sidenote: Schools of the prophets]

In the days of Samuel we read, for the first time, of the schools of the
prophets, where young men were gathered together for the study of the
law, of music, poetry, and history, and of the various trades. The name
_School of the Prophets_ would indicate the spirituality of their work,
and reference to the time of Elijah and Elisha and the experience of Saul
would prove the truth of the inference.

[Sidenote: Studies in Jewish schools]

Concerning the subjects taught we are not left in ignorance, if we study
the history of the people. Thus, quoting again from Painter: “The Hebrew
parent was not only to impart oral instruction to his children, but to
teach them also _reading and writing_. As he was to inscribe the words
of the Lord upon his doorposts and gates, he must himself have learned
to write; and, as he wrote them for his children, they must have been
taught to read. Hence, it appears that the ability to read and write was
general among the ancient Jews; and, in this particular, they surpassed
every other nation of antiquity.”[22] Hinsdale says: “From the teaching
of the alphabet, or writing in the primary school, to the farthest limit
of instruction in the academies of the rabbis, all was marked by extreme
care, wisdom, accuracy, and moral and religious purpose as the ultimate
object.”[23]

[Sidenote: The Bible as a text-book]

“Up to ten years of age the Bible was the sole text-book; from ten to
fifteen the _Mischna_, or traditional law, was used; and after that
the pupil was admitted to the discussions of the rabbinical schools.
So extensive a course of study, however, was taken only by those who
showed decided aptitude for learning. Bible study began with the book of
Leviticus; then came other parts of the Pentateuch; next the prophets,
and finally the Hagiography.”[24]

[Sidenote: Physiology]

In working for this chosen people, God cured physical infirmities with
the same case that he healed a sin-sick soul; and with the laws for
spiritual growth were given directions for the preservation of health.
Every priest was likewise a physician, and the laws concerning the use
of simple, healthful foods, proper breathing, ventilation, the use of
disinfectants, the bath, etc., were familiar to all who read the statutes
of Jehovah.

[Sidenote: Additional studies]

Painter says, concerning other subjects taught: “Among the potent
educational agencies of the Jews, that of the annual national festivals
merits consideration.... Commemorating important national events, they
kept the people acquainted with their past _history_.... These frequent
reunions not only contributed to national and religious unity, but they
exerted a strong educating influence upon the people.”[25]

“The Levites, more than other Hebrews, were to study the book of the
_law_; to preserve and disseminate it in exact copies; to perform
the duties of _judges_ and _genealogists_, and consequently to be
theologians, jurists, and historians.... As the priests and Levites were
to test the accuracy of weights and measures, ... it was necessary that
they should understand something of _mathematics_; and as they were
to determine and announce the movable feasts, new moons, years, and
intercalary years, they had occasion for the study of _astronomy_,” says
Jahn.

Since the schools of the prophets flourished in the days of Saul and
David, it would not be surprising if David gained some of his musical
skill there as well as on the hillside tending sheep, for _poetry and
music_ formed part of the course of instruction in these schools. One
author pays high tribute to these subjects by saying: “Greek poetry is
beautiful; Hebrew poetry is sublime.”

[Sidenote: Effects of Jewish education]

When children were fortified by such an education from infancy to
manhood, it is little wonder that the influence which the nation “has
exerted upon the world is incalculable. It has supplied the basis of
all true theology; it has given a system of faultless morality; and, in
Christianity, it has provided the most perfect form of religion. The
civilization of _Europe_ and _America_ can be directly traced to the
Jews.”[26]

What might have been the result had the nation lived up to its privileges
in educational lines is not difficult to determine. Earth’s history would
have been shortened by at least two thousand years; for the nation would
never have gone into bondage, and Christ would never have been betrayed.
As these principles of Christian education are again taking hold of
people, with what interest must the progress of the work be watched by
the inhabitants of other worlds, who have seen past failures through lack
of faith! That Hebrew education tended mainly to a development of the
inner man instead of giving merely a conglomeration of facts, is well
expressed by Wines. He says: “The Hebrew law required an early, constant,
vigorous, and efficient training of the disposition, judgment, manners,
and habits, both of thought and feeling. The sentiments held to be proper
to man in society were imbibed with the milk of infancy. The manners
considered becoming in adults were sedulously imparted in childhood.”

[Sidenote: The threefold nature educated]

The education, however, was not only moral and intellectual, but physical
as well; for every Jewish boy was taught some trade which rendered him
self-supporting. Nor did wealth or position remove the need of this.
Paul, who sat at the feet of Gamaliel while studying the law, was able to
gain a livelihood as a tentmaker when preaching the gospel.

[Sidenote: True teaching exemplified]

There was, however, in it all this one thought: all instruction was
intended to develop the spiritual nature. It was considered the highest
honor to become a priest (every Jew might have been both priest and
teacher), and in this office man stood next to God. This was wholly a
spiritual position, and prefigured the work of the Messiah. True, Israel
as a nation never reached the standard set for her, never mounted, as
it were, that ladder reaching from earth to heaven; and it was left for
the One Man, the Master of Israel, to bind together the two realms of
the physical and the spiritual. But from time to time men arose in the
Jewish nation who grasped in a far broader sense than the majority,
the meaning of true education as delivered to the Jews, and who, by
submitting to the educating influence of the Spirit of God, were enabled
to become leaders of the people and representatives of God on earth. Such
were Moses, Daniel, Job, and Ezekiel, and, to a certain extent, all the
prophets of Israel. In each of these the soul rose above the physical
man, until it met its parent force in the heart of God. This made it
possible for Moses to talk face to face with the Father, and for Ezekiel
to follow the angel of revelation to the border land of God’s home.

These men were but enjoying what _every man in Israel_ might have
experienced had the nation remained upon the plane to which they were
called, receiving their education by faith. One is tempted to ask why
they fell. The answer is the same as to that other question, Why do not
we arise? They ceased to look upward; faith failed, and reason took its
place, and instead of leading they sought to be like the nations about
them.

[Sidenote: Worldly systems of education]

There lay Egypt, with its mighty men, and the carnal heart longed for
some of the Egyptian display. To understand it, we must again consider
the difference in life and education. Life on the spiritual plane means
whole self-forgetfulness; but when carnal desires are heeded, a fall is
inevitable. Egyptian education was largely on the physical basis. It is
true that mental heights were reached, but only by the few, and those
few, bound by earth’s fetters, were unable to break entirely away. The
masses, not only in education but in religion, were physical, and _basely
physical_. The sacred bull was a personification of deity. Why?—Because
God, to an Egyptian, was an embodiment of lust. All their gods, all their
rites and ceremonies, every temple wall and religious service, breathed
the dreadful odor of licentiousness. Historians state that the priestly
class knew better. And so they did; but their grasp was not that of
truth, else they could never have been the priests and teachers of such a
religion or of such a system of education.

These words, put in the mouth of an ancient Egyptian priest, speak
truly the spirit of Egyptian education. He says: “I that have seen nigh
four-score years of misery; ... I that have mastered all the arts,
sciences, and religion of ancient Egypt—a land that was wrinkled with age
centuries before the era of Moses; I that know both all that the priests
of Kem ever taught the people, and also the higher and more recondite
forms of ignorance in which the priests themselves believed—I verily know
nothing! I can scarcely believe in anything _save universal darkness_,
for which no day-spring cometh, and universal wretchedness for which
there is no cure. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
this death?”

And yet the Jews would leave that education which offered eternal life,
for this which the best-educated Egyptian might acknowledge to be
darkness and only darkness. It was from this that God delivered Israel;
but many to-day, claiming to be Israel in Spirit, seek still the wisdom
and philosophy of Egypt for themselves and their children. Israel could
not come in touch with this form of life without contamination. Nay,
more, she fell from her exalted state, and never reached it again.
“Jerusalem was destroyed because the education of her children was
neglected.”

The ceremonial law given after leaving Sinai, at the beginning of that
memorable march of forty years, was necessary because the nation had
lost all appreciation of the spiritual in the abstract, and could gain
no idea whatever of God as a _Spirit_ except through some appeal to the
physical senses. This condition was due to the fact that four generations
had been subject to Egyptian education.

[Sidenote: Israel at the Exodus]

The plan of types and ceremonies alone appealed to the mind. And even
in this inductive method of teaching, the nation seemed slow to learn;
for the forty years between the Red Sea and Jordan served to develop
scarcely enough faith to carry the people into the promised land. God’s
law, written on the tablets of the heart by the pen of faith, appealed to
but few. Men ate manna from heaven, but knew not that it was the token
of a crucified Saviour: they drank of water flowing constantly from the
smitten rock, never dreaming that it prefigured the shed blood of the
dying Son of God. Once settled in Canaan, the whole system of education
was so planned as to teach the child to accept Christ by faith. Some
grasped this spiritual truth; but a few had eyes which saw the things
hidden from the multitude, because faith was an avenue to the very soul.

Having the privilege of living by faith, and accepting the divine
teaching in this its highest form, they preferred the old way, and
walked by sight. “Except ye see, ye will not believe;” “O ye of little
faith.” When we look at what the Israelites might have been, and then
at what they were, there is a feeling of intense pain, for the fall is
inexpressibly great. By little and little, Jehovah strove to reach the
higher nature again, and bring Israel to its heaven-selected place. There
was steady progress until the days of Solomon, whose wisdom outshone that
of the great men of earth, and Israel as a nation was again on the verge
of becoming the leading people of the world politically, intellectually,
and morally.

[Sidenote: Solomon’s wisdom]

Solomon was raised to a position of eminence among the great men of earth
because he learned from God the secret of true education. His wisdom was
not a gift to him exclusively, but was offered to all who would comply
with the educational requirements. Of Solomon we read that God gave him
a hearing ear. His spiritual senses were awakened by faith, and he found
himself so in harmony with the God of nature that all the works of the
Creator were read by him as an open book. His wisdom seemed great in
contrast with that of other Jews merely because others failed to live up
to their privileges. God desired the whole nation to stand before other
people as Solomon stood before the kings of the earth.

The surprising feature to most students is the fact that the system of
education given by God will, when followed, open to man such material
benefits. It is not, as it is often accused of being, ideal and
theoretical, but lacking the practical. On the contrary, it is of the
most practical nature, and opens to its followers all legitimate lines
of prosperity, placing its devotees above all contestants. This is seen
in the experience of the king just mentioned. As a statesman and lawyer,
Solomon was noted; as a scientist, he excelled the scholars of the world;
for wealth and splendor, the half has not been told; during his reign
Jewish architecture, as exemplified in the temple, assumed such grandeur
that it became the model for even the æsthetic Greek. In tilling the soil
and raising fruit it was always intended that Israel should excel other
nations.[27] Youth were trained to fill positions of trust, and were
taught the practical duties of everyday life. Such training was given to
girls as well as to boys, fitting them to fill properly their allotted
sphere as housewives and mothers in Israel.[28]

From the fall which followed this exaltation, Israel never recovered.
The educational system losing its true character, the nation was at last
carried into captivity. When the Hebrew race lost the spirituality of
their education, they lost everything; for political power, national
reputation, all, hung upon one thread. “Jerusalem was destroyed because
the education of her children was neglected.” This destruction did not
come suddenly. There was a decline, then a forward lunge, and another
relapse, each time the fall being greater and the reaction weaker.

[Sidenote: An educational reform]

Several times a halt was made, and the national life was prolonged by a
return to the prescribed methods of education. Jehoshaphat, for instance,
appointed Levites as teachers to the different cities of Israel, and, as
a result, “The fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands
that were round about Judah, so that they made no war.”[29] Had the
reform been carried on which was then begun, the whole national history
would have been changed.

Another noticeable fact is that release from bondage was always heralded
by two reforms. For instance, before deliverance from Babylon, Daniel was
raised up to give the people instruction in health reform and educational
reform. These two always accompany each other. The one affects the body,
preparing it to become the temple of the Holy Ghost; the other turns the
mind toward truth, that the Spirit of God may think through it. A body
purified by right living, and a mind trained according to the laws of
Christian education, brings an experience such as Daniel had.[30] That he
lived on a plane above the majority of men is evident; for “I, Daniel,
alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision.”
What to Daniel was the voice of God those whose ears were not in tune
with the Infinite heard as thunder or as an earthquake. It had been the
privilege of all to see and hear as Daniel saw and heard, but they chose
a coarser life, a slower vibratory existence, where the mental strain was
less, and the heart strings were looser. It was easier to keep in tune
with Egypt or Babylon than with the God of heaven. And when the Son of
Man was born, he found it hard to select even a small company whose lives
were in harmony with His own.

Israel’s education was a spiritual education. Her King was to set up a
spiritual kingdom in the hearts of a people spiritualized by the presence
of truth. It was the same system which had been delivered by Christ to
Adam; the same by which Abraham was taught; and what was not accomplished
in the ages past will be accomplished by Christian education in the days
preparatory to His second coming.




VII

THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF THE PAGAN WORLD


God called Israel to become a nation of teachers, and gave them statutes
and judgments which, when made the basis of the educational systems,
tended to make of the nation a peculiar people, a nation of priests,
a spiritual race, thereby constituting them the leading people of the
world. From what did he call them?—“The Lord hath taken you, and brought
you forth out of the _iron furnace, OUT OF EGYPT_.”[31] And again, “Out
of Egypt have I called my Son.”[32] Egypt stands as a personification of
the heathen world, and its very name means darkness. The dark mantle of
paganism has ever obstructed the bright shining of the light of truth.

As Israel’s power, physical, intellectual, and political, was derived
from, and depended upon, her system of education, so it would be but
natural to suppose that the opposing power of paganism would possess
educational ideas, and be controlled by a system of instruction
in harmony with its practices. Or, to state it more logically, we
necessarily conclude that the pagan world rested upon a distinct system
of education, and that the customs and practices of pagan nations were
the result of the educational ideas which they advocated.

The God-given system, as found among the Hebrews, rested upon faith, and
developed the spiritual side of man’s nature, making it possible in the
highest sense for divinity to unite with humanity. The result of this
union of the human and the divine—the Immanuel—is the highest creation of
the universe. It in itself was a power before which men and demons bowed.

[Sidenote: Paganism self-worship]

As to paganism and its system of education, what was the religion of the
pagan world? and what were the ideas it strove to propagate? First, it
placed above God the study and worship of self. Christ is the “true light
that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” All men have, then,
at some time in life, light enough to lead them to truth, for the gospel
“reveals a divine anger from heaven upon all wickedness and iniquity of
men who _pervert the true into the false_; because the knowledge of God
is clear within themselves, God having revealed it to them; for from the
creation of the world His invisible attributes might be discovered from
the created facts,—that is, His unseen power and Godhead. Consequently,
they are inexcusable.”[33]

Men, therefore, who of necessity have light may reject that light, and
they then become pagan. Paul, in the first chapter of his Roman letter,
states a universal law in that when truth is rejected, error takes
its place. The quotation is again taken from Fenton’s translation,
because the wording, by differing slightly from the authorized version,
stimulates thought: “Because, knowing God, they did not honor Him as a
God, or rejoice, but trifled in their augmentations, and darkened their
senseless hearts; _professing to be philosophers, they_ played the fool,
and transformed the glory of the imperishable God into an image of
perishable man, and birds! and beasts! and reptiles! And, therefore, God
abandoned them in the lusts of their hearts to filthiness, to dishonor
their own bodies to themselves; they having changed the truth of God into
falsehood, by honoring and serving the creature contrary to the Creator,
who is truly blessed in all ages.”[34]

Having turned from the worship of Jehovah to the worship of man, then
bird, and beast, and reptile, we find associated with worship the
grossest forms of licentiousness. This is stated by Paul in the first
chapter of Romans. The thought which must be borne in mind is that man
turns from God and worships himself. He can conceive of no power higher
than his own mind, no form more lofty than his own. His first idol is the
human form, male or female. He endows this with human passions, for he
knows no heart but his own. By beholding he becomes changed into the same
passionate creature; a beast becomes the personification of his deity,
and the sacred bull his god. Everything about the worship is gross, and
birds, crocodiles, and all sorts of reptiles become objects of worship.
This is Egypt. This, in fact, pictures the final worship in any country
which turns from Christ and places faith in man.

There are a variety of forms in worship, as there are a variety of
complexions in the men of different countries; but it is one and the same
plan throughout, resting upon one system of education, producing the same
results, whether traced in the proud Babylonish court, the loathsome
filth of Egypt, Greece with its intellectual pride and culture, in Roman
law, or in the more modern European countries. Paganism is the green-eyed
monster, crouching on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, whose body
follows the course of the Nile, whose paws reach both east and west, and
whose breath has poisoned the atmosphere of all Europe. Into those eyes
men have gazed expecting to find wisdom. It was but the glare of the
demon, as the tiger’s gaze at night.

[Sidenote: Egyptian religion and education]

For Egypt itself, it blotted out all individual rights, placing the
masses as a common herd writhing in superstition under the hands
of a tyrannical king and a scheming priesthood. It was indeed “an
iron furnace,” as God had called it, and as Israel had found by sad
experience. It was tyranny in government; it was still more bitter
tyranny in education and religion. As well might one strive to move the
pyramids, or get words from the silent sphinx, as to hope to change the
life in Egypt by means of anything presented in Egypt.

[Sidenote: Cultivation of the senses]

Of Egyptian education, Jahn says: The “priests were a separate tribe,
... and they performed not only the services of religion but the duties
of all civil offices to which learning was necessary. They therefore
devoted themselves in a peculiar manner to the cultivation of _the
sciences_.... They studied natural philosophy, natural history, medicine,
mathematics (particularly astronomy and geometry), history, civil polity,
and jurisprudence.” Place this course of study by the side of Jewish
education, and you notice in the latter the Bible and such subjects as
tended to develop spirituality, those things which faith alone could
grasp; while the education of the Egyptian had an entirely intellectual
basis, and dealt with those subjects which appeal to the senses and to
human reason.

When this system as a system is traced in other countries, especially
in Greece, this characteristic becomes startling in the extreme; and if
reference is made to it often in contrast to the Jewish system, it is
because herein lies the pivot upon which the history of nations revolves.
It is either faith or reason to-day, as it has been faith opposed to
reason throughout the ages. In place of reason use the word _philosophy_,
for that was a favorite expression among the pagans.

[Sidenote: Pagan philosophy folly]

The gospel has stood opposed to the philosophy of the world since the
beginning; hence we read, “For the reason of the Cross is certainly folly
to the reprobate, but to us, the saved, it is a divine power; for it is
written, ‘I will destroy the philosophy of the philosophers, and upset
the cleverness of the clever.’ Where is the philosopher? where is the
scholar? where is the investigator of this age? Has not God made the
_philosophy_ of this world folly? For when in the _divine philosophy_ the
world did not perceive God through the philosophy, it pleased God to save
the faithful by means of the folly of preaching. As, however, Jews demand
a sign, and Greeks seek after philosophy, we now proclaim a crucified
Christ, a certain offense to the Jews, and joke to the heathen, but to
the called, whether Jews or Greeks,—Christ a divine power and a divine
philosophy.... For observe your calling, brothers, that there are not
many _fashionable philosophers_, nor many powerful men, nor many of high
birth.”[35]

It is this divine philosophy which the spiritually minded grasp, and
which is the sum and substance of their education. It is this human
philosophy, or natural philosophy, which in the sight of God is folly,
that Egypt and her followers adopted. Minds delving into human philosophy
never find God, nor do they approach the realms of divine philosophy.
There is a _divine philosophy_, and it is grasped by faith; and there is
a human philosophy, a creation of the human mind, a science formulated
from deductions which appeal to natural senses. But the man, wisest in
human learning alone, remains still a fool in the eyes of God, for the
inner man has not been reached.

[Sidenote: Egyptian wisdom]

Our study of pagan education is not, however, confined to the Nile
Valley. Indeed, some of the most interesting phases, some of the
strongest features of the system, were developed elsewhere. Egypt
was the cradle, but Greece and Rome were fields in which these ideas
gained strength. We read: “The ancients looked upon Egypt as a
school of wisdom. Greece sent thither illustrious philosophers and
lawgivers—Pythagoras and Plato, Lycurgus and Solon—to complete their
studies.” “_Hence, even the Greeks_ in ancient times were _accustomed to
borrow their politics and their learning_ from the Egyptians.”[36]

[Sidenote: Spartan education and Egypt]

Of the four men mentioned, we look upon Lycurgus as the founder of the
Spartan government, noted for the physical training it gave and the utter
subjection of the individual to the state. Every historian recognized
this as due to the _system of education_ introduced by Lycurgus, and
followed out by his people. The newborn babe was adjudged worthy of life
or death by a council of the state, the decision being based on the
physical condition of the infant. At the age of seven the child became
the property of the state, and so remained until sixty. It was more
exclusively a physical or purely secular education than that offered
elsewhere on earth.

[Sidenote: Athens and Egypt]

The prosperity of Athens, where was “wrought out the most perfect form
of heathen civilization,” dates from the time of Solon, who, as we have
already learned, _finished his education in Egypt_. In these two men
we see the leaning toward the physical side, made so prominent in pagan
education. “The course of study in the school of Pythagoras embraced
mathematics, physics, metaphysics, and medicine. Especial prominence was
given mathematics, which Pythagoras regarded as the noblest science.”
Here is revealed the inclination of the pagan education toward the purely
intellectual. Of Plato we shall read later.

[Sidenote: Egyptian education universal]

If Egypt offered ground for the germination of the seed of pagan
education, Greece brought the plant to its seed-producing state; and
Rome, acting as the wind with the thistle down, _scattered pagan
education broadcast_. Of Rome we read: “It gathered into its arms the
elements of Grecian and Oriental culture, and as its end drew nigh, it
scatters them freely over the rest of Europe. Rome has been the bearer of
culture to the modern world.”[37]

[Sidenote: Plato in education]

In order to understand the fertility of the seeds of pagan education,
it is necessary to regard with care the master mind of that system, and
this we find in Plato. Emerson, in his “Representative Men,” defines
his position and the position of his philosophy in the pagan and in the
so-called Christian world, making the teachings of this Greek, schooled
in Egypt, crowd out the Word of God itself. He says: “Out of Plato come
all things that are still written and debated among men of thought....
_The Bible_ of the learned for twenty-two hundred years, every brisk
young man, who says in succession fine things to each reluctant
generation ( ... Erasmus, Bruno, Locke, Rousseau, Coleridge) is some
reader of Plato.”

That is saying that for twenty-two hundred years Plato and his
educational system, known everywhere as Platonism, have taken the _place
of the Bible to the leading minds of the world_. “Plato is philosophy,
and philosophy, Plato,—at once the glory and the shame of mankind, since
neither Saxon nor Roman have availed to add any idea to his categories,”
continues Emerson. “No wife, no children had he, and the _thinkers of all
civilized nations are his posterity_, and _are tinged_ with his mind. How
many great men nature is incessantly sending up out of night, to be _his
men,—Platonists_!”

Then he gives a list of illustrious names who have stood for learning in
the various ages of the world’s history, and continues: “Calvinism is in
his [Plato’s] _Phædo_: Christianity is in it.” How little this writer
knew of the power of the truth as given by Christ! Doubtless he formed
his judgment from professedly Christian teachers. But he continues:
“Mahometanism draws all its philosophy, in its handbook of morals, ...
from him [Plato]. Mysticism finds in Plato all its texts. This citizen
of a town in Greece is no villager nor patriot. An Englishman reads,
and says, ‘How English!’ a German, ‘How Teutonic!’ an Italian, ‘How
Roman and how Greek!’” And to show that the recognition of Plato is
not stopped by the Atlantic, our versatile New England writer says:
“Plato seems, to a reader in New England, an American genius.” Has the
reader any suspicion that our American educational institutions may have
recognized the universality of this master of philosophy, and adopted
into their curricula his system of reasoning? One traces, without the aid
of magnifiers, the thread of pagan philosophy throughout the American
schools.

“As our Jewish Bible has implanted itself in the table talk and household
life of every man and woman in the European and American nations, so the
writings of Plato have preoccupied _every school of learning, every lover
of thought, every church, every poet_,—making it impossible to think,
_on certain levels, except through him_. He stands between the truth and
every man’s mind, and has almost impressed language and the primary forms
of thought with his name and seal.... Here is the germ of that Europe
we know so well, in its long history of arts and arms; here are all its
traits, already discernible in the mind of Plato.... How Plato came thus
to be Europe, and philosophy, and almost literature, is the problem for
us to solve.”[38]

One ceases to wonder that, surrounded as was the Corinthian church by
_this philosophy_ and in daily touch with these ideas which have swayed
the world, Paul wrote to it against accepting the philosophy of men
in place of that divine philosophy which he and other apostles were
preaching through the cross of Christ. “When I came to you, brethren,”
writes the apostle, “I came not proclaiming the testimony of God with
_grand reasoning or philosophies_, for I decided to know nothing among
you except Jesus Christ, and He was crucified.... And my thought and my
statement was not clothed in captivating _philosophical reasons_; but, in
demonstrated spirit and power, so _that your trust might not be in human
philosophy_, but in Divine power.”[39] “Beware lest any man spoil you
_through philosophy_ and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after
the elements [margin] of the world, and not after Christ.”[40]

[Sidenote: Evolution the basis of Platonism.]

Seeing, then, that the Platonic system of education has exerted, and is
still exerting, such an influence over the minds of men, it behooves
us to ascertain the basic principles of his system. What did the man
believe, and what did he teach? Quotations have already been given
showing that he is the father of _modern philosophy_. Emerson defines
this philosophy. He says: “_Philosophy is the account which the human
mind gives to itself of the constitution of the world._” All attempts,
then, to account for the constitution of the world when a “thus saith
the Lord,” is refused, is philosophy. And philosophy is Plato.

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word
of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do
appear.”[41] But Platonism is the _mind_ trying to account to itself for
the constitution of the worlds. How, think you, did the author of this
philosophy go about to account for things which can be grasped by _faith
alone_? “To Plato belongs the honor of first subjecting education to a
scientific examination,” says Painter. Here began the laboratory studies
which have been continued by Huxley, Darwin, and others. And thus from
Plato Europe and America have gained their ideas of evolution. Plato
brought these ideas from Egypt and Babylon, and the schools of to-day
follow this man-made philosophy. Our men of intellect write text-books
which they place in the hands of youth, teaching them to account for the
constitution of the worlds according to the reasoning of men’s minds.

A few more thoughts concerning Plato, and we shall see what evolution is,
and where it is now found. Aristotle, the illustrious pupil of Plato,
“created the science of logic,” “the science of _exact_ reasoning,” as
Webster puts it. Says Emerson: “The balanced soul came.” “His daring
imagination gives him the more solid grasp of facts.... According to
the old sentence, ‘If Jove should descend to the earth, _he would speak
in the style of Plato_.’” This last, the Christian can readily believe;
but the Son of man used an entirely different speech, although Plato
antedates his birth over four hundred years, and was, at the time of the
advent of Christ, the ruler of the intellectual world.

[Sidenote: Platonism in modern schools]

“In reading logarithms, one is not more secure than following Plato
in his flights.” Plato himself is given credit for saying: “There is
a science of sciences—I call it Dialectic—_which is_ the _intellect
discriminating the false and the true_.” There is indeed a science of
sciences—the science of salvation. There is verily a way of judging
between the false and the true, for the Spirit of truth will guide you
into all truth. But the human brain can never do this. It was this same
logic, Plato’s “science of sciences,” which was given such prominence in
the papal schools and all medieval education. Here stand the two systems
side by side, the one guided by human reason, the other by the Spirit
of the living God. Remember that the world bows to Plato; and, raising
its hands in an attitude of worship, lays at his feet its tribute, its
dearest idol,—its educational system. Chambers’s Encyclopedia, art.
“Plato,” shows conclusively that this Greek philosopher holds still
his exalted position in literary circles and among educators. It says:
“Since the French Revolution particularly, the study of Plato has been
pursued with renewed vigor in Germany, France, and England; and many of
our distinguished authors, without expressly professing Platonism,—as
Coleridge, Wordsworth, Mrs. Browning, Ruskin, etc.,—have formed a strong
and growing party of adherents, who _could find no common banner under
which they could at once so conveniently and so honorably muster as that
of Plato_.”

Christians are to be gathered under the ensign of Christ;[42] but many
educators of to-day find “no common banner under which they could so
conveniently and so honorably muster as that of Plato.” Christianity or
paganism, which shall it be in the education of Protestant children
of to-day? How did it happen that the ideas of Plato were so generally
accepted throughout Europe? The article in Chambers’s Encyclopedia, from
which the foregoing quotation is made, tells in the following words how
the early Christian church became contaminated by the teachings of Plato:
“The works of Plato were extensively _studied by the Church Fathers_, one
of whom joyfully recognizes, in the great teacher of the academy, the
schoolmaster who, in the fullness of time, was destined to educate the
heathen for Christ, as Moses did the Jews.” If the early church adopted
the educational system of Plato, one does not wonder that by the Middle
Ages Europe was ready for Greek philosophy.

[Sidenote: Platonism in Europe and America]

In the year 1453, the Turks captured Constantinople, and “many Greek
scholars took refuge in Italy. The times were propitious for them.” Let
it be remembered that this was one of the mileposts in the history of the
Dark Ages. The Latin tongue had been the universal language during the
days of papal supremacy. There was an uprising against the tyranny of the
papacy over thought, and the modern tongues began to appear. In order
to stem the tide without losing ground, the papacy turned the attention
of men’s minds to Greek classics rather than to the Bible of Wyclif or
Erasmus, and a little later to the writings of Luther. Indeed, for the
papacy the “times were propitious.”

“Noble and wealthy patronage was not lacking, and under its fostering
care they (the Greeks) became for a time the teachers of Europe. _They
succeeded in kindling a remarkable enthusiasm for antiquity._ Manuscripts
were collected, translations were made, _academies were established_,
and libraries were founded. Several of the popes became generous patrons
of ancient learning.... Eager scholars from England, France, and Germany
sat at the feet of Italian masters, in order afterward to bear beyond
the Alps the precious seed of the new culture.”[43] Painter further
gives the effects of this spread of Greek classics: “In Italy it tended
strongly to _paganize_ its adherents. Ardor for antiquity became at last
intoxication. Infidelity prevailed in the highest ranks of the church;
Christianity was despised as a superstition; immorality abounded in the
most shameful forms. The heathenism of Athens was revived in Christian
Rome.” And scholars from England, France, and Germany sat at the feet of
these heathen teachers, drinking in their philosophy, and then hastening
across the Alps to propagate these ideas in the schools for the education
of the young. This was the influence against which the Reformation had to
fight. It is from Oxford, Cambridge, and the universities of Germany and
France that American colleges and universities have imbibed these same
pagan ideas.

[Sidenote: Nature of the classics]

The classics form the backbone of paganism, as _the Bible forms the basis
of Christian education_. The classics are enduring, because they are
the highest product of the human mind. The recent move in educational
circles, and on the part of some of our leading colleges against the
study of the “humanities” (the Greek and Latin classics), and in favor of
the study of “moderns” (that is, science, modern languages, and history),
can never reach a point of stability until the Bible is put in its
proper position as an educational factor, for to push out the classics
without putting in their place that which is equally as strong, _if not
stronger_, is useless. A reaction is inevitable, and the classics will
be returned to their old-time place of honor. Christian education in its
simplicity is the only alternative.

This does not mean the substitution of a class in Bible or sacred history
for the former classics. As the classic literature has been the basis
of all instruction in our schools since the Middle Ages, a reformation
necessitates a decided breaking down of the old system, and the adoption
of a new system built upon an entirely different foundation,—a system
in which the Word of God shall be the basis of all education, and the
text-book in every line of study.

[Sidenote: Paganism and our children]

Parents, reading this, may say that but a small proportion of the people
ever obtain a classical education. But if you send your child only to the
modern kindergarten, he is there told the story of Pluto; or of Ceres,
goddess of the golden grain; Mercury, the winged messenger god; the wood
nymphs; Æolus, who rules the winds and brings the storms; or Apollo,
who is driven across the heavens in a chariot of fire. Or, if the real
Greek names are dropped, _nature is personified_ in such a way as to
give the childish mind a distorted idea of things which leads to anything
but the pure and simple truth of God’s Word. He thus drinks in the myths
and fables of the Greeks from very infancy. One of his First Readers has
the story of Proserpina, who was stolen, and hidden under the earth for
a season. Nature-studies are often made attractive to youthful minds by
being associated with the ancient Greek gods and goddesses. But even in a
more subtle way the ideas of classic lore are taught in the evolutionary
theories of science and philosophy, through primary, grammar, and
high-school grades.

[Sidenote: Evolution]

“Philosophy,” as before quoted, is defined to be “the account which
the human mind gives to itself of the constitution of the world.” That
philosophy is now termed _evolution_, for evolution is man’s way of
accounting for the constitution of the world, and the creatures which
inhabit it. Take notice of these words from the pen of Henry Drummond.
In a paper prepared for the Parliament of Religions, entitled “Evolution
of Christianity,” he says: “Working in its own field, science made the
discovery of _how God made the world_.” “Through faith _we_ understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God,” writes Paul to the
Hebrews.[44]

Mr. Drummond continues: “To science itself this discovery was startling
and as unexpected as it has ever been to theology. Exactly fifty years
ago Mr. Darwin wrote in dismay to Mr. Hooker that the old theory of
_specific creation_—that God made all species apart, and introduced them
into the world one by one—was melting away before his eyes. He unburdened
the thought, as he says in his letter, almost as if he were confessing
a murder. But _so entirely has the world bowed to the weight of facts
before which_ even Darwin trembled, that one of the last books on
Darwinism by so religious a mind as that of Mr. Alfred Russell Wallace,
contains in its opening chapter these words: ‘The whole scientific and
literary world, _even the whole educated public, accepts as a matter
of common knowledge the origin of the species from the other allied_
species, by the ordinary process of natural birth. _The idea of special
creation, or any other exceptional mode of production, is absolutely
extinct._’”

It would be well if each could read the words of Drummond for himself;
but in brief he says: “It is needless at this time of day to point out
the surpassing grandeur of the new conception [evolution]. How it has
filled the Christian imagination and kindled to enthusiasm the soberest
scientific minds from Darwin downward is known to everyone. For that
_splendid hypothesis we can not be too grateful to science_; and that
theology can only enrich itself which gives it even temporary place in
its doctrine of creation.”

How strange that God failed to make known this stupendous truth (?)
through his Word, and left it for science in the hands of Plato’s
descendants to figure out! “What it needed,” says Drummond, “was a
credible presentation, in view especially of astronomy, geology,
paleontology, and biology. These, as we have said, had made the former
theory simply untenable. _And science has supplied theology with a theory
which the intellect can accept._” Faith has been laid aside. The human
intellect has been exalted. Paganism has cast out Christianity, and our
boys and girls now study the nebular hypothesis, explanatory of the
creation of the worlds, in their astronomy and geography; they dwell upon
the eons of ages consumed in the formation of the geologic strata of the
earth; they study the fossils of the ages past, and from them describe
the evolution of man from a polyp.

[Sidenote: Schools have greatest influence]

Of what use is the preaching of the gospel on one day of the week, while
six days out of seven paganism guides the intellect? Why sit dreaming of
heaven, or spend money to proselyte, while pagan education leads your own
children by the hand, and weaves about their mind a network of theories
which blinds their eyes to spiritual truths? There is weight in the words
of President Harper, of Chicago University, who says: “It is difficult
to prophesy what the result of our present method of educating the youth
will be in fifty years. We are training the mind in our public schools,
but the moral side of the child’s nature is almost entirely neglected.
The Roman Catholic Church insists on remedying this manifest evil, but
our Protestant churches seem to ignore it completely. They expect the
Sunday-school to make good what our public schools leave undone, and the
consequence is that we overlook a danger as real and as great as any we
have had to face.”




VIII

CHRIST THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS


I. THE CHRIST LIFE

To Israel as a nation had been intrusted the sacred gift of teaching; but
the power had departed from this people because they had mingled their
educational ideas with the heathen, and had so far forgotten the commands
of Jehovah that they were sending their children to heathen teachers,
inviting into their midst the prophets of Baal.[45] That nation whose
prophets had more than once warned the kings of the earth of impending
danger, heard no longer the voice of God. For nearly four hundred years
no prophet had arisen in Israel. “Prophecy had become so completely
extinct—the Spirit had so utterly departed from Israel—that it was
apparently assumed by many that a new prophet was an impossibility.” Had
the God who brought their fathers out of Egypt, who had driven out the
nations before their face,—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,—had He
forsaken His people? Often the question was asked, as the family circle
formed around the table. Almost with bated breath mothers awaited the
birth of a child, hoping it might be the chosen of God, but still no
prophet came.

[Sidenote: Israel prior to birth of Christ]

The priests in Israel went on in their formal round of duties; yearly
the nation assembled at Jerusalem for the annual feasts. Thousands of
victims were slain, and the blood ran freely from the altar; but there
was no answering fire, no glow of the Shekinah. Jewish children sat day
after day at the feet of masters in Israel, listening to the repetition
of tradition and the words of the Talmud; but the life had departed from
the instruction, and there was no response in the souls of men. Heaven
waited anxiously for the opening of some soul to the inflow of God’s
Spirit, but the avenues through which it should have come were closed.
Teachers who should have been “under the full control of the Spirit,”
knew not what it was to hear the voice of God; and children, fed only
with physical and mental food, grew to manhood with shriveled spiritual
natures, to become in turn the teachers of the next generation. As
Israel’s governmental prosperity was due to her educational system, as
her land produced abundantly when the children were properly taught, and
as the nations round them bowed in respect to the chosen of God so long
as they adhered to the system of education once offered, it is no wonder
that the year 5 B.C., following centuries of departure from these truths,
found Palestine in the iron grasp of Rome, and its people scarce able to
pay the necessary tribute. Heaven’s eye saw this and more.

[Sidenote: John the Baptist]

Among the priests who ministered in the temple was one who looked for a
deliverer, and to him the angel Gabriel came with the words: “Thy prayer
is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt
call his name John.” Although this man had touched the chord on which
angels sang, and was enabled to feel the pulse-beat of the Eternal,
the angel’s words startled him, and he believed them not. And that the
sounds of earth might for a time be shut out, and Zacharias be enabled to
listen only to the voice of God, the angel laid his hand upon him, and he
remained speechless until the day of the fulfillment of Gabriel’s words.

[Sidenote: The education of the forerunner]

A prophet was born who was to turn the hearts of Israel to their God. He
came in the spirit and power of Elias, preaching repentance. His life was
one of loneliness and poverty. His time was spent away from the cities
and multitudes; for Jerusalem, the appointed leader of nations, no longer
offered an education fitted for her own prophets. And so God trained
John. Of those born of women there is none greater than John the Baptist.

[Sidenote: Jesus of Nazareth]

Once more heaven and earth were linked. How small the chain! Only, as it
were, the size of a thread, and the connecting link was the heart of a
woman! But in the town of Nazareth, the lowly and the despised, lived a
young woman, betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter of Galilee. Looking into
the future, little more than dreaming of life and its hopes, she lifted
her eyes, and beheld an angel. The soul longing to be in tune with
God, brings angelic hosts to earth. If that yearning be but a mother’s
longing, heaven bows a listening ear; the throb is felt throughout
creation. So close is God to man! The words, “Hail, highly favored, the
Lord is with thee,” startled Mary, for she had not expected such a quick
response. She was troubled, but the angel said, “Fear not, Mary.” “The
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the SON OF GOD.” “The
fullness of time had come.” God, having waited years for Israel to return
to Him, now accomplished the master stroke of the Godhead. Creation
wondered.

The Spirit overshadowed Mary; it thrilled her nerves, and touched to
life the germ of a new being. To humanity was given the power to form a
body for the indwelling of the God of heaven. “A body hast Thou prepared
Me.” The treasure was in an earthen vessel, that the more glory might
abound to God. “Christ set up His tabernacle in the midst of our human
encampment. He pitched His tent by the side of the tents of men, that He
might dwell among us, and make us familiar with His divine character and
life.”[46]

[Sidenote: Early Education of Christ]

The early years of the Christ child found Him sitting _at His mother’s
knee_. From her lips and from the _scrolls of the prophets_, He learned
of heavenly things! _Nature_ was His unwearied teacher; from her He
gathered stores of scientific knowledge. He studied the life of plants
and animals, and the life of man. “The parables by which, during His
ministry, He loved to teach His lessons of truth, show how open His
spirit was to the influences of nature, and how He had gathered the
spiritual teaching from the surroundings of His daily life.” “As the
hart panteth after the waterbrooks,” so panted His soul for spiritual
intercourse with the Father; and that longing which led Him to listen
attentively for the voice of God in nature, developed the highest powers
of His mind.

[Sidenote: The spiritual first in Christ’s education]

His was not a sudden growth, but gradual, as with other children; and
while developing a strong physical body, “the child grew, and waxed
strong in spirit, filled with wisdom.” The secret of the difference
between Jesus and His companions is revealed in this verse. Most children
develop mentally and physically, especially during their first twelve
years; but the spiritual nature of Christ was the leading one and in His
threefold nature the mental and physical were always well balanced by
the spiritual. As Hinsdale says: “The divine mind, the human heart, and
nature are closely united” in Him. _He did not seek instruction in the
rabbinical schools, for they had lost the spirit which to him was life._

[Sidenote: Christ recognized his life work]

At an early age, probably not later than twelve, He recognized His life
work, and henceforth every energy was bent in one direction. His lot was
to reveal the divinity of God, to show the possibilities of the God-man,
to prove to the world that it is possible for God and man to unite and
for the spiritual nature to rule; and proving this, to show that the
heavenly instituted system of education was not a failure, although at
that time it was in disrepute.

[Sidenote: Christ chose the spiritual plane]

The age of twelve was a critical period in the life of a Jewish child,
for it was then that the physical nature was approaching maturity. The
next few years meant much to the youth, for he then had it within his
power to choose for life the plane upon which he expected to live. If
physical strength and the gratification of the natural senses are the
height of ambition, by yielding to temptations of this nature at about
this age the life-habits are fixed. Perhaps in other countries the
development is somewhat slower, owing to climatic influences, but from
twelve to sixteen every youth struggles against tendencies and ambitions
which a few years later cease to be temptations. It was so with Christ;
but as He stood watching the paschal services at the time of His first
visit to the temple, “day by day He saw their meaning more clearly. Every
act seemed to be bound up with His own life. New impulses were awakening
within Him.” For years, that service, established to appeal to the
spiritual nature, had degenerated into the mere slaying of beasts. For
the first time a _soul_ was touched, and heavenly impulses were awakened.
It was then that the temptation to pass a life in physical ease was met
and overcome. Heaven seemed to open to the child’s eyes, and He heard the
call of God to a life with Him. He sought to be alone, and in the silence
His heart caught the vibrations of heavenly beings, and the grosser
physical nature was abandoned forever.

[Sidenote: Christ and the rabbis]

The resolve formed, a new light and power seemed to take possession of
His mind, and entering the school conducted in the temple, He listened
eagerly to hear from the lips of the rabbis some spiritual lesson. “The
doctors turned upon Him with questions, and they were amazed at His
answers.” He manifested such deep piety, and His questions opened to the
minds of His listeners such depths of truth, that wonder filled their
minds. A harp swept by heavenly zephyrs was before them, and the music
fell on untrained ears. _The first work of the heaven-sent teacher had
begun._ “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” He
asked, as Joseph and Mary met Him at the temple gate. They saw Him with
physical eyes, and thought Him all their own; but the eye of the child
had pierced the cloud which hung between heaven and earth.

[Sidenote: Manual training in Christ’s life]

From Jerusalem He returned with His parents, and aided them in their life
of toil. “He hid in His own heart the mystery of His mission, waiting
submissively for the appointed time for Him to enter upon His work.”
Those eighteen years were years of toil and study. Each day drew Him
nearer to the time when a voice from heaven should proclaim Him a divine
teacher. He was not impatient, but as a carpenter did thorough work; as a
son, He was obedient; and as a subject, He was law-abiding.

[Sidenote: The age of strongest spirituality]

He never lost sight of the fact that He had a mission, and that it took
a spiritual life to fulfill that mission. He was tempted in all points,
and suffered in the temptation; but each resistance was a round added
in the ladder He was building toward heaven. There was a law in Israel
calling the priests to their sacred office at the age of thirty. This
statute was based upon a law of human nature. The allotted time of man’s
life is divided into two portions. The first forty years is a time of
growth, the last thirty a period of decline. Of the first half we have
the age of physical development, then a time when the intellectual powers
are in the ascendency, and from twenty-five to thirty or thirty-five is
the time of special development in the spiritual nature. Every man has
three chances in life; and the choice made, whether for worldly honor,
for intellectual powers, or a life of faith, _depends wholly upon the
object constantly kept before the child by its educators_. Had Christ
been under the influence of the teachers of His day, the probability
is that He would have chosen to live either on the physical or the
intellectual plane, for this was the choice made by all the pupils of
those schools, but His early training by Mary, who, as a mother, had
yielded herself as the “handmaid of the Lord,” and His close communion
with God through the works of nature, guided Him into right channels, and
at the auspicious moment He voluntarily offered Himself to His Father to
fulfill the mission which it lay in His power to reject. Of His later
struggles the record is silent. There came a period, however, when He
might have posed as an intellectual leader, but His earlier decision led
Him to pass this temptation unsullied. To prove this true, we need only
to study the nature of the temptations presented in the wilderness. That
He remained true to His mission is due to early training. This will not
be controverted, for it is a divine law seen everywhere in nature.[47]


II. THE MINISTRY OF THE GOD-MAN.

[Sidenote: Jesus as a teacher]

One of the gifts of the Spirit is that of teaching, and Christ was a
born teacher. Acquired ability amounts to but little where the spirit
of teaching is wanting. Christ was a teacher both by virtue of His
nationality, since all Jews were called to be teachers, and also by
direct appointment; for He had to accomplish in His own life what the
nation had refused to accomplish. He carried with Him no credentials, no
statement of scholarship signed by the doctors of Israel, for none of
these schools had known Him as a pupil; yet Nicodemus, a master teacher
in Jerusalem, after listening to His words, sought Him in the quiet
evening hours, and addressed Him as _Rabbi_,—TEACHER. In the course of
the conversation this learned man said, “We know that thou art a divine
teacher, for no man can do as Thou except God be with him.” It was as a
teacher, and more, as a divine teacher, that He was known from the very
beginning of His ministry. His ministry was a ministry of _teaching_. He
was known as a teacher, not so much by the words He spoke as by the _life
He lived_, and the works He did.

[Sidenote: As a teacher, success depended upon the life]

The words of Bushnell are true: “We can see for ourselves in the simple
directions and freedom of His teachings, that whatever He advances is
from Himself.” He was giving Himself, and that He had a self, a divine
self, to give is _due to the education of the child and youth_. God’s
image was perfect in Him, and when the time of ministry came, there
shone from Him what previous years had been developing in Him. THIS IS
THE OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. The same author further says: “He
is the high-priest ... of the divine nature, speaking as one that has
come out from God, and _has nothing to borrow from the world_. It is not
to be detected ... that the _human sphere in which He moved imparted
anything to Him_. His teachings are just as full of _divine nature_,
as Shakespeare’s of human.” What a commentary on the two systems of
education, the one choosing _inspiration_ as a basis; the other, the
product of the human brain!

[Sidenote: He taught as one having authority]

Bushnell continues: “In His teaching He does not speculate about God, as
a school professor, drawing out conclusions by a practice on words, and
deeming that the way of proof; He does not build up a frame of evidence
from below, by some constructive process, such as the philosophers
delight in; but He simply speaks of God and spiritual things as one
who has come out from Him, _to tell us what He knows_. And His simple
telling brings us the reality; proves it to us in its own sublime
self-evidence; awakens even the consciousness of it in our own bosom; so
that formal arguments or dialectic proofs _offend us by their coldness_,
and seem, in fact, to be only opaque substances set between us and the
light. Indeed, He makes even the world luminous by His words—fills it
with an immediate and new sense of God, which nothing has ever been able
to expel. The incense of the upper world is brought out in His garments,
and flows abroad, as perfume, on the poisoned air.” And no wonder, for
from a child He had breathed the atmosphere of heaven. _Every child
should have the same privilege._

[Sidenote: Principles of Christ’s education]

When the two teachers, Christ and Nicodemus, the representatives of two
systems of education, the divine and the worldly, met, Christ outlined to
his questioner the principles upon which His system was based:[48]—

1. Its primary object is to prepare its pupils for the kingdom of God, a
spiritual kingdom.

2. The first step is a spiritual birth; for “God is a Spirit: and they
that worship Him must worship in spirit.” “That which is born of the
flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

3. This the natural man can not understand, for it is spiritually
discerned. As well might I try to explain it to you, Nicodemus, as to
explain the blowing of the winds; you can see the results, but the truth
can not be grasped by the senses. Do you pose as a teacher in Israel, and
know not these things? “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe
not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” I have but
begun to tell you of the plan of the Father. There are yet many things,
“but ye can not bear them now.”

4. The things I teach are as light in the darkness. “Every one that doeth
evil hateth the light, ... but he that doeth truth cometh to the light.”
It is thus that I distinguish true scholars from the false. When truth
is offered, some believe, and whosoever believes in the Son of man shall
have eternal life.

Nicodemus said: “How _can_ these things be?” He longed for proof, for
demonstration. “_Proof_ is indeed the method of science, including
theology; it has, no doubt, a function in religious teaching; but
_it is not the method of the highest form of religious teaching_. The
fundamental truths of religion are directly revealed to the human
consciousness, and are not argued out or logically established.... _The
greatest religious truths lie deeper than formal reasoning._ This is
the reason why the _greatest religious teachers have worked below the
proposition-and-proof level_; as said before, they have something of the
prophetic gift. It may be added that no preacher [or teacher] who works
mainly on this line will attract the most religious minds; he will not
attract even those who have the piety of the intellect, to say nothing of
the piety of the affections and the will. He may develop logical acumen,
critical ability, and controversial power, but he will prove unequal
to the generation of spirituality.... Such a minister will be sure to
lead his flock into the error that is now far too common,—of assigning a
disproportionate place in religious faith and life to the understanding,
to the partial exclusion of the heart.”[49]

[Sidenote: His pupils]

His actual work as a teacher is seen in His dealings, first, with the
apostles, His immediate followers, who were in training that they in
turn might become teachers; second, with the multitudes who thronged His
way; third, with the children who were brought to Him by mothers, and who
were taught by Him, that mothers and apostles might the better know how
to deal with youthful minds. Primarily, His was a training-school for
workers, and His pupils represented every phase of human disposition.
He chose humble fishermen, because their minds were unprejudiced, and
they had less to unlearn before accepting the truth. “He knew what was
in man.” That is, He had insight into the minds and hearts, and knew
just what was needed to awaken the soul-life of each student. This is a
necessary gift in the successful teacher. How much that is now taught
would be dispensed with if teachers could read the soul conditions
of pupils, and then feed them with only such food as would nourish.
_This, too, is Christian education._ Before the teacher can have such
an experience, however, he must have soul culture, and be in such close
touch with the fountain of truth that he can draw whatever is needed.
The well is deep, _and faith alone can bring the water of life to the
surface_.[50]

[Sidenote: His schoolroom the country.]

With His chosen apostles, Christ “_withdrew from the confusion of the
city to the quiet of the fields and hills_ as more in harmony with the
lessons of self-abnegation he desired to teach them.... Here, surrounded
by the works of his own creation, he could turn the thoughts of his
hearers _from the artificial to the natural_.” Those schools to-day which
are located in some quiet country place afford the best opportunities for
education.

[Sidenote: Text-books]

The books used seem to be two, and only two: _the writings of the
prophets_ and _the great book of nature_. Hinsdale says: “Scripture
furnishes the basis of His teaching.... It is impossible to say how
many distinct recognitions of Scripture are found in His teachings, but
the number and range are both large.... One of the most interesting of
these [methods] is his constant habit of expanding Scripture, or, as we
might say, of reading into it new meanings. He thus treats not merely
prophetic passages, but also dogmatic passages; moreover, His meanings
are sometimes new, not merely to the Jewish teachers, but also to the
authors of the passages themselves.”[51] This was because the teacher was
led by the Spirit of truth, which guides into all truth.

[Sidenote: His system emphasized the practical]

It must be remembered that this instruction was given to men of mature
minds, and tended to fit them to become teachers of all men in whatever
station. Probably none of the apostles were under thirty. They were men
who had become settled in a life work. John, the youngest, was most
susceptible to spiritual teaching, and at length developed this nature so
fully that his spirit left his body in vision.[52] Painter expresses well
the method of instruction followed by Christ. He says: “He observes the
order of nature, and seeks only a gradual development,—‘first the blade,
then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.’ With His disciples,
He insists chiefly upon the _practical_ and _fundamental_ truths of
religion, _building_, as it were, a substantial framework in the
beginning, which the Holy Spirit was to conduct afterward to a harmonious
and beautiful completion.”[53]

[Sidenote: Visible results of His teaching]

It was thus that all the truths we call doctrines were taught. The lesson
on the resurrection was at the tomb of Lazarus; the one on Sabbath
observance was in the synagogue, healing the withered hand, or bidding
the dumb to speak. “One finds in His program,” says a French writer,
“neither literary studies nor course of theology. And yet, strange as
it may seem, when the moment of action arrives, the disciples—those
unlettered fishermen—have become orators that move the multitudes and
confound the doctors; profound thinkers that have sounded the Scriptures
and the human heart; writers that give to the world immortal books in a
language not their mother tongue.” If the worth of a system of education
is to be judged by results, the world must hold its peace when looking
upon the work of Christ. Astonishment will again take hold of men when
Christians return to His methods. Of His reference to nature we have no
need to write, for His parables are the wonder of the ages, and take
a unique position in the literature of all times. Christ was not, as
many other teachers, a writer of books. His writing was on the hearts
of men. He spoke, and the vibratory waves set in motion have continued
until to-day, and still beat upon our hearts. The soul of the spiritually
minded hears, and men to-day become pupils of the Man of Nazareth as
verily as did Peter, James, and John.

[Sidenote: Indications of a completed course]

A student was ready to go forth from Christ’s teachings to open the truth
to others only when he could say, “Lo, now speakest Thou plainly.... Now
we are sure that Thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man
should ask Thee. By this we believe that Thou camest forth from God.”[54]
With the multitudes He did a work similar to that with the disciples; but
because they were coming and going, He could not do the same thorough
work. His teaching, however, was _always practical_, and the farmer went
to his field a better man, seeing God in the growing grain; the fisherman
returned to his nets with the thought ringing in his mind that he should
be a fisher of men; the mother returned to her home recognizing her
children as younger members of God’s family, and with a strong desire
to teach as He taught. The tendency always in all His teaching was to
arouse thought, to awaken soul-longings, and cause hearts to beat with
a new life fed from above. Standing between heaven and earth of the
musical scale, His life vibrated in unison with those higher notes of
the universes circling round His Father’s throne, and with His human arm
He encircled the world, imparting to beings here the same life, striving
always to bring them into tune with the Infinite. “I, if I be lifted up,”
He said, “will draw all men unto Me.”




IX

EDUCATION IN THE EARLY CHURCH


[Sidenote: The church to teach all nations]

“I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that
Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Sanctify [teach] them through Thy truth.”[55]
As He lifted His eyes to heaven in those moments of quiet, just before
entering Gethsemane, these words fell from the lips of the Son of man.
Looking upon the little company of men clustering around Him, He saw in
them the nucleus of the church which was to be called by His name, and
His heart yearned for that body of Christians. Many and fierce would be
their struggles; for He had breathed into the hearts of men a system of
instruction which, because it was truth, would awaken all the bitterness
of the enemy of truth; and the new system must be able to resist all
the darts which human minds, swayed by the prince of evil, could hurl.
_Divine philosophy must meet and vanquish human philosophy_. That was
now the controversy, and it was left to a few weak men to start the work.
What power was in that Spirit of truth with which they were baptized!
His commission to this same company, as they watched Him recede from
earth on the day of His ascension, was, “Go ye therefore, and _teach_ all
nations.” They, the true Israel, were now to become teachers of nations.

Recognizing the difficulties to be met, He had, on another occasion,
said: “I send you forth as sheep among wolves: be ye therefore wise
as serpents, and simple as doves.” In no boasted philosophy, no
high-sounding words, but in _simplicity of truth, was to lie their
strength_. Of the works of the apostles and those who believed on Christ
through their teaching, we have this divine testimony, “I know thy works,
and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which
are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and
are not, and hast found them liars: and hast borne, and hast patience,
and for my name’s sake hast labored and hast not fainted.”[56] It is
therefore evident that a great work was done, and that very speedily;
for again Inspiration describes it: “Behold a white horse: and he
that sat on him had a bow; ... and he went forth conquering, and to
conquer.”[57] Men, though admonished to be as harmless as doves, were
nevertheless, when teachers of truth, enabled to make themselves felt in
the world.

[Sidenote: A call from popular education]

To accept Christianity in those early days meant the withdrawal from
everything before cherished; it meant not only the separation from
heathenism in worship, or Babylon, but also _from heathenism in thought_
and education, or _Egypt_. It was a second exodus. Justin Martyr, a
Christian born near the close of the first century, is quoted by Painter,
as he describes the life of a follower of Christ: “We who once delighted
in lewdness now embrace chastity; we who once embraced magical arts, have
consecrated ourselves to the good and unbegotten God; we who loved above
all things the gain of money and possessions, now bring all that we have
into one common stock, and give a portion to everyone that needs; we who
once hated and killed one another, now pray for our enemies.”

With this spirit in the church we are not surprised to find that in the
words of Coleman, “_The tender solicitude of these early Christians
for the religious instruction of their children is one of their most
beautiful characteristics._ They taught them, even at the earliest dawn
of intelligence, the sacred names of God and the Saviour. They sought to
lead the infant minds of their children up to God, by familiar narratives
from Scripture, of Joseph, of young Samuel, of Josiah, and of the holy
child Jesus. The history of the patriarchs and prophets, apostles, and
men whose lives are narrated in the sacred volume, _were the nursery
tales_ with which they sought to form the tender minds of their children.
As the mind of the child expanded, the parents made it their sacred
duty and delightful task daily to exercise him in the recital of select
passages of scripture relating to the doctrines and duties of religion.
The Bible was the entertainment of the fireside. It _was the first, the
last, the only schoolbook almost, of the child_; and sacred psalmody, the
only song with which his infant cry was hushed as he was lulled to rest
on his mother’s arm. The sacred song and the rude melody of its music
were, from the earliest periods of Christian antiquity, an important
means of impressing the infant heart with sentiments of piety, and of
imbuing the susceptible minds of the young with the knowledge and the
faith of the Scriptures.”

[Sidenote: True education developed missionaries]

Painter writes: “The purpose of these early Christian parents, as of
the ancient Jews, was to train up their children in the fear of God.
In order that the children might be exposed as little as possible to
the corrupting influence of heathen associations, _their education was
conducted within the healthful precincts of home_. AS A RESULT, they grew
up without a taste for debasing pleasures; they acquired simple domestic
tastes; and when the time came, they took their place as consistent and
earnest workers in the church.”[58] These words make several facts very
prominent:—

_1._ _Christian education should begin in the home._

_2._ _Bible stories should be the basis for nursery tales and infant
songs._

_3._ _Christians should carry out the plan of education which the Jews
failed to obey, and which Christ revealed in a new light._

_4._ _The results of such Christian education in the home school will be
elevated characters and workers in the cause of God._

Would that it could be said of Christian mothers to-day, as a heathen
orator once exclaimed concerning those early followers of Christ, “What
wives these Christians have!”

[Sidenote: The duty of parents]

One of the early Fathers thus expresses the danger of children and youth
in the schools of the world, and shows the character of the education
needed: “Mothers ought to care for the bodies of their children, but it
is necessary also that they inspire their offspring with love for the
good and with fear toward God. And fathers will not limit themselves to
giving their children an earthly vocation, but will interest themselves
also in their heavenly calling.

“The most beautiful heritage that can be given children is to teach them
to govern their passions.... Let us have for our children the same fear
that we have for our houses, when servants go with a light into places
where there is inflammable material, as hay or straw. They should not
be permitted to go where the fire of impurity may be kindled in their
hearts, and do them an irreparable injury. A KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCRIPTURES
IS AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST THE UNREASONABLE INCLINATIONS OF YOUTH AND AGAINST
THE READING OF PAGAN AUTHORS, in which heroes, the slaves of every
passion, are lauded. _The lessons of the Bible are springs that water
the soul._ As our children are everywhere surrounded by bad examples,
the monastic schools [what would correspond to-day with church schools]
are the best for their education. _Bad habits once contracted, they can
not be got rid of._ This is the reason God conducted Israel into the
wilderness, ... that the vices of the Egyptians might be unlearned....
Now our children are surrounded by vice in our cities and are unable
there to resist bad examples.... _Let us take care of the souls of our
children_, that they may be formed for virtue, and not be degraded by
vice.”

This writer might well address a modern audience, for he recognizes
the influence of pagan authors, and states that the Bible alone can
counteract this influence; _he recognizes the worldly schools as Egypt_,
and says that Christians should take their children out; and finally
he recognizes the value of having schools located in the country, and
advises people to move out of the cities with their children.

[Sidenote: Church schools among early Christians]

Mosheim says: “There can be no doubt but that the children of Christians
were carefully trained up from their infancy, and were early put to
reading the sacred books and learning the principles of religion. For
this purpose _schools_ were erected everywhere from the beginning.”[59]

[Sidenote: Training schools for missionaries]

From these schools for children, we must distinguish those _seminaries_
of the early Christians, erected extensively in the larger cities, at
which adults, and especially _such as aspired to be public teachers_,
were instructed and educated in all branches of learning, both human and
divine. Such seminaries, in which young men devoted to the sacred office
were taught whatever was necessary to qualify them properly for it, the
apostles of Christ undoubtedly both set up themselves, and directed
others to set up.[60] St. John, at Ephesus, and Polycarp, at Smyrna,
established such schools. Among these seminaries, in subsequent times,
none was more celebrated than that at Alexandria; which is commonly
called a catechetic school.[61] In addition, then, to home and church
schools for children, the early Christian church established seminaries
for the education of workers. In reading the history of the times the
course of instruction is seen to adhere closely to the Scriptures, and to
draw a sharp distinction between the science of salvation and the Greek
and Oriental philosophy as taught in the pagan schools.

[Sidenote: Pagans feared Christian schools]

Christian education was often regarded as narrow and limited by those
who loved to study the mysteries of Greek wisdom; but as long as they
adhered to their simple studies, and made faith the basis of their work,
there was a power in the truths taught by the students of these schools,
which made the pagan world, with all its great men, tremble. It is an
interesting fact that as late as the fourth century, after the Christian
schools had lost much of their power through the mingling of pagan with
Christian methods, and the adoption of some of the pagan studies, they
were still regarded as the stronghold of Christianity. When Julian,
the apostate, began to reign, an attempt was made to revive paganism
throughout the Roman Empire. One of his first acts was to _close the
schools of the Christians_. “He contemptuously observes,” says Gibbon,
“that the men who exalt the merit of implicit faith are unfit to claim
or to enjoy the advantages of science; and he vainly contends that if
they refuse to adore the gods of Homer and Demosthenes, they ought to
content themselves with expounding Luke and Matthew in the church of the
Galileans.

[Sidenote: The public schools of Julian]

“In all the cities of the Roman world, the education of the youth was
intrusted to masters of grammar and rhetoric; who were _elected by the
magistrates, maintained at the public expense_, and distinguished by
many lucrative and honorable privileges.... As soon as the resignation
of the more obstinate teachers had established the unrivaled dominion of
the pagan sophists, Julian invited the rising generation to resort with
freedom to the _public schools_, in a just confidence that their tender
minds would receive the impressions of _literature and idolatry_. IF
THE GREATEST PART OF THE CHRISTIAN YOUTH SHOULD BE DETERRED BY THEIR OWN
SCRUPLES, OR BY THOSE OF THEIR PARENTS, FROM ACCEPTING THIS DANGEROUS
MODE OF INSTRUCTION, THEY MUST, AT THE SAME TIME, RELINQUISH THE BENEFITS
OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION. Julian had reason to expect that, in the space
of a few years, the church would relapse into its primeval simplicity,
and that the theologians, who possessed an adequate share of the learning
and eloquence of the age, would be succeeded by a generation of blind
and ignorant fanatics, incapable of defending the truth of their own
principles, or of exposing the various follies of polytheism.”[62]

Julian can not be counted as a fool; for, wishing to make the world
pagan, he proceeded to do so, (1) _By closing the Christian schools where
the “merit of implicit faith” was taught_; (2) _By compelling attendance
of the public schools, taught by pagan teachers_, and WHERE LITERATURE
AND IDOLATRY WERE COMBINED.

As Gibbon says, he had _just reason_ to expect that in the course of a
generation the Christians thus educated would lose their faith, cease
to oppose paganism, and sink into insignificance. If a pagan emperor
expected this in the fourth century, is it any wonder that Protestants
to-day, allowing their children to remain in the public schools
where precisely the same things are taught, in principle as Julian
had his public instructors teach, should lose power and cease to be
_Protestants_? From the words of Gibbon one would infer that in the
days of Julian there were parents who refused to send their children to
the public schools; some children who, “because of their own scruples,”
refused to attend; and some teachers who ceased to teach rather than
teach literature and idolatry in state schools.

[Sidenote: The seminary at Alexandria]

Special mention is made of the Alexandrian school, as it was located
in an Egyptian city to which flocked many noted pagan scholars. Sad as
it may be to do so, it is yet necessary to see how these schools, and
especially this one at Alexandria, lost their simplicity as they came
in contact with pagan scholars, and attempted to meet them on their own
grounds.

[Sidenote: Alexandria adopts philosophy of Plato]

Mosheim says: “This philosophy [of Plato] was adopted by such of the
learned at Alexandria as wished to be accounted Christians, and _yet to
retain the name, garb, and the rank of philosophers_. In particular, all
those who in this century presided in the schools of the Christians at
Alexandria ... are said to have approved of it. These men were persuaded
that true philosophy, the great and most salutary gift of God, lay in
scattered fragments among all the sects of philosophers; and therefore
that it was the duty of every wise man, and especially of a Christian
teacher, to collect those fragments from all quarters, and to use them
for the defense of religion and the confutation of impiety.”[63]

[Sidenote: Result of adopting worldly methods]

The lesson so dear to Paul—that the gospel of Christ is the “power of God
unto salvation”—was lost sight of when these Christian teachers assumed
the philosopher’s garb, and used the philosopher’s vocabulary to confute
impiety. “I have somewhat against thee,” writes the divine historian of
this age, “because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from
whence thou art fallen, and repent, and _do the first works_; or else I
will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his
place.”[64] The heaven-lit taper of Christian education in its purity
was beginning to grow dim. Its flame must have a constant supply of
truth, or, like the candle without oxygen, it burns low, and finally goes
out. Paul, writing to the Corinthians who were placed in circumstances
similar to those of the school at Alexandria, that is, pressed upon all
sides by pagan philosophy, said: “I came toward you with weakness and
fear and great timidity. And my thought and my statement was not clothed
in captivating philosophical reasons; but in demonstrated spirit and
power, so that your trust might not _be in human philosophy_, but in
divine power.... What we speak is not in an artificial discussion of a
human philosophy, but by spiritual teachings, comparing spiritualities
with the spiritual.”[65]

[Sidenote: Dialectics versus the Scriptures]

Again, “Dialectic,” or logic, was that science of which Aristotle, the
disciple of Plato, boasted as being the father. Says a writer of the
church after the decline was well begun, it “is the queen of arts and
sciences. _In it reason dwells_, and is manifested and developed. _It
is dialectic alone that can give knowledge and wisdom;_ it alone shows
WHAT AND WHENCE WE ARE, AND TEACHES US OUR DESTINY [human philosophy
and evolution]; through it we learn to know good and evil. And _how
necessary is it_ to a clergyman, in order that he may be able to meet and
vanquish heretics!” Men have more than once reverted to logic to vanquish
heretics, but it was only when the Spirit of truth was lacking.

[Sidenote: The educational question caused a division]

Error was rapidly creeping into the church, and it came principally
through these schools, as has already been seen. However, truth was not
abandoned for error without a struggle. Mosheim says: “The estimation
in which human learning should be held was a question on which the
Christians were about equally divided. For while many thought that the
literature and writings of the Greeks ought to receive attention, _there
were others who contended that true piety and religion were endangered
by such studies_.”[66] People then, as now, looked to the leaders in the
church for guidance; and it was hard, when these studies were popular,
for the conscientious to withdraw entirely to what the others called a
narrow, limited education. It often led to contention among members of
the same church, and often even parents and children failed to agree on
the subject.

[Sidenote: Wrong methods retained]

“But gradually,” continues Mosheim, “the _friends of philosophy and
literature acquired the ascendency_. To this issue Origen contributed
very much; for having early imbibed the principles of the NEW PLATONISM,
_he inauspiciously applied them to theology_, and earnestly recommended
them to the numerous youth who attended on his instruction. And the
greater the influence of this man, which quickly spread over the whole
Christian world, the more readily was his method of explaining the sacred
doctrines propagated.”

[Sidenote: Origin of the papacy]

The days when the papacy should be recognized as the beast of Revelation
13 were fast approaching. Such experiences in the history of education
in the Christian church show how rapidly the life of the Master, the
Spirit of truth, was giving place to the form of godliness which denied
the power thereof. One reading thus the pages of history can not fail to
see that the papacy _was formed in the minds of men_, WAS PROPAGATED
IN THE SCHOOLS, AND REALLY TOOK BIRTH IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM THEN
DEVELOPED. The political power, which was called upon to help the church,
simply carried out at the point of the sword those principles which
were developed in the schools. The two streams—paganism and apostate
Christianity—united; and in the mad current which flowed from their
confluence, men’s souls were lost forever.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION is the pure water of life, clear and sparkling, which
flows from the throne of God; but when mingled with the turbid waters of
the valley, it is lost sight of, and the current is evil. The part played
by Platonic philosophy can not be overlooked. The foundation had already
been laid in the third century for the scholasticism of the Middle Ages,
and that “noontide of the papacy which was the world’s moral midnight”
was fast approaching.




X

THE PAPACY—AN EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM


Previous chapters have revealed these facts: 1. That the Jewish nation
was set as a light to the world. This light was to shine by means of
education, and the Jews were to be teachers of the nations. 2. The
Jewish nation lost its position as leader in educational reform, and,
consequently, in all other particulars, because it departed from the
pure system of education delivered to the Fathers, and mingled with the
heathen, especially with the Greeks and the Egyptians.

In substantiation of this fact we have these words of Neander: “The Jews,
completely imbued with the elements of Hellenic culture, _endeavored to
find a mean between it and the religion of their fathers_, which they had
no wish to renounce. To this end they availed themselves of the system
most in vogue with those who, in Alexandria, busied themselves with
religious matters—that of the _Platonic philosophy_, which had already
acquired a mighty influence over their own intellectual life.... On the
one hand, they firmly adhered to the religion of their fathers.... On
the other hand, their minds were possessed by a philosophical culture at
variance with these convictions. They were themselves not unconscious
of the conflicting elements that filled their minds, and must have felt
constrained to seek some artificial method of combining them into a
harmonious whole. Thus they would be involuntarily driven to intercalate
in _the old records of religion_, which for them possessed the highest
authority, a _sense foreign to their true spirit_, supposing all the
while that they were thereby really exalting their dignity as the source
of all wisdom.”[67] 3. _This intercalation of Greek philosophy_ with the
truth delivered to the Jewish nation brought the schools of the Hebrews
to such a position that the Son of man, when receiving His education,
avoided them altogether, and in His public teaching warned His people
against the schools of the doctors, who for the Word of God taught the
traditions of men. _This mingling of education then meant the crucifixion
of Christ and the ruin of the Jewish nation._ 4. The early Christian
church, composed of members called out from the Jewish schools and
from the purely pagan doctrines, at first taught their children truths
based upon the Scriptures; but before the close of the first century,
the tendency to commingle Christian teachings and heathen philosophy was
already noticeable. Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, referring to this
fact, said, “The _mystery of iniquity_ doth already work.”

[Sidenote: Papal education sophistry]

This tendency, seen in the days of Paul, grew into a habit; and as
Christian youth prepared for gospel work by attending the schools at
Alexandria and elsewhere, an entire change took place.

It now becomes our duty to follow this changed system of education, which
is indeed but a mixture of Christian and pagan, and hence not a separate
and distinct system at all. It was designated by the apostle to the
Gentiles as “the mystery of iniquity.” As found in the third century,
Mosheim described it thus: “It is necessary, however, to observe that the
methods now used of defending Christianity, and attacking Judaism and
idolatry, degenerated much from the primitive simplicity, and the true
rule of controversy. The _Christian doctors_, who had been _educated in
the schools of the rhetoricians and sophists_, rashly employed the arts
and evasions of their subtle masters in the service of Christianity; and,
intent only upon defeating the enemy, they were too little attentive to
the means of victory, indifferent whether they acquired it by artifice
or plain dealing. This method of disputing, which the ancients called
economical, and which _had victory for its object, rather than truth_,
was, in consequence of the prevailing taste for rhetoric and sophistry,
almost universally approved.”[68]

The effect of the Christian schools’ teaching Greek literature,
sophistry, and rhetoric was bearing its fruit in an unmistakable way.
The simplicity of the gospel and of the man of God, who was the _truth_,
was fast passing away. Even at this early date we find the germ of the
order of Jesuits, who, in the Middle Ages, carried out the theory of
the Platonists, and asserted “that it was no sin for a person to employ
falsehood and fallacies for the support of truth, when it was in danger
of being borne down.” It was at this time, and under the influence of
these same doctors and teachers, that there arose the practice of
attributing the writing of certain books to illustrious authors; “hence,
the book of canons, which certain artful men ascribed falsely to the
apostles, ... and many other productions of that nature, which, for a
long time, were too much esteemed by credulous men.”[69] How far men had
departed from the simplicity of the gospel is evident.

[Sidenote: Error introduced by teachers]

The spread of ideas contrary to the purity of the gospel was almost
universally begun in the schools professing to be Christian; and teachers
were, almost without exception, the leaders in these intellectual moves,
which in reality form the basis for every change in government or
religion. Throughout the history of the centuries, men have arisen who
were noted for their intellectual prowess, men of strong mind, who were
searching for truth. By tracing the work of a few representative teachers
through the first three or four centuries, _we see the papacy appearing
as the direct result of educational principles_.

In order to make this clear, let us begin with the teachings of Clement
in the school of Alexandria. It may be hard to distinguish between truth
and error, as we trace the intricate windings of philosophy in the days
of the early church; but it is necessary to find the origin of those
leading principles of the papacy against which the Reformation contended.
In order to do so, we go to the source of the stream, which is usually
found at Alexandria, in the schools conducted by Christian teachers,
or doctors, as they are often called. The foremost, the all-absorbing
doctrine of the papacy, is the substitution of works for faith. Christ’s
one lesson, illustrated in hundreds of ways, to the multitudes and to the
few, was wisdom by faith, eternal life by faith. The early church was
founded upon this principle, and faith in God’s Word was the first maxim
in the home school, in the church school, and in the seminaries of the
early Christians. Faith gives the hearing ear, as in the case of Solomon;
this gives the ability to _study_, which brings true wisdom.

[Sidenote: Corruption took place gradually]

How or where faith was lost can not be stated in positive terms. As wood,
under favorable conditions, changes, bit by bit, into solid stone, one
atom of wood giving place to a grain of sand, and so on till the form
of the tree, once an embodiment of life, now lies a hard and lifeless
stone, retaining, however, each scar of branch and leaf, each crack or
wrinkle of the bark, yea, even the annual marks of growth and the grain
of the wood; so faith in God’s Word was lost, atom by atom, and the lost
faith was replaced by human philosophy. Alexandria was to the Christian
school what the marsh is to the fallen tree. Much Greek philosophy
contained elements of truth; many truths were by the Greeks put in
brilliant settings. God himself had evidently revealed to the minds of
men, such as Plato, Pythagoras, Aristotle, and others, principles of
truth; but it was not supposed that men to whom had been opened the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge through His word and through His Son
should ever find it necessary to search for a few gems of truth amidst
a mass of error. Turning from the pure light to search for these stray
thoughts in Greek philosophy, _men lost their faith in God, failed to
give His word its proper place_, and erelong the living, fruit-bearing
tree was but an image of its former self, molded in stone.

That the reader may see that this mingling of truth and error was adopted
in place of the pure word, he is referred to Neander’s description of
Clement and his quotations of that eminent scholar’s reasoning.[70]

[Sidenote: Clement’s school work]

Without taking the space necessary to give this quotation, we pass to the
thought that Clement introduced this Greek philosophy into the school
he was teaching, and through his disciples paved the way for the papacy
in its power. Of the Alexandrian school we read: “What was the original
aim of the school itself? Was it at the outset merely an institution for
communicating religious instruction to the heathen, or had there long
existed in Alexandria a school for educating teachers for the Christian
church—a sort of theological seminary for the clergy?... We find that
originally a single person was appointed by the bishop of Alexandria to
hold the office of catechist, whose business it was to give religious
instruction to the heathen and probably _also to the children of the
Christians in that place_.... Men were required for this office who
possessed a perfect acquaintance with the Grecian religion, AND MOST
ESPECIALLY MUST THEY HAVE RECEIVED A PHILOSOPHICAL EDUCATION, SO AS TO
BE ABLE TO CONVERSE AND TO DISPUTE WITH ANY LEARNED PAGANS, who, after
long investigation on other questions, might turn their attention to
Christianity.

“_It was not enough to teach here, as in other churches, the main
doctrines of Christianity...._ WITH THESE ENLIGHTENED CATECHUMENS, it
was necessary to go back to the primitive sources of the religion in
Scripture itself, and to seek to initiate them into the understanding of
it—for such required a faith which would stand the _test of scientific
examination_.”[71]

In order to meet the demands made by pagans and Greek philosophers the
school stooped from its exalted position of teaching a wisdom acquired by
faith, and substituted a course of study which “would _stand the test of
scientific examination_.”

[Sidenote: Clement and higher criticism]

Clement, one of the earliest teachers in this school, “points out the
need of high and rich talents in the holder of the catechetical office
at Alexandria.” “The range of instruction imparted by these men,”
says Neander, “gradually extended itself, for they were the first who
... attempted to satisfy a want deeply felt by numbers—the want of a
_scientific exposition of the faith, and of a Christian_ science.” Here
is perhaps the best place for one to attribute the change from faith to
a scientific demonstration of the truths of the universe. Here is marked
the time, so far as one is able to point it out with definiteness, of
the transit from education by faith to education of the senses, from
the spiritual to the intellectual and the physical. The fruit and the
utter folly of the wisdom of the Greek and Egyptian sages (?) of this
intellectual system are seen in its ripened state in the Dark Ages.

[Sidenote: Christian students fed on pagan ideas]

The same paragraph in Neander continues: “To their school were attracted
not only those educated pagans, who, having by their teaching been
converted to Christianity, and being seized with a desire to devote
themselves and all they possessed to its service, chose ... the
Alexandrian catechists for their guides, but also _those youths_, who,
having been brought up within the Christian pale, were thirsting after a
more profound knowledge, in order to prepare themselves for the office of
_church teachers_.”[72]

[Sidenote: Opposing voices]

This school did not find its pathway always strewn with roses; for there
were church teachers of the primitive class “who looked chiefly to the
practical and real, ... and who were in continual dread of a corruption
of Christianity by the admixture of foreign philosophical elements,” and
these offered some opposition to the transit from an education of faith
in God’s Word to one of scientific investigation and reason.

[Sidenote: Clement’s justification]

Those were days of lively debate, and the defenders of Christian
education more than once contended for its principles. “‘Thus much,’
observes Clement, ‘I would say to those who are so fond of complaining:
if the philosophy is unprofitable, still the study of it is profitable,
if any good is to be derived from thoroughly demonstrating that it is an
unprofitable thing.’” This argument is indulged in at the present time by
those who espouse the cause of modern education, and wish to defend the
study of the classics and the doctrine of evolution.

The words of Clement in his arguments sound doubly striking, when we
remember that to-day the feeling that the education of the senses
will ultimately tend to the grasping of eternal truth by faith is
just as firmly held as then, notwithstanding the fact that a careful
investigation shows that this can never be the case, and that the only
avenue to _truth_ is through faith, first, last, and all the time. He
says: “Perhaps the latter [philosophy] was given to the Greeks in a
special sense, as preliminary to our Lord calling the Gentiles, since it
educated them as the law did the Jews, for Christianity; and philosophy
was a preparatory step for those who were to be conducted through Christ
to perfection.”[73]

[Sidenote: Clement lost his faith]

Accordingly, we find Clement perpetually verging toward the gnostic or
platonic position. “With an idea of faith which flowed from the very
essence of Christianity, there was associated in his mind the still
lingering notion, derived from the Platonic philosophy, of an opposition
between a _religion of cultivated minds_, and arrived at by the medium of
science, and a religion of the many, who were shackled by the senses and
entangled in mere opinion.”[74]

[Sidenote: Birth of the papacy]

Here is distinctly seen the beginnings of that system of education which
elevates the few and holds the masses in subjection. Herein lies the
wellspring of a monarchical government and a papal hierarchy. It was the
propagation of the system of education introduced into the Alexandrian
school by Clement that formed the papacy. We are not surprised to
read in history of the contest between the churches of Alexandria,
Constantinople, and Rome. Rome as arbiter was called to decide between
the Greek Catholics and the Alexandrians; and from the downfall of both
her rivals she gained the pontifical throne; but it was only to crown
the educational ideas of the Alexandrian school, and sway the world by
the enforcement of the principles of that system of instruction _which
substitutes scientific research for faith_.

God had once called his people out of Egypt; but the church, forsaking
the purity of the gospel, returned thither for its education. The
Reformation was its second call, and to-day the third call is sounding.
Having followed with some care the ideas first introduced by Clement,
and finding that the result of the position taken by this teacher was
that faith was destroyed and scientific reason substituted, we turn to
the further development of this educational idea as advocated by one of
Clement’s most noted pupils and his successor in the Alexandrian school.
I refer to Origen.

[Sidenote: Origen]

Origen was born 185 A.D., in Alexandria; he received a most liberal
education, and was initiated at an early age into Hellenic science and
art; the principles of Christianity were instilled into his mind by such
teachers as Clement of Alexandria.[75] “He says himself that it was an
outward motive that first led him to busy himself with the study of
Platonic philosophy, and to make himself better acquainted generally with
the systems of those who differed from himself. _The moving cause was his
intercourse with heretics and pagans who had received a philosophical
education._”

“Attracted by his great reputation, such persons” came often to him, and
he thus defends himself for bestowing his time on the Greek philosophy:
“When I had wholly devoted my time to the promulgation of the divine
doctrines, and the fame of my skill in them began to be spread abroad,
so that both heretics and others, such as had been conversant with the
Greek sciences, and particularly men from the philosophical schools,
came to visit me, it _seemed to me necessary that I should examine the
doctrinal opinions of the heretics, and what the philosophers pretended
to know of the truth_.”[76]

These facts concerning Origen are given because the argument is
strikingly similar to that used by many ministers and teachers of the
present day, and because it shows how the Platonic philosophy gained such
a foothold in so-called Christian schools, and grew into the papacy.

[Sidenote: Representatives of three systems]

There are three individuals who stand as representatives of three
systems of education. PLATO personifies heathen philosophy; CHRIST said
of Himself, “I am the ... truth;” ORIGEN personifies the mixture of the
two,—truth and error,—and hence stands, from an educational standpoint,
as _the father of the papacy_, which is the mystery of iniquity. It
behooves us now to follow carefully the work of this man. After doing so,
one can more readily understand why the beast is represented as having
several heads.[77]

[Sidenote: Faith displaced by speculation]

I quote extensively from Mosheim: “The principal doctrines of
Christianity were now explained _to the people_ in their native purity
and simplicity, without any mixture of abstract reasonings or subtile
inventions; nor were the feeble minds of the multitude loaded with a
great variety of precepts. But the CHRISTIAN DOCTORS who had applied
themselves to the study of letters and philosophy, soon abandoned the
frequented paths, and _struck out into the devious wilds of fancy_. The
Egyptians distinguished themselves in this new method of explaining the
truth. They looked upon it as a noble and glorious task to bring the
doctrines of celestial wisdom into a certain subjection to the precepts
of their philosophy, and to make deep and profound researches into the
intimate and hidden nature of those truths which the divine Saviour had
delivered to his disciples. ORIGEN WAS AT THE HEAD OF THIS SPECULATIVE
TRIBE. This great man, enchanted by the charms of the _Platonic
philosophy_, set it up as the test of all religion, and imagined,
that the reasons of each doctrine were _to be found in that favorite
philosophy, and their nature and extent to be determined by it_. It must
be confessed that he handled this matter with modesty and with caution;
but he still gave an example to his disciples, the abuse of which could
not fail to be pernicious, and under the authority of which, they would
naturally indulge themselves without restraint in every wanton fancy.
And so, indeed, the case was; for the disciples of Origen, breaking
forth from the limits fixed by their master, _interpreted, in the most
licentious manner_, the divine truths of _religion according to the
tenor of Platonic philosophy_. From these teachers the _philosophical or
scholastic theology_ derives its origin.”[78]

[Sidenote: Beginning of higher criticism]

Mosheim says: “Origen unquestionably stands at the head of the
interpreters of the Bible in this century. But with pain it must be
added, he was first among those who have found in the Scriptures a
secure retreat for all errors and idle fancies. _As this most ingenious
man could see no possible method of vindicating all that is said in
the Scriptures against the cavils of the heretics_ and the enemies
of Christianity, PROVIDED HE INTERPRETED THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE
LITERALLY, he concluded that he must expound the sacred volume _in the
way in which the PLATONISTS WERE ACCUSTOMED TO EXPLAIN THE HISTORY OF
THEIR GODS_.”[79]

[Sidenote: Higher criticism is Platonism]

Murdock, in his notes, says: “Origen perversely turned a large part
of Biblical history into moral fables and many of the laws into
allegories. Probably he learned this in the school of Ammonius, which
expounded Hesiod, Homer, and the whole fabulous history of the Greeks
allegorically. The predecessors of Origen, who searched after a mystical
sense of Scripture, still set a high value on the _grammatical, or
literal, sense;_ but he often expresses himself, as if he attached no
value to it. Before him allegories were resorted to, only to discover
predictions of future events and rules for moral conduct; but he betook
himself to allegories _in order TO ESTABLISH THE PRINCIPLES OF HIS
PHILOSOPHY_ on a Scriptural basis.... His propensity to allegories must
be ascribed to the fertility of his invention, _the prevailing custom_
of the Egyptians, _his education, the instructions he received from his
teachers_, and the example both of the philosophers, of whom he was an
admirer, and of the Jews.... He hoped, by means of his allegories, more
easily to convince the Jews, to confute the gnostics, and to silence the
objections of both. But we must not forget his attachment to that system
of philosophy which he embraced. _This philosophy could not be reconciled
with the Scriptures; ... and therefore the Scriptures must be interpreted
allegorically_, that they might not contradict his philosophy.... As the
body is the baser part of man, so the literal is the less worthy sense
of Scripture; and as the body often betrays good men into sin, so the
literal sense often leads us into error.”

[Sidenote: Here is reason above faith]

Mosheim himself tells us how Origen determined when a passage should
be interpreted literally and when allegorically: “Whenever the words,
if understood literally, will afford a valuable meaning, one that is
worthy of God, useful to men, and accordant with truth and correct
reason, _then the literal meaning is to be retained_; but whenever the
words, if understood literally, will express what is absurd, _or false,
or contrary to correct reason, or useless, or unworthy of God_, then
the literal sense is to be discarded, and the moral and mystical alone
to be regarded. This rule he applies to every part both of the Old
Testament and the New.” This reasoning is sufficiently strong for any of
our modern _higher critics_. If it led directly to the removal of the
Word of God from the common people of the Middle Ages, because teachers
adjudged no minds but their own capable of determining whether a certain
passage should be interpreted literally or allegorically, to what will
the same treatment of the Scriptures now lead? And if the disciples of
Origen lacking the caution of the great teacher, were led into the gross
licentiousness of the heathen, how much of the wickedness of modern
society should be attributed to the spirit of higher criticism, echoed
from the pulpit, and breathed from the schoolroom?

[Sidenote: Minds prepared for the papacy]

Mosheim continues: “He [Origen] assigns two reasons why fables and
literal absurdities are admitted into the Sacred Volume. The first is,
that if the literal meaning were always rational and good, the reader
would be apt to rest in it, and not look after the moral and mystical
sense. The second is, that fabulous and incongruous representations
often afford moral and mystical instructions which could not so well be
conveyed by sober facts and representations.”

Perhaps this is enough to show that scholasticism, or a philosophical
interpretation of the Scriptures had its origin in the Christian schools.
By this it is plain why these youth became papists, instead of followers
of the meek and lowly Galilean. There was no other theory which could,
so effectually as this, have stamped out faith. No other teaching than
this same higher criticism could have more truly developed that power
which “speaketh great words against the Most High, and thinketh to change
times and laws.” It formed the beast in the third century; it is forming
the image to the beast in the present century. Students under such
instruction had received ample preparation for a belief in the right of
the church to interpret Scripture, and a belief in the infallibility of
the pope.

[Sidenote: Scholasticism and higher criticism]

We have seen the origin of two of the streams which, uniting, helped
swell the torrent of the papacy. There are still other tributaries to
this mighty river. Each rises somewhere in heathendom, flows with
a devious course, but finally, as if in accordance with some great
natural law, unites with those other currents in forming the mystery of
iniquity. Each stream is an educational principle, opposed in itself
to Christianity; but instead of being lost in the depths of the main
channel, it seems to develop greater power of doing evil, and brings its
adherents into more complete degradation after the mingling than before.

[Sidenote: Mysticism]

The third principle which presents itself for analysis is known as
_mysticism_. Both the teachings of Clement and the scholasticism of
Origen exalted reason above faith. Mysticism was advocated by Origen and
later by Augustine. It is defined as “that faculty of reason, from which
proceeds the health and vigor of the mind, ... an emanation from God into
the human soul, and comprehended in it the principles and elements of
all truth, human and divine.”[80] There is a spark of divinity in every
man. It is the object of Christian education to develop the image of
Christ in the human being; but with the mystics, it was maintained that
“silence, tranquillity, repose, and solitude, accompanied with such acts
of mortification as might tend to extenuate and exhaust the body, were
the means by which the hidden and internal word was excited to produce
its latent virtues and to instruct men in the knowledge of divine things.”

[Sidenote: Education continues to decline]

It is not so much with the doctrine as with the results which were
wrought by the teachings of such doctrine, that we are concerned.
From an adherence to this method of reasoning arose the whole monkish
system; for, says Mosheim, “This method of reasoning produced strange
effects, and drove many into caves and deserts, where they macerated
their bodies with hunger and thirst, and submitted to all the miseries
of the severest discipline that a gloomy imagination could prescribe.”
Egypt soon swarmed with these fanatics, and the whole history of the
Dark Ages circles around them. They broke the bonds of family affection,
overturned governments, and seated popes. Draper, speaking of the monks,
says: “It is said that there were at one time in that country [Egypt] of
these religious recluses not fewer than seventy-six thousand males and
twenty-seven thousand females. With countless other uncouth forms, under
the hot sun of that climate they seemed to be spawned from the mud of
the Nile.” “From Egypt and Syria monachism spread like an epidemic.” “It
was significantly observed that the road to ecclesiastical elevation lay
through the monastery porch, and often _ambition contentedly wore for a
season the cowl, that it might seize more surely the miter_.”[81]

[Sidenote: Monks control schools]

We shall need to study the monastic system as the repositories of
learning in the Dark Ages, and therefore give but a passing glance at the
origin of the order in the doctrine of mysticism. Its evils can not be
portrayed without a blush, and it was against this system, taking as it
did into its clutches the education of the masses, that the Reformation
thrust its weight. We have seen truth _struggling_ against error. It was
in the _schools_ of _the early Christians_ that wisdom _by faith_ was
taught. It was _into these same schools_ that pagan philosophy crept. It
was the teacher who espoused this philosophy, and again a teacher who
opposed it. Students imbibed the ideas of the leading educators, and
became church teachers. The strongest minds, turning from the Word, and
that alone, became expounders of philosophy and the sciences.

[Sidenote: Schools of the Dark Ages]

Gradually error prevailed, until in the schools, almost entirely in
monastic hands, truth was so covered that D’Aubigné’s description of
the work of the schoolmen of the Dark Ages is striking. He says: “These
industrious artisans of thought had unraveled every theological idea,
and of all their threads had woven a web, under which it would have
been difficult for more skillful persons than their contemporaries to
recognize the truth in its pristine purity.”

It is not the province of this chapter to deal with theological
controversies in themselves. It is only as these controversies took
possession of and molded the courses of study in the schools; only as
they found their strongest supporters in the persons of teachers, and
were carried to the world by students, that our attention is drawn to
another line of argument, which, as it were, clenched the work of the
papacy, and gave it its power over the minds of men.

[Sidenote: Pelagianism taught]

Quoting again from D’Aubigné: “The _Pelagian_ doctrine, expelled by
Augustine from the church when it had presented itself boldly, insinuated
itself as demi-Pelagianism, and under the mask of the Augustine forms
of expression. This error spread with astonishing rapidity throughout
Christendom. The danger of the doctrine was particularly manifested in
this,—that by placing goodness without, and not within, the heart, it set
a great value on external actions, legal observances, and penitential
works.... Whilst Pelagianism corrupted the Christian doctrine, it
_strengthened the hierarchy_.... When it laid down a doctrine that man
could attain a state of perfect sanctification, it affirmed also that
the merits of saints and martyrs might be applied to the church....
Pelagianism multiplied rites and ceremonies.

“But it was especially by the _system of penance_, which flowed
immediately from Pelagianism, that Christianity was perverted. At
first, _penance_ had consisted in certain public expressions of
repentance.... By degrees it was extended to every sin, even to the
most secret.... Instead of looking to Christ for pardon, through faith
alone, it was sought for principally in the church through penitential
works.... _Flagellations_ were superadded to these practices.... They
accordingly invented that system of barter celebrated under the title
of _Indulgences_.... A bull of Clement VII declared it an article
of faith.... The philosophers of Alexandria had spoken of a fire in
which men were to be purified. _Many ancient_ doctors had adopted this
notion; and Rome declared this philosophical opinion a tenet of the
church. _The pope by a bull annexed purgatory to his domain._”[82] “The
Catholic Church was not the papacy,” says D’Aubigné. “The latter was the
oppressor, the former the oppressed.” Draper tersely defines the papacy
as “THE TYRANNY OF THEOLOGY OVER THOUGHT.”

[Sidenote: Summary]

Men departed from the simplicity of a gospel by faith. Reason and
scientific research took the place of faith in the Word. Education turned
men’s minds from God to self, and reason was exalted. The papacy was thus
formed. If we look for a visible union of the church and the state before
recognizing it as the papacy, we shall find ourselves entrapped; _for it
is the working out of a system of education based on human philosophy
that forms the papacy_; and the body which adopts this system of
education naturally turns to the state for support.

[Sidenote: Papacy overthrown by Christian education]

It is because of the truth of this statement that the papacy wields its
influence through its schools; this is why it has always feared a revival
of learning more than the combined forces of all the armies of the world.
A death-blow to the papacy can be struck only by introducing a system of
education founded upon the teachings of Christ, placing God’s Word as
guide, and inspiring faith as the one avenue to wisdom.




XI

EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES


The development of the papacy led directly to the Dark Ages, for “the
noontide of the papacy was the world’s moral midnight.” The papacy
was the logical working out of an educational scheme; hence the moral
darkness which spread over the world during the prophetic period of
twelve hundred and sixty years was due to wrong methods of education.
People do not sink into degradation and sin when properly educated. Truth
elevates, and, when embodied in man, brings him nearer to his Maker.
Faith is the ladder by which he climbs, and when that element has been
lacking in an educational system, the masses have sunk lower and lower.

[Sidenote: Papacy’s tyranny of theology over thought]

Mind is a wonderful thing, the most profound study of the universe. It
was designed to be free, to grasp the mighty laws of its own Creator,
and a means was supplied by which that very thing could be done: “If any
of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, ... but let him ask in faith,
nothing wavering.”

In order to maintain the supremacy thus gained, it was necessary for the
education of the young to lie wholly within the control of the papal
hierarchy; and it is with their educational institutions and educational
methods that we have now to deal. It is hoped that the study of the Dark
Ages will so accentuate the importance of Protestants’ maintaining their
own schools, that the tendency now so strong in the other direction
may receive a check. The education begun in the schools of the early
Christians has been followed into the monastic institutions of the
Middle Ages. The life and power of Christianity departed, and form alone
remained. It has been said that “paganism in the garb of Christianity
walked into the church,” and it can truthfully be added that _it gained
admittance through the schools_.

[Sidenote: Papal primary schools]

In order to trace carefully the education offered by the papacy,—and that
comprised all that was then offered,—the first quotations are concerning
primary instruction. Laurie says: “Instruction began about the age of
seven. The _alphabet_, written on tables or leaves, was learned by heart
by the children, _then syllables and words_. The first reading-book was
the Latin psalter, and this was read again and again _until it could be
said by heart_; and numerous priests, and even monks, were content all
their lives with the mere sound of Latin words, which they could both
read and recite, but did not understand.”[83]

[Sidenote: Prominence of memory work]

Note carefully that work for these children was almost wholly
_memory_ work. They were to _learn by heart_ and to _repeat without
understanding_. This was the first step in that great system which binds
the minds of the masses to the will of one sovereign mind.

“Writing followed.” “The elements of arithmetic were also taught, but
merely with a view to the calculation of church days and festivals.”[84]

[Sidenote: Early use of Latin]

“Latin was begun very early (apparently immediately after the
psaltery was known), with the _learning by heart_ of declensions and
conjugations and lists of vocables. The rule was to use Latin in the
school in conversing.... In the eleventh century, if not earlier, Latin
conversation-books ... were not only read, but, like everything else,
_learned by heart_.”[85] Their method of studying Latin emphasizes
the thought of the formal abstract way of teaching, which tended
to conservatism and mental subjection. “Memory is the faculty that
subordinates the present under the past, and its extensive training
develops a habit of mind that holds by what is prescribed, and recoils
from the new and untried. In short, the educational curriculum that lays
great stress on memorizing, produces a class of conservative people.”[86]
The papal schools employed methods which, in themselves, in the course
of a few generations would develop dependent rather than independent
thinking; therefore methods are as important as the subject taught.

[Sidenote: Result of universal language]

Again it is well to remember that there was a deep design in making the
Latin tongue universal. It was one of the ways by which the papacy kept
its control of all nations and tongues. Draper explains it thus:—

“The unity of the church, and, therefore, _its power_, required the use
of Latin as a sacred language. Through this Rome had stood in an attitude
strictly European, and was enabled to maintain a general international
relation. It gave her far more power than her asserted celestial
authority.... Their officials could pass without difficulty into every
nation, and communicate without embarrassment with each other, from
Ireland to Bohemia, from Italy to Scotland.”[87]

[Sidenote: Fables and traditions of men]

The character of the youth was formed, says Painter, from memorizing “the
_fables of Æsop_ and collections of maxims and proverbs. After this,
Virgil was usually the text-book, and was handled in the same style.”

[Sidenote: Studies of Monastic schools]

Of the monastic schools Mosheim says: “In most of the schools, the
so-called seven liberal arts were taught. The pupil commenced with
grammar, then proceeded to rhetoric, and afterward to logic or
dialectics. Having thus mastered the Trivium, as it was called, those
who aspired to greater attainments proceeded with slow steps through
the _Quadrivium_ [a course including arithmetic, music, geometry, and
astronomy] to the honor of perfectly learned men.”[88]

Says Painter: “Seven years were devoted to the completion of the course
in liberal arts [the Trivium and the Quadrivium].... Dialectic or logic
was based somewhat remotely on the writings of Aristotle. At a later
period, logic was rigidly applied to the development of theology, and
gave rise to a class of scholars called the schoolmen.... Arithmetic was
imperfectly taught, importance being attached to the supposed secret
properties of numbers. Geometry was taught in an abridged form, while
astronomy did not differ materially from astrology. The study of music
consisted chiefly in learning to chant the hymns of the church.”[89]

[Sidenote: Greater emphasis on logic]

Mosheim thus continues his description of the work of the schools in the
eleventh century: “This course of study, adopted in all the schools of
the West, was not a little changed after the middle of this century. For
logic, ... having been improved by the reflection and skill of certain
close thinkers, and being taught more fully and acutely, acquired such
an ascendency in the minds of the majority, that they neglected grammar,
rhetoric, and the other sciences, both the elegant and the abstruse, and
devoted their whole lives to dialectics, or to logical and metaphysical
discussions. For whoever was well acquainted with dialectics, or what we
call logic and metaphysics, was supposed to possess learning enough, and
to lose nothing by being ignorant of all other branches of learning....
In this age, the philosophy of the Latins was confined wholly to what
they called dialectics; and the other branches of philosophy were unknown
even by name. Moreover their dialectics was miserably dry and barren.”[90]

[Sidenote: Patristical Geography]

This is sufficient, perhaps, on the use of language and logic, and we
turn to geography and some of the sciences. Even the children to-day will
smile at the teachings of some of the Church Fathers on the subject of
geography. Says Draper: “In the Patristic Geography the earth is a flat
surface bordered by the waters of the sea, on the yielding support of
which rests the crystalline dome of the sky. These doctrines were for
the most part supported by passages from the Holy Scriptures, perversely
wrested from their proper meaning. Thus Cosmas Indicopleustes, whose
Patristic Geography had been an authority for nearly eight hundred years,
triumphantly disposed of the sphericity of the earth by demanding of its
advocates, how, in the day of judgment, men on the other side of a globe
could see the Lord descending through the air!”[91]

[Sidenote: The beneficial work of explorers]

It was in opposition to such theories, and a hundred absurdities
concerning the ocean, the boiling waters of the equator, the serpents
in the West, etc., that Columbus, De Gama, and other explorers had to
contend; and one of the most wonderful effects of the work of these
navigators was the thrust given papal education. A wound was then
received which was incurable.

If, in the mind of the reader, the question arises, Why should the papal
schools teach such things? simply consider that the whole system of papal
theology was intended to make the people feel that the world was the
center of the universe, and that the pope was the center of the world.
Christ and his position in creation were usurped by the head of the
church. THIS WAS THE PAPACY.

[Sidenote: Modern schools cling to papal methods]

This could be brought about _only by education_, and could be maintained
only as generation after generation was _taught_ from infancy to old age
to place faith in man, not God. Not only the subjects taught, but the
manner of teaching them, served well the purpose of the papacy. Only
within the last few years, comparatively speaking, have our own schools
seen the necessity of breaking away from some of those relics of the
educational system of the Dark Ages.

[Sidenote: Detection of wrong methods]

Memory work, pure and simple, has given way in a great measure to
research and experiment, even in the primary grades. The alphabet is no
longer driven into the childish mind by the ferule, nor kept there by
mere force of repetition. The advanced methods in dealing with the mind
are a step in the right direction. The pity is that educators, while
groping for light, while casting off some of the moth-eaten garments of
past ages, have failed to see the cause of the evil, and deal so largely
with results instead of removing the cause. The evil began by renouncing
the Scriptures and faith in Holy Writ as a part of education. The spirit
and power will accompany reform only when these are replaced in their
proper setting.

[Sidenote: New books]

While educators of the world are realizing the need of a change in
methods, it is time for them to see also the need of a change in subject
matter and text-books. _Protestants_ in particular _should arouse_ to
the times. If the study of paganism, instead of Christianity or truth,
produced the Dark Ages, and if wrong methods held the minds of men and
prolonged that darkness, forbidding the shining of the light, it is time
for both _methods and material_ to be reconstructed in the schools of
to-day.

[Sidenote: Science in the papal schools]

We can with profit notice the attitude of the papal schools toward
some of the sciences, taking for example that most practical of modern
branches, the science of medicine. What was the work of the physician
during the Dark Ages? Draper says: “Physicians were viewed by the church
with dislike, and regarded as atheists by the people, who held firmly to
the lessons they had been taught, that cures must be wrought by relics of
martyrs and bones of saints, by prayers and intercessions.”[92]

[Sidenote: True healing forsaken]

It is well to remember that Christ was the Great Physician, healing not
only soul maladies, but physical infirmities as well; and to the apostles
was given the commission to heal the sick and restore sight to the blind.
Gradually, however, as the power of the gospel in its purity was lost by
the substitution of error for truth, the leaders of the church introduced
miracle cures, and preached the efficacy of the bones of saints, etc., in
the cure of disease. This became popular, and increased throughout the
Dark Ages.

[Sidenote: Medical study discouraged]

Draper describes the fanaticism of the monastic schools, and finally
assigns a reason for the exclusion from them of the study of physiology
and anatomy and the science of medicine. “The body,” he says, “was under
some spiritual charge,—the first joint of the right thumb being in the
care of God the Father, the second under that of the blessed Virgin,
and so on of other parts. For each disease there was a saint. A man
with sore eyes must invoke St. Clara, but if it were an inflammation
elsewhere, he must turn to St. Anthony.... For the propitiation of these
celestial beings it was necessary that fees should be paid, and thus the
practice of imposture—medicine became a great source of profit. In all
this there was no other intention than that of extracting money.”[93]

[Sidenote: Doctors in secret]

While such was the teachings of the papacy, the Jews and Mohammedans were
achieving wonderful success, and making discoveries of lasting benefit to
mankind in Spain and Asia Minor. “Bishops, princes, kings, and popes had
each in private his Hebrew doctor; though all understood that he was a
contraband luxury, in many countries pointedly and absolutely prohibited
by the law. In the eleventh century nearly all the physicians in Europe
were Jews.” One reason for this was: “The church would tolerate no
interference with her spiritual methods of treating disease, which formed
one of her most productive sources of gain; and the study of medicine had
been formally introduced into the rabbinical schools.”[94]

[Sidenote: Jewish physicians prohibited]

The bitter hatred of the papacy toward independence of mind is well
illustrated in the treatment that the Jewish physicians received from the
popes. Draper says: “The school at Salerno was still sending forth its
doctors. In Rome, Jewish physicians were numerous, the popes themselves
employing them.... At this period Spain and France were full of learned
Jews; and perhaps partly by their exerting too much influence upon the
higher classes with whom they came in contact (for the physician of a
Christian prince was very often the rival of his confessor), and partly
because the practice of medicine, as they pursued it, interfered with the
gains of the church, the clergy took alarm, and caused to be re-enacted
or enforced the ancient laws. The Council of Beziers (A.D. 1246) and the
Council of Alby (A.D. 1254) prohibited all Christians from resorting to
the services of an Israelitish physician.”[95]

[Sidenote: Hatred of physicians]

To show that this was a matter which concerned the _schools_, and in
proof of the statement that papal schools still adhere to formalism,
miracle cure, and relic worship, we need only to notice that “the
faculty of Paris [University], awakening at last to the danger of the
case, caused, A.D. 1301, a decree to be published prohibiting either
man or woman of the religion of Moses from practicing medicine upon any
person of the Catholic religion. A similar course was pursued in Spain.
At this time the Jews were confessedly at the head of French medicine. It
was the appointment of one of their persuasion, Profatius, _as regent_ of
the faculty of Montpellier, A.D. 1300, which drew upon them the wrath of
the faculty of Paris.”

[Sidenote: Jews banished]

“The animosity of the French ecclesiastics against the Jewish physicians
at last led to the banishment of all the Jews from France, A.D.
1306.”[96] The papal universities were unwilling to teach medicine, and
finding that the Jewish schools of science were greatly weakening papal
authority in France, this race was banished bodily.

[Sidenote: Position of physiology]

Comparing this history with the present work of the medical fraternity,
and especially with that class of medical students whose life work is to
spread the gospel while relieving the body, one better understands that
physiology should be the basis of every educational effort, and the place
that it and kindred sciences should occupy in the courses of instruction
pursued by our children, youth, and maturer minds; and also the cause of
that spiritual darkness which is even now hanging over the world, and
for centuries held Europe in its clutches; but it shall be pierced by
Christian education.

[Sidenote: Papal method of meeting opposition]

The papacy, in case of opposition which threatened her authority, had
two methods of procedure. The first was an attempt to annihilate both
the trouble and the troublers. Thus she simply banished all Jews from
France that her own universities might not be overshadowed by the light
of truth. Her second method of procedure was a counter-reformation; that
is, if a reform in education arose outside the church which threatened
to undermine her doctrines, it might be met by a partial reform within
her borders, the reform going only so far as was absolutely necessary to
satisfy the cravings of minds that dared think for themselves.

[Sidenote: Papacy can compromise]

It was not always possible to completely crush a reformation, or the
reformers; and as was quite often the case in the schools, studies which
could not be entirely banished, were taught, but in such a way as best
to conserve the needs of the church. That medicine, as well as law, was
taught in the higher papal schools, can not be denied. Says Mosheim:
“The seven liberal arts [The Trivium and the Quadrivium] were gradually
included under the term _philosophy_; to which were added _theology_,
_jurisprudence_, and _medicine_. And thus these four _faculties_, as they
are called, were in the next century formed in the universities.”[97]

[Sidenote: Medical study corrupted]

But in the study of medicine, as in philosophy or law, memory work devoid
of understanding—the form without the spirit—was the characteristic. As
the saints and martyrs in theology had taken the place of the Greek gods
and goddesses, so in the study of other branches a multitude of pagan
terms, clothed with what was then known as the “Christian spirit,” was
made to satisfy the longing for real mental culture. The simplicity of
the gospel was laid aside. What God had revealed was made to appear too
complex for the human mind, and the secret things which are known only
to God were pried into. In theology, dialectics, or logic, became the
study of endless queries, difficult syllogisms, meaningless quibbles. Men
delighted in propounding such questions as, “How many angels can stand on
the point of a needle?” and others prided themselves on the acuteness of
their reasoning powers in arguing such questions. Likewise in medicine,
the study of the simple needs of the body and the rational treatment
of disease was obscured by hundreds of _Latin terms_, and these were
memorized to the neglect of the simple philosophy of the science. It is
with this multitude of names, hoary with age, and savoring strongly of
their pagan origin, that the student of medicine is still compelled to
grapple.

[Sidenote: The Arabs as educators]

The history of the rise of European universities throws light on the
attitude of the papacy toward education. While Europe was overspread
by spiritual and intellectual darkness, God used another people to
disseminate truth. When faith in God was lost, and in its place was
substituted that blind faith in man and obedience to the church which is
known in European history as the age of faith, learning was propagated
by the Arabs. That power which had failed to conquer the world by the
sword, now gained by intellectual culture what the arms of Mohammed and
his immediate successors failed to achieve. Spain, while in the hands
of the Moors, contributed more to European civilization than at any
other time in her history; and it was as an _educator_ and through the
_influence of her schools_ that the papacy received its blow from the
south which made her more readily succumb to the revolt of Germany under
Luther. By the Arabs “flourishing schools were established in all the
principal cities, notably at Bagdad and Damascus in the East, and at
Cordova, Salamanca, and Toledo in the West. Here grammar, mathematics,
astronomy, philosophy, chemistry, and medicine were pursued with great
ardor and success. The Arabians originated chemistry, discovering
alcohol, and nitric and sulphuric acids. They gave algebra and
trigonometry their modern form; applied the pendulum to the reckoning of
time; ascertained the size of the earth by measuring a degree, and made
catalogues of the stars.”[98] And all this was done when Europe as a
whole was lying in darkness, when the chemist was considered a wizard,
when astronomy was merely astrology, and whatever learning existed was
formal and spiritless.

[Sidenote: Arabs and papal schools]

But the discoveries of the Arab teachers could not long remain with them
alone, and it is with the spread of their ideas through the schools by
means of the students that we are concerned. “For a time they [the Arabs]
were the intellectual leaders of Europe. Their schools in Spain were
largely attended by Christian youth from other European countries, who
carried back with them to their homes the Arabian science, and through it
stimulated intellectual activity in Christian [papal] nations.”[99]

[Sidenote: Arabs and universities]

The specialization of studies such as theology, medicine, or philosophy,
together with the impulse derived from the Mohammedans in Africa and the
Arabs in Spain, led to the establishment of the universities, which were,
as before stated, composed of four faculties, or colleges. “They arose
independently of both church and state.” The University of Paris “became
the most distinguished seat of learning in Europe. At one time it was
attended by more than twenty thousand students.”

[Sidenote: Papacy seized universities]

The growth of the universities was very rapid, and they threatened
speedily to revolutionize the society of Europe and overthrow the papal
hierarchy. “The influence and power of the universities were speedily
recognized,” says Painter; “and though originally free associations,
they were soon brought into relation with the church and the state, by
which they were officially authorized and endowed.” If learning could
not be suppressed, then it must be controlled by the church; and the
“church sought to attach them [the universities] to itself, in order to
join to the power of faith the power of knowledge. The first privileges
that the universities received proceeded from the popes.” “While Rome
was not the mother, she was yet the nurse of universities.” Scientific
investigation had by this time received such an impulse from youth who
had been students in the Arab schools that the church could not hope to
crush it. The only hope of the papacy was to so surround the truth with
fables and mysteries, and to so conduct the schools, that again the
spirit of progress would be lost in its labyrinthine wanderings through
empty forms. _Monopoly in education_ works havoc in the same way that a
monopoly in commerce leads to oppression. And so it was.

[Sidenote: Character of students]

“The students led a free and uncontrolled life, seeking and finding
protection in their own university authorities even from the civil
power.”[100]

[Sidenote: Origin of courses and degrees]

Youth from the age of twelve and upward attended these universities,
making it necessary to teach the secondary studies which terminated in
a bachelor’s degree. “Boys ... attended the Parisian university merely
for instruction in ... grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic; and after three
or four years’ study they received the title of Baccalaureus.” “When he
reached ... the age of seventeen or eighteen, he then began the study for
the mastership.”[101]

It will be remembered that the schools established by the early church
were marked for the simplicity of their methods, and their singleness
of purpose. Their object was to educate workers for the spread of the
gospel. For the accomplishment of this object the course of instruction
was arranged, and students were sent forth into the world commissioned
of God, as were the disciples after their ordination. There was no call
for the granting of degrees. These, it is true, were used in the pagan
schools, and indicated that the receiver had been initiated, after years
of study, into the hidden mysteries of Greek wisdom. Among the pagans,
indeed, the principle of degrees and diplomas dated back to the days of
Egyptian and Babylonian supremacy, where it was indicative of fellowship
in the grossest forms of licentiousness.

Greece, the country which united the learning of Babylon and the wisdom
of Egypt, and offered it to Europe in the form of Platonism, naturally
enough made use of diplomas and degrees. And the fact that her wisdom was
so complicated in its nature made it necessary to spend long years in
mastering her sciences.

Paganism, moreover, has but one model for all men; its aim is ever to
crush individuality and mold all characters alike. To accomplish this
purpose the schools arranged their studies in courses, demanding that
each student should pass over the same ground. This is characteristic of
all educational systems aside from that one, the true education, which
comes from God. If you look to China, you find it there, as it develops
the disciples of Confucius; India educates her Brahmans in the same
manner; the priests and wise men of Egypt were taught in schools of a
similar type. The Jews had aped the fashion of the pagan world, and it
was from this custom that Christ called his disciples. One of the surest
signs that the schools established in the days of Christian purity had
lost the spirit which characterized the apostolic teaching, is the fact
that the schools of the Middle Ages had adopted this pagan custom.

Students were called into the universities when mere boys, and by
hundreds and thousands were run through the “grind” which we term “course
of instruction,” and were turned out at the end of ten, twenty, and
sometimes even forty years with a degree, which, in dignity, corresponded
to the years spent in completing the course.

This custom is papal. It is opposed to the very spirit of Christianity;
and any institution of learning which deigns to accept the approval of
the state, while at the same time passing as a Christian institution, is
not only linking itself with the papacy, but with paganism as well. Of
His followers Christ says, “They are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world.”

“Older students, those especially in the theological faculty, with their
fifteen or sixteen years’ course of study, achieved in this respect far
greater notoriety. At the age of thirty or forty the student at the
university was still a scholar.”[102] The idea of long courses is not,
then, a modern one, and American colleges can truthfully point to the
university of Paris for the precedent in this respect as in some others.
In the granting of degrees another interesting subject is approached.
Laurie continues: “Up to the middle of the twelfth century, anyone taught
in the infant universities who thought he had the requisite knowledge....
In the second half of the twelfth century, when bishops and abbots, who
acted, personally or through their deputies, as chancellors of the rising
university schools, wished to assume to themselves exclusively the right
of granting the license, ... Pope Alexander III forbade them, on the
ground that the teaching faculty was a gift of God.”[103] This, however,
must have been the work of a liberal pope, for earlier,—that is, in
1219,—“Pope Honorius III interfered with the granting of degrees; and in
order to impose a check on abuses, directed that they should be conferred
not by, but by permission of, the archdeacon of the cathedral, and under
his presidency.”[104]

The church had gained control of the universities, and through her
representative, usually the chancellor, _granted degrees_. Now, in
order to keep the authority well in her own hands, no one was allowed
to teach who did not hold a license granted by the university after an
examination. Thus the educational _trust_ developed, and the iron hand
of Rome, though concealed in a silken glove, clinched her victories, and
strove to crush all opponents.

[Sidenote: Degrees and the papacy]

Our modern B.S., M.A., LL.D., D.D., etc., were adopted into the
universities at this stage of educational history. “Itter informs us,”
says Laurie, “that ... a complete university course was represented by
_four degrees_—_bachelor_, _master_, _licentiate_, and finally _doctor_,
which last was usually taken at the age of thirty or thirty-five.”
“The next development of the degree system was the introduction of the
_grades of bachelor_ and _master_, or licentiate, into each of the higher
faculties—theology, law, and medicine. Thus a man who had finished his
preliminary art studies, generally at the age of twenty-one, and wished
to specialize in theology, medicine, or law, had to pass through the
stages of _bachelor_ of theology, or of medicine, or of law, and then of
_master_ or licentiate, before he obtained the title of _doctor_. The
_bachelorship_ of medicine or law was reached in three years, of theology
in seven. Four years’ further study brought the _doctor’s degree_.”[105]
“The conferring of degrees was originated by a pope.”[106] The
educational monopoly appeared quite complete; and having gained the form
of godliness and the civil power, the old scheme of killing the life and
substituting those things which would recognize the papal hierarchy, were
again introduced. Leading educators are awakening to the true situation.
Christian education alone can deliver.

[Sidenote: Form had replaced the life]

“The moral tone of the universities was low,” says Painter; “there were
brawls, outbreaks, and abominable immoralities. ‘The students,’ say
the Vienna statutes, ‘shall not spend more time in drinking, fighting,
and guitar playing than at physics, logic, and the regular courses
of lectures; and they shall not get up public dances in the streets.
Quarrelers, wanton persons, drunkards, those that go about serenading at
night, or who spend their leisure in following after lewd women; thieves,
those that insult citizens, players at dice—having been properly warned
and not reforming, besides the ordinary punishment provided by law for
those misdemeanors, shall be deprived of their academical privileges and
expelled.’ These prohibitions give us a clear insight into university
life of the time, for it was not worse at Vienna than at Paris and
elsewhere.”[107]

Could some of those medieval students be resurrected and placed in some
of the universities of the nineteenth century, they might feel quite at
home, not only as far as courses of study and the granting of degrees is
concerned, but in revelings, parties, etc., judging from the reports
of the hazing, drinking, and general carousing of the students in our
university towns.“[108] The conduct of students is the reflex of the
instruction given. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that the
instruction of the universities, containing as it did the form without
the life, should fail to develop stability of character in its students.

“The true Catholic attitude to all investigation was, and is, one
admitting of great advances in every department of learning, while
checking all true freedom of thought.”[109]

The _North American Review_ for October, 1842, expresses in concise
language the relation of students and schools to the general government
and consequent state of society. It says: “In the colleges is determined
the character of most of the persons who are to fill the professions,
teach the schools, write the books, and do most of the business of
legislation for the whole body of the people. The general direction of
literature and politics, the prevailing habits and modes of thought
throughout the country, are in the hands of men whose social position
and early advantages have given them an influence, of the magnitude and
permanency of which the possessors themselves are hardly conscious.”

Recognizing this fact, the papacy controlled the education of the Middle
Ages, and is to-day seeking to do the same thing. Luther and other
reformers, also recognizing this fact, sought to overthrow the tyranny of
the papacy by establishing new schools where freedom of thought would be
fostered through faith in God’s Word.

[Sidenote: Work for Protestants to-day]

Protestants to-day, looking upon the system of education as it now
exists, and tracing there the same long courses in the classics and the
sciences; the same degrees granted in a manner similar to the Dark Ages,
the text-book containing the same theories, the same terms, the same
doctrines of philosophy; the same tendency toward monarchism, or the
monopoly of education by certain universities, and through them by the
same power that has borne sway, should, for the sake of their government,
and for the sake of their faith, establish schools of their own. As the
papacy, by the subjection of thought, builds up a monarchy in place of
democracy; as she in the same way overthrows faith in God, substituting
faith in man or the church, so _Protestant schools should educate
children_ in the pure principles of that gospel freedom which recognizes
the equality of every man in the sight of heaven, and makes it possible
for the government to be of, for, and by the people by developing the
Christian character through faith in Jesus Christ.




XII

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY REFORMATION AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM


While following the history of education through the Dark Ages, we have
often been compelled to recognize that an influence was at work slowly
but surely undermining the structure which the papacy was, with the
greatest perseverance, erecting, and which that power purposed should
withstand all the attacks brought against it. The papacy had calculated
well; it had, in absorbing the educational system of the times, laid its
hand on the very tap-root of society, and, in its education as well as in
its doctrines, woven about the human race meshes which only the Prince of
heaven could rend with the sword of eternal truth.

[Sidenote: Secret of papal strength]

Never has the world seen such an enduring system as the papacy. Patterned
so nearly after the truth of God, and resembling so closely, both in
church government and educational principles, the plan delivered to
the chosen nation, that only an expert, guided by the Spirit of truth,
could judge between the true and the counterfeit, it had, as had the Jews
before them, replaced the life by the mere form. Nevertheless, so firmly
laid was the foundation, and so substantially built were the walls, that
for centuries it baffled all attempts at overthrow.

This structure had as its foundation an _educational system_; the mortar
which held the bricks in the wall was _educational methods_, and should
the building fall, the foundation itself must be attacked.

As a civil power, the papacy was periodically attacked by ambitious
kings and princes; but these shocks scarcely disturbed the serenity of
the papal head, so firm was his throne. The sword of the Mohammedans was
broken at Tours; and the Crescent, instead of advancing to the full by
encircling the Mediterranean, waned as its light receded to the shores of
Africa and the west of Asia.

[Sidenote: The revival of learning]

What the Turk could not do by force of arms, he did in another way. In
1453 Constantinople fell into the hands of the calif, yet this did not
affect the strength of the papal hierarchy. But as the Turk came into
Greece, Greek art and literature fled to Italy. Here is the attack
on the papacy which came from the east. Painter says: “The revival
of classical learning, which had its central point in the downfall
of Constantinople in 1453, exerted a favorable influence. It opened
the literary treasures of Greece and Rome, provided a new culture
for the mind, awakened dissatisfaction with the scholastic teaching
of the church, and tended to emancipate thought from subjection to
ecclesiastical authority.”[110] The taking of Constantinople did still
more toward hastening the Reformation. Venice had controlled the commerce
of the eastern Mediterranean, but Turkish supremacy in those waters
transferred that power to her rival, Genoa, on the other side of Italy;
and from this latter center began the search for a western passage to the
East Indies which led to the accidental discovery of America.

[Sidenote: Greek classics]

Again, “The revival of learning was so intimately related to the
Reformation, and to the educational advancement dating from that time,
that it calls for consideration in some detail. It had its origin in
Italy.... Eager scholars from England, France, and Germany sat at the
feet of Italian masters, in order afterward to bear beyond the Alps the
precious seed of the new culture.”[111] However, this Greek culture, or
new learning, was nothing more nor less than a revival of the study of
Greek paganism. Notwithstanding that fact, a life and enthusiasm attended
its study which drew students from the papal universities, and induced
men to travel hundreds of miles for the sake of sitting at the feet of
masters of the Greek classics.

This was the attempted reform of the papacy made by classic literature.
Its results can not but interest us. Painter further says: “The revival
of letters produced different results in different countries. Everywhere
it contributed to the emancipation of the human mind, but in Italy it
tended strongly to paganize its adherents.”

Bear in mind that the classics were attempting to reform the papacy. Here
was the result in Italy. Italian schools undoubtedly needed reforming,
for the words of Luther describing German schools are applicable to all
papal institutions. Of these he said: “What have they been taught in the
universities and convents, but to become blockheads? A man has studied
_twenty_, _forty_ years, and has learned neither Latin nor German.” But
as much as reform was needed, Greek classics “in Italy tended strongly
to paganize its adherents.” We can not look for the classics, then, to
Christianize the Italian papists.

[Sidenote: Greek in German schools]

But while “in Italy the new learning became a minister of infidelity, in
Germany [it became a minister] of religion.” Why this difference? The
work of Erasmus, Luther, and Melancthon, as they introduced the study
of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures into the German schools, will answer
why. The Italians studied the Greek classics for the _thought_, and it
paganized its adherents; the Germans studied the Greek New Testament,
translating it into the mother tongue, and it became one of the greatest
helps in the spread of the Reformation of the sixteenth century.

So much for the attempted reform by Greek classics. They played their
part, but they could not overthrow the papacy; and why should we expect
it when papal education was, in the first place, built upon those same
classics and the philosophy of Greek writers?

[Sidenote: Papacy and Arab education]

We now turn to the southern attack upon the papal system. This was also
an educational attack. Already we have seen the Arab schools in Spain.
Before the eleventh century Christian youth attended these schools,
taking across the Pyrenees the science of the Moors. The papacy quailed
before this attack, and in order to lessen its force, the sciences of the
Arabs were adopted in the papal universities. This, as we have already
seen, was done in medicine and mathematics. But again the form was
retained without the life. France, because of her jealousy of the Jewish
physicians, through the influence of the University of Paris, banished
every Jew from her borders. A _scientific attack could not overthrow the
papacy_.

[Sidenote: Science and discovery of America]

However, the Moors went quietly on in their scientific discoveries; and
when the fall of Constantinople closed the eastern route to the Indian
Ocean, and Genoa wanted a western route, Spain was prepared to offer
sailors the necessary charts and maps, compasses, and other mariners’
instruments. Her astronomical studies, celestial maps, and measurements
of the degrees on the earth’s surface encouraged voyages both to the
south and west, in direct contradiction to the theories of the patristic
geographies. When Columbus asked aid at the Spanish court to fit vessels
for the tour across the Atlantic, it is strange to note that the wife of
the king of Spain, who took from the Moors the keys of Granada, and drove
the Arab and his learning out of Europe, was the same woman who pledged
her jewels to this man,—a man, who, dependent upon Arabic scientific
investigation, discovered a world where those same truths might be
planted, and mature untrammeled by papal tyranny. I say this was more
than a coincidence. The hand of God was in it; and, as D’Aubigné says:
“He prepares slowly and from afar that which he designs to accomplish. He
has ages in which to work.”

[Sidenote: Science and the Reformation]

While scientific knowledge could not overthrow the papacy, it had its
part to play along with the classics. When men were spiritually dead, and
the Word of God was hidden, minds were freed from papal thraldom by the
work of the scientist and the classical student. Bear in mind, however,
that the classics helped only as they offered the Scriptures; and science
helped only as it opened men’s minds to the reception of the truths of
God’s Word. Mighty forces were at work: the earth itself must be moved,
and the fulcrum whereon rested the lever by which it was to be turned in
its orbit was the throne of God, and the _Word of the Eternal was the
moving power_. Men, weak in themselves but resolute in purpose, were the
instruments in the hand of God to accomplish a task which ages had waited
for, and principalities and powers in heavenly places had longed to see.

[Sidenote: Reformation and education]

The Reformation was not the work of a year, nor yet of one man, even
in Germany. It was the gradual work of a system of education, and that
system was the same as had formerly been given to Israel, as had been
exemplified and amplified in the life of Christ, and was at the time of
the Reformation to be revealed, little by little, as men’s minds, long
darkened by oppression, were able to grasp it.

[Sidenote: Forerunners of the Reformation]

Agricola, known as the father of German humanism, was one of the earliest
reformers, and his attitude as a teacher and his expressions concerning
education prove the fact that the Reformation began in the educational
institutions. This man was for a time “a pupil of Thomas à Kempis;
he passed several years at the university of Louvain; subsequently he
studied at Paris, and afterward in Italy,” so that he was well acquainted
with the institutions of the day. He became a teacher at Heidelberg. At
the age of forty-one he began the study of Hebrew, in order to read the
Hebrew Bible.

[Sidenote: Agricola’s ideas of the school]

He was urged to take charge of a school at Antwerp, but refused,
expressing his opinion of the school in this advice sent to the
authorities: “It is necessary to exercise the greatest care in choosing
a director for your school. Take neither a theologian nor a so-called
rhetorician, who thinks he is able to speak of everything without
understanding anything of eloquence. Such people make in school the same
figure, according to the Greek proverb, that a dog does in a bath. It is
necessary to seek a man resembling the phœnix of Achilles; that is, who
knows how to teach, to speak, and to act at the same time. IF YOU KNOW
SUCH A MAN, GET HIM AT ANY PRICE; for the matter involves the future of
your children, whose tender youth receives with the same susceptibility
the impress of good and of bad examples.”

[Sidenote: Recognizes errors of papal system]

His ideas concerning methods were as clear as those expressed on the
subject of schools and the character of the teacher. He was evidently
able to see things in advance of his age, and in the spirit of a seer can
truthfully be classed with the forerunners of the Reformation. In another
letter he writes: “Whoever wishes to study with success must exercise
himself in these three things: in getting clear views of a subject; in
fixing in his memory what he has understood; and in producing something
from his own resources.” Each of the three things specified cuts directly
across the methods employed in papal schools, and which were so necessary
to the stability of that hierarchy. This was the beginning of the
Reformation as seen in education.

[Sidenote: Thought versus mere form]

One more quotation from Agricola’s letter emphasizes the thought that
schools were then conducted where dry form and abstract memory work were
giving place to thought,—original thought. “It is necessary,” he says,
“to exercise one’s self in composition; when we have produced nothing,
what we have learned remains dead. The knowledge that we acquire ought
to be like seed sown in the earth, germinating and bearing fruit.”[112]

[Sidenote: Reuchlin advises teaching the Bible]

_Reuchlin_, one of Melancthon’s teachers, recognized the best means of
winning opponents to the truth, and said: “The best way to convert the
Israelites would be to establish two professors of the Hebrew language
in each university, who should teach the theologians to read the Bible
in Hebrew, and thus refute the Jewish doctors.” The fact that such a
position exposed Reuchlin to violent opposition from the monks and papal
teachers shows that he rightly divined the remedy for papal oppression;
and it is significant of an approaching reformation when he thus
recommends that the Bible be placed in the universities for study by
theologians.

There is a rift in the clouds, and ere long the sun will appear. But “men
loved darkness rather than light.” Why?

[Sidenote: Erasmus]

Erasmus, recognized by all as a reformer, did his work by the publication
of the New Testament in Greek. “The work was undertaken in the interests
of a purer Christianity.” “It is my desire,” he said, “to lead back
that cold dispute about words called theology to its real fountain.
Would to God that this work may bear as much fruit to Christianity as
it has cost me toil and application.” Here was a direct thrust at the
study of dialectics in the universities. The meaningless disputes which
constituted the course in theology was, by Erasmus, to be replaced by the
living word of God. The Reformation drew nearer, and the papacy shuddered
at the prospect. Gradually the Spirit was returning, and this is seen
more and more as we take up the life of Luther. The highway had been
cleared by such forerunners as have already been mentioned.

[Sidenote: Protestantism fosters education]

“The fundamental principles of Protestantism are favorable to education,”
says Painter.[113] “With the Scriptures and his conscience for guides,
every man is elevated to the freedom and dignity of ordering his own
religious life. The feeling of individual responsibility is awakened,
and the spirit of inquiry fostered. Intelligence becomes a necessity.
_The Bible must be studied; teachers must be provided; schools must be
established. PROTESTANTISM BECOMES THE MOTHER OF POPULAR EDUCATION._”

Again the same author says: “It [Christianity] does not withdraw man from
the ordinary callings and relations of life; it makes him a steward of
God in the world, and exalts his daily labors in the household, in the
schoolroom, in the workshop, on the farm, into a divine service. The
Protestant view restores nature, as a subject of investigation, to its
rights. The whole circle of knowledge—whatever is elevating, whatever
prepares for useful living—is held in honor. _Primary and secondary
schools_ are encouraged; the best methods of instruction, based upon
a study of man’s nature and not upon the interests of the church, are
sought out. Protestantism is a friend of universal learning.” One French
scholar says: “The Reformation contracted the obligation of placing
everyone in a condition to save himself by reading and studying the
Bible. Instruction became then the first of the duties of charity; and
all who had charge of souls, from the father of a family to the sovereign
of the state, were called upon ... to favor popular education.[114]”

[Sidenote: Luther an educator]

It is no wonder, then, that much of Luther’s time and ambition was spent
in the cause of education. “The necessities of the Reformation gave
Luther,” says Painter, “an intense interest in education. The schools
of the time, already inadequate in number and defective in method, were
crippled during the early stages of the Reformation by the excited and
unsettled condition of society. A new generation was growing up without
education. _The establishment of schools became a necessary measure for
the success and permanence of the Reformation._ The appeal had been made
to the Word of God, and it was necessary to teach the masses to read
it. Preachers and teachers were needed for the promulgation and defense
of the gospel.... As early as 1524, Luther made an appeal of marvelous
energy to the authorities of the German cities for the establishment of
schools. If we consider its pioneer character, in connection with its
statement of principles and admirable recommendations, the address must
be regarded the most important educational treatise ever written.”[115]
God had trained him for his position.

[Sidenote: Luther’s plea for schools]

Here are the words of the Reformer. Judge for yourselves if they should
not voice the sentiment of every true Protestant to-day! “He wrote,” says
D’Aubigné, “to the councilors of all the cities of Germany, calling upon
them to found Christian schools.” “Dear sirs,” said Luther, “we annually
expend so much money on arquebuses, roads, and dikes, why should we not
spend a little to give one or two schoolmasters to our poor children? God
stands at the door and knocks; blessed are we if we open to him! Now the
Word of God abounds. O my dear Germans, buy, buy, while the market is
open before your houses. The Word of God and His grace are like a shower
that falls and passes away. It was among the Jews; but it passed away,
and now they have it no longer. Paul carried it into Greece; but in that
country also it has passed away, and the Turk reigns there now. It came
to Rome and the Latin empire; but there also it has passed away, and Rome
now has the pope. O Germans, do not expect to have this Word forever. The
contempt that is shown to it will drive it away. For this reason let him
who desires to possess it lay hold of it and keep it.

“BUSY YOURSELVES WITH THE CHILDREN; for many parents are like ostriches,
they are hardened toward their little ones, and, satisfied with having
laid the egg, they care nothing for it afterward.... The true wealth of
a city, its safety, and its strength, is to have many learned, serious,
worthy, well-educated citizens. And whom must we blame, because there are
so few at present, except your magistrates who have allowed your youth to
grow up like trees in a forest?”[116]

D’Aubigné says truly: “It was not the public worship alone that the
Reformation was ordained to change. The school was early placed beside
the church, and these two great institutions, so powerful to regenerate
the nations, were equally reanimated by it. _It was by a close alliance
with learning that the Reformation entered into the world; in the hour
of its triumph it did not forget its ally._”[117] Luther “felt that
to strengthen the Reformation IT WAS REQUISITE TO WORK ON THE YOUNG,
TO IMPROVE THE SCHOOLS, and to propagate throughout Christendom the
knowledge necessary for a profound study of the Holy Scriptures. THIS WAS
ONE OF THE RESULTS.”[118]

[Sidenote: Schools strengthen the church]

Painter, describing the educational work of the great Reformer, says:
“With Luther, education was not an end in itself, but a means to more
effective service in church and state. If people or rulers neglect the
education of the young, they inflict an injury upon both the church and
state; _they become ENEMIES OF GOD AND MAN_; they advance the cause
of Satan, and bring down upon themselves the curse of heaven. This
is the fundamental thought that underlies all Luther’s writings upon
education.”[119]

[Sidenote: Schools not appreciated]

Luther expresses his views briefly in these words: “The common man does
think that he is under obligation to God and the world to send his son
to school. Everyone thinks that he is free to bring up his son as he
pleases, no matter what becomes of God’s word and command. Yea, even our
rulers act as if they were exempt from the divine command. No one thinks
that God has earnestly willed and commanded that children be brought up
to his praise and work—a thing that CAN NOT BE DONE WITHOUT SCHOOLS. On
the contrary, everyone _hastens with his children after worldly gain_.”
Luther’s words ringing down the centuries must be echoed by all true
Protestants to-day. Where are the men with the courage of educational
reformers?

[Sidenote: Luther’s educational plans]

“Luther did not concern himself about the education of the clergy only,
it was his desire that knowledge should not be confined to the church;
he proposed extending it to the laity, who hitherto had been deprived of
it.... He emancipated learning from the hands of the priests, who had
monopolized it, like those of Egypt in times of old, and put it within
the reach of all.”[120] Luther grasped with wonderful clearness the real
meaning of Christian education, and there is scarcely a phase of it which
he has left untouched.

[Sidenote: Luther’s methods a model]

“If we survey,” says Dittes, “the pedagogy of Luther in all its extent,
and imagine it fully realized in practice, what a splendid picture the
schools and education of the sixteenth century would present! We should
have courses of study, text-books, teachers, methods, principles, and
modes of discipline, schools and school regulations, that could serve as
models for our own age.”

[Sidenote: Luther’s ideals of teachers]

The Reformer writes: “Where would preachers, lawyers, and physicians
come from if the liberal arts were not taught? From this source must
they all come. This, I say, no one can ever sufficiently remunerate the
industrious and pious teacher that faithfully educates.... Yet people
shamefully despise this calling among us, as if it were nothing, and
at the same time they pretend to be Christians! If I were obliged to
leave off preaching and other duties, there is no office I would rather
have than that of school-teacher; for I know that this work is, with
preaching, the most useful, greatest, and best; and I do not know which
of the two is to be preferred. For it is difficult to make old dogs
docile, and old rogues pious, yet that is what the ministry works at, and
must work at in great part, in vain; but young trees, although some may
break, are more easily bent and trained. Therefore, let it be one of _the
highest virtues on earth faithfully to educate the children of others who
neglect it themselves_.”[121]

[Sidenote: Germany established schools]

Germany was aroused. “In 1525 he was commissioned by the Duke of
Mansfield to establish two schools in his native town, ... one for the
primary and the other for secondary instruction.” They were not conducted
after the manner of papal schools, differing only in the fact that the
teacher was a Protestant. “Both in the course of study and in the methods
of instruction these schools become models after which many others were
fashioned.... In a few years the Protestant portion of Germany was
supplied with schools. They were still defective, ... but, at the same
time, they were greatly superior to any that had preceded them. Though no
complete system of popular instruction was established, the foundation
for it was laid. To this great result, Luther contributed more than any
other man of his time; and _this fact makes him the leading educational
reformer of the sixteenth century_.”[122]

[Sidenote: No compromise]

The changes wrought by Luther were not mere superficial, formal changes;
but as the Reformation, as a religious movement, struck a death-blow to
the papacy, viewed as an educational movement, it is found to have cut
directly across the established methods of popular education. It meant
a change in the _courses_, a different idea of _graduation_, a change
in _text-books_, in _methods of teaching_, _methods of study_, and
_character of the teachers_.

[Sidenote: Value of nature study]

He was perhaps the first of the reformers to recognize the value of
nature study. He once said: “We are at the dawn of a new era; for we are
beginning to recover the knowledge of the external world that we have
lost since the fall of Adam. Erasmus is indifferent to it; he does not
care to know how fruit is developed from the germ. But by the grace of
God, we already recognize in the most delicate flower the wonders of
divine goodness and the omnipotence of God. We see in His creatures the
power of His word. He commanded, and the thing stood fast. See that force
display itself in the stone of a peach. It is very hard, and the germ
that it incloses is very tender; but, when the moment has come, the stone
must open to let out the young plant that God calls into life.”[123] It
may at first seem strange that the bold, brave man who aroused the world
by his theses nailed to the church door, should have a character to
which the gentleness of nature made such a strong appeal. But Luther was
a true preacher in that he was a teacher. What wonder that his work was
enduring! It stands close beside the life-work of his Master, Jesus,—the
Teacher sent of God.

[Sidenote: Melancthon, Luther’s companion in education]

Before carrying the work of Luther further, it is necessary to introduce
a new character, born, it would seem, at a moment when his special mental
qualities were most needed and fitted by heaven to stand by Luther’s side
as an aid and as a comfort in the mighty storm through which he must
pass. I refer to Melancthon; God chose him as a _teacher_, and imparted
to him, in a wonderful degree, that gift of the Spirit. A few extracts
from D’Aubigné will show clearly how he was guided into the paths of the
Reformation, there to become one of the greatest workers for that cause.

He was born in 1497; hence, when Luther began his work in 1517,
Melancthon was a youth of twenty. “He was remarkable for the excellence
of his understanding, and his facility in learning and explaining what
he had learnt.” “Melancthon at twelve years of age went to the University
of Heidelberg, ... and took his bachelor’s degree at fourteen.” “In 1512,
Reuchlin [the reformer referred to on a previous page] invited him to
Tubingen.... The Holy Scriptures especially engaged his attention....
Rejecting the empty systems of the schoolmen, he adhered to the plain
word of the gospel.”[124]

Erasmus wrote: “I entertain the most distinguished and splendid
expectations of Melancthon. God grant that this young man may long
survive us. He will entirely eclipse Erasmus.”

[Sidenote: Melancthon teaches]

“In 1514 he was made doctor of philosophy, and then began to teach. He
was seventeen years old. The grace and charm that he imparted to his
lessons formed the most striking contrast to the tasteless method which
the doctors, and above all, the monks, had pursued till then.”

[Sidenote: Melancthon goes to Wittemberg]

Frederick applied to Erasmus and Reuchlin for an instructor for the
University of Wittemberg. Melancthon was recommended. Reaching the
university, he did not make the most favorable impression on Luther and
other professors, “when they saw his youth, his shyness, and diffident
manners.” After his opening address, however, Luther and others became
his ardent admirers. Luther wrote: “I ask for no other Greek master. But
I fear that his delicate frame will be unable to support our mode of
living, and that we shall be unable to keep him long on account of the
smallness of his salary.”

The spirit of Christianity and of Christian education had drawn two
souls together, and the success of the work from this time on depended
largely upon this union. Says D’Aubigné: “Melancthon was able to respond
to Luther’s affection. He soon found in him a kindness of disposition, a
strength of mind, a courage, a discretion, that he had never found till
then in any man.... We can not too much admire the goodness and wisdom
of God in bringing together two men so different, and yet so necessary
to one another. Luther possessed warmth, vigor, and strength; Melancthon
clearness, discretion, and mildness. Luther gave energy to Melancthon;
Melancthon moderated Luther. They were like substances in a state of
positive and negative electricity, which mutually act upon each other.
If Luther had been without Melancthon, perhaps the torrent would have
overflowed its banks; Melancthon, when Luther was taken from him by
death, hesitated, and gave way, even where he should not have yielded.”

Should you question why I thus dwell upon the life and character of
Melancthon, I reply, Because from this union of two souls flowed the
great educational reform of the sixteenth century. The two did what
neither could have done alone; and the study of their lives alone reveals
the secret of success in Christian education to-day.

[Sidenote: Melancthon revolutionizes Wittemberg]

It was a notable day to Wittemberg when Melancthon arrived. “The
barrenness that scholasticism had cast over education was at an end. A
NEW MANNER OF TEACHING AND OF STUDYING BEGAN WITH MELANCTHON. ‘Thanks to
him,’ says an illustrious German historian, ‘Wittemberg became the school
of the nation.’”

[Sidenote: Papal education dropped]

“The zeal of the teachers [Luther and Melancthon] was soon communicated
to the disciples. It was decided to reform the method of instruction.
With the electors’ consent, CERTAIN COURSES THAT POSSESSED MERELY
SCHOLASTIC IMPORTANCE WERE SUPPRESSED; and at the same time the study
of the classics received a fresh impulse. [Remember, however, that this
study of the classics was the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures.] THE SCHOOL
AT WITTEMBERG WAS TRANSFORMED, AND THE CONTRAST WITH OTHER UNIVERSITIES
BECAME DAILY MORE STRIKING.”[125]

[Sidenote: Result of changes]

The results of these changes were no less marvelous than the changes
themselves. The author last quoted says: Wittemberg “flourished daily
more and more, and was eclipsing all the other schools. A crowd of
students flocked thither from all parts of Germany to hear this
extraordinary man, whose teaching appeared to open a new era in religion
and learning. These youths, who came from every province, halted as soon
as they discovered the steeples of Wittemberg in the distance; they
raised their hands to heaven, and praised God for having caused the light
of truth to shine forth from this city, as from Zion in times of old, and
whence it spread even to the most distant countries. A life and activity,
till then unknown, animated the university.”

Such a school did not call together a class of students careless in habit
and listless in study; for the fare, as before noted, was meager, and
there was no great outward display. Those who attended came seeking for
truth; and as their souls were filled with spiritual meat, they returned
to their homes, “even to the most distant countries,” to spread the
truths of Christian education. Luther himself wrote: “Our students here
are as busy as ants.” Two thousand students from all parts of Europe
thronged the lecture room of Melancthon.

[Sidenote: Melancthon’s view of education]

The life and work of those two animating spirits at Wittemberg can not
be measured by any earthly standard. Melancthon said: “I apply myself
solely to one thing, the defense of letters. By our example we must
excite youth to the admiration of learning, and induce them to love it
for its own sake, and not for the advantage that they may derive from it.
The destruction of learning brings with it the ruin of everything that is
good,—religion, morals, and all things human and divine. The better a man
is, the greater his ardor in the preservation of learning; for he knows
that, of all plagues, ignorance is the most pernicious.” “To neglect
the young in our schools is just like taking the spring out of the year.
They, indeed, take away the spring from the year who permit the schools
to decline, because RELIGION CAN NOT BE MAINTAINED WITHOUT THEM.”

[Sidenote: Melancthon prepared text-books]

Luther had stated that a reform in methods and courses was necessary.
Melancthon had assisted in that work. He did still more. Breaking away as
they did from the educational system of the universities of the world,
and basing instruction upon the Word of God, it became necessary to have
new text-books. Melancthon applied himself with great diligence to this
duty. He was an arduous student, often arising at three in the morning,
and many of his works were written between that hour and the dawn.
Besides his Greek and Latin grammars he is the author of works on logic,
rhetoric, physics, and ethics. “These works, written in a clear and
scientific form, soon became popular, and some of them held their place
in the schools for more than a hundred years.”

THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY had been degraded into the pursuit of subtle
arguments and idle controversies. Melancthon wrote a work on dogmatic
theology, publishing it in 1521. Of this work, Luther wrote: “Whoever
wishes to become a theologian now enjoys great advantages; for, first
of all, he has the _Bible_, which is so clear that he can read it
without difficulty. Then let him read in addition the Loci Communes of
Melancthon.... If he has these two things, he is a theologian from whom
neither the devil nor heretics shall be able to take away anything.”

[Sidenote: Preparatory schools]

Melancthon’s life was not devoted alone to the education of such students
as could attend Wittemberg, nor were his changes of the educational
system applicable only to the higher schools and universities. Stump
says: “Amid all the distractions and anxieties of this period, Melancthon
steadily directed his efforts to the advancement of education and the
building up of good Christian schools. During a period covering many
years, he found time, in spite of his numerous other engagements, to give
elementary instruction to a number of young men who lived with him in
his own house. He did this on account of the lamentable lack of suitable
PREPARATORY SCHOOLS. He lost no opportunity, however, to provide for
this lack, whenever he found it possible to do so.

“In the spring of 1525, with Luther’s help, he reorganized the schools
of Eisleben and Magdeburg. He went to Nuremberg, and assisted in the
establishment of a gymnasium [high school] in that city; and in the
following spring he returned to Nuremberg, and formally opened the
school. He delivered an address in Latin, in which he dwelt upon the
importance of education, and the credit which the movers in this
enterprise deserved. He declared that ... ‘_the cause of true education
is the cause of God_.’”[126]

Both church schools and higher schools, those offering instruction for
students preparing for the universities, were organized by Melancthon.

[Sidenote: Changes were bitterly opposed]

This work was not allowed to proceed without some bitter attacks from the
schoolmen and representatives of papal education. For illustration of
this fact, we have the words of D’Aubigné: “The schools, which for five
centuries past had domineered over Christendom, far from giving way at
the first blow of the Reformer [Luther], rose up haughtily to crush the
man who dared pour out upon them the flood of his contempt.” “Doctor
Eck, the celebrated professor of Ingolstadt, ... was a doctor of the
schools and not of the Bible; well versed in the scholastic writings,
but not in the Word of God.... Eck represented the schoolmen.” “Eck was
a far more formidable adversary than Tetzel [the vender of indulgences],
Prierio, or Hochstraten; the more his work surpassed theirs in learning
and in subtlety, the more dangerous it was.”[127] Thus Luther’s most
bitter enemies were those who had once been his warm friends, and those
who offered the strongest opposition to his work were the teachers in the
universities of Germany. Luther was sometimes almost overcome in spirit
by the ingratitude shown, and of Doctor Eck he once wrote: “If I did not
know Satan’s thoughts, I should be astonished at the fury which has led
this man to break off so sweet and so new a friendship, and that, too,
without warning me, without writing to me, without saying a single word.”

[Sidenote: The Saxony school plan]

It was in order to meet the opposition offered by the schoolmen, and
to put the Reformation on a firm basis, that Luther and Melancthon
formulated the Saxony school plan, and reorganized the German schools.

Stump says: “In the year 1527, Melancthon took part with Luther in the
visitation of the schools and churches of Saxony. It was high time for
such a step. Affairs were in a wretched condition. In many places no
religious instruction was given at all, because there were either no
pastors and teachers stationed there, or those who were stationed there
were grossly ignorant themselves. The greatest disorder imaginable
reigned nearly everywhere.... The financial condition of many of the
churches was equally bad.... It was the object of the visitation to
bring order out of this chaos. Melancthon was charged with making a
beginning in Thuringia. The spiritual distress which he discovered rent
his heart, and he often went aside, and wept over what he saw.” “In 1528
Melancthon drew up the ‘Saxony school plan,’ which served as the basis of
organization for many schools throughout Germany.”

[Sidenote: Reforms advocated by this plan]

According to this plan, teachers were to avoid “burdening the children
with a _multiplicity of studies_ that were not only unfruitful, but even
hurtful.” Again, “The teacher should not burden the children with too
many books,” and “it is necessary that the children be divided into
classes.” “Three classes, or grades, are recommended,” and the subjects
taught should be adapted to the age and condition of the pupil. Thus,
avoid too many studies for children and youth; do not put too many books
into their hands; group them according to their ability. This “plan”
seems to resist the cramming system so universally followed to-day almost
as vigorously as it opposed the papal schools of the sixteenth century.

[Sidenote: Results, if Luther’s plans fulfilled]

A great work was set on foot,—a revolution which was to affect the ages
which followed. In the brief space of one man’s life, plans were laid,
_especially in the educational work_, which, if carried out by his
successors, would have placed Germany in a position to rule the world.
Instead of returning to the pit from which she had been dug, her schools
and universities might have been models worthy of imitation throughout
Europe and in America. Luther died, and Melancthon, his co-laborer,
was unable to carry forward the work. Theologians, pastors, ministers,
into whose hands the work of the Reformation rightfully fell, _instead
of multiplying Christian schools_, and carrying to perfection the
methods of instruction introduced by Luther and Melancthon, _passed by
the greatest work of the age_, and by internal strifes and theological
disputes lost the hard-won battle. The seeds of truth had been sown in
_republicanism_ and _Protestantism_, and these two institutions should
have been held in Germany. _Education_—CHRISTIAN EDUCATION—alone could
hold them there. This was neglected; and as lost children, the two went
hand in hand to the Netherlands, to England, and finally to America, in
search of a fostering mother,—a pure system of education. The spirit
and life so manifest in the teaching of the great Reformers, passed on,
leaving Europe with the _form_. A house empty, swept, and garnished does
not long so remain. The form was occupied by the spirit of the papacy,
and Europe relapsed into a position from which she can be reclaimed only
by a renewal of the plans of the sixteenth-century Reformers—a system of
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.




XIII

THE REACTION AFTER THE EDUCATIONAL REFORMATION


[Sidenote: Widespread effects of the Reformation]

The most momentous event of the world’s history, excepting alone the
birth of the Redeemer, was the Reformation of the sixteenth century.
Great religious movements have occurred before and since, but they are
eclipsed by the brilliancy and far-reaching results of this one. More
men have been reached, more lives revolutionized, than by the combined
forces of all changes in civil and domestic circles since that time. The
fact is, that when the causes of political changes in the modern world
are considered, it must be acknowledged by every candid thinker that
these changes are due in one way or another to the attitude assumed by
the people concerned toward that one Reformation which was set in motion
by the Wittemberg monk. Christ had been forgotten, and He came before the
world again in the days of Luther.

A few quotations from Ranke show how far the Reformation extended in the
brief space of forty years; and since we are dealing with the causes of
this rapid spread, it is gratifying to see that this author gives in the
most natural way due credit to the influence of the schools. Two things,
then, should be noticed in reading these selections; first, the extent of
territory covered by Protestant principles; second, the part played by
schools and teachers in the conversion of nations. It is about the year
1563.

“In the _Scandinavian realms_ they [the Protestants] had established
themselves the more impregnably, because there their introduction was
coincident with the establishment of new dynasties, and the remodeling
of all political institutions. From the very first they were hailed with
joy, as though there was in their nature a primitive affinity to the
national feelings.”

“In the year 1552, the last representatives of Catholicism in _Iceland_
succumbed.”

“On the southern shores, too, of the _Baltic_ Lutheranism had achieved
complete predominance, at least among the population of German tongue.”

In _Poland_ it was said, “A Polish nobleman is not subject to the king;
is he to be so to the pope?”

In _Hungary_, “Ferdinand I could never force the diet to any resolutions
unfavorable to Protestantism.”

“Protestantism not only reigned paramount in _northern Germany_, where
it had originated, and in those districts of upper Germany where it had
always maintained itself, but its grasp had been extended much more
widely in every direction.”

“In _Wurzburg and Bamberg_ by far the greater part of the nobility
and the episcopal functionaries, the magistrates and the burghers of
the towns, at least the majority of them, and the bulk of the rural
population, had passed over to the reforming party.”

In _Bavaria_ “the great majority of the nobility had adopted the
Protestant doctrine, and a considerable portion of the towns was
decidedly inclined to it.”

“Far more than this, however, had been done in _Austria_. The _nobility
of that country studied in Wittemberg; all the colleges of the land were
filled with Protestants_.”

We are not surprised, therefore, to read that “it was said to be
ascertained that not more, perhaps, than the thirtieth part of the
population remained Catholic: _step by step, a national constitution
unfolded itself, formed upon the principles of Protestantism_.” “In the
_Rauris_, and the _Gastein_, in _St. Veit_, _Tamsweg_, and _Radstadt_,
the inhabitants loudly demanded the sacramental cup, and this being
refused [in order to compel them to remain Catholic], they ceased
altogether to attend the sacrament. _They withheld their children, too,
from the_ [Catholic] _schools_.”

“The _Rhenish nobility_ had early embraced Protestantism.... In all the
towns there existed already a Protestant party.... _The inhabitants
of Mainz, too, did not hesitate to send their children_ to Protestant
schools. In short, from west to east, and from north to south, throughout
all Germany, Protestantism had unquestionably the preponderance.”

[Sidenote: Accomplished by education]

“The Protestant notions extended their vivifying energies to the most
remote and most forgotten corners of Europe. What an immense domain
had they conquered within the space of forty years! From Iceland to
the Pyrenees, from Finland to the heights of the Italian Alps. Even
beyond the latter mountains opinions analogous had once, as we are
aware, prevailed. _Protestantism embraced the whole range of the Latin
church._ It had laid hold of a vast majority of the higher classes, and
of the minds that took part in public life; whole nations clung to it
with enthusiasm, and states had been remodeled by it. This is the more
deserving of our wonder, inasmuch as Protestantism was by no means a
mere antithesis, a negation of the papacy, or an emancipation from its
rule; it was in the highest degree positive, a renovation of Christian
notions and principles, that sway human life even to the profoundest
mysteries of the soul.”[128] Notice again that this was due to the
educational ideas propagated by Protestants, and the reason why the
papacy was so fast losing its foothold was because it had not yet learned
that this Reformation, _which began in schools, and was carried forward
by Christian schools, must be defeated in schools and by teachers_.
For forty years Protestants had the right of way in education, and the
results were stupendous.

[Sidenote: Protestant schools winning everywhere]

Ranke says: “Protestant opinions had triumphed in the universities and
educational establishments. Those old champions of Catholicism [the
teachers] who had withstood Luther were dead, or in advanced years:
young men capable of supplying their places had not yet arisen. Twenty
years had elapsed in Vienna _since a single student of the university_
had taken priest’s orders. Even in Ingoldstadt, pre-eminently Catholic
as it was, _no competent candidates of the faculty of theology presented
themselves to fill the places that had hitherto been always occupied by
ecclesiastics_. The city of Cologne founded an endowed school; but when
all the arrangements for it had been made, it was found that the regent
was a Protestant. Cardinal Otto Truchess established a new university in
his city of Dillingen, _with the express design of resisting the progress
of Protestantism_. The credit of this institution was maintained for some
years by a few distinguished Spanish theologians; but as soon as these
left it, NOT A SINGLE SCHOLAR COULD BE FOUND IN ALL GERMANY TO SUCCEED
TO THEIR PLACES, and even these were likewise filled with Protestants.
ABOUT THIS PERIOD THE TEACHERS IN GERMANY WERE ALL, almost without
exception, Protestants. THE WHOLE BODY OF THE RISING GENERATION SAT AT
THEIR FEET, and imbibed a hatred of the pope with the first rudiments of
learning.”[129]

[Sidenote: Success of Reformation due to schools]

Stress is not laid on their hatred of the pope, but on the fact that
the rising generation sat at the feet of Protestant teachers throughout
Germany; that parents withheld their children from the papal school, even
though it might be necessary in so doing to send them from home to be
educated; and finally, that the papacy was dying, and Protestantism was
spreading through the work of the schools. Would that those schools might
have retained their pristine purity and simplicity. No power on earth
could then have retarded the progress of Protestantism, and instead of
only modifying the history of many countries, it would eventually have
swept from the earth all forms of tyranny, both civil and religious, for
it breathed the freedom of the gospel, and no oppression could stand
before it. It is as impossible to withstand pure Christian education as
it is to withstand Christ, whose power is its life and strength.

[Sidenote: Protestants failed to recognize its strength]

It is with a pang that one is forced to trace in this movement that
oft-repeated chapter in the history of mankind. As the leader of Israel
was allowed to view the promised land from the top of Pisgah, but must
there lay aside his armor and sleep the sleep of death because of a
departure from right principles, so Protestantism, through its schools,
looked across Jordan, but failed to maintain the principle of faith which
could at the crucial moment command the waters to part.

[Sidenote: Education by faith lost]

One reason for the decline is thus stated by Painter: “In their efforts
to give Christian doctrine a scientific form [that is, to formulate
it], _they lost its spirit_. _LOSING ITS EARLY FREEDOM AND LIFE,
Protestantism degenerated in a large measure into what has been called
‘DEAD ORTHODOXY._’ ... _Christian life_ counted for little, and the
Protestant world broke up into opposing factions. Says Kurtz, who
is disposed to apologize for this period as far as possible: ‘Like
medieval scholasticism, in its concern for logic, theology almost lost
vitality. Orthodoxy degenerated into orthodoxism; _externally_, not
only discerning essential diversities, but disregarding the broad basis
of a common faith, and running into odious and unrestrained controversy;
_internally, holding to the form_ of pure doctrine, but neglecting
cordially to embrace it and to live consistently with it.’”[130]

[Sidenote: Scholasticism killed Protestant schools]

How narrow the line between truth and error! How easy for those who had
been given to eat of the tree of life to turn to the tree of knowledge
of good and evil! What a pity that Protestant educators could not remain
true to their trust! When on the eve of success, they turned to the old
paths, and “called into existence a dialectic scholasticism which was
in no way inferior to that of the most flourishing period of the Middle
Ages.”[131] Papal principles are papal, whether advocated by Catholics or
Protestants; having left the fountain of the pure waters of faith, they
turned to the only other accessible source of knowledge—the pagan world.
That system of education introduced by Luther and Melancthon, founded
upon the _Holy Scriptures_, and through them viewing the sciences,
mathematics, and literature, using the latter only as a means of
illustrating God’s Word, was replaced by the _scholasticism of the Middle
Ages_. One involuntarily asks, “How many times, O Israel, wilt thou
return into Egypt?”

[Sidenote: Form took the place of life]

This decline is described in the following quotations taken from Painter,
and they need no comment: “During the period extending from the middle of
the sixteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth century, three leading
tendencies are apparent in education. These may be characterized as the
theological, the humanistic, and the practical.... A large share of the
intellectual strength of the age was turned to theology. Every phase of
religious truth, particularly in its doctrinal and speculative aspects,
was brought under investigation. Theology was elevated to a science, and
doctrinal systems were developed with logical precision, and _extended to
trifling subtilities_.”[132]

In the figure of the Bible they strained for gnats, meanwhile swallowing
the camel. The life was thus lost in the pulpit and in the theological
schools. It was again the “teaching for doctrines the commandments of
men.”

[Sidenote: Further return to papal methods]

Painter further says: “The schools, which stand in close relation to
religion, were naturally influenced in a large measure by the theological
tendencies of the age. Theological interests imposed upon the schools
_a narrow range of subjects, a mechanical method of instruction_, and
a cruel discipline. The principle of authority, _exacting_ a blind
submission of the pupil, prevailed in the schools of every grade. The
young were regarded not as tender plants to be carefully nurtured and
developed, but as untamed animals to be repressed or broken.”[133]

Notice the creeping in of those very characteristics of papal education
so often referred to heretofore: 1, narrow range of subjects; 2,
mechanical instruction,—memory work devoid of understanding; 3, arbitrary
government, as seen in the matter of discipline. To this we must add that
which is the natural accompaniment in papal instruction—the teaching
of Latin. Says Painter, quoting Dittes: “‘In the higher institutions,
and even in the wretched town schools, LATIN WAS THE MOLOCH to which
countless minds fell an offering in return for the blessing granted to
a few. _A dead knowledge of words took the place of a living knowledge
of things._ Latin schoolbooks supplanted the book of nature, the book of
life, the book of mankind. And in the popular schools youthful minds were
tortured over the spelling book and catechism. The method of teaching
was almost everywhere, in the primary as well as in the higher schools,
a mechanical and compulsory drill in unintelligible formulas. The pupils
were obliged to learn, _but they were not educated to see and hear, to
think and prove_, and were not led to a true independence and personal
perfection. THE TEACHERS FOUND THEIR FUNCTION IN TEACHING THE PRESCRIBED
TEXT, not in harmoniously developing the young human being according
to the laws of nature—a process, moreover, that lay under the ban of
ecclesiastical orthodoxy.’”[134]

[Sidenote: Cramming system and memory work]

That there was a cramming process followed equal to any twentieth-century
school, is evident. “The discipline answered to the content and spirit
of the instruction.... The principle was to tame the pupils, not to
educate them. They were to hold themselves motionless, that the school
exercises might not be disturbed. What took place in their minds, and how
their several characters were constituted, the school pedants did not
understand and appreciate.”

[Sidenote: Sturm’s school a compromise]

In order to appreciate the rapidity with which the relapse took place
from the educational system introduced by Luther to the medieval
principles and methods, our attention is directed to the school of
John Sturm. This man, “regarded as the greatest educator that the
Reformed Church produced during this period,” died in 1589, less than
seventy years after the Diet of Worms; hence his work fell within the
half century following those forty years of unusual prosperity for
Protestantism which has already been noticed. His work is contemporary
with the first Jesuit school of Germany. The decline is visible in every
feature of his work.

_John Sturm_ presided for forty years over the gymnasium of Strasburg,
and his boast was that his institution “reproduced the best periods of
Athens and Rome; and, in fact, he succeeded in giving to his adopted city
the name of New Athens.” Sturm’s school stood as a halfway mark between
the Christian schools and the purely papal schools of the Jesuits, but
since compromise always places a person or institution on the side of
wrong, in weighing the worth of his school the balances necessarily tip
in favor of the papacy.

[Sidenote: Course of study in Sturm’s school]

That his was a mixture of the medieval classical literature with a thin
slice of Scripture sandwiched in for effect, is seen in the course of
study as outlined by Painter. The school was divided into ten classes
covering ten years, but only so much is given as is necessary to show the
character of the studies: “Tenth class—The alphabet, reading, writing,
Latin declensions and conjugations, German or Latin catechism.” “Ninth
class—Latin declensions and conjugations continued. Memorizing of Latin
words.” The eighth and the seventh classes are about the same. In the
sixth, Greek is begun. The fifth class is as follows: “Study of words,
... versification, mythology, Cicero, and Virgil’s eclogues, Greek
vocabulary.... On Saturday and Sunday, one of Paul’s epistles.”[135] The
remaining four classes have much “learning by heart,” rhetoric, Paul’s
epistles, orations of Demosthenes, the Iliad of Odyssey; memorizing
and recitation of the Epistle to the Romans, dialectics, and rhetoric
continued; Virgil, Horace, Homer, Thucidides, Sallust, weekly dramatic
entertainments, and again a reading of Paul’s epistles.

Such a course of instruction was well fitted to bridge the gulf between
the papacy and Protestantism. It was imbibing perhaps unconsciously the
spirit of the new papal schools. “History, mathematics, natural science,
and the mother tongue are ignored. A great gap is left between the
gymnasium and life—a gap that could not be filled even by the university.
In aiming to reproduce Greece and Rome in the midst of modern Christian
civilization, Sturm’s scheme involves a _vast anachronism_.”[136]

[Sidenote: Influence of Sturm’s school]

The Strasburg gymnasium at one time numbered several thousand pupils
representing Denmark, Poland, Portugal, France, and England. “Sturm’s
influence extended to _England, and thence to America_.” An English
writer says: “No one who is acquainted with the education given at our
principal classical schools, _Eaton_, _Winchester_, and _Westminster_,
forty years ago, can fail to see that their curriculum was framed in a
great degree on Sturm’s model.”[137] And yet it is acknowledged that his
“scheme involves a _vast anachronism_.”

[Sidenote: Modern schools follow Sturm]

To show that Sturm is the father of much of the instruction now given
in our high schools and universities, Rosenkranz says: “John Sturm, of
Strasburg, long before Comenius, had laid the foundation of what has
become the _traditional course of instruction and methods of study in the
classical schools for preparation for college_.”[138]

[Sidenote: Reaction as seen in discipline]

The decline in the matter of instruction was accompanied by a
corresponding retrogression in the morals of university students. Painter
tells us that “the state of morals at the universities of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries was very low. Idleness, drunkenness, disorder,
and licentiousness prevailed in an unparalleled degree. The practice
of _hazing_ was universal, and new students were subjected to shocking
indignities.” Duke Albrecht, of the university of Jena, wrote in 1624:
“‘Customs before unheard of, inexcusable, unreasonable, and wholly
barbarian, have come into existence.’” Then he speaks of the insulting
names, the expensive suppers, and the carousing of the students, until
“‘parents in distant places either determine not to send their children
to this university, ... or to take them away again.’”[139]

PROTESTANTISM LOST MUCH BECAUSE SHE CEASED TO EDUCATE HER CHILDREN. Had
Protestantism remained true to her first principles of education, her
overthrow would have been impossible. She paved the way for her own fall
by departing gradually from the gospel, and by leaning more and more
toward the classics and scholasticism.

[Sidenote: Ignatius Loyola solves the problem]

It was this decline on her own part, caused by the insidious workings
of the Jesuits, which made possible the great victories of this order
in later years. It was when Rome saw her youth slipping from her hands
into the Protestant schools, and as a result, a few years later, found
whole nations refusing obedience, and building for themselves new forms
of government, that, in her distress, she grasped the offer made by
_Loyola_. And while the power he represented in its organization, placed
itself above the pope, becoming, as it were, _a papacy of the papacy_,
still she accepted his offer, and the _counter educational move_ began.
THE JESUITS ORGANIZED TO COMBAT REFORMATION IN EDUCATIONAL LINES. In
speaking of the Jesuits, Painter says: “This order, established by
Ignatius Loyola [in 1534], found its special mission in combating the
Reformation. As the most effective means of arresting the progress of
Protestantism, it aimed at controlling education, particularly among
the wealthy and the noble. In rivalry with the schools of Protestant
countries, it developed an immense educational activity, and earned for
its schools a great reputation.” Again, the same writer says: “More than
any other agency it stayed the progress of the Reformation, and it even
succeeded in winning back territory already conquered by Protestantism.
Although employing the pulpit and the confessional, it _worked chiefly
through its schools, of which it established and controlled large
numbers_. Education in all Catholic countries gradually passed into its
hands.”

[Sidenote: Jesuit schools]

In order to understand the reason for the success of the Jesuits as
teachers it is necessary to glance at the plan of studies prepared in
1588 from a draft made by Loyola himself. “Every member of the order,”
says Painter, “became a _competent and practical teacher_. He received a
thorough course in the ancient classics, philosophy, and theology. During
the progress of his later studies he was required to teach.” Jesuit
schools contained two courses, the lower corresponding very closely to
the work of Sturm. Rosenkranz gives an excellent description of the
educational system of the Jesuits. He says:—

[Sidenote: Course of instruction]

“In instruction they developed so exact a mechanism that they gained the
reputation of having model school regulations, and even Protestants sent
their children to them. From the close of the sixteenth century to the
present time they have based their teaching upon the _Ratio et institutio
studiorum Societatis Jesu_ of Claudius of Aquaviva. Following that, they
distinguished two courses of teaching, a higher and a lower. The lower
included nothing but an external knowledge of the Latin language, and
some fortuitous knowledge of history, of antiquities, and of mythology.
_The memory was cultivated as a means of keeping down free activity
of thought and clearness of judgment._ The higher course comprehended
dialectics, rhetoric, physics, and morals. Dialectics was expounded
as the art of sophistry. In rhetoric, they favored the polemical and
emphatic style of the African Fathers of the church and their gorgeous
phraseology; in physics, they followed Aristotle closely, and especially
encouraged reading of the books ‘De Generatione et Corruptione’ and ‘De
Coelo,’ on which they commented after their fashion; finally, in morals,
casuistic skepticism was their central point. They made much of rhetoric,
on account of their sermons, giving to it careful attention. They
laid stress on declamation, and introduced it into their showy public
examinations through the performance of Latin school comedies, and thus
amused the public, disposed them to approval, and at the same time quite
innocently practiced the pupil in the art of assuming a feigned character.

“Diplomatic conduct was made necessary to the pupils of the Jesuits, as
well by their strict military discipline as by their system of mutual
distrust, espionage, and informing. Implicit obedience relieved the
pupils from all responsibility as to the moral justification of their
deeds. This exact following out of all commands and refraining from any
criticism as to principles, created a moral indifference; and, from the
necessity of having consideration for the peculiarities and caprices
of the superior on whom all others were dependent, arose eye service.
The coolness of mutual distrust sprang from the necessity which each
felt of being on his guard against every other as a talebearer. The
most deliberate hypocrisy and pleasure in intrigue merely for the sake
of intrigue—this subtilest poison of moral corruption—were the result.
Jesuitism had not only an interest in the material profit, which, when
it had corrupted souls, fell to its share, but it also had an interest
in the educative process of corruption. With absolute indifference as to
the idea of morality ... or the moral quality of the means used to attain
its end, it rejoiced in the efficacy of secrecy, and the accomplished and
calculating understanding, and in deceiving the credulous by means of its
graceful, seemingly scrupulous, moral language.”[140]

[Sidenote: Spread of Catholicism by schools]

Here is a picture of _this papacy of the papacy_. Again I say, had
Protestantism remained true to principle, even this system could not have
accomplished its overthrow; but since truth was neglected by Protestant
schools, this system of the Jesuits easily carried every country into
which it was introduced. “The Jesuit system of education ... was
intended to meet the active influence of Protestantism in education. It
was remarkably successful, and for a century [following 1584] nearly
all the foremost men of Christendom came from Jesuit schools. In 1710
they had six hundred and twelve colleges, one hundred and fifty-seven
normal schools, twenty-four universities, and an immense number of lower
schools. These schools laid very great stress on _emulation_. Their
experiments in this principle are so extensive and long-continued that
they furnish a most valuable phase in the history of pedagogy in this
respect alone. In the matter of supervision they are also worthy of
study. They had a fivefold system, each subordinate being obedient to his
superior. Besides this, there was a complete system of espionage on the
part of the teachers and pupil monitors.”[141]

[Sidenote: Methods of Jesuitical schools]

On the subject of emulation, as made use of in the schools of the
Jesuits, Painter gives us these thoughts: “The Jesuits made much of
emulation, and in their eager desire to promote it they adopted means
that could not fail to excite jealousy and envy. Says the Plan of
Studies: ‘He who knows how to excite emulation has found the most
powerful auxiliary in his teaching. Let the teacher, then, highly
appreciate this valuable aid, and let him study to make the wisest
use of it. Emulation awakens and develops all the powers of man. In
order to maintain emulation, it will be necessary that each pupil have
a rival to control his conduct and criticise him; also magistrates,
questors, censors, and decurians should be appointed among the students.
Nothing will be held more honorable than to outstrip a fellow student,
and nothing more dishonorable than to be outstripped. Prizes will be
distributed to the best pupils with the greatest possible solemnity.
Out of school the place of honor will everywhere be given to the most
distinguished pupils.’”[142]

As the Colossus of Rhodes stood astride the Greek waters, so the Jesuit
schools spanned the gulf of education. One foot stood in Greece amidst
its classics (for “Aristotle furnished the leading text-books”), the
other on Christian soil, having the _form_ of godliness; but like the
demigods of Greece, it was neither human nor divine. The results of the
educational system of the Jesuits are well summed up in another paragraph
from Painter:—

“The Jesuit system of education, based not upon a study of man, but upon
the interests of the order, was necessarily narrow. It sought showy
results with which to dazzle the world. A well-rounded development
was nothing. The principle of authority, suppressing all freedom and
independence of thought, prevailed from beginning to end. Religious
pride and intolerance were fostered. While our baser feelings were
highly stimulated, the nobler side of our nature was wholly neglected.
Love of country, fidelity to friends, nobleness of character, enthusiasm
for beautiful ideals, were insidiously suppressed. For the rest, we
adopt the language of Quick: ‘The Jesuits did not aim at developing
_all_ the faculties of their pupils, but merely the receptive and
reproductive faculties. When the young man had acquired a thorough
mastery of the Latin language for all purposes; when he was well versed
in the theological and philosophical opinions of his preceptors; when
he was skillful in dispute, and could make a brilliant display from the
resources of a well-stored memory, he had reached the highest points
to which the Jesuits sought to lead him. Originality and independence
of mind, love of truth for its own sake, the power of reflecting and
of forming correct judgments, were not merely neglected, they were
suppressed in the Jesuits’ system. But in what they attempted they were
eminently successful, and their success went a long way toward securing
their popularity.’”[143]

[Sidenote: Wherein Jesuit schools worthy of imitation]

One can not condemn without reserve the Jesuitical system of education;
for all false systems contain some points of truth, and the strength of
all these systems lies in their close counterfeit of the true. Hence
we can agree with these words: “Whatever its defects as a system of
general education, it was admirably suited to Jesuit purposes, and in
some particulars it embodied valuable principles.” As the progress of
the papacy through the Jesuitical schools is followed into one country
and then another, one admires the constancy and self-sacrifice of those
who have committed their lives to the order. Had Protestants been one
half as diligent in advocating the principles of Christian education
as the Jesuit teachers have been in counteracting the influence of the
Reformation, far different results would to-day be seen in the world.

[Sidenote: Spread of Jesuit schools]

In tracing the growth of the schools of the Jesuits we begin with
Germany, the heart of the reform movement, and follow quite carefully the
history as given by Ranke: “Bishop Urban became acquainted with Le Jay
and heard from him, for the first time, of the _colleges_ the _Jesuits
had founded in several universities_.

[Sidenote: Jesuit college in Vienna]

“Upon this the bishop advised his imperial master [Ferdinand I] to found
a _similar college in Vienna_, seeing how great was the decay of Catholic
theology in Germany. Ferdinand warmly embraced the suggestion; in a
letter he wrote to Loyola on the subject, he declares his conviction
that the only _means to uphold the declining cause of Catholicism in
Germany, was to give the rising generation learned and pious Catholics
for teachers_.” We can understand the grounds for this decision when
we recall the statement that about 1563 it was said that “twenty years
had elapsed in Vienna since a single student of the university had taken
priest’s orders.” “The preliminaries,” says Ranke, “were easily arranged.
In the year 1551 thirteen Jesuits, among them Le Jay himself, arrived
in Vienna, and were in the first instance, granted a dwelling, chapel,
and pension, by Ferdinand, until shortly after he incorporated them with
the university, and even assigned to them the visitation of it.” “Soon
after this they arose to consideration in _Cologne_,” but for a time had
little success. In 1556 the endowed school referred to before governed
by a Protestant regent, “gave them an opportunity of gaining a firmer
footing. For since there was a party in the city bent above all things on
maintaining the Catholic character of the university, the advice given by
the patrons of the Jesuits to hand over the establishment to that order,
met with attention.” “At the same period they also gained a firm footing
in _Ingoldstadt_.” “From these three metropolitan centers the Jesuits
now spread out in every direction.” These schools were, some of them
at least, training schools for Catholic teachers; for Ranke tells of a
certain man in Hungary, Olahus by name, and dedicated in infancy to the
church, who, “contemplating the general decay of Catholicism in Hungary,
saw that the last hope left for it was that of maintaining its hold on
the common people, who had not yet wholly lapsed from its rule. To this
end, however, there lacked teachers of Catholic principles, and to form
whom, he founded a college of Jesuits at Tyrnau in the year 1561.” “Two
privy councilors of the elector Daniel, of Mainz, ... conceived likewise
that the _admission of the Jesuits was the only means that promised a
recovery of the University of Mainz_. In spite of the opposition made by
the canons and feudal proprietors, they founded a college of the order in
Mainz, and a preparatory school in Aschaffenburg.”

[Sidenote: School at Heidelberg]

The Jesuits advanced up the Rhine. “They particularly coveted a
settlement at Spires, both because ... there were so many distinguished
men [assembled there] over whom it would be of extraordinary moment to
possess influence; and also in order to be placed near the Heidelberg
University, which at that day enjoyed the highest repute for its
Protestant professors. They gradually carried their point.” It is
interesting to note how they shadowed the Protestant schools, as if,
like a parasite, to suck from them their life. “In order to bring back
his University of Dillingen to its original purpose, Cardinal Truchess
resolved to dismiss all the professors who still taught there, and to
commit the establishment entirely to the Jesuits.”

[Sidenote: Rapid growth of Jesuit schools]

To show the rapidity with which the Jesuits worked, Ranke says: “In the
year 1551 they had not yet any fixed position in Germany;” “in 1556 they
had extended over Bavaria and the Tyrol, Franconia, and Swabia, a great
part of Rhineland, and Austria, and they had penetrated into Hungary,
Bohemia, and Moravia.” True to the purpose of the order, “their labors
were above all devoted to the universities. They were ambitious of
rivaling the fame of those of the Protestants.”

[Sidenote: Jesuits’ preparatory schools]

“The Jesuits displayed no less assiduity in the conduct of their Latin
schools. It was one of the leading maxims of Lainez that the lower
grammatical classes should be supplied with good teachers, since first
impressions exercise the greatest influence over the whole future life
of the individual.” The Jesuits were willing to devote a lifetime
to one phase of education. “It was found that young persons learned
more under them in half a year than with others in two years; even
Protestants called back their children from distant schools, and put
them under the care of the Jesuits.” From this last sentence two things
are to be observed. Protestants had lost sight of the importance of
education, and their schools had greatly deteriorated, else they would
not have intrusted their children to the Jesuits. While the Jesuits
began by working into the universities, “schools for the poor, modes of
instruction adapted for children, and catechizing followed.”

[Sidenote: Reputation of Jesuit schools]

“The instruction of the Jesuits was conveyed wholly in the spirit of
that enthusiastic devotion which had from the first so peculiarly
characterized their order.” This had its effect; for earnest,
whole-hearted work on the part of the teacher, even though the methods
may be wrong and material false, will surely react in the lives of the
pupils. Viewing the work of Jesuit teachers, one feels to exclaim,
“Since thou art so noble, I would thou wert on our side!” And so “erelong
the children, who frequented the schools of the Jesuits in Vienna, were
distinguished for their resolute refusal to partake on fast days of
forbidden meats which their parents ate.”

[Sidenote: Jesuits conquered Germany by their schools]

Teachers had more weight with the children than the parents themselves,
and became leaders of the older members of the family, so that “the
feelings thus engendered in the schools were propagated throughout the
mass of the population by preaching and confession.”

The final results in Germany, Ranke gives thus: “They occupied the
professors’ chairs, and found pupils who attached themselves to their
doctrines.... _They conquered the Germans on their own soil, in their
very home, and wrested from them a part of their native land._”[144] So
much for Germany and its Jesuit schools.

[Sidenote: Jesuit schools in France]

Concerning the capture of France by the Jesuits it is not necessary to
say much. Ranke gives a few strong paragraphs, showing the work of the
order as teachers. The Protestants of France made a great mistake,
and brought their cause into disrepute, especially in Paris, by taking
up arms in a time of commotion, and Ranke says: “Backed by this state
of public feeling, the Jesuits established themselves in France. They
began there on a somewhat small scale, being constrained to content
themselves with colleges thrown open to them by a few ecclesiastics....
They encountered at first the most obstinate resistance in the great
cities, especially in Paris, ... but they at last forced their way
through all impediments, and were admitted in the year 1564 to the
privilege of teaching. Lyons had already received them. Whether it was
the result of good fortune or of merit, they were enabled at once to
produce some men of brilliant talents from amongst them.... In Lyons,
especially, the Huguenots were completely routed, their preachers exiled,
their churches demolished, and their books burned; whilst, on the other
hand, a splendid college was erected for the Jesuits in 1567. They had
also a distinguished professor, whose exposition of the Bible attracted
_crowds of charmed and attentive youth_. From these chief towns they now
spread over the kingdom in every direction.”[145] Through the influence
gained as educators, 3,800 copies of Angier’s Catechism were sold in the
space of eight years in Paris alone. France no longer _leaned_ toward
Protestantism. She had been regained by the Jesuit schools.

[Sidenote: Jesuitical schools in England]

Concerning the work in England, more is said, and our own connection with
that kingdom adds weight in our eyes to the history of her education.
Thompson says: “During the reign of Elizabeth the papal authorities
renewed their exertions to put a stop to Protestantism in England, and
sent more Jesuits there for that purpose.”[146] What they could not
accomplish through intrigue and civil policy they were more sure to gain
through the schools; hence Thompson says: “They accomplished one thing,
which was to carry away with them several young English noblemen, to
be educated by the Jesuits in Flanders, so as to fit them for treason
against their own country,—repeating in this the experiment Loyola had
made in Germany.... The Jesuits endeavored to become the educators of
English youths as they had those of Germany.... The pope therefore
established an English college at _Rome_, to educate young Englishmen.”

[Sidenote: English college at Rome]

Of this college, Ranke tells us further: “William Allen first conceived
the idea of uniting the young English Catholics who resided on the
continent for the prosecution of their studies, and, chiefly through the
support of Pope Gregory, he established a college for them at Douay.
This, however, did not seem to the pope to be adequate for the purpose
in view. He wished to provide for those fugitives under his own eyes
a more tranquil and less dangerous retreat than could be found in the
disturbed Netherlands; accordingly he founded an English college in
Rome, and consigned it to the care of the Jesuits. No one was admitted
into the college who did not pledge himself, on the completion of his
studies, to return to England, and to preach there the faith of the Roman
Church.”[147]

[Sidenote: Jesuits as teachers in America]

America was settled when the Jesuit power was at its height. Those
teachers who penetrated Germany without fear, and secretly stole
into England when it was unsafe for them to be identified, followed
closely the paths of discovery and settlement. “In the beginning of the
seventeenth century we find,” says Ranke, “the stately fabric of the
Catholic Church in South America fully reared.... The Jesuits taught
grammar and the liberal arts, and a theological seminary was connected
with their college of San Ildefonso. All branches of theological study
were taught in the universities of Mexico and Lima.”[148]

[Sidenote: Jesuits in the United States]

In North America their vigilance was no less marked. “In 1611 Jesuit
missionaries came over and labored with remarkable zeal and success in
converting the Indians.”[149] In Maryland, a Catholic colony from the
first, they held unbounded sway. Speaking of the time of Lord Baltimore,
Thompson says: “At that time, in England, the papists were chiefly under
the influence of the Jesuits, whose vigilance was too sleepless to permit
the opportunity of planting their society in the New World to escape
them.”[150] Their work has been quietly done from the very first, and
some think that because of the papal decree of 1773, suppressing the
order, they have ceased their work. This, however, is a mistake; for
“Gregory XVI, whose pontificate commenced in 1831, was the first pope who
seemed encouraged by the idea that the papacy would ultimately establish
itself in the United States. His chief reliance, as the means of
realizing this hope, was upon the _Jesuits_, upon whose entire devotion
to the principles of absolutism he could confidently rely.”[151] But the
Jesuits always accomplish their work largely by means of education, hence
we may look for them to use the same tactics in our country that had
proved so eminently successful to their cause in England and Germany.

[Sidenote: Object of Jesuit schools in America]

“The chief thing with the Jesuits,” as Gressinger writes, “was to obtain
the sole direction of education, so that by getting the young into
their hands, they could fashion them after their own pattern.” It has
been the avowed aim of the Jesuits to stamp out Protestantism, and with
this, republicanism. In this country, where these two principles were
pre-eminently conspicuous, and so closely associated that whatever
kills one kills the other, it is doubly true that by gaining control of
the educational system the order could work for the papacy the utter
ruin of America, both from a religious and a civil standpoint. From the
dawn of our history there has been within our borders, mingling with
our loyal citizens, a class of educators who carry out this principle
described by Thompson. “The Roman Catholic youth are forbidden by the
papal system from accepting as true the principles of the Declaration of
Independence or of the Constitution of the United States.”[152] Leo XIII,
who was educated a Jesuit [Thompson], remains true to his principles. His
biographer says “that the ‘false education’ and ‘antichristian training’
of the young which prevail in the United States and among the liberal and
progressive peoples of the world must be done away with, abandoned, and
‘Thomas Aquinnas [a Catholic of the thirteenth century] must once more
be enthroned as the “angel of the schools;” his methods and doctrines
must be the light of all higher teaching, for his works are only revealed
truth set before the human mind in its most scientific form.’”[153]

[Sidenote: Progress of papal principles]

It is unnecessary to state the number of schools established by Catholics
in the United States, which have been placed under the control of the
Jesuits; neither is it necessary to trace the attempts which have been
made by the papacy, at irregular periods in our history, to obtain
the control of our public school system. The affairs at Stillwater,
Minn., and at Farabault, in the same State, while unsuccessful, were
weather vanes showing the direction of the wind,—were posers to test
the public pulse, and just so surely show the policy of the papacy in
educational matters. Of far greater importance to us as Protestants is
the fact that _Jesuitical principles may and do prevail in our popular
system of education_, and these principles, whether carried out by
Jesuits, or by the ordinary teacher who is unconscious of her situation,
and unmindful of the result of her methods, bring about the fall of
Protestantism and republicanism. Our nation has repudiated her foundation
principles; are our Protestant churches doing likewise? The history of
the educational institutions of the United States, which are discussed in
the next chapters, will show how the plan of work now followed in our
universities, colleges, and schools of lower grades, are patterning after
Sturm, and how they go farther back, connecting the twentieth century
with the scholasticism of the Middle Ages. It is without the slightest
feelings of animosity toward the Jesuits or the papacy that these facts
are traced. These both do for their cause what will best serve to upbuild
it. Their methods, in so far as they accomplish their desired end, are to
be commended, and their zeal is ever to be admired.

[Sidenote: An educational question for Protestants]

The one problem for Protestants to solve is whether to accept Jesuitical,
papal education, and thus become papal, forming “an image to the
Beast,”—to use the language of the Apocalypse,—or whether they will
follow the principles of Christian education, and remain true to the
name PROTESTANT. Let the reader forget the names; but let him remember
that there are but two _principles_ in the world, when the standard
of eternal truth is recognized; one exalts Christ, and gives life
everlasting; the other exalts man, and its life is for this world alone.
Education according to the second does, in its methods, dwarf, enfeeble,
and belittle. It puts stress upon the unimportant, and passes by truth
without a glance. It prepares the mind for absolutism both in government
and religion. Education according to the first will be based upon methods
which develop, in every particular, the human being. It is a mental,
moral, and physical education, and its object is so to educate that
eventually each of these three natures will assume the right relation to
the other two, and again, as on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Son
of God, “divinity within will flash forth to meet divinity without.”




XIV

AMERICA AND THE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM


PROTESTANTISM AND REPUBLICANISM, BORN OF THE REFORMATION, NOURISHED BY
SCHOOLS.—As if lifted from the bosom of the deep by the mighty hand of
God, America stood forth to receive the principles of religious and civil
freedom born of the Reformation on German soil. To the German government
was first offered the opportunity of developing to the full the reform
movement. This full and complete development would have meant religious
liberty for all, and a government by the people,—Protestantism and
republicanism. These two systems go hand in hand, and are more closely
connected than any other principles in existence. The death of one means
the death of the other, for the same life-blood nourishes both.

Germany started well. There were to be found princes, liberal in mind and
government, who accepted the new religion, and stood by the Reformers
through all their storm-tossed career. God had raised up these men for
the time and place, as surely as he called Nebuchadnezzar, or appointed a
work for Cyrus. Protestantism was firmly rooted, and, as we have already
seen, during the first forty years of its existence, so strong was its
vitality that men and nations bowed before it. The early Reformers,
especially Luther and Melancthon, connected the movement with the
fountain of life when they introduced a system of Christian education.
And previous chapters make plain the truth that the life of the entire
movement in its twofold aspect—Protestantism and republicanism—depended
upon a right educational system. When the mass of German youth sat at the
feet of German teachers, and those teachers were true to the principles
of Christian education, Roman influence dwindled, and her very life was
threatened. It was then that the papacy itself took up the subject of
education, and by the work of the Jesuits succeeded in killing the Reform
in Germany,—indeed, in all Europe.

“A day of great intellectual darkness has been shown to be favorable to
the success of popery. It will yet be demonstrated that a day of great
intellectual light is equally favorable for its success.”

[Sidenote: Protestantism killed by Jesuit schools]

The Jesuits planted schools of their own in the shadow of Protestant
schools; they entered Protestant schools as teachers; they sucked the
life-blood from the young child, and it faded and died. The principles of
the Reformation found honest hearts in the Netherlands. The Dutch took
up the question of education; but the Jesuits were again on the track,
and, as Ranke says, “They gradually carried their point.” The Reformation
crossed the Channel, to find the hearts of Englishmen longing for greater
freedom. Lollardism, started by Wyclif two hundred years earlier, sprang
anew into life in the hearts of the Puritans, until, in the reign of
Henry VIII, more than one half of the English population was Protestant.
Finally the Commonwealth was established.

[Sidenote: England loses her golden opportunity]

To England was offered the opportunity of showing to the world the
perfect fruits of the Reformation in its Protestant religion and a
republican government. But alas! the story is repeated. English youth
fell into the hands of Jesuits. An English college was founded at Rome,
and teachers, ministers, and canvassers returned to their native land
with the avowed purpose of their educators, the Jesuits, to overthrow the
Reformation. And England fell!

Those familiar words from the pen of Luther, which appear in his letter
appealing for aid in the establishment of Protestant schools, echo
through England also: “The Word of God and His grace are like a shower
that falls, and passes away. It was among the Jews; but it passed away,
and now they have it no longer. Paul carried it to Greece; but in that
country also it has passed away, and the Turk reigns there now. It came
to Rome and the Latin empire; but there also it has passed away, and Rome
now has the pope. O, Germans, do not expect to have this Word forever!”
Could this man of God have come forth from his grave a century later, and
have looked over his loved Germany, and over England, he would have added
these names to those of the countries where God’s Word and His grace had
been, but had passed away. Must the name of America be added to the above
list? May Protestants be aroused before it is too late!

[Sidenote: The Puritan exodus]

Finding that England closed her doors against progress, the Puritans
sought greater freedom in the Netherlands. They were disappointed, for
they could not there educate their children as Protestantism taught
them that they should be educated. As Pilgrims they sought new homes in
America, finding a retreat on the bleak shores of New England.

[Sidenote: Protestantism reaches America]

It is now our duty to trace the growth and decline of Protestantism
in our own land. _Its prosperity in every other country has been in
proportion to its adherence to the correct principles of education;
its decline has without exception been the result of a wrong system of
education._ How is it in the United States?

No student of history, and especially of prophetic history, doubts for a
moment that the way was divinely prepared for Protestantism to cross the
Atlantic, and it is equally as evident that that same Hand was upholding
those principles after they reached these shores. God’s Word spoke often
to the hearts of men, leading them to devise plans, pass laws, establish
institutions, and in various ways to so work that His truths might
here grow to a perfection which they never reached in the old country.
On the other hand, those teachings which have frustrated the principles
of Protestantism in Europe are seen to be at work in America from the
first planting of a colony until the present day. That strength-producing
element was _Christian education;_ that counteracting influence was
_false_ or _papal education_. These two form the subject of this chapter.

[Sidenote: Educational History of the United States]

United States history is interwoven with the history of education. Her
founders, especially of the New England colonies, traced their origin
to an educational center in England, and as early New England history
circles about Harvard, so the fathers and supporters of that institution
traced their origin in Old England to the counties of East Anglia, where
Cambridge University bore sway. “Of the first six hundred who landed in
Massachusetts, one in thirty, it is said, was a graduate of the English
Cambridge. These and their companions were rare men. They had the
schooling for a service the like of whose execution, in completeness and
good sense, the world has never equaled.”[154]

“With matchless wisdom they joined liberty and learning in a perpetual
and holy alliance, binding the latter to bless every child with
instruction, which the former invests with the rights and duties of
citizenship. They made education and sovereignty co-extensive, by making
both universal.”[155]

John Fiske enlarges upon this thought.[156] The “greater hospitality of
Cambridge [University, England] toward new ideas” is proverbial, and the
very names, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, Cambridge and
Huntingdon, familiar in the geography of New England, are telling a story
of Protestant education.

[Sidenote: Radical and Conservative Puritans]

Strong as the Puritans seemed in denouncing the Church of Rome, and in
accepting Protestantism, which, at the beginning of the seventeenth
century, more than ever before, meant separation from the established
church and the established forms of government, they were not united in
thought. There were two classes: Puritans, and a class of this class
represented by such men as Richard Hooker. Of the Puritans, Fiske says:
“Some would have stopped short with Presbyterianism, while others held
that ‘new presbyter was but old priest writ large,’ and so pressed on to
Independency.”[157] This difference of opinion on religious matters is
discernible when representatives of both classes, mingling in the society
about Boston, started the educational work of America. Those inclined to
remain under the banner of Presbyterianism taunted the others, who were
known as Brownists, or Separatists, and who followed William Brewster to
America, with _anarchy_, merely because they believed in carrying out
fully the principles for which all were ready to fight.

Thus from the first has our educational work fallen into the hands of two
classes of men,—a class willing to compromise in order to keep peace, and
a bold, daring class, who advocated stepping out on truth regardless of
what might follow.

[Sidenote: Congregationalism and education]

There was a mighty educational problem before the church. The
Episcopalians had failed to take up that work in England; it was from
their midst that Wm. Brewster, a Cambridge graduate, John Robinson,
who also was graduated from Cambridge in 1600, and William Bradford,
afterward governor of Plymouth for thirty years, withdrew to form the
nucleus of the Congregational Church, which had its origin at Scrooby,
England, and ended in Plymouth. What Episcopalianism had overlooked in
the matter of education in England it now became the duty and privilege
of the new church to begin on the virgin soil of America.

[Sidenote: The New England theocracy]

The reader is familiar with the fact that the Puritans, leaving England
because of civil and religious oppression, the result of a union of
church and state, came to America for freedom, and, contrary to what
one would expect, especially at a casual glance, they here developed
a theocracy. “The aim of Winthrop and his friends in coming to
Massachusetts was the construction of a theocratic state which should be
to Christians ... all that the theocracy of Moses and Joshua and Samuel
had been to the Jews.... In such a scheme there was no room for religious
liberty.... The state they were to found was to consist of a united body
of believers; citizenship itself was to be co-extensive with church
membership.”[158]

[Sidenote: Educational work breaks the theocracy]

It is equally well known, however, that this theocratic form was soon
broken; and while the United States is beginning to find herself again
approaching this mode of government, it is a remarkable fact, and one
well worthy of our closest consideration, that _the ancient theocracy
of New England was broken by the power of the educational system_ there
introduced. When this is read from the pages that follow, let the reader
answer the question whether or not the _repudiation of Protestant
principles and the principles of republicanism by the United States in
the nineteenth century is equally due to the present system_. Bear in
mind the question as we proceed.

The educational history of the United States may conveniently be studied
in three sections; 1, colonial; 2, revolutionary; 3, nineteenth century.


I. THE COLONIAL PERIOD.

[Sidenote: The founding of Harvard]

Since Harvard College, the American Cambridge, “accomplished,” as Boone
says, “a much needed work, with manifold wholesome reactions upon society
and government, so that it has been affirmed, with show of truth,
that ‘the founding of Harvard College hastened the Revolution half a
century,’”[159] our study of the schools of the colonial period will
center around this institution. It can be stated with safety that the
history of Harvard, its leading men, and its varying attitude toward
different Colonial problems, throws light on the development of the
question of education at the time when the foundations of our national
government were laid.

When Boston was but six years old, plans were laid for America’s first
college. “Among the early educational leaders,” says Boone, “were such
men as the Rev. Thomas Shepherd, John Cotton, and John Wilson, Jr.; all
clergymen and all college-bred; Stoughton; Dudley, the deputy-governor,
and, above all, ‘Winthrop, the governor, the guide and good genius of
the colony.’ Such were the men ... of the infant colony.... Here were
learning and character; world-wisdom and refinements of heart; breadth
and wholeness of culture, such as could alone justify the boldness of
their attempt.”[160] The institution was started in poverty, four
hundred pounds being voted by the people. The high motive which prompted
the enterprise was “an unbounded zeal for an education, that to them
seemed not so much desirable as necessary, _that ‘the light of learning
might not go out, nor the study of God’s Word perish_.’”

[Sidenote: Object of Harvard to train ministers]

The object of the school, as held by the founders, is well described by a
Boston citizen, who writes thus in 1643 to some of his friends: “After we
had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared
convenient places for worship, and settled the civil government, one of
the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning
and to perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate
ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the
dust. And as we were thinking and consulting how to effect this great
work, it pleased God to stir up the heart of one Mr. Howard (a godly
gentleman and a lover of learning, then living among us) to give the one
half of his estate ... toward the erecting of a College, and all his
library.”

In the contemplation of a college by those noble men, the uppermost
thought was _how to gain an educated ministry_. This object was lost
sight of.

“It must be remembered,” writes Boone, “that for sixty years the
institution was little more than a _training-school for ministers_,
managed as a theological seminary, having religion, of a more or less
well-defined type, as its basis and chief object. Yet, as Professor
Emerson has put it, ‘It is one of the most remarkable things in the
history of Harvard, that, in all the constitutions of the college there
is _nothing illiberal or sectarian_; _nothing to check the freest pursuit
of truth in theological opinions, and in everything else_; and this, too,
while the founders of the college were severely and strictly orthodox,
often exclusive in their own opinions, and while their object was
unquestionably to provide for the thorough education of ministers of the
gospel in like views with themselves.’” “The very foundation idea of the
college,” says Boone, in another paragraph, “was the theological want.”

“The presidents and members of the corporation were generally the
prominent scholars, the theologians, and the political leaders of the
community and time. The college easily came to be the arena upon which,
or the interest about which, were fought those terrible logomachies of
dogma and doctrine. These required, as they had, the best learning, the
shrewdest insight, the most politic minds of the day.”

This perhaps explains that former statement, that the education of
ministers by Harvard had more than anything else to do with the overthrow
of the theocracy established about Boston.

[Sidenote: A manifest spirit of democracy]

It is interesting, also, to note the spirit of democracy which this
institution fostered. In speaking of the raising of the fund for erecting
the building, Boone says: “The colony caught his [Mr. Harvard’s] spirit,
... and all did something, even the indigent. One subscribed a number
of sheep; another, nine shillings’ worth of cloth; one, a ten-shilling
pewter flagon; others, a fruit-dish, a sugar-spoon, a silver-tipped
jug, etc.... No rank, no class of men, is unrepresented. The school
was of the people.”[161] “It was nursed by democracy,” and it in turn
nursed democracy. Surely the Spirit of God was pleading with men so to
arrange their leading educational institution that the principles of the
Reformation might be perpetuated.

[Sidenote: Early course of study in Harvard]

The course of study for this ministers’ school, as described by Emerson,
was remarkably free from sectarianism, and liberal in thought. “The Bible
was systematically studied for the entire three years, Ezra, Daniel,
and the New Testament being specified. A year was given to catechetical
divinity.”[162] Students were required to attend worship twice daily,
when the Scriptures were read in Hebrew or Greek, and they were required
to translate the selection. History received some attention, but the
sciences were practically unknown, and “all profane literature was
excluded.”

Through all this is discernible the attempt to educate for the cause
of Christ. With this beginning, what might have been accomplished had
the plan, with truth unadulterated, been followed! The work done in
later days by the schools, under the direction of the State, is but an
indication of the broad field which lay ahead of Harvard and similar
institutions, _had the church remained in her province as the educator of
her own children_.

[Sidenote: Indications of papal principles]

From the very foundation of Harvard may be seen indications that there
was alongside of these principles of Christian education somewhat of
medieval teaching, which, unless discovered and banished would act as
leaven, permeating the whole loaf. For instance, when the college was
less than twenty years old, we find this requirement for admission
announced: “When any scholar is able to read Tully or any like classical
Latin author, _ex tempore_, and make and speak true Latin in verse and
prose, and define perfectly the paradigms of nouns and verbs in the Greek
tongue, then may he be admitted to the College; nor shall any claim
admission before such qualifications.” This, of course, was patterning
after the European universities, and theirs was a papal system.

This was the Harvard of colonial times. As we enter the Revolutionary
period, we may look for changes as the result of both the correct and
the incorrect principles harbored. Is Harvard, with all her wonderful
facilities, training as many for gospel service to-day as she did of old?
Yale, the second Congregational school, followed closely the plans and
object of Harvard.

[Sidenote: Education in Virginia monarchical]

William and Mary, the second college in the United States, was founded
under different circumstances. It was born in the midst of wealth, and
was befriended by cavaliers and courtiers. “The roots,” says Boone, “were
deep in the great English ecclesiastical system,” and yet the avowed
object was “that the college, when established, should be a ‘seminary
for the breeding of good ministers.’” Notwithstanding good intentions,
it mixed scholastic teachings; for it stood for “the Oxford order of
humanities; the _abstract_ as the foundation of the concrete; everything
for discipline; the ancient languages before the modern.” Jefferson was
a graduate of this school, and later it will be seen how this man, whose
mind comprehended so clearly the principles of religious liberty, strove
to break away from this mixture in education, and advocated a decidedly
secular education in schools which were supported by the State, thereby
avoiding in such institutions the mixture of secular and religious
training.

So far, we see the Episcopal school, William and Mary, deeply rooted in
the English ecclesiastical system, and unable to receive the Reformation
principles of education pure and simple. The two Congregational schools,
Harvard and Yale, approached more nearly the Protestant ideal, but being
unable to break wholly the bond of scholasticism, they made much of
preparatory work in the classics.

[Sidenote: Education problems of Colonial days]

Some or the educational problems with which our Colonial Fathers had
to wrestle were “parental responsibility, the general viciousness of
indolence, the educative office of labor, the State’s relation to
individual need, compulsory employment and schooling, the state ownership
of child-life,” and above all, and including all, the relation the church
sustained to the schools, how far secular education could be offered in
Christian schools, and how far the church could ask aid of the state in
the conduct of church schools. They were weighty questions upon which
hung, and still hangs, the destiny of a nation.

No sharp dividing line can be drawn between the Colonial and the
Revolutionary periods. The work begun in the Colonial period prepared
men to act a noble part in the Revolutionary period. The _truth_ of the
educational system would bear fruit, but the error which we have already
noticed was in great danger of gaining strength enough to choke the
pure principles. Mere accusations amount to but little. Let it suffice
to follow the history of educational progress through the next century.
Results speak for themselves.


II. THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.

[Sidenote: Founding preparatory schools]

In addition to the instruction given by pious Puritan parents to the
flock in their own homes, a limited number of common or church schools
was established in the Colonial period. The position of academies, as
they develop in the Revolutionary period, is significant. We find that
“alongside each of the first colleges, frequently antedating them,
sometimes forming part of the organization, was a grammar-school.”

Such schools, attached to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, William and Mary’s,
and others, prepared for the universities, and supplemented the work of
the elementary or common schools. Herein lay a vital point. They had home
schools, elementary schools, and colleges. It was impossible for these
elementary schools to fit students for university life when such schools
required for entrance that the student should “read Tully or any like
classical Latin author _ex tempore_, and make and speak true Latin in
verse and prose, and decline perfectly the paradigms of nouns and verbs
in the Greek tongue,” as has already been quoted from an early Harvard
announcement.

[Sidenote: The universities demanded classics]

The universities founded by the church were, then, forming a course
of study for these grammar schools, or academies, as they were soon
called; and since the demand was for a classical preparatory school,
naturally their courses were “fitted to the time-sanctioned curriculum
of the college. They taught much Latin and Greek, an extended course in
mathematics, and were strong generally on the side of the humanities.”
This was a modeling after Rugby, Eton, and other noted English schools,
or the classical drill-schools of Germany, which, as we have before seen,
were schools bearing decided marks of Jesuit teaching.

Should a young man care to pursue his studies beyond the elementary
school, his only opportunity to do so was in one of the academies, where
the classics formed the sum and substance of the instruction. The
tendency to revert to the established forms of European education, or the
papal system, is plainly visible.

[Sidenote: Footprints of the papal education]

The first colleges had been planted to give a Christian training, and
doubtless had a start which might have resulted in the greatest strength
to the church, and to the nation in a secondary way; but the introduction
of these grammar schools or academies, with a course of study in the
_classics_ made necessary by the universities, threw the majority of
the young people into a _classical instead of a practical line of
instruction_. Looking at it from one standpoint, no wiser move could
have been made to turn the tide of educational reform again toward papal
education. Can we here trace the footprints of the Jesuits, whose policy
since the days of Loyola had been to overthrow Protestantism by a false
system of education?

[Sidenote: Protestantism and republicanism weakened]

The effect of the mixture of the pure and the impure methods, traceable
in indistinct lines at the very beginning, now assumed more definite
proportions. The growth of academies was remarkably rapid, and when
attention is called to such men as Franklin, the Adamses, John Hancock,
and the generation of “’76,” who received most of their education in
these schools, it may seem like sheer presumption to condemn their work.
The results, however, as seen in later years, warrant the charge that at
that time was taken a long step from the principles of the Reformation,
which meant to this country a weakening both in Protestantism and
republicanism.

[Sidenote: Union of Christian and papal systems]

These academies were denominational, it is true; still they offered this
prescribed course of instruction. Almost immediately appear signs of
the result of this union of Christian education with scholasticism. For
instance, we read that “Brown University, though founded as a Baptist
institution, was nevertheless one of the first schools of the period
to emphasize the growing sentiment for a thoroughly undenominational
collegiate training.” Why should a denominational college give an
undenominational course of instruction, and why, above all denominations,
should the Baptists do so, to whom such a flood of light had come, and
who always with pride pointed back to Roger Williams and the State of
Rhode Island as the ancestors and embodiment of all that is Protestant
and republican? But this is not the only indication of this decline from
early principles.

[Sidenote: Harvard loses sight of original object]

About 1793 Harvard assumed the name of university. Boone says, “Signs
of Catholicity also appear, in that students were no longer required
to attend the divinity lectures, except they were preparing for the
ministry.... Literary societies, voluntary associations for social and
general culture, were multiplied.”

[Sidenote: Decline in other schools]

“The first Greek fraternity,—the Phi Beta Kappa,—the parent of both
secret and open college fraternity organizations of America,” was formed
at William and Mary in 1776. This is another indication of the stealthy
introduction of principles opposed to democracy, and which tend to break
existing prejudice against the secret organizations of the papacy.

Again, “Yale, also, though nominally on a Congregational foundation,
received aid (1792) from the state, and gave place in her corporation to
state representatives.” Educational apostasy was beginning; religious
decline must follow.

[Sidenote: Schools ask state support]

Boone gives another paragraph, which, in a few words, tells a story
of much significance, more, perhaps, than the author realized; for he
was merely chronicling the history of education, not searching for
the philosophy thereof. He says, “The college, once an appendage to
the church, was seen, in view of imminent state dangers, to have an
equal value to the Commonwealth.” This, of course, is true, because
the Commonwealth depended for support, for very existence, upon the
educational ideas propagated in its schools. But the writer continues:
“First encouraged because it provided an educated ministry, there
was coming to be recognized an opinion, despite the deficiencies in
culture, that education is something more—that it has a value in itself;
that schools might well be maintained apart from the church as an
organization, and in no way lessen their usefulness.”[163] Here was the
challenge.

[Sidenote: Education belongs to the church]

God has placed in the hands of his church the right and privilege to
educate the young. In doing this, he has done more; for in educating the
youth, the church stands at God’s right hand to guide the nation into
paths of rectitude. Not by joining hands can this be done, for _church
and state must, in order each to be free, be forever separate_. Still the
pillar upon which the nation must stand, the only one upon which it _can_
stand, is _a true system of education_, and this is a divine gift to the
church, which was born of the Reformation.

[Sidenote: Church fails in educational work]

To the Lutheran Church the message of education was preached by
Luther. The Episcopal Church received this “word and grace of God,”
as Luther expresses it; but it passed from them, and they returned to
scholasticism. Oxford, Cambridge, Eton, Rugby, all English schools
testify to this. The message passed on to the Congregational Church,
and Harvard, Yale, and others started on the right road, but through
the glories of the world lost sight of their original object. Harvard,
founded to educate ministers, sent forth in the year 1896, out of a class
of four hundred graduates only six ministers. The Presbyterian Church
had its opportunity, and likewise the Baptist and the Methodist. Rapidly
education, the scepter with which America was to be ruled, was slipping
from the churches. “Of the four colleges established during the war, two
were non-sectarian, as were three fourths of the sixteen colleges founded
in the twenty years after 1776.”

A momentous time was reached. Not only were the colonies to organize
a government which would astonish the world, but the people of these
colonies were on the verge of an educational precipice, and mighty
interests were hanging in the balance.

[Sidenote: Fruit of the classics]

We have seen that from the classical academies came forth the minds
which, for a generation or two, bore sway while the nation passed its
critical period. There were the Adamses and Jefferson, Franklin, Webster,
De Witt Clinton, Horace Mann, Joseph Henry, Everett, and Story; Guilford,
of Ohio; Grime, of South Carolina; Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey; Wayland,
in Rhode Island; and Shaw, in Virginia; besides Kent, Clay, Marshall, and
Randolph, who were, many of them, not only solving political problems,
but exerting an influence in the school systems planned for their several
States.

Many of these were classical academy men, and we can but see that the
education received in these schools must affect the systems they would
father in their several States. Had the colleges remained true to their
trust with Christian education, the academies would have been preparatory
schools for Christian colleges, and men sent forth from their walls would
have been firmly grounded in the principles of Christian education, going
forth into every State of the Union to found Christian schools which
would in their turn make earnest and valiant youth, true to Protestantism
and true to republicanism.

WHEN THE CHURCH FAILS TO EDUCATE, MEN TURN TO THE STATE. These men
“differed in their views about the Constitution, and wrangled over the
dangers of centralization; the best men were fearful of the inroads
of slavery and the dangers to commerce,” says Boone, “but all agreed
that intelligence was necessary to citizenship.” Washington said, “In
proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public
opinion, it is necessary that public opinion should be enlightened,”
and Jefferson urged that “the diffusion of light and education are the
resources most to be relied on for ameliorating the condition, promoting
the virtue, and advancing the happiness of man.”

There is a demand for the highest and most practical kind of education.
Statesmen see that statesmen, _citizens_, are needed. The denominational
colleges ceased to educate Christians, and citizens must be educated
elsewhere. “In 1805 the Public School Society, of New York City, was
formed; the claims of public primary education were urged in Boston in
1818; and New York provided for the county supervision of schools. Early
in the nineteenth century were either introduced or else discussed the
first high schools, manual training schools, and mechanics’ institutes,
teachers’ associations, teachers’ publications, professional schools, and
free public libraries.”

We have entered the third period.




XV

AMERICA AND THE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM (Continued)


III. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The problem of elementary preparatory education fell from the hands
of the churches, and was taken up by the state. What is the character
of that education which the state can rightfully support? A momentous
question indeed; but before considering it, let us investigate the
schools that the state has organized, and which it did, and still does,
support. There was an urgent demand for liberal education, and several
States appropriated lands toward a school fund. As early as 1786 “New
York State set apart two lots in each township of the unoccupied lands,
for ‘gospel and school purposes,’” and by a vote of about eighteen
hundred, devoted the proceeds of half a million acres of vacant lands to
the support of the common schools. Other States followed the same general
plan, some in rapid succession, others more slowly. One thing was a
settled fact,—the _education of the common people, passed over by the
churches, had been taken up by the government_.

[Sidenote: Horace Mann and the public schools]

Under those circumstances it is not surprising that in 1837, Horace
Mann, president of the Massachusetts Senate, interested himself in the
subject of education. Of this man it is said, “Rarely have great ability,
unselfish devotion, and brilliant success been so united in the course of
a single life.” This man became the father of the public-school system
of the United States, and began a work which long before should have
been started by the popular churches of America. But it was neglected
by them, and it will be profitable for us to watch the development of
the grandest system of schools ever organized,—a system which, if the
subject of Christian education could be dropped, and it be viewed alone
from the standpoint of the politician, has brought the United States
into prominence as an educational center among the nations of the world.
However, since _republicanism rests in the bosom of Protestantism, and
Protestantism is cradled in Christian education_, the moment the feature
of Christian education is laid aside, and the system purports to be
civil (but in fact it is never really that), that moment it loses its
real vitality and genuine strength. But to return to Mr. Mann and his
wonderful work.

[Sidenote: The churches and public schools]

Boone says: “The gnarls of a century’s growth were to be smoothed; not
all of the large number of private schools were in accord with the new
movement, and the churches were naturally watchful of the encroachments
of unsectarian education.”[164] This expression describes the sectarian
schools as in much the same attitude as that assumed by the weakening
Christian church about the days of Constantine; and as the church of
those days held out its hands to a stronger power for aid, and because
it had lost its individual supply of strength,—the Spirit of God,—so
now these sectarian schools watched with a jealous eye the progress of
unsectarian schools, and, unable to hold their former and their allotted
position by virtue of inherent strength, they reached out their hands
to the state coffers, and received aid. Yale did it before the days of
Horace Mann; many others have done it since.

[Sidenote: Improvements made by Horace Mann]

Boone continues: “Incompetent teachers were fearful, politicians carped,
and general conservatism hindered” by the advances of Mr. Mann. “Much was
to be accomplished, also, within the school. Teachers had to be improved,
interest awakened, methods rationalized, and the whole adjusted to the
available resources. Moreover, school architecture had to be studied. All
this Mr. Mann did.” How great was the opportunity which the religious
sects of America had missed! Some of the things which were accomplished
in the next few years are thus reported: “A system of normal schools was
originated. The annual appropriation for schools was doubled; two million
dollars expended on houses and furniture; the number of women teachers
increased; institutes introduced and systematized; school libraries
multiplied; education provided for the dependent, and young offending
classes, and the first compulsory school law of the State enacted.”

[Sidenote: Henry Bernard]

Henry Bernard, a young lawyer of Connecticut, did for his State a work
similar to that of Horace Mann in Massachusetts. He was a man of keen
insight, and struck at the root of many evils. Finding that public
money was misapplied, and many primary children neglected, he went about
to work a reform. “Teachers were awakened, associations for mutual
improvement were formed.... He established an educational periodical,”
wholly at his own expense. In 1843 this strong-hearted, level-headed man
was called by the State of Rhode Island to straighten out the tangles in
her educational system. From this beginning has grown the public school
system as seen to-day. It is interwoven in the meshes of our national
history from Boston to San Francisco, and from St. Paul to New Orleans.

[Sidenote: Reaction in colleges]

The colleges had made necessary the academies—classical preparatory
schools; and these sent forth men who modeled the high schools after the
academic course. The Christian colleges set the pace to begin with; then,
finding themselves outrun in the race, to meet the needs, the nineteenth
century sees a gradual but none the less decided change in their courses
of instruction. Here are a few of the changes, with the reasons for them.
Says Boone:—

“The current and recent magnifying of the humanities, the growing
recognition of an altruistic and co-operative spirit in civil and social
and political life, the increasing complexity of social forces, new
aspects of government, the fundamental oneness of all life, and sequent
idea of the solidarity of human society, have created for the student new
lines of investigation.”[165]

How true! How wide the separation between the ideal held before the early
Harvard and that of the Harvard of to-day. “The sequent idea of the
solidarity of human society” as a new line of investigation for students,
seems almost like mockery when we see the fundamental principles of the
government loosening, and ready to crumble on the application of some
unexpected force.

[Sidenote: Further changes]

The same departure from the study of God’s Word and the record of his
dealings with men and nations—God in history and politics—is noticeable
in the curriculum of each modern college and university. To quote again
from Boone, “The history of customs and institutions, the growth of
opinions and sentiments as crystallized in social forms, the study of
governments and religions, of art and industry, are clamoring for a place
in the curriculum. Comparative philology, with the enlarged interest of
modern languages, belongs to the present period.” Such a curriculum can
not but have weight in molding the minds of men, and the history we are
making to-day is but the resultant of the thoughts inculcated in our
modern colleges.

[Sidenote: Evolution taught]

The chair in science has been greatly enlarged: the ideas of evolution
as advocated by Darwin, Huxley, and Dana have crept into the lecture
courses, and having been received, bid fair to stay. Says Boone: “It
has been said that biological study [in the universities] began with
Huxley in England, and later in this country.” “Of the several courses in
Harvard, thirty per cent are in science, and in most other contemporary
institutions a similar large ratio obtains. This has had its influence
upon the accepted curriculum.” This science would be termed by the
Apostle Paul “science falsely so called.”

[Sidenote: Multiplication of courses]

“Great changes have occurred in the twenty years [since 1868] in the
multiplication of courses and the accompanying specializations of study.”
Perhaps figures will be more impressive on this point than mere words.
Boone states that “of the forty-seven higher institutions whose reports
are given by Dr. Adams, including Harvard, Columbia, and Brown, and ten
leading State universities, forty-six report an aggregate of _one hundred
and eighty-nine_ courses in history and closely related studies.” Cornell
now offers so many courses that should a student attempt to take them
all, it would require more than the natural life of a man to complete
them.

[Sidenote: A cramming system with children]

It is not with any spirit of condemnation that these things are stated,
but it can be seen by all that there is a meaning which inevitably
attaches to these changes. The multiplicity of subjects taught has led
to a wonderful book study, and a student’s whole life is spent in an
attempt to put into his own head the thoughts which others have written
for him. The spirit of the universities was caught by the academies, and
by the high schools, and is reflected even in the lower grades. It is the
beginning of the cramming process now so forcibly denounced by a few true
educators. Readers of our magazines are familiar with the ideas expressed
by Mrs. Lew Wallace in “The Murder of the Modern Innocents,” by the
editor of the _Ladies’ Home Journal_, and others. I deem it sufficient
to quote from Mr. Edward Bok, who startled American homes by stating
that “in five cities of our country alone there were, during the last
school term, over sixteen thousand children between the ages of eight and
fourteen taken out of the public schools because their nervous systems
were wrecked, and their minds were incapable of going on any farther in
the infernal cramming system which exists to-day in our schools.... It
was planned by nature that between the years of seven and fifteen the
child should have rest,—not rest which will stop all mental and physical
growth, of course, ... but the child’s pace should be checked so as to
allow him to recover from the strain which his system has just undergone.

“But what really happens to the child at the age of seven? Is he given
this period of rest?—Verily, no! He enters the schoolroom, and becomes a
victim of long hours of confinement—the first mental application, mind
you, that the child has ever known. The nervous wear and tear begins;
the child is fairly launched upon his enjoyment (God save the mark!) of
the great educational system of America.... Special systems of ‘marks,’
which amount to prizes, are started, serving only to stimulate the
preternaturally bright child, who needs relaxation most of all, and to
discourage the child who happens to be below the average of intelligence.
It is cramming, cramming, cramming! A certain amount of ‘ground must be
gone over,’ as it is usually called. Whether the child is physically able
to work the ground, does not enter into the question. And we do not stop
even there! The poor children are compelled to carry home a pile of books
to study, usually after supper, and just before going to bed, and that is
about the most barbarous part of the whole system.”[166]

This is enough to show that the system is recognized as practicing
methods not in accordance with the laws of nature, which are the laws of
God. Such methods are the result of the system at the head of which stand
the colleges and universities which outline the work for all below them.

Parents read these statements with wonder and a feeling of horror, but
only a few realize that the primary schools and the grammar schools,
and even the high schools, are responsible for the health-destroying,
brain-benumbing methods employed in our public schools. The cause for the
present system and methods is to be searched for in the changes which
time has wrought in those simple schools planted by the freedom-seeking
Puritan fathers. Say, rather, that Protestantism offered a system of
Christian education which, if it had been followed, would have prevented
what we find to-day.

[Sidenote: Modern reformers]

It is gratifying to find that the decline has not proceeded undisturbed.
Its history has not sped on as a smooth-flowing river. From time to
time men have arisen offering educational ideas in advance of the
age in which they taught. Such men were Comenius and Pestalozzi, who
introduced object-study in place of the time-honored memory work; and
Froebel, whose patient labors for the children of the kindergarten have
not only endeared him to the heart of the true teacher, but have made
him a benefactor of mankind in that he aroused queries in regard to the
methods of instructing the human mind. These men, searching for truth,
caught glimpses of the principles of true education as taught by Christ.
Disciples of these men, instead of taking from them a borrowed light,
have the privilege of going again to the source of true wisdom,—“the
Teacher come from God.” Here is the secret of success for educational
reformers of the twentieth century.

[Sidenote: Effects of modern education]

The tide has kept up a constant ebb and flow. When the tendency was
growing strong toward the classics, natural science revived, and the
spirit of investigation broke the band which memory work was weaving.
Science, not content with lawful fields of exploration, is now
delving into metaphysics, and sending to the world a race of skeptics
and infidels; or, if professed Christians, students are confirmed
evolutionists, casting aside the Word of God for the theories of geology,
astronomy, or biology. The narrow cramming system of memory-teaching
was killing the intellectual life of the children, when nature-study
was introduced. This was an improvement indeed, for these studies are
thought-producing; but here the tide set in the opposite direction, and
faith in a Creator is destroyed.

AS OF JERUSALEM, SO NOW OF THE CHURCHES, THEY ARE DESTROYED BECAUSE THE
EDUCATION OF THE CHILDREN IS NEGLECTED. Wherein lies the safety of the
Christian parent and his child? The child has a right to a Christian
education. Where is it to be obtained? Can the state give it?—It could
not if it would. Are the Protestant churches educating their own
children? Few indeed are the Christian schools, and to-day the churches
are reaping the result of their long period of retrogression. The words
of Dr. James M. Buckley, editor of the _Christian Advocate_, the leading
organ of Methodism, voice the general sentiment. He says in part:—

“That the Methodist Episcopal Church, with nearly three million of
communicants and a vast army of Sunday-school scholars, should add less
than seven thousand to its membership in 1899, is startling. That in
the same period it should show a decline of 28,595 in those avowed and
accepted candidates known as probationers, is ominous. Such a situation
has not been frequent in our history.... No reverent person can charge
the decline to God the Father Almighty, to Jesus Christ his only Son our
Lord, or to the Holy Ghost, in whom the church ceaselessly declares its
belief. It must therefore lie at the doors of every church.”[167]

This statement is very true; and yet, while exonerating God, Christ, and
the Holy Spirit from any blame in the matter, it is sad to note that
prominent men in the ministry fail to see that the churches are losing
their hold upon humanity because they have relinquished their right as
Protestants to educate the children. The churches are to be pitied; but
there is only one remedy, and that church which takes up its neglected
duty in _education_ will receive the reward. To the students of prophecy
it is a significant fact that this state of affairs has been growing
deplorably worse since about the year 1843 or 1844.

[Sidenote: Growth of elective system]

The fluctuations which have occurred in the curricula of our leading
schools has been referred to before, but is emphasized by a glance at
the introduction of the elective courses. When the course of instruction
became decidedly complex, requiring years for completion, and the
multiplication of subjects made it impracticable for the majority of
students to complete the course as outlined, there arose the privilege
of option in the choice of the studies in many courses. This was also
made necessary in the colleges by the organization of many technical
schools throughout the land. “The early efforts to establish mechanics
and manual-labor institutes are interesting as marking a reaction against
the dominance of language and metaphysics, and an ingenious appeal for
the large recognition of the physical sciences.” This has led in some
cases to the substitution of German or some other modern language, and an
increased amount of mathematics in place of the classics, the students
being free to choose.

[Sidenote: Freedom of Virginia University]

This spirit of freedom, which has been almost wrenched, one might say,
from many of the institutions of higher learning, is occasionally
found to have swayed the hearts of earlier educators. One reads with
keen relish the history of the founding of the University of Virginia,
the moving spirit of which was Thomas Jefferson. The reader will be
interested in a paragraph by Boone:—

“As early as 1779, while the ‘Old Dominion,’ with her sister States, was
embroiled in a doubtful war; and again in 1814, after numerous defeats
and constant opposition from the already-established William and Mary
College, from the Protestant churches, and from most of the political
leaders of the time, Mr. Jefferson and his friends sought to provide for
the state, along with the general system of education, a university, in
which should be taught in the highest degree, ‘every branch of knowledge,
whether calculated to enrich, stimulate, and adorn the understanding,
or to be useful in the arts and practical business of life.’ Five years
later (1819) an act of the Assembly was obtained establishing the
University of Virginia. When six years later it was opened, after a wide
acquaintance and careful study of the most progressive institutions in
the United States, it was found that in discipline and instruction, in
constitution and means, it very materially differed from them all.”[168]

[Sidenote: Freedom from other objectionable features]

The far-reaching sight of the chief promoter of the enterprise is seen
when we note wherein lay this very material difference. “There is one
practice,” wrote Mr. Jefferson, “from which we shall certainly vary,
although it has been copied by nearly every college and academy in
the United States; that is, the holding of the students all to one
prescribed course of reading, and disallowing exclusive application
to those branches only which are to qualify them for the particular
vocation to which they are destined. We shall, on the contrary, allow
them uncontrolled choice in the lectures they shall choose to attend, and
_require elementary_ qualifications only, and sufficient age.”[169]

This was a wonderful step for the time in which it occurred, and
indicates the direction given to minds of men by the Spirit of God. The
greater freedom occasioned by the adoption of the elective system is felt
throughout the educational centers of our land. Johns Hopkins University
grants the degree of B.A. in four out of six of its courses without the
classics. This leads us, however, to a consideration of the question
suggested several pages back, _What subjects can of right be taught in
schools supported from the public funds?_

[Sidenote: Should the state support the school]

Education, pure and simple, in the breadth of its meaning, is character
development. The state, as such, can not judge of motives, hence it
can not educate the inner man. The two phases of the Reformation were
Protestantism and republicanism; the first deals with the spiritual
nature, and through this reaches the entire man, making a symmetrical
character; the governmental part deals only with the mental and
physical—the outward manifestations. To the church was committed the
charge of the spiritual man, and the commission to “teach all nations”
given to the little company that watched the ascending Lord, was repeated
to the church in the sixteenth century; and with especial weight was this
burden laid upon the shoulders of American men and women. The state needs
men to carry forward its pursuits; and for the purely secular training of
such individuals, it has a perfect right, even a duty, to provide from
the common fund. A purely mechanical, secular, or business course might
therefore be offered in our state schools; but with such an education few
parents are contented. The moral nature needs training; in order to be
good citizens, it is argued, some part of the system of ethics which is
based on the doctrines of Christ must be inculcated. Christian schools,
and those only, can give a spiritual education. This is the dilemma
in which the educational system found itself about the time of the
Revolution, and the matter, instead of reaching a satisfactory solution,
has grown steadily worse. The churches failed to provide for the
Christian training; and the state felt that something must be done for
the children. Public schools were established; but these, by right, can
not teach morality or anything pertaining thereto. But they do. Hence,
the church by her failure has forced the state into the attempt to do
her work,—an impossible task. Again, the churches and the denominational
schools, not willing to be outdone by state institutions, have extended
their stakes and lengthened their cords until they offer, not those
subjects which are character building, so much as those which will enable
them to compete with state institutions. Here again is a departure from
Christian education, and a mixture which would be hard to designate as
other than papal.

[Sidenote: Degrees a papal mark]

Again, the state sets its seal upon work done in institutions which it
supports, and the Christian schools—those in name at least—not only
accept public money, but allow the state to put its seal to their work
in the granting of literary degrees and diplomas. This is a natural
result of the union of worldly education and the principles of Christian
education which we have followed through two centuries, and yet to-day
there is scarcely a school claiming to be Christian in its principles
that dare raise its voice against the customs of its sister institutions.

[Sidenote: Education and state unite; result, papal]

“Render, therefore, unto Cæsar the things that be Cæsar’s, and unto God
the things which be God’s,” would be repeated, should the author of those
words enter in person the institutions of learning which claim to bear
his name. A union of church and state is described as the papacy; a union
of education (the foundation of the church) and the state is passed by
with scarcely a dissenting voice.

[Sidenote: Educational work of Catholics]

So far in this chapter, the educational work of the Catholic Church
in the United States has been passed without a word;—not because that
organization has been less active here than in European countries, but
because the idea is so prevalent that a system of education to be papal
must emanate from the Roman Church. Ideas to the contrary have been
emphasized again and again in these pages. In our own country we can not
fail to see that, aside from the work of the Catholic Church, there has
been developed a papal system of instruction. The stepping-stones from
the present back into the dim ages of the past, when Egypt or Greece
swayed the world through science or philosophy, may in places be hidden;
but the products of Greek philosophy and Egyptian wisdom, seasoned with
the ideas of the medieval scholasticism, or the more subtle mixture of
modern Christian education and the papal system as exemplified by Sturm,
to which is attached the State’s seal of approval, meet us from season to
season as our schools send forth their graduates.

[Sidenote: Catholic schools]

The Catholics, however, have not watched the growth of our educational
system without putting forth a vigorous effort. From Colonial days, when
the Jesuits flocked to these shores, and taught the established schools
and missions, to the present time, when the new university for the
education of Catholic youth is in full operation at our national capital,
this organization has spared no effort. As Boone says, “All other
denominational service in education is partial and irregular compared
with the comprehensive grasp of the Catholic Church. Their aim is
all-inclusive, and assumes no other agency. Ignoring the public school,
their plan is co-extensive with their membership. With one fifth of all
the theological seminaries, and one third of all their students; with one
fourth of the colleges, nearly six hundred academies, and two thousand
six hundred parochial schools (elementary), instructing more than half a
million children, the church is seen to be a force which, educationally
considered, is equaled by no other single agency but the government
itself.”[170]

The system by which this work is carried forward is thus described: “The
twelve Catholic provinces ... are subdivided into seventy-nine dioceses.
The latter average from thirty-five to forty parishes, each of which is
supposed to have a school for the elementary training of their children.
As a matter of fact, _ninety-three per cent_ of them maintain parochial
schools, in which are educated, generally by the priesthood, ... the
511,063 pupils. In addition to these are five hundred and eighty-eight
academies, usually for the girls, and ninety-one colleges.” This was
written six or seven years ago, but the figures speak for themselves.
With the nation honeycombed by schools which have as their avowed
object the annihilation of Protestantism and republicanism; with our own
public-school system, so grand in many respects, _yet compromising until
it is indeed papal_, it is not strange that Methodist and Presbyterian
congregations are bemoaning their dwindling numbers.

Should Protestants educate their own children? History speaks in emphatic
language, Yes! The papacy says, If you wish us to have your children, No!

“God stands at the door and knocks; blessed are we if we open to
him.”—_Luther._




XVI

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION


After watching the educational struggle which has gone on for ages
between truth and error, and observing that scarcely a century has
passed which has not witnessed a controversy more or less severe between
Christian and papal methods of instruction, one is prepared to believe
that this is a subject inseparably connected with the history of nations.
This being true, we must expect to find ourselves in the midst of the
controversy to-day. It needs but a casual glance at current history to
confirm this fact; for minds are troubled because of existing evils, and
hearts are open for educational truth.

If we are inclined to think that the principles of Christian education
are new and before unheard of, we have but to catch the thoughts which
have swayed true educators from the time of Christ to the present day to
know that the same spirit has been at work in all ages to draw the hearts
of men to God.

[Sidenote: Christian education exemplified by Christ]

The advent of Christ was a wonderful event. “The Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us.” That man might behold the workings of God in human
flesh, and see here the manifestation of truth, Christ was born. His
was pre-eminently a work of education, and His system was _Christian
education_. By this means, Heaven again reached earth, and clasped it
to her bosom. Men, in their shortsightedness, were unable to comprehend
the spiritual teachings of the Son of God, and often His most powerful
lessons fell unappreciated on the ears of the multitudes, and even on the
ears of the apostles.

[Sidenote: The Holy Spirit the teacher]

Much as the life of Christ has done for the world, there has never been a
man, or a nation of men, who have fully followed his teachings. Error has
ever been mixed with truth, and the educators of the world have failed to
see the realization of their hopes because of this partial grasp of truth.

Christ, when rejected by the world, did not withdraw entirely, and leave
man to his fate; but He sent forth His Spirit, the _Spirit of Truth_
as an educator, leading minds into truth. This working of the Spirit
is plainly seen, for one man has been directed to one phase of true
education, while another, perhaps a contemporary worker, or perhaps a
successor, it may be a fellow countryman, or one at a great distance, has
picked up another thread in the skein, and developed another thought for
the world.

[Sidenote: True education always represented]

The world has never long been left without some representative of
Christian education. In attempting to define the term which stands as
the subject of this chapter, attention is called to the partial work of
reform which has been accomplished by men whom the world recognizes as
educators. The errors of a false education, so prevalent in times past,
and still recognized as a part of the educational systems now in vogue,
stand in strong contrast to the correct ideas advocated by these men at
various times.

[Sidenote: Latin and word-study in papal schools]

The men whose ideas are given in this chapter lived and wrought after the
Reformation; and in order to reveal the error against which they worked,
it is necessary to consider the methods of instruction to be found in
papal schools. Similar thoughts are found on previous pages, but, for
the sake of contrast, they are here repeated.

Painter says: “When a young man had acquired a thorough mastery of
the Latin language for all purposes; when he was well versed in the
theological and philosophical opinions of his preceptors; when he
was skillful in dispute, and could make a brilliant display from the
resources of a well-stored memory, he had reached the highest points to
which the Jesuits sought to lead him. _Originality and independence_
of mind, _love of truth for its own sake, the power of reflecting, and
of forming correct judgments, were not merely neglected_, they were
suppressed in the Jesuits’ system.”[171] Karl Schmidt likewise testifies
in the words, “_Books_, _words_, had been the subjects of instruction....
_The knowledge of things was wanting._ Instead of things themselves,
_words about the things were taught_.” “Learning by doing” is the rule
in Christian education. A large amount of Latin and Greek was, and is
still, the rule in the papal educational system, and these languages were
taught, not for the sake of thought, but merely for the words.

[Sidenote: Reformers oppose mere language study]

The world had for a century been bound by the study of the classics. This
bondage was broken by the Reformation, but the world returned thither
again. Milton, the poet of the seventeenth century, wrote: “Language is
but the _instrument_ conveying to us things useful to be known. Though a
linguist should pride himself to have all the tongues that Babel cleft
the world into, yet if he have not studied the solid things in them, as
well as the words and lexicons, he were nothing so much to be esteemed
a learned man as any yeoman or tradesman competently wise in his mother
dialect only.... We do amiss to spend seven or eight years in scraping
together so much Latin and Greek as might be learned otherwise easily and
delightfully in one year.”[172]

[Sidenote: Things studied instead of language]

Ratich, a German educator of the sixteenth century, said: “We are
in bondage to Latin. The Greeks and Saracens would never have done
so much for posterity if they had spent their youth in acquiring a
foreign tongue. We must study our own language, and then the sciences.”
“Everything first in the mother tongue,” and “nothing on mere
authority,” were rules in his schoolroom. Comenius, the renowned teacher,
used to say: “If so much time is to be spent on the language alone, when
is the boy to know about things,—when will he learn philosophy, when
religion, and so forth? He will consume his life in preparing for life.”

[Sidenote: Mechanical teaching is papal]

How exactly this applies to the word-study of our boys and girls to-day!
It matters not whether it be Latin or English grammar; indeed, it may
be that other mode of expression,—some form of mathematics,—where time
and energy are devoted to the process merely. A failure to make the
development of thought—independent thinking, in fact—the main object in
instruction, stamps any method of teaching as papal, no matter by what
name it is known, or by whom the subjects are taught. It was the life
work of Comenius to counteract this tendency, as the following principles
show. He insisted that “nothing should be taught that is not of solid
utility.” “Nothing is to be learned by heart that is not first thoroughly
understood.” “Theologians and physicians should study Greek.” “Doing can
be learned only by doing.” That educational reformers of to-day are
advocating these same principles will be seen later. This is a part of
Christian education.

[Sidenote: Character-building the aim in true education]

John Locke, an English educator of the seventeenth century, had truth on
the subject of education. Of the languages, he says: “When I consider
what ado is made about a little Latin and Greek, how many years are
spent in it, and what a noise and business it makes to no purpose, I
can hardly forbear thinking that parents of children still live in fear
of the schoolmaster’s rod, which they look on as the only instrument of
education; as if a language or two were its whole business.”

Character was valued by this man, and his statement as to the relative
importance of study is valuable to parents and teachers. “Reading and
writing and learning I allow to be necessary, but yet not the chief
business. I imagine you think him a very foolish fellow that should not
value a virtuous or a wise man infinitely before a scholar. Not but that
I think learning a great help to both, in well-disposed minds; but yet it
must be confessed also that in others not so disposed, it helps them only
to be the more foolish or worse men.

[Sidenote: How Locke would choose a teacher]

“I say this, that when you consider the breeding of your son, and are
looking out for a schoolmaster, or a tutor, you would not have, as is
usual, Latin and logic only in your thoughts. Learning must be had, but
in the second place, as subservient only to greater qualities. Seek
out somebody that may know how discreetly to frame his manners: place
him in hands where you may, as much as possible, secure his innocence,
cherish and nurse up the good, and gently correct and weed out any bad
inclinations, and settle in him good habits. THIS IS THE MAIN POINT; and
this being provided for, learning may be had into the bargain.”

To how great an extent are Protestants following this excellent advice?
In what schools for Protestant boys and girls is innocence cherished?
where is the good nourished? where are bad inclinations gently weeded
out, and good habits settled? where do these things take a position ahead
of book learning?

“Virtue,” continues Locke, “as the first and most necessary of those
endowments that belong to a man or gentleman, was based on religion.
As the foundation of this, there ought very early to be imprinted on
his mind a true notion of God.” Here one finds a clear conception of
Christian education, which parents of to-day would do well to study.

[Sidenote: Cramming a papal method]

The study of the classics, together with the memory work which was the
chief characteristic of these studies, was not the only defect in papal
education; hence it is not the only error from which educators, led, as
one must believe, by the spirit of truth, have from time to time broken
away. The cramming system, so justly denounced by thinking minds as one
of the most far-reaching defects of the present school system, is a mark
of papal education wherever it may be found. And probably no generation
has passed which has not heard some voice lifted against this pernicious
practice of the schoolroom. The God of heaven recognizes that the human
mind contains the highest possibilities of earth; the child is a part of
himself; and when wrong methods of education are used in dealing with
developing minds, He, the head of the body, of which we are members,
feels the hurt; so it is that Christian education is an emanation from
the mind of God.

Montaigne, speaking of education in the sixteenth century, said: “It is
the custom of schoolmasters to be eternally thundering in their pupils’
ears, as if they were pouring into a funnel, while the pupils’ business
is only to repeat what their masters have said.” He is taught that “a
tutor ... should, according to the capacity he has to deal with, put it
[the child’s mind] to the test, permitting his pupil himself to taste
and relish things, and of himself to choose and discern them.... Too
much learning stifles the soul, just as plants are stifled by too much
moisture, and lamps by too much oil. Our pedants plunder knowledge from
books, and carry it on the tips of their lips, just as birds carry seeds
to feed their young.... We toil and labor only to _stuff the memory_, but
leave the _conscience and understanding unfurnished and void_.”

[Sidenote: Twentieth century schools cram]

As late as January, 1900, Edward Bok, editor of the _Ladies’ Home
Journal_, wrote concerning the cramming process of the popular schools:
“Do American men and women realize that in five cities of our country
alone there were, during the last school term, _over sixteen thousand
children_ between the ages of eight and fourteen taken out of the public
schools because their nervous systems were wrecked, and their minds were
incapable of going on any further in the infernal cramming system which
exists to-day in our schools?... Conservative medical men who have given
their lives to the study of children place the number whose health is
shattered by overstudy at more than 50,000 each year.... It is cramming,
cramming, cramming. A certain amount of ‘ground must be gone over,’ as
it is usually called. Whether the child is physically able to work the
‘ground’ does not enter into the question.”

The writer dwells upon the evils of night study, and continues: “True
reform always begins at the root of all evils, and the root of the evil
of home study lies in the cramming system.”

[Sidenote: Mrs. Lew Wallace on cramming]

Mrs. Lew Wallace says: “Go into any public school, and you will see girls
pallid as day lilies and boys with flat chests and the waxen skin that
has been named the school complexion. Every incentive and stimulus is
held out; dread of blame, love of praise, prizes, medals, badges, the
coveted flourish in the newspapers—the strain never slackens.... The
burden is _books_. The tasks imposed on the young are fearful. The effort
seems to be to make text-books as difficult and complicated as possible
instead of smoothing the hill so high and hard to climb.”

In her characteristic style, Mrs. Wallace condemns the usual methods of
teaching arithmetic and language:—

“Said a mother, ‘Two and two are what?’”

“The boy hesitated.

“‘Surely you know that two and two make four.’

“‘Yes, mama; but I am trying to remember the process.’

“Process, indeed!...

“One day Mary was bending over a tablet writing words on both sides of a
straight line, like multiplied numerators and denominators.

“‘What are you at now?’ asked grandma.

“Mary answered with pride, ‘I am diagraming.’

“‘In the name of sense, what’s diagraming?’

“‘It’s mental discipline. Miss Cram says I have a fine mind that needs
developing. Look here, grandma, now this is the correct placing of
elements. _Fourscore_ and _seven_ are joined by the word _and_, a
subordinate connective copulative conjunction. It modifies _years_, the
attribute of the preposition. _Ago_ is a modal verb of past time. The
root of the first clause is—.

“‘Why, that’s Lincoln’s speech at Gettysburg. I keep it in my work-basket
and know it by heart.’

“‘Indeed! Well, _ours_ is a simple personal—.’

“‘That’s enough. If President Lincoln had been brought up on such stuff,
that speech would never have been written. He called a noun a noun, and
was done with it.’”[173]

Montaigne could scarcely have given a more vivid description had he seen
the grind of modern education, where grades are strictly kept, and all
children, the strong and the tender alike, are forced through the same
process. There is no relief save in dropping by the wayside when disease
fastens its tendrils on the human frame.

Against this system all educational reformers have striven, but it
remains with us still. Christian parents, could they see the relative
value of soul and mental culture, would demand the establishment of a new
order of things. Christian education alone can effect a cure.

[Sidenote: Nature-study to prevent cramming]

Comenius strove to correct this error by the introduction of
nature-study. He says: “The right instruction of youth does not consist
in cramming them with a mass of words, phrases, sentences, and opinions
collected from authors, but in unfolding the understanding, that many
little streams may flow therefrom as from a living fountain.... Why shall
we not, instead of dead books, open the living book of nature? Not the
shadows of things, but the things themselves, which make an impression on
the senses and the imagination, are to be brought before youth. By actual
observation, not by a verbal description of things, must instruction
begin.... Men must be led as far as possible to draw their wisdom, not
from books, but from a consideration of heaven and earth, oaks and
beeches; that is, they must know and examine things themselves, and not
simply be contented with the observations and testimony of others.”

His fundamental principles were, “Education is a development of the whole
man,” and “Many studies are to be avoided as dissipating the mental
strength.”

[Sidenote: Modern science study and doubt]

A long stride was taken by Comenius toward breaking the mechanical
teaching of the papacy. The error into which his followers fall is in
making nature the all in all, failing to recognize the Word of God as the
only guide and interpreter of natural phenomena. This mistake has led
modern schools to take the position in science studies which is described
in the following words by Frank S. Hoffman, professor of philosophy in
one of America’s leading theological schools: “Every man, because he is
a man, is endowed with powers for forming judgments, and he is placed
in this world to develop and apply those powers to all the objects with
which he comes in contact.”[174] In such words does he plainly state that
human reason is the means by which man is to obtain his wisdom. Then
follows his explanation of the method of procedure when reason has been
thus exalted. These are his words: “In every sphere of investigation he
[man] should _begin with doubt_, and the student will make the most rapid
progress _who has acquired THE ART OF DOUBTING WELL_.”

Suppose, now, that the subject under consideration is some newly
discovered natural phenomenon, and the student of nature wishes to
investigate. According to Professor Hoffman, a modern theologian, and
hence a teacher, he must “begin with doubt, and the student will make
the most rapid progress who has acquired the art of doubting well.”
Christian education, in contrast with this method, says, “Through faith
we understand.”

[Sidenote: Methods in Sciences and theology]

That this method of study—to begin with doubt—is not only applicable
to the natural sciences, but to the study of spiritual truths also,
Professor Hoffman continues: “We ask that every student of theology
take up the subject precisely as he would any other science: _that he
begin with doubt_, and carefully weigh the arguments for every doctrine,
accepting or rejecting each assertion according as the balance of
probabilities is for or against it.... We believe that even the teachings
of Jesus should be viewed from this standpoint, and should be accepted or
rejected on the ground of their inherent reasonableness.”

Thus the spirit of doubt with which the child is taught to study nature,
goes with him through all his school years; it grows with his growth;
and if he enters a theological school to prepare for the ministry, he is
confronted by the same method in the investigation of the teachings of
Christ. What wonder that the results of modern education are a class of
infidels and skeptics?

The words of President Harper, of Chicago University, are worth
repeating: “It is difficult to prophesy what the results of our present
method of educating the youth will be in fifty years. We are training
the mind in the public schools, but the moral side in the child’s nature
is almost entirely neglected.” Not only is it neglected, but faith is
trampled to the ground, and human reason exalted above its prostrate
form. “_When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?_” A
pertinent question, indeed, for educators to answer.

[Sidenote: The method of “doubt” is Socratic]

This method of doubting is papal, and can be traced directly to Socrates,
the Greek. Of him, we read: “Socrates was not a ‘philosopher,’ nor yet a
‘teacher,’ but rather an ‘educator,’ having for his function ‘to rouse,
persuade, and rebuke’.... _Socrates’ theory of education had for its
basis a PROFOUND AND CONSISTENT CONCEPTION._”[175]

In dealing with his students, the same authority thus states his method
of procedure: “Taking his departure from some apparently remote principle
or proposition to which the respondent yielded a ready assent, Socrates
would draw from it an unexpected but undeniable consequence which was
plainly inconsistent with the opinion impugned. In this way he brought
his interlocutor to pass judgment upon himself, and reduced him to a
state _of doubt_ or perplexity. ‘Before I ever met you,’ says Meno, in a
dialogue which Plato called by his name, ‘I was told _that you spent your
time in doubting and leading others to doubt:_ and it is a fact that your
witcheries and spells have brought me to that condition; you are like the
torpedo; as it benumbs anyone who approaches and touches it, so do you.’”

We can readily trace the connection between the Socratic method of
doubting and the same method as advocated by the professor of the
theological school, for “his [Socrates’s] practice led to the Platonic
revival,” and the Platonic system of education and its introduction in
modern schools has been too thoroughly discussed in previous pages to
need repetition here.

[Sidenote: “Doubt” taught in modern schools]

The Socratic method of teaching—the development of doubt—seems to
characterize much of the teaching of to-day, if we can judge from an
article which appeared in the _Outlook_, written by the editor, Lyman
Abbott. The educational work is thus described:—

“The educational processes of our time—possibly of all time—are largely
analytical and critical. They consist chiefly in analyzing the subjects
brought to the student for examination, separating them into their
constituent parts, considering how they have been put together, and
sitting in judgment on the finished fabric or on the process by which it
has been constructed.

“Thus all, or nearly all, study is analytical, critical,—a process of
inquiry and investigation. The process presupposes an inquiring if not
a skeptical mood. _Doubt_ is the pedagogue which leads the pupil to
_knowledge_.

“Does he study the human body?—Dissection and anatomy are the foundations
of his study. Chemistry?—The laboratory furnishes him the means of
analysis and inquiry into physical substances. History?—He questions
the statements which have been unquestioned heretofore, ransacks
libraries for authorities in ancient volumes and more ancient documents.
Literature?—The poem which he read only to enjoy he now subjects
to the scalpel, inquires whether it really is beautiful, why it is
beautiful, how its meter should be classified, how its figures have been
constructed. Philosophy?—He subjects his own consciousness to a process
of vivisection in an endeavor to ascertain the physiology and anatomy of
the human spirit; brings his soul into the laboratory that he may learn
its chemical constituents.

“Meanwhile the constructive and synthetic process is relegated to a
second place, or lost sight of altogether. Does he study medicine?—He
gives more attention to diagnosis than to therapeutics; to the analysis
of disease than to the problem how to overcome it. Law?—He spends
more time in analyzing cases than in developing power to grasp great
principles and apply them in the administration of justice to varying
conditions. The classics?—It is strange if he has not at graduation
spent more weeks in the syntax and grammar of the language than he has
spent hours in acquiring and appreciating the thought and the spirit
of the great classic authors. It has been well and truly said of the
modern student that he does not study grammar to understand Homer, he
reads Homer to get the Greek grammar. His historical study has given him
dates, events, a mental historical chart; perhaps, too, it has given him
a scholar’s power to discriminate between the true and the false, the
historical and the mythical in ancient legends: but not to many has it
given an understanding of the significance of events, a comprehension
of, or even new light upon, the real meaning of the life of man on the
earth. Has he been studying philosophy?—Happy he is if, as a result of
his analysis of self-consciousness, he has not become morbid respecting
his own inner life, or cynically skeptical concerning the inner life of
others.

“It is doubtless in the realm of ethics and religion that the disastrous
results of a too exclusive analytical process and a too exclusive
critical spirit are seen. Carrying the same spirit, applying the same
methods, to the investigation of religion, the Bible becomes to him
simply a collection of ancient literature, whose sources, structure, and
forms he studies, whose spirit, he, at least for the time, forgets;
worship is a ritual whose origin, rise, and development he investigates;
whose _real significance_ as an expression of penitence, gratitude,
and consecration he loses sight of altogether. _Faith_ is a series of
tenets whose biological development he traces; or a form of consciousness
whose relation to brain action he inquires into; or whose growth by
evolutionary processes out of earlier states he endeavors to retrace.

“Vivisection is almost sure sooner or later to become a post-mortem;
and the subject of it, whether it be a flower, a body, an author, or an
experience, generally dies under the scalpel. It is for this reason that
so many students in school, academy, and college lose not merely their
theology, which is perhaps no great loss, but their religion, which is an
irreparable loss, while they are acquiring an education.”[176]

[Sidenote: Ministers accept Socratic reasoning]

This spirit of doubt characterizes the teachings of modern higher
critics. The critical study of the Bible, Dr. Newton tells us, “has
disposed forever of the claim that it is such an oracle of God as we can
submit our intellects to unquestioningly.” “Dr. Briggs says that there
are three co-ordinate authorities—the church, the Bible, and reason. ‘But
when they disagree, which is to be the final court of appeal?’ asks Dr.
Newton. ‘They do disagree widely to-day.’ Dr. Newton believes that the
ultimate court of appeal is reason,—not the reason of Thomas Paine and
the present-day realistic rationalists, but rather the ‘_Divine Reason_’
_of Socrates and of Plato_.... Reason in this sense means not merely
or chiefly the rationalizing faculty, but the moral nature—the whole
spiritual being of man. ‘It is what conscience teaches, as well as what
intellect affirms, that, together with the voice of the heart, forms the
trinity of true authority—of reason.’”[177]

[Sidenote: Secular methods and religious truths]

This is indeed the exaltation of reason. There is, in such a system,
no room whatever for faith. W. T. Harris, United States Commissioner
of Education, writing of Sunday-schools, attributes their decline to
the adoption, by Sunday-school teachers, of the methods employed in the
secular schools. A few words from him will suffice. He says: “With the
spectacle of the systematic organization of the secular schools and the
improvement of methods of teaching before them, the leaders in the church
have endeavored to perfect the methods of the religious instruction of
youth. They have met the following dangers which lay in their path;
namely, first, the danger of adopting methods of instruction in religion
which were fit and proper only for secular instruction; second, the
selection of religious matter for the course of study which did not lead
in a most direct manner toward vital religion, although it would readily
take on a pedagogic form.”[178]

In order to show the reason why methods which are perfectly proper in
giving secular education are not adapted to religious instruction, Mr.
Harris explains: “The secular school gives positive instruction. It
teaches mathematics, natural science, history, and language. Knowledge
of the facts can be precise and accurate, and a similar knowledge of
the principles can be arrived at. The self-activity of the pupil is
... demanded by the teacher of the secular school. The pupil must not
take things on authority, but must test and verify.... He must trace
out the mathematical demonstrations.... He must learn the method of
investigating facts.... The spirit of the secular school therefore comes
to be an enlightening one, although not of the highest order.”

The whole tendency of secular education, according to Mr. Harris, is
to develop a spirit of investigation and proof. This, he says, is a
means of enlightening, but not of the highest order. The highest means
of enlightening the mind is by faith. That is God’s method. Christian
schools must avoid the secular methods of instruction, adopting in their
stead that highest form of enlightening,—faith. That separates Christian
schools from secular schools in methods as well as in the subject matter
taught.

[Sidenote: Secular methods require material proof]

This secular method of investigation saps the spiritual life, and
is responsible for the decline in modern Protestantism. Mr. Harris
continues: “Religious education, it is obvious in giving the highest
results of thought and life to the young, must cling to the form of
authority, and not attempt to borrow the methods of mathematics,
science, and history from the secular school. Such borrowing will result
only in giving the young people an overweening confidence in the
finality of their own immature judgments. They will become conceited
and shallow-minded.... Against this danger of sapping or undermining
all authority in religion by the introduction of the methods of the
secular school which lay stress on the self-activity of the child, the
Sunday-school has not been sufficiently protected in the more recent
years of its history.”

If the adoption of secular methods of teaching in the Sunday-school,
where children are instructed one day only in the week, has so weakened
Protestantism, what must be the result when children are daily taught in
the public schools by methods which tend always to exalt human reason
above faith. It is little wonder that five days’ instruction can not be
counteracted by the very best Sabbath instruction even in those schools
which have not adopted secular methods in teaching the Bible.

Protestants should learn from this that in starting Christian schools the
methods followed in the secular schools can not be adopted. Here is the
stumbling-block over which many are apt to fall. Religious instruction
demands methods of teaching which will develop faith.

[Sidenote: Religion in schools of Comenius]

I can not refrain from recurring to the teachings of Comenius, since
they so strongly opposed the methods of education followed by those who,
to-day, claim to be his disciples. James H. Blodgett says: “Comenius,
anticipating more modern leaders in the philosophy and the art of
education, prepared an outline of the Pansophic School about 1650, in
which the work of a complete education was divided for seven classes.
The general school was to spend the first hour of the morning in hymns,
Bible reading, and prayers.”[179] “Class III, the Atrial,” we are told
by the same writer, “was to have the inscription, ‘Let no one enter who
can not speak.’ In this class the boys should begin to read the Bible....
The history of this class is the famous deeds of the Biblical narrative.”
Of Class IV we read: “A special collection of hymns and psalms must be
arranged for this class; also an epitome of the New Testament, which
should comprise a continuous life of Christ and His apostles, compiled
from the four Gospels.... The accessory study is Greek.... It is
comparatively easy to learn to read the New Testament [in Greek], and
this is the chief utility of the study.” Bible study formed an important
feature of the work of Class V, for concerning its work we read: “A Bible
Manual, also, called the Gate of the Sanctuary, is to be placed in the
pupils’ hands. This is to contain the whole of Scripture history in the
words of the Bible, but so digested that it may be read in one year.”

Class VII was theological; and the reader will readily note the
difference between the course of instruction marked out for it by
Comenius, and that suggested by Professor Hoffman for theological
students in the twentieth century. “Inscription over the door: ‘Let
no one enter who is irreligious.’ ... The class book should be a work
dealing with the last stage of wisdom on earth, that is to say, the
communion of souls with God. Universal history should be studied, and in
particular the history of the church for whose sake the world exists....
The future minister must learn how to address a congregation, and should
be taught the laws of sacred oratory.”

Let it be remembered that Comenius was a bishop of the Moravian Brethren,
a denomination noted for its extensive missionary work, its missions
dotting the earth. Their activity in church work can readily be accounted
for by their system of education. Any Protestant church which wishes to
survive, and desires the spread of its principles, must see that its
children are educated spiritually as well as mentally and physically.

[Sidenote: Christian education emphasizes practical]

We are now brought to consider another very important phase of
education,—the relation of mental to physical training. False systems
have ever exalted the former to the neglect of the latter. Christ
combined the two, and educators from the seventeenth century on have
presented correct views on the subject.

Locke begins his “Thoughts on Education” with these words: “A sound mind
in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this
world.” “The attainment of this happy condition,” observes Painter,
“is the end of education.... In his [Locke’s] mind, the function of
education was to form noble men well equipped for the duties of practical
life.”[180]

A PURE SOUL IN A SOUND BODY SHOULD PRECEDE STUDY OF MERE FACTS. Locke’s
ideas of education are thus described by Quick: “His aim was to give
a boy a robust mind in a robust body. His body was to endure hardness,
his reason was to teach him self-denial. But this result was to be
brought about by leading, not driving him. He was to be trained, not
for the university, but for the world. Good principles, good manners,
and discretion were to be cared for first of all; intelligence and
intellectual activity next; and actual knowledge last of all.... The
prevalent drill in the grammar of the classical languages was to be
abandoned, and the mother-tongue was to be carefully studied.... In
everything the part the pupil was to play in life was steadily to be kept
in view.”

And yet to-day, when the editor of one of our magazines proposed that our
university students discuss the question, “What order of studies is best
suited to fit the average man for his duties in the world of to-day?” or,
“What is the relative importance of the various branches of education
in fitting a man to secure his own happiness and rendering him a useful
citizen and neighbor?” the president of Yale University replied: “Some
of the men hesitate to give the official sanction of the university to
a debate on short notice on questions of which most of the contestants
know very little. Why should not our university students know and choose
the practical studies? If they do not know them, why not?”[181]

[Sidenote: Manual training and mathematics]

There are educators, however, who are willing to break away from the
conservatism of the past, and who advocate a change of methods in the
elementary schools. Such are the thoughts presented by the superintendent
of public instruction in the State of Michigan, in a manual issued in
May, 1900. There is sound sense in the following paragraphs, which will
appeal to all who consider the needs of a child’s mind. He says:—

“It is the duty of the schools to produce parallel growths of all the
faculties, leaving the pupil free to swing out into the realm of choice
with no distorted tastes or shortened powers. The training of the hand
ministers to this parallel development.

“We remember when the sciences were taught wholly from the text. Later,
the principles of Pestalozzi entered the class room, and we stood
open-eyed and open-minded, as the truths of science were demonstrated
with the proper apparatus in the hands of the teacher. But to-day
Froebel’s idea has taken possession, and the pupil performs the
experiment. It is his hand that creates the conditions; it is his eye
that watches the changes, his hand that notes them. Science teaching
has thus adopted the manual training idea; and such are the results
that Latin, Greek, and mathematics are no longer considered as the only
intellective subjects for college training.

“What the manual training idea has done for science teaching, it will
do for mathematics and other kindred subjects. The dissatisfaction
among professional and business men regarding the teaching of practical
things in our schools is wide-spread. This is especially true regarding
arithmetic, penmanship, spelling, and language. Anyone who doubts this
needs but to enter the business places of his own city and make inquiry.
There is a well-grounded feeling that in the mastery of arithmetic is
a discipline closely allied to that needed in the activities of life;
and when a father discovers that his child of sixteen or seventeen
years has no idea of practical business questions and little skill in
analytical processes, he justly charges the school with inefficiency.
The difficulty, however, is that the pupil has had no opportunity to
sense arithmetic. To him measurements and values are indefinite ideas.
He commits facts to memory, and blindly tries to work out problems. If
his memory and imagination are good, he stands well, and receives a
high mark. But still the work is vague; it does not touch his life or
experience; it has no meaning. Put that pupil into a manual-training
school,—the boy in the shop, the girl in the kitchen [practical
experience has demonstrated that the girl has a place in the shop
also],—and at once mathematical facts become distinct ideas.

“Step into the shop of a manual-training school [or step into the
well-ordered kitchen], and observe the boy with a project before him.
What are the steps through which his mind must bring him to the final
perfection of the work.

“First, he must give the project careful study.

“Second, he must design it and make a drawing of it. This at once puts
mathematics into his hand as well as his head. He must use square,
compass, try-square, and pencil. Exact measurements must be made,
divisions and subdivisions calculated, lines carefully drawn.

“Third, he must select material of proper dimensions and fiber, and then
must reflect how to apply it to the draught made so that there is no
waste.

“Fourth, he must plane and saw to the line, correct and fit; in short,
must create the project that has had existence in his mind and upon paper
only. Then it is that his arithmetic begins to throb with life, his
judgment to command, and his ethical sense to unfold.”

This is the testimony of teachers who have made a practical application
of arithmetic and geometry in the carpenter shop. Children twelve and
fourteen years of age solve problems in proportion, in square root,
in measurements, and in denominate numbers, which baffle the skill of
the ordinary high-school graduate. This, too, is a part of Christian
education. Doubtless Christ himself gained most of his mathematical
knowledge at the carpenter’s bench.

“The most practical education,” says Hiram Corson “(but this,
so-considered, pre-eminently practical age does not seem to know it), is
the education of the spiritual man; for it is this, and not the education
of the intellectual man, which is, must be (or Christianity has made
a great mistake), the basis of individual character, and to individual
character ... humanity owes its sustainment.” The proper combination,
then, of religious training and practical hand work in teaching
mathematics or language will develop stability of character, and this is
the end and aim of Christian education.

[Sidenote: Carpentry not the only practical educator]

There are, however, in this twentieth century, various other ways of
rendering education practical; and since these ways are a factor in the
Christian training of youth, they should receive attention. God made no
mistake when he gave to Adam the work of tilling the soil. Since the days
of Eden, those men who have shunned the cities, and chosen instead to
dwell in rural districts, have, as a rule, come closest to the heart of
the Creator. The true way to study the sciences is to come in touch with
Nature.

[Sidenote: Christ chose the country]

For this, also, we have the example of Christ. “In training His
disciples, Jesus chose to withdraw from the confusion of the city, to
the quiet of the fields and hills, as more in harmony with the lessons
of self-abnegation He desired to teach them. And during His ministry
He loved to gather the people about Him under the blue heavens, on some
grassy hillside, or on the beach beside the lake. Here, surrounded by the
works of His own creation, He could turn the thoughts of His hearers from
the artificial to the natural. In the growth and development of nature
were revealed the principles of His kingdom. As men should lift up their
eyes to the hills of God, and behold the wonderful works of His hands,
they could learn the precious lessons of divine truth. Christ’s teaching
would be repeated to them in the things of nature.... The things of
nature take up the parables of our Lord, and repeat His counsels.”

The teacher who has a desire to ennoble the character of his pupils will
seek a place where Nature in her silent language gives lessons which no
human tongue can utter. Parents who desire the best good of their sons
and daughters, will, when the light of Christian education dawns upon
their minds, hasten into the country, that the youthful minds over which
they are keeping guard may be influenced by the natural rather than by
the artificial.

[Sidenote: Value of the farm in education]

It is not surprising that the best educators who have opened their minds
to truth have taught that cultivation of the soil, with the training of
the eye and the hand in the shop, should accompany mental discipline.
Prof. James R. Buchanan, says: “Blessed is the _farmer’s boy_.... The
industrial feature, not limited to handicraft, but embracing all forms
of useful exertion, _is the essential basis of a true education_;
as it insures, if rightly conducted, a worthy character, a healthy
constitution, a solid intellect, and a capacity for practical success;
for it gives vigor to the entire brain, and a far better invigorating
mental discipline than can ever be obtained from text-books. The boy
who has constructed a wagon, or a bureau, or _raised a small crop_,
as instructed, has more independence of mind and originality than the
one who has only studied text-books. The boys of Lancaster, Ohio, who
gave half their time to useful industry, made better progress in school
studies than the common school pupils who had their whole time for
study, and at the same time presented a model of conduct in all respects
unequaled in any non-working school in this country.”[182]

Close adherence to the text-book is the papal method of teaching, and is
a necessary accompaniment of prescribed courses, while the humanistic
tendency is well developed. Christian schools, because of the truths
they advocate, are forced to depart from the established order in the
educational world, and their education is rendered practical by joining
_the farm and the school_.

This method of teaching is already followed in some places, showing
that that system so often designated Christian education is not a thing
of recent birth, neither is it the product of some man’s mind. Its
principles have been made known from time to time, and these principles
have been followed more or less carefully in all periods of the world’s
history.

[Sidenote: School Gardens of Modern Europe]

That the combining of soil-cultivation and study is a practical thing,
and not a mere theory, is attested by the words of United States
Consul-General John Karel, who reports as follows concerning “School
Gardens in Russia:” “In a good many countries of western Europe,
especially in Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and partly
in Sweden, the public village schools have sections of land allotted
to them, which are either devoted to the use of the teachers, who take
the profits therefrom, or serve for the establishment of school gardens.
School gardens in western Europe bear, in a certain measure, a scientific
character. Children are made to carry out in them practically what they
learn theoretically.

[Sidenote: School gardens in Russia]

“In Russia ... it was well known that the land owners and peasants
were in great need of instruction in farming; consequently schools of
all kinds were established by the ministry of agriculture throughout
the country.... For the development of the gardening industry, schools
were founded first in Penza, in Bessarabia, ... and in 1869 a school
of gardening and viticulture was found at Nikitsk. The work of the
Nikitsk school was divided as follows: During the winter semester there
were three hours of lessons per day and four and one-half hours of
practical study in the garden, vineyard, and in the cellar. During the
summer semester the lessons in class lasted only one hour, or sometimes
two hours, but the practical studies occupied daily six or even eight
hours.”[183]

Teachers in these schools are enabled to support themselves at least
partially from the sale of fruits, berries, vegetables, honey, etc., but
this was not the chief inducement in starting school gardens. The writer
last quoted continues: “The desire to add something to the low salaries
of the village school teachers, and, on the other hand, to acquaint as
much as possible, not only children, but also grown-up people, with
gardening, sericulture, and apiculture, has caused an increase during the
last ten years, in the number of school gardens, apiaries, and silkworm
hatcheries. In 1892 there were about two thousand school gardens in
Russia. At the present time [1897] there are 7,521, with 532 apiaries,
and 372 silkworm hatcheries.”

Mr. Mescherski, who is chief of one of the departments of agriculture,
and one of the principal advocates of school gardens in Russia, has
stated the object of school gardens and their significance as follows:
“School gardens ... are of importance on the following grounds. (1)
Hygienic, as being a place for physical labor in the open air, so
necessary for the teacher and pupils.... (2) Scientific educational, as
acquainting children with the life of useful plants, developing their
minds by the study of nature, and promoting in the rising generation
a regard for labor and a more moral and æsthetic sentiment concerning
trees. (3) General economical ... and (4) personal economical,” which
refers to the support of the teacher.

[Sidenote: Christians should encourage rural life]

If the Russian government, on the liberation of its serfs and its
crown peasants, found it so greatly to its advantage to establish
school gardens, of what lasting benefit would they be to Christians!
Protestants, instead of crowding into the cities where the laboring man
is subject to the trades unions, trusts, and monopolies, should seek
for themselves a few acres of land, and should see that schools are
established for the education of their children where the mechanical
text-book grind is replaced by the study of God’s will as revealed in
His Word and works. Nature studies thus conducted, instead of developing
doubt, will strengthen the faith of the pupil, and the students from
such schools will be fitted for citizenship not only in the governments
of earth but in the Kingdom of God. This also is a part of the system of
instruction known as Christian education.




XVII

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION (Continued)


[Sidenote: Education defined by Pestalozzi]

The nineteenth century has not been lacking in minds which have grasped,
at least in part, the principles of Christian education. Thus writes
Pestalozzi: “Sound education stands before me symbolized by a tree
planted near fertilizing waters.... In the newborn child are hidden those
faculties which are to unfold during life. The individual and separate
organs of his being form themselves gradually into an harmonic whole, and
_build up humanity in the image of God_.”[184]

With this agrees Milton’s definition of education. “The end, then, of
learning,” he says, “is to repair the ruins of our first parents by
regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love Him,
to imitate Him, to be like Him, as we may the nearest by possessing
our souls of true virtue, _which being united to the heavenly grace
of faith_, makes up the highest perfection.” This is similar to the
definition given by the author of “Christian Education,” that “the true
object of education is to restore the image of God in the soul.”

Christian education, then, is a spiritual education. In this sense the
words of Pestalozzi, at the burial of his wife, are pathetic but weighty
with significance. Turning to the coffin, he said tenderly: “We were
shunned and despised by all; sickness and poverty bowed us down; and we
ate dry bread with tears. What was it in those days of severe trial gave
you and me strength to persevere and not lose hope?” Laying a copy of
God’s Word on her breast, he continued: “From this source you and I drew
courage and strength and peace.”[185]

Advocates of Christian education may to-day encounter the same sort of
rebuff from the world; but God’s Word stands as guide, expressing the
principles to be followed by the educator.

[Sidenote: The Bible as an educator]

Charles W. Dabney, Jr., president of the University of Tennessee,
in an address gave utterance to these words. “The Bible is the best
text-book of education, as of many other sciences. In it we read
where Paul tells Timothy, his ‘dearly beloved son in the faith,’ that
‘all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good
works.’ Nowhere in literature or philosophy is there a better or clearer
expression of the true purpose of education than this. The object of
education is not pleasure, or comfort, or gain, though all these may and
should result from it. The one true purpose in education is to prepare
the man for ‘good works.’ It is a noble thing to develop a perfect
soul, to thoroughly furnish a body, mind, and heart.... Character
building, conscience forming, then, is the main object of education. The
teacher dare not neglect character, nor the college to provide for its
development. We must always and everywhere, in every course and scheme
of study, provide those methods and agencies which shall develop the
character of the pupil along with his other powers. How, then, shall we
develop character in our pupils? What are the methods and the agencies
for doing this? This is the crucial question of this age, as of every
age. To this question all the ages give but one answer, and that is
_Christianity_. The world has had many teachers of science, art, and
philosophy, but only one teacher of righteousness, and He was Jesus
Christ, the Son of God.”

The many teachers of science, art, and philosophy, have, by their systems
of education, led men away from the knowledge of God, the wisdom which is
eternal life. If the education of Christ is to be accepted, as suggested
by Professor Dabney, His word, the Bible, must be recognized as the
Book of books, the guide in all investigation, the interpreter of all
phenomena.

[Sidenote: Christian schools needed]

Much is said concerning the moral education which every child should
receive. Parents realize that the boy or girl who grows to maturity
with only a physical or intellectual education is either a pugilist
or a fit subject for the penitentiary, and hence they insist that the
spiritual nature should receive some attention. But where is this
spiritual education to be obtained? State schools have no right to give
such training; indeed, they can not do it. True, they have attempted it,
but it is a miserable failure. Protestants should no longer make the
demand. The time has come for them to see that they should establish
schools, whose object it is to develop character. These schools should
receive support independent of the state; they should be free to follow
methods entirely different from the formalism of the papal system; their
course of instruction should meet the individual needs of the pupils,
and be of a character which will develop Christians. To accomplish such
results, the Word of God must be taken from the dust, and placed in the
curriculum, not as a mere reference book of Jewish antiquities, but, as
it is in deed and in truth, the light whose rays encircle the world. “The
Holy Scriptures must be the Alpha and Omega of Christian schools,” wrote
Comenius. Christ must be the teacher.

The men thus far quoted have followed the light which shone upon their
pathway. To-day we may gather the scattered gems of truth left by them;
but, better far, we may go direct to the Word itself, and the Spirit of
truth will guide into the paths of Christian education. As taught by
Froebel, “The spiritual and physical development do not go on separately
in childhood, but the two are closely bound up with each other.”

[Sidenote: Man’s threefold nature]

The human being has a threefold nature,—the physical, the mental, and
the spiritual; and Christian education so develops these that they
sustain the proper relation one to another. The spiritual nature was the
controlling power in the man made in God’s image. In the degeneration
of the race, he lost his spiritual insight, and passed first to the
intellectual plane, then to the physical. This is seen in the history
before the flood. Eden life was a spiritual existence; Adam’s life after
the fall was less spiritual, and gradually his descendants came to
live on the mental plane. There were master minds in the antediluvian
world. Men had no need of books, so strong was the memory and so keen
the insight. Through further disobedience, through an education which
strengthened reason rather than faith, men sank to the physical plane
instead of rising to the spiritual, until in due time the earth was
destroyed by water.

[Sidenote: Education since the time of Christ]

The same planes of existence are distinguishable in all ages since the
flood, but Christ alone rose to the purely spiritual level. Israel as a
nation might have so lived had true educational methods been followed.
Israel falling, the offer was made to the Christian church. Age by
age that body has refused to live a spiritual life, or, accepting
the proffered gift, has attempted to rise without complying with the
necessary conditions,—absolute faith in God’s Word and strict compliance
with his commands. The Reformation again turned men’s eyes toward a
spiritual education, and American Protestants had the best opportunity
ever offered man to return to the original design of the Creator. Failure
is again the verdict of the recording angel. Time hastens on, and the
last gospel message is going to the world; but before _a people can be
prepared for the setting up of Christ’s kingdom, they must be educated
according to the principles of Christian education_, for this is _the
foundation_ of all government as well as of all religion.

What is Christian education? Since its object is the training of a
human being for life eternal, and that existence is a spiritual life,
the spiritual must be the predominating feature of the education. When
the spiritual leads, the intellectual and physical take their proper
positions. The inner or spiritual man feeds only upon truth, absolute
truth; not theory nor speculation, but truth. “Thy word is truth.” _The
Word of God must then be the basis_ of all Christian education, the
science of salvation the central theme.

[Sidenote: The test]

Since God reveals his character in two ways, in his Word and in his
works, the Bible must be the first book in Christian education, and the
book of nature next. Many educators have seen the value of the book of
nature, and to-day nature-study forms a large part of the course of
instruction in all grades of schools. It may be asked, Is not this,
then, Christian education? We reply, Does it restore in men the image of
God? If so, it passes the test. But it can not be said to do this, and
therefore it falls short. Wherein, then, lies the difficulty in modern
nature-teaching, or the sciences in general? Read some of our modern
text-books in science. They readily reveal the answer.

[Sidenote: Astronomy as taught denies the Bible]

Young’s General Astronomy reads: “Section 908. Origin of the Nebular
Hypothesis.—Now this [the present condition] is evidently a good
arrangement for a planetary system, and therefore _some have inferred_
that the Deity made it so, _perfect from the first_. But to one who
considers the way in which other perfect works of nature usually come to
perfection—their processes of growth and development—_this explanation
seems improbable. It appears far more likely that the planetary system
grew than that it was built outright_.... In its main idea that the solar
system once existed as a nebulous mass, and has reached its present
state as the result of a series of purely physical processes, it seems
certain to prove correct, and _it forms the foundation of all the current
speculations upon the subject_.

“Section 909. La Place’s Theory.—(_a_) He supposed that at some past
time, which may be taken as a starting point of our system’s history, ...
the matter collected in the sun and planets was in the form of a nebula.
(_b_) This nebula was a cloud of intensely heated gas, perhaps hotter,
_as he supposed_, than the sun is now. (_c_) This nebula, _under the
action of its own gravitation_, assumed an approximately globular form,
with a rotation around its axis,” etc., etc.

The student must decide whether he will base his study of the heavens and
the earth—the study of astronomy, geography, and geology, as well as
zoology, and botany indirectly—on this hypothesis, which, we are told,
“forms the foundation of all current speculations upon the subject;”
or whether he will turn from these _reasonable explanations_ for the
existence of things, and take the plain Word of truth, which says, “By
the Word of the Lord were the heavens made;” “He spake and it was; he
commanded and it stood fast,” together with the explanation as given in
Genesis and elsewhere in the Scriptures.

Faith and finite reason face each other; the education of the world takes
reason; Christian education is based upon faith in God’s Word. Which will
develop character? _Why is it that modern science-study does not lead to
God?_—IN THE EVOLUTIONARY TEACHING OF THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS YOU HAVE ONE
ANSWER.

[Sidenote: Evolution as taught in zoology]

Picking up an ordinary text-book in zoology, we read: “The earliest
member of the _series directly leading up to the horse_ was eohippus, an
older eocene form about as large as a fox, which had four well-developed
toes and the rudiments of a fifth on each forefoot, and three toes
behind. In later eocene beds appeared an animal of similar size, but
with only four toes in front and three behind. In newer beds, i.e., lower
miocene, are found the remains of mesohippus, which was as large as a
sheep and had three toes and the splint of another in each forefoot....
The succeeding forms were still more horse-like.”[186] Next they find a
donkey-like animal, and later “a true equus, as large as the existing
horse, appears just above the horizon, and the series is complete.”[187]

If the horse tribe has evolved from a fox-like animal, it is little
wonder that men trace their origin to the monkey tribe; but those who
wish God’s character, take by faith the statement that “in the image of
God created He him.”

Such theories form the basis for the generally adopted classification of
the entire vegetable and animal worlds. Christian education demands new
text-books, based upon the truths of God’s Word.

[Sidenote: Dana on origin of species]

From Dana, the recognized authority on geology, the following sentences
are quoted: “Life commenced among plants, in _seaweeds_; and it ended
in _palms_, _oaks_, _elms_, the _orange_, _rose_, etc. It commenced
among animals in _lingulæ_ (mollusks standing on a stem like a plant),
_crinoids_, _worms_, and _trilobites_, and probably earlier in the simple
systemless protozoans; it ended in _man_.” For this development, he says,
“Time is long.”

In a paragraph on “Progress Always the Gradual Unfolding of a System,”
are the words: “There were higher and lower species appearing through
_all the ages_, but the successive populations were still, in their
general range, of higher and higher grade; and thus the progress was ever
upward. The type or plan of vegetation, and the four grand types or plans
of animal life, the radiate, molluscan, articulate, and vertebrate, were
each displayed under multitudes of tribes and species, _rising in rank
with the progress of time_.... Its progress should be, _as zoological
history attests, a development, an unfolding, an evolution_.”

In the study of this evolution in animal life, he says, “The progress in
the system of life is a progress in cephalization,” and he gives several
illustrations, as the passage from tadpole to frog; from lobster to crab,
from worm to insect, etc. Such teachers speak always of the evolution
from the lower to the higher forms of life, but leave retrogression
entirely out of their reckoning.

To those who offer the Sacred Record in opposition to his so-called
geological proofs, Dana says: “The Biblical student finds, in the first
chapter of Genesis, positive statement with regard to the creation of
living beings. But these statements are often misunderstood; for they
really leave the question as to the operation of natural causes for the
most part an open one,—as asserted by Augustine, among the Fathers of
the church and by some Biblical interpreters of the present day.... In
view of the whole subject, the following appears to be the conclusions
most likely to be sustained by further research: The evolution of the
system of life went forward _through derivation of species from species,
according to usual methods, not yet clearly understood, AND WITH FEW
OCCASIONS FOR SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTION_,” etc.

Thus have the truths in God’s great lesson book of nature been
misinterpreted. It was a step in the right direction when the mechanical
drill of the classics was dropped, and nature studies substituted; but
God’s Word must take its place as the interpreter of nature and natural
phenomena, or the theory of evolution is the natural result, and this
will form no part of Christian education.

Protestant parents, are your children learning to see in the visible
things about them the emblems of the invisible, even the eternal power
and godhead? If not, why do you not put them where they will? This is
their salvation.

[Sidenote: Underlying principles neglected]

The exaltation of detail and the belittling of principles is a common
error in educational systems. This is seen in all departments of
learning. Not only is it exemplified in the exaltation of the mental and
the physical above the spiritual, but the same method is employed in
the detail work of the class room. This is in essence papal education.
Christian education requires teachers to reverse the order throughout the
whole course of instruction.

To illustrate the thought: There are a few fundamental principles which
govern the universe. Such is the statement of the truth, “The love of
Christ constraineth us,” which contains within it the whole explanation
of the force of gravity, adhesion, cohesion, molecular attraction,
chemical affinity, human love, and the law of sex, and is therefore
illustrated in physics, chemistry, mineralogy, biology,—in fact, in all
the sciences. Again the second great commandment, “Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself,” is the statement of a principle which underlies all
history, civil government, and political and social science. If followed,
it will solve all international difficulties, as well as prevent personal
animosity; it will blot out the evils of society, breaking down the
barrier between poverty and riches; trusts would never exist, trades
unions would be unnecessary, and monopolies unknown, if the one law of
Jehovah were only learned. Of how much greater value, then, is the study
of such principles than all the theories which may be proposed by men
for international arbitration, or all the laws which may be passed in
legislative halls concerning the equal rights of men and the proper means
of governing States, Territories, or acquired possessions.

But this is Christian education, and lessons such as this are learned
only when the truth is written on the heart by the pen of the Spirit.
It is thus that a spiritual education, the higher birth of which the
Saviour spoke, rises above the education of the world as far as heaven
is above the earth. When these and kindred principles are made the
central thought, all the facts which the pupil may be able to learn in a
lifetime, will but serve to impress the truth more firmly on his life.

[Sidenote: Deductions from facts not always correct]

All the facts which it is possible for man to gather in a lifetime,
added to all that are gathered by generation after generation, are but
illustrations of a few principles. Modern teaching deals almost wholly
with facts; it requires children, from the time they enter school until
they are graduated, to heap together facts. Process is the great theme in
mathematics; facts, facts, facts, are the things sought for in the whole
realm of natural science. History is but the study of still more facts,
and where generalizations or classifications are made, they are theories
formulated from the facts gathered. But man is never able to collect all
the facts; he is never sure that his conclusions have reached absolute
truth. The truth of the matter is, the classifications thus formed are
only partially correct, and the discovery of a few more facts overthrows
the finespun theories of the best of scientists. It is thus constantly
in astronomy, in botany, in zoology, and in biology. Because of new
discoveries, the physician of yesterday is wholly wrong in the eyes
of the physician of to-day. To-morrow the bright light of to-day will
be superseded by some other luminary. This is the result of inductive
reasoning based on sense perception.

This thought is well expressed by Hinsdale, who says: “We observe and
register phenomena, classify facts, deduce conclusions and laws, and
build up systems; but in science and philosophy we return to the subject
again and again; we seek to verify our facts and test our conclusions,
and when we have finished, we are not sure, save in a limited sphere,
of our results. Some of the best-known sciences have been largely
reorganized within the last few years. We have the ‘new chemistry,’
the ‘new astronomy,’ the ‘new political economy,’ and even the ‘new
mathematics.’ Particularly in the field of human conduct, where man’s
will is the governing faculty, we are often uncertain of our way and
sometimes are wholly lost.”[188]

[Sidenote: Sense perception often incorrect]

The shifting foundation upon which such knowledge rests is well
illustrated by the tests which the human being is able to make with
the organs of sense. Water of 98° is hot to the hand that has been
accustomed to a temperature of 45°, but cool to the hand which is just
taken from water of 112°. An orange is sweet to the man who has been
eating a stronger acid, but sour to the palate accustomed to sugar. The
eye which has been used in a dimly lighted room is dazzled by the noonday
glare, and judging of the size of a star by sight we would not conceive
it to be a sun. The knowledge gained by the senses is only partially
true,—it is not absolute truth; and the scientific theories propounded by
minds which have reasoned from these inaccurate data can not fail to fall
short of absolute truth. It may be _knowledge_; it is not _wisdom_.

[Sidenote: Faith is substance, not theory]

Christian education approaches nature from the opposite direction. With
a mind open to receive truth, it grasps _by faith_ the statement of a
universal principle. The spiritual law is the thing sought, and the
corresponding physical law is compared with it. Once found, every fact
which is learned, every observation made, but shows more clearly the
working of that law in the spiritual world. For such teaching, faith is
an indispensable attribute. Experiment is not discouraged, but strongly
encouraged; reason is not laid aside, but the mind is called upon to
reason on subjects grander and nobler than any deductions which can
possibly result from the opposite manner of approaching truth.

This is the ideal in Christian education, the point toward which the
Christian teacher is leading his pupils. In case of unbelief, or in
dealing with the heathen, the mind must first be approached through the
avenues of the senses, until the Spirit of God arouses the inner eye of
faith. This is merely preliminary, and should not long continue. Children
are not given credit for having the faith they really do possess, and
are therefore held to the inductive method by educators long after their
minds and hearts are capable of grasping truth, and when it would be
found that the deductive method would produce a much more rapid growth of
mental and spiritual power than is now seen.

[Sidenote: The Christian teacher]

This suggests the qualifications necessary on the part of a teacher.
Remembering that this education is of a spiritual nature, the teacher
himself must be connected with truth by an unwavering faith.

When Nicodemus, the representative of higher education in the schools
of Jerusalem, interviewed Christ, the new Teacher who had appeared in
their midst, and whose teaching was attended by a power unknown to the
educators of the day, the learned man said, “Rabbi, we know Thou art a
teacher sent of God.” “But how can these things be?” The heavenly Teacher
outlined to him the secrets of His educational system, telling Nicodemus
that it was not based on sight, but on faith; that the spiritual was
first, and, when so made, the rest would follow. Then came the query,
“How can it be?” To which Christ replied, “If I told you earthly things,
and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things?”
“Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?”

In view of these thoughts, it is not strange that the study of the
sciences in a Christian school will differ widely from the course offered
in the same department of learning in an institution where the object of
education is wholly different.

[Sidenote: Physiology the central science]

Discarding the evolutionary theory which pervades the teaching of
all institutions where education is not wholly based on the Word of
God, man, created in the image of God, is recognized as the highest
manifestation of creative power. The life of God is the first study;
that _life_, as manifested in man, is the next, and physiology takes
its place as the center of all science-study. This is a study of life
in all its manifestations, beginning with the spiritual, and extending
to the mental and physical. Here, as elsewhere, the laws which govern
the spiritual nature have their types in the other two natures; and when
once the central truth of _life_, an abundance of life, is grasped, the
study of physiology becomes not the study of dead forms, mere facts,
but a soul-study, which includes the home of the inner man and all the
machinery which the soul manipulates. Thus considered, from this center
(physiology) extend rays, like the spokes of a wheel, each representing
another science, until within that broad circle represented by these
radii, are included all the physical as well as all the metaphysical
sciences.

It will be seen that this mode of correlating the sciences cures at once
the mistake of the age,—the cramming system,—which results from a neglect
of manual training and from the study of a multiplicity of books, crowded
with facts which must be stored in the mind of the student.

[Sidenote: Correlation of sciences]

By placing physiology as the center of the circle, and correlating
therewith all other sciences, another advantage arises, for that circle
includes within itself the languages and mathematics. These latter are
but helps in the study of the thought-bearing subjects,—the Bible and
the sciences,—and instead of being studied as primary subjects, should
be _used as a means to an end_. Reading, writing, spelling, grammar,
rhetoric, and literature, and mathematics, from arithmetic to general
geometry and calculus, are but means of expressing truths gained in the
study of the revealed Word and the book of nature. The simplicity of
the system will appeal to the mind of any educator, for it is a plan
long sought for. The one thing lacking among those who have experimented
with such methods has been the central subject, God’s Word. Having truth
as the basis for the correlation, the problem, so far as methods are
concerned, is practically solved.

The great and pressing need is for teachers who can execute the plan.
No narrow mind will be equal to the task. Again, as a system of true
education is approached, is seen the exalted position to which those who
teach are called.

[Sidenote: The basis of every educational effort]

Before passing the subject of physiology it is well to consider the
meaning of the expression that this subject “_should be the basis
of every educational effort_.” Text-book study of physiology, it is
clear, can not cover this requirement. The fact is that _book-study_
is but a small part of Christian education. True education is life,
and he who learns much must live much. The food eaten, the manner of
clothing the body, the study, exercise, mental habits, physical habits,
manual training, in fact, every phase of life is a part of the study of
physiology and hygiene, and these subjects must one and all receive due
consideration by the Christian educator.

[Sidenote: Manual training and education]

Manual training is becoming popular in many of our city schools, but the
work offered in a Christian school will differ from that of the worldly
school in this,—the latter is training the hand or the eye only, the
former is building character by giving a trade that enables the student
to be self-supporting and independent. In that the aims are different,
the methods must differ, although the matter taught may in many cases be
identical.

[Sidenote: Healthful diet and dress]

Healthful living is receiving attention in many schools. The Christian
school, while teaching the same subject, will have as its object a
preparation for eternal life. The subject, taught without faith, will
bring only increased physical and mental activity. The spiritual nature
can be reached alone by that education which is based on faith.

[Sidenote: Need of books]

Simply a casual investigation of the subject of Christian education
reveals the need of books for the guidance of teachers who undertake to
direct the growth of the child. With proper study-books, based upon the
eternal principles of truth revealed in the Scriptures, the work which is
now in its infancy would make much more rapid and substantial progress.

[Sidenote: The home school]

Parents who sense the responsibility resting upon them in the rearing of
children for the kingdom of heaven are anxious to know when and where the
principles of Christian education can be carried out. The beauty of the
system is nowhere more vividly portrayed than in the recognition which it
gives to the _home_ and the _duty of parents_ toward their children in
the matter of education.

In spite of the fact that much is said relative to the importance of
educating for the state, the words of Herbert Spencer give a clear idea
of the home as the center of the true system. He says: “As the family
comes before the state in order of time—as the bringing up of children is
possible before the state exists, or when it has ceased to be, whereas
the state is rendered possible only by the bringing up of children, it
follows that the duties of the parent demand closer attention than those
of the citizen.” The plan of Christian education goes a little farther,
and recognizing the earthly family as a type of the heavenly, places the
parents in God’s place to the young children; hence the home should be
the only school and “the parents should be the only teachers of their
children until they have reached eight or ten years of age.”

[Sidenote: Lessons for the home school]

“The mother should find time to cultivate in herself and in her children
a love for the beautiful buds and opening flowers.... The only schoolroom
for children from eight to ten years of age should be in the open air,
amid the opening flowers and nature’s beautiful scenery. And their only
text-book should be the treasures of nature.”

[Sidenote: The church school]

With such a training, the first ten years the child should develop
a strong body and a strong mind. He should then be able to spend
the next five or six years under the instruction of a consecrated
Christian teacher in an elementary school, where teacher and parents may
co-operate. The threefold nature must be developed so that when the age
of manhood or womanhood is reached, strength of character has also been
gained.

[Sidenote: The industrial school]

The youth should then continue his mental culture in some industrial
school, located in the country, where there is freedom from the evils
of city life, and where the rapidly developing physical nature can be
correctly guided into lines of practical duties which will fit him for
real life. In the meantime, mental culture and spiritual training are
continued, for character is being formed for eternity.

[Sidenote: Training school for Christian workers]

The young man or woman of twenty or twenty-two should be prepared to
select a life-work, and the special training needed can be received in
a training school, which in Christian education will be for Christian
workers. Such a school will be necessary; for the education thus
outlined, extending from infancy over twenty years, can not fail
to develop a character which chooses _Christian work_ as the life
occupation. A short training in a higher institution, which in character
is _a school of the prophets_, should so round out the nature already
forming that the young person goes out an ambassador for Christ, willing
to be used in any capacity by the Commander of the heavenly host, whether
it be on the farm, at the carpenter’s bench, or in the pulpit; for his
soul is knit to the King of heaven, as was David’s to Jonathan’s. Such a
student is prepared for active service, either on earth or in the kingdom
of our God; for he is one with the Father and his Son.

“Comenius divided the first twenty-four years of life into four periods,
to each of which he would assign a special school, thus:—

“1. For infancy, the school should be the mother’s knee.

“2. For childhood the school should be the vernacular school.

“3. For boyhood, the Latin school or gymnasium.

“4. For youth, the university and travel.

“A mother should exist in every house, a vernacular school in every
hamlet and village, a gymnasium in every city, and a university in every
kingdom or in every province.... The mother and the vernacular school
embrace all the young of both sexes. The Latin school gives a more
thorough education to those who aspire higher than the workshop; while
the university trains up the teachers and the learned men of the future,
that our churches, schools, and states may never lack suitable leaders.”

In the system known as Christian education the division is about the
same, the years of student life extending perhaps to thirty instead of
twenty-four, with this division: the first ten years are spent in the
home school; from ten to fifteen in the church school; from fifteen to
twenty in the industrial school, and the years from twenty to twenty-five
or even thirty are devoted to study and active work in the training
school for workers.

[Sidenote: Should Protestants educate?]

The time now is when those who are true Protestants _will_ demand
Christian education, and when no sacrifice will be considered too great
for the accomplishment of that object. The prophecy of Zechariah,
recorded in the ninth chapter, gives the words of God concerning the
contest to take place near the close of time between the sons of Greece
and the sons of Zion. “Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope;
even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto thee; when I have
bent Judah for Me, filled the bow with Ephraim, AND RAISED UP THY SONS, O
Zion, AGAINST THY SONS, O GREECE.”

Greece is recognized in the Scriptures as emblematic of worldly
wisdom,[189] but by that wisdom the world knew not God; in fact, by that
wisdom the world was led away from God. God will, then, raise up the sons
of Zion, the representatives of His wisdom—the divine philosophy—against
the sons of Greece, or the students of the wisdom of the world; and in
the final conflict, when truth wins, it will be evident that those who
are numbered with the victors have forsaken the wisdom of Greece for
the wisdom of God. It is not theory, but the most solemn fact, that the
preparation for a life with God demands that we and our children receive
a far different education than has been offered in the past. If we wish
the highest culture, if we long for soul development, our education
must be spiritual in nature; we must leave the low, turbid waters of the
valley for the snow waters of Lebanon. This is Christian education.

Protestants to-day see their children slipping from the fold. Every
inducement in the way of entertainments, form, ceremony, and oratory
is used to attract the youth to the church, but still the world
allures them. Ministers are beginning to search for the reason, and
are attributing it to the character of the education now given in
our schools; in saying this, they strike at the root of the trouble.
Protestantism is dying; the form of godliness, which denies the power
thereof, is spreading its dark mantle over the earth. It is in vain that
we point to stately edifices or noted divines; if we can not recognize
the difficulty, it but proves that we are ourselves under the cloud, and
recovery is all but impossible.

We talk of the spread of Christianity; we give of our means for the
conversion of the heathen, while our children perish within our
very homes. The spirit and power of Elias, which was to accompany
the preaching of the kingdom of Christ, was “to turn the hearts of
the fathers to the children.” Cries the prophet Joel, “_Gather the
children_, and those that suck the breast.... Let the priests, the
ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them
say, Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage [the children]
to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them.”

Ministers, fathers, mothers, look to the welfare of your children, or
the cause of Protestantism is lost in America. Take up your first, your
all-important duty, and give your children a Christian education, and
instead of a decline in church membership as now reported, there will be
an increase; instead of formalism, there will be life. This will be the
means of bringing the heathen to your door, and to a knowledge of the
gospel.

“Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold; all these gather themselves
together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt
surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on
thee, as a bride doeth. For thy waste and thy desolate places and the
land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the
inhabitants.... _The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast
lost the other_, shall say again in thine ears, the place is too strait
for me; give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine
heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am
desolate?... Who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these,
where had they been? Thus saith the Lord God, Behold! I will lift up Mine
hand to the Gentiles, and set up My standard to the people; and they
shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried
upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their
queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their faces
toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet.... For I will contend
with him that contendeth with thee, AND I WILL SAVE THY CHILDREN.”[190]

How will He save the children?—“ALL THY CHILDREN SHALL BE TAUGHT OF THE
LORD.” When will the Gentiles come bringing their children to supply the
places of those now lost?—When Protestants can show to the Gentiles that
they have a system of education which is free from the errors now so
prevalent; when they can teach the Gentiles the TRUTH.

“Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing,
and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the
children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith
the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth
the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and
strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and
on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles.”[191]

When shall these things be? The same chapter of Isaiah answers. When
“all thy children shall be taught of the Lord.” When Protestants educate
according to the principles of true Protestantism, then will the words of
the same prophet, recorded in the sixtieth chapter, be fulfilled. “Arise,
be enlightened, for thy light cometh.... The Gentiles shall come to thy
light and kings to the brightness of thy rising.... Thy sons shall come
from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.”[192]

Christ came, fulfilling in every particular the prophecies quoted. “As
thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the
world,” are the words of Christ to His church. As Christ was a teacher,
so that church which does the work which the Christian church _must_ do,
will have a system of education, and its members will be educators indeed.

Of Christ as a teacher it is written, “He raised Himself above all
others whom millions to-day regard as their grandest teachers. Buddha,
Confucius, Mohammed, to say nothing of Greek and Roman sages, are not
worthy to be compared with Christ.” Says Paroz: “Jesus Christ, in
founding a new religion, has laid the foundation of a new education in
the bosom of humanity.”

“In lowliness and humility,” writes Dr. Schaff, “in the form of a servant
as to the flesh, yet effulgent with divine glory, the Saviour came forth
from a despised corner of the earth; destroyed the power of evil in our
nature; realized in His spotless life, and in His sufferings, the highest
idea of virtue and piety, lifted the world with His pierced hands out
of its distress; reconciled men to God, and gave a new direction to the
whole current of history.”

It is the education which He taught, which was His very life even in the
courts of heaven, which Protestants are now entreated to accept. “To-day
if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”

Where are the Protestants who are true to the name? Where are the schools
which will teach the things of God? Where are the teachers who forsake
secular methods, as did the Reformers, to become teachers for Christ?

Earth with its inhabitants is to the heart of God the most precious
part of the creation. As a recreant child draws harder on the parent’s
sympathy, so the world, because of the sinfulness of sin, has brought
heaven and earth in touch. The universe sees streaming from the throne
rays of light and love, pointing to the one spot in all creation where
sin abounds. They tell the story of the cross. The perfect harmony which
forms the “music of the spheres,” which was marred when man fell, will
again pervade all space when the plan of salvation is complete, and our
earth again joins in the great chorus of the sons of God.

[Sidenote: Truth revealed in the last days]

For six thousand years creation has groaned, waiting for our redemption.
The completion of the plan draws nigh, and for the final struggle
everything is now assuming an intensity never before seen. Principles
of truth, for centuries hidden, or known only in part, will again shine
forth in their original splendor. The wisdom of the ages will be manifest
in the closing era of the world’s history. True, this wisdom will often
appear but “foolishness” in the eyes of those who oppose truth; but
spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and the Spirit of the Holy
One will once more brood over the whole earth, taking up its abode in
those hearts which beat in unison with the strains of heaven. Christian
education binds earth to heaven. The wise in heart will return to the
God-given system of education, choosing “the fountains of living waters”
instead of hewing “them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no
water.”[193]




FOOTNOTES


[1] Job 28.

[2] 1 Cor. 2:6, R. V., mar.

[3] Ps. 33:9.

[4] Eze. 28:12-14.

[5] Eze. 28:14, 17.

[6] Isa. 14:13, 14.

[7] Ps. 33:9.

[8] Gen. 1:2, R. V.

[9] Gen. 1:20, R. V., mar.

[10] Gen. 21:26-28.

[11] Gen. 2:17.

[12] Rev. 2:7.

[13] 2 Peter 3:5-7.

[14] Luke 17:26.

[15] Heb. 11:8-10; Rom. 4:20.

[16] Gen. 15 2:3.

[17] Gal. 4:22, 25.

[18] Deut. 4:5, 6.

[19] “History of Education,” page 29.

[20] “Jesus as a Teacher,” pages 28-30.

[21] “Jesus as a Teacher,” page 31.

[22] “History of Education,” page 28.

[23] “Jesus as a Teacher,” page 30.

[24] “Jesus as a Teacher,” page 31.

[25] “History of Education,” page 29.

[26] “History of Education,” page 27.

[27] Deuteronomy 28.

[28] Proverbs 31.

[29] See 2 Chron. 17:6-13.

[30] Daniel 10.

[31] Deut. 4:20.

[32] Matt. 2:15.

[33] Rom. 1:18-20, Fenton’s translation.

[34] _Idem._ verses 21-25.

[35] 1 Cor. 1:18-26, Fenton’s translation.

[36] “History of Education,” pages 32, 34.

[37] “History of Education,” page 65.

[38] Emerson, “Representative Men.”

[39] 1 Cor. 2:1-5, Fenton’s trans.

[40] Col. 2:8.

[41] Heb. 11:13.

[42] Isa. 11:12.

[43] “History of Education,” page 121.

[44] Heb. 11:3.

[45] 2 Kings 17:15-17; Jer. 19:4, 5.

[46] See John 1:14, R. V., mar.

[47] Prov. 22:6.

[48] John 3.

[49] “Jesus as a Teacher,” pages 48, 49.

[50] John 4.

[51] “Jesus as a Teacher,” page 72.

[52] Rev. 1:10.

[53] “History of Education,” page 84.

[54] John 16:29, 30.

[55] John 17:15-17.

[56] Rev. 2:2, 3.

[57] Rev. 6:2.

[58] “History of Education,” page 90.

[59] Church History, cent. 1, part 2, chap. 3, sec. 7.

[60] 2 Tim. 2:2.

[61] _Idem._

[62] “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” chap. 23, par. 21.

[63] “Church History,” cent. 2, part 2, chap. 1, par. 6.

[64] Rev. 2:4, 5.

[65] 1 Cor. 2:3-5, 13, Fenton’s translation.

[66] “Church History,” cent. 3, part 1, chap. 1, par. 5.

[67] “Church History,” Torrey’s trans., vol. 1, pages 71, 73.

[68] “Church History,” Maclain’s trans., cent. 1, part 2, chap. 3, par.
10.

[69] _Idem._

[70] See Torrey’s trans., vol. 2, page 237.

[71] “Church History,” vol. 2, pages 224, 225.

[72] _Idem_, page 226.

[73] _Idem_, page 238.

[74] _Idem_, page 242.

[75] See Chambers’s Encyclopedia.

[76] Quoted by Neander, “Church History,” vol. 2, pp. 463, 464.

[77] Rev. 13:1.

[78] “Church History,” Maclain’s trans., cent. 3, chap. 3, par. 1.

[79] _Idem_, Murdock’s trans., cent. 3, part 2, chap. 3, par. 5.

[80] Mosheim, “Church History,” Maclain’s trans., cent. 3, chap. 3, par.
2.

[81] “Intellectual Development of Europe,” vol. 1, pages 432, 434.

[82] “History of the Reformation,” book 1, chap. 1.

[83] “Rise and Constitution of Universities,” page 55.

[84] _Idem_, page 56.

[85] W. T. Harris, U. S. Commissioner of Education.

[86] _Idem._

[87] “Intellectual Development of Europe,” vol. 2, page 191.

[88] “Church History,” cent. 11, part 2, chap. 1, sec. 5.

[89] “History of Education,” page 100.

[90] “Church History,” cent. 11, part 2, chap. 1, sec. 5.

[91] “Intellectual Development of Europe,” vol. 2, page 159.

[92] “Intellectual Development of Europe,” vol. 2, page 121.

[93] _Idem._

[94] _Idem._

[95] _Idem_, page 125.

[96] _Idem_, pages 125, 126.

[97] “Church History,” cent. 12, part 2, chap. 1, par. 4.

[98] “History of Education,” page 114.

[99] _Idem._

[100] Laurie, “Rise and Constitution of Universities,” page 168.

[101] _Idem_, pages 219, 220.

[102] _Idem_, page 169.

[103] _Idem_, page 222.

[104] _Idem_, page 227.

[105] _Idem_, page 220.

[106] Rev. B. Hartman, “Religion or No Religion in Education,” page 43.

[107] “History of Education,” pages 115, 116.

[108] See “Students in Riot,” at the Chicago University, Chicago
_Record_, Dec. 2, 1899.

[109] “Rise and Constitution of Universities,” page 288.

[110] “History of Education,” page 119.

[111] _Idem_, page 121.

[112] “History of Education,” pages 125-128.

[113] “History of Education,” page 138.

[114] _Idem_, pages 139, 140.

[115] “History of Education,” pages 142, 143.

[116] “History of the Reformation,” book 10, chap. 9.

[117] _Ibid._

[118] _Ibid._

[119] “History of Education,” page 143.

[120] D’Aubigné, book 10, chap. 9.

[121] Quoted in “History of Education,” page 145.

[122] “History of Education,” page 149.

[123] _Idem_, page 135.

[124] “History of the Reformation,” book 4, chap. 3.

[125] “History of the Reformation,” book 4, chap. 3.

[126] “Life of Melancthon,” page 81.

[127] “History of the Reformation,” book 3, chap. 9.

[128] “History of the Popes,” Kelley’s trans., book 5, pages 132-135.

[129] _Idem_, page 134.

[130] “History of Education,” page 155.

[131] _Idem._

[132] “History of Education,” pages 154, 155.

[133] _Idem._

[134] _Idem_, page 156.

[135] “History of Education,” page 160.

[136] _Idem_, page 162.

[137] _Idem_, page 163.

[138] “Philosophy of Education,” page 267.

[139] “History of Education,” pages 165, 166.

[140] “Philosophy of Education,” page 270.

[141] _Idem_, pages 271, 272.

[142] “History of Education,” pages 171, 172.

[143] _Idem_, pages 172, 173.

[144] “History of the Popes,” book 5, pages 134, 137-139.

[145] _Idem_, page 146.

[146] “Footprints of the Jesuits,” page 133.

[147] “History of the Popes,” book 5, page 152.

[148] _Idem_, page 252.

[149] Fiske, “United States History,” page 54.

[150] “Papacy and Civil Power,” page 685.

[151] _Idem_, page 98.

[152] “Footprints of the Jesuits,” page 419.

[153] _Idem_, page 408.

[154] Boone, “Education in the United States,” page 8.

[155] “Beginnings of New England,” pages 62, 63.

[156] E. E. White, “Proceedings of National Educational Association,”
1882.

[157] _Idem_, page 66.

[158] “Beginnings of New England,” page 146.

[159] “Education in the United States,” page 30.

[160] _Idem_, page 20.

[161] “Education in the United States,” pages 23, 24, 29.

[162] _Idem_, page 25.

[163] “Education in the United States,” pages 76, 77.

[164] “Education in the United States,” page 104.

[165] “Education in the United States,” pages 158, 159.

[166] _Ladies’ Home Journal_, January, 1900.

[167] The _Christian Advocate_, February, 1900.

[168] “Education in the United States,” page 190.

[169] _Idem._

[170] “Education in the United States,” pages 267, 268.

[171] “History of Education,” page 173.

[172] Quoted by Painter, “History of Education,” page 191.

[173] “The Murder of the Modern Innocents,” _Ladies’ Home Journal_,
February, 1900.

[174] _North American Review_, April, 1900.

[175] “Encyclopedia Britannica,” Art. Socrates.

[176] _Outlook_, April 21, 1900.

[177] _Literary Digest_, May 26, 1900.

[178] Report for 1896-97, vol. 1, Introduction.

[179] Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1896-97, vol. 1, page 369.

[180] “History of Education,” page 217.

[181] See _Cosmopolitan_, February, 1900.

[182] _Arena_, October, 1894.

[183] Report of Commissioner of Education, 1897-98, vol. 2, pages 1632,
1633.

[184] “History of Education,” page 1.

[185] _Idem_, page 274.

[186] Packard’s “Brief Course,” page 277, published by Henry Holt & Co.,
of New York.

[187] Marsh.

[188] “Jesus as a Teacher,” page 48.

[189] 1 Corinthians 1.

[190] Isa. 49:18-25.

[191] Isa. 54:1-3.

[192] Isa. 60:1-4, mar.

[193] Jer. 2:13.




AUTHORITIES REFERRED TO OR QUOTED IN THIS BOOK


    BUCKLEY, editor of _Christian Advocate_.
    BOONE, “Education in the United States.”
    BOK, editor of _Ladies’ Home Journal_.
    D’AUBIGNÉ, “History of the Reformation.”
    DANA, “Geology.”
    DRAPER, “Intellectual Development of Europe.”
    DABNEY, president of the University of Tennessee.
    EMERSON, “Representative Men.”
    FISKE, “Beginnings of New England.”
    FENTON, “Epistles of Paul.”
    GIBBON, “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”
    HINSDALE, “Jesus as a Teacher.”
    HARRIS, U. S. Commissioner of Education.
    HARPER, president of Chicago University.
    HARTMAN, “Religion or No Religion in Education.”
    KAREL, U. S. Consul-General to Russia.
    LAURIE, “Rise and Constitution of Universities.”
    MOSHEIM, “Church History.”
    MESCHERSKI, of the Department of Agriculture of Russia.
    NEANDER, “Church History.”
    PAINTER, “History of Education.”
    RANKE, “History of the Popes.”
    ROSENKRANZ, “Philosophy of Education.”
    STUMP, “Life of Melancthon.”
    THOMPSON, “Footprints of the Jesuits.”




INDEX OF AUTHORITIES


    ABBOTT, LYMAN.
    AGRICOLA.
    BUCHANAN.
    BUSHNELL.
    COMENIUS.
    DITTES.
    DRUMMOND.
    FROEBEL.
    GRESSINGER.
    HOFFMAN, FRANK S.
    JEFFERSON.
    LUTHER.
    LOCKE.
    MELANCTHON.
    MILTON.
    MONTAIGNE.
    NEWTON, DR.
    PESTALOZZI.
    QUICK.
    RENCHLIN.
    SCHMIDT.
    SPENCER.
    WALLACE, MRS. LEW.
    YOUNG.




INDEX


    Abraham, call of, 55;
      his faith, 56;
      call to teach, 57;
      preparation to teach, 57, 59, 63;
      failure to believe, 60, 61;
      school of, 63, 64, 67.

    Agricola, his part in Reformation, 221;
      his idea of a teacher, 222;
      his idea of education, 223.

    America, discovery of, 219;
      Jesuits as teachers in, 281, 285;
      object of Jesuit schools in, 283;
      education in, 293-338.

    Angels the first teachers, 16.

    Arabs, as educators, 200-202;
      their learning suppressed by papacy, 203.

    Astronomy taught in Eden, 27;
      as taught at present denies the Bible, 387-389.

    Athens, education in, 100.

    Authorities quoted, 417.


    Beast, its formation, 176;
      image to, 176.

    Bernard, Henry, his work in behalf of public schools, 319.

    Bible as a text-book in Jewish schools, 78;
      Plato a rival of, 102;
      its place in education, 111, 381-383, 387;
      the text-book of Christ, 134;
      the text-book of early Christians, 142;
      its power over youth, 145;
      versus logic, 152;
      teaching of advised by Reuchlin, 224;
      taught in Jesuit schools, 279;
      words of Luther concerning, 291;
      Harvard founded to teach, 299, 302;
      departure from in education, 321;
      in school of Comenius, 365;
      denied by present science teaching, 387-393.

    Bok, Edward, on cramming system, 323-325.

    Botany, taught in Eden, 27.


    Cain, chose reason instead of faith, 43.

    Catholic schools in America, 335;
      see also “papacy.”

    Character developed in worldly school, 44;
      of students during Middle Ages, 204, 210;
      of students in modern universities, 210;
      of students after Reformation, 263;
      the object of education, 232, 382;
      valued by John Locke, 345-347.

    Christian education, a search for wisdom, 14;
      relation of to Reformation, 3, 4;
      based on faith, 39, 397;
      almost wiped out before the flood, 49, 50;
      its meaning to early Christians, 140;
      feared by the pagans, 147;
      God’s three calls to, 168;
      failure of Reformers to carry forward, 246;
      how lost, 255;
      versus papal, 286;
      unites with papal ideas, 309;
      effect on churches of neglecting, 328;
      principles of, etc., 339-415;
      never without a representative on earth, 341;
      opposed to “cramming system,” 351;
      based on faith, 354;
      emphasizes practical, 367;
      a spiritual education, 381-384;
      emphasizes principles, 393-396;
      manual training a part of, 402;
      a system of, 403-407;
      see also “education.”

    Christ, birth of, 120;
      early education of, 121;
      spiritual education of, 122;
      recognizes his life work, 123;
      with the rabbis, 124;
      his attitude toward manual training, 125;
      preparation for his work, 126;
      as a teacher, 127;
      lived what he taught, 128;
      educational principles of, 130-132;
      his pupils, 132;
      teachers in the country, 134;
      his text-books, 135;
      emphasized the practical, 135;
      result of his educational system, 136-138;
      commits the work of education to the church, 138-140;
      the representative of true education, 170;
      author of Christian education, 340;
      taught from nature, 373, 374.

    Church schools of Jews, 76;
      of early Christians, 146;
      should follow home school, 405.

    Cities, origin of, 45;
      effect of life in on children, 46;
      Enoch chose not to live in, 46;
      Abraham called from, 55;
      life in, contrasted with country life, 64, 66, 146, 373, 379;
      avoided by Christ, 134.

    Classics in education, 109-113, 342, 343;
      study of prior to Reformation, 216-218;
      in Harvard, 303;
      demanded by the universities, 307;
      fruit of in America, 313;
      John Locke on, 345.

    Clement, school of, 163-167;
      the first higher critic, 164;
      meets opposition, 166;
      gives up his faith, 167.

    Comenius, 326;
      on Latin and practical education, 344;
      on nature-study, 352;
      on number of studies, 353;
      religion in school of, 365.

    Congregationalists, education among, 295;
      their schools, Harvard and Yale, 297-303.

    Correlation, 400-402.

    Country life versus city life, 64, 145, 379;
      chosen by Jesus, 134, 373.

    Courses of study, their origin, 204-209;
      in Sturm’s school, 261;
      in Harvard, 302;
      multiplied, 322.

    Cramming system, 259, 323-325;
      papal in principle, 347;
      Montaigne on, 348;
      Mrs. Wallace on, 348-351;
      prevented by nature study, 352;
      prevented by correlation, 400.

    Creation, the, 22-26;
      mind its highest form, 24, 25.


    Dark Ages, schools of, 180;
      origin of, 184;
      unfavorable to medical study, 194, 199.

    Darwinism in education, 114-116.

    Death, a result of sin, 36;
      result of false education, 40, 67;
      result of eating of the tree of knowledge, 50.

    Dana on origin of species, 390-392.

    Degrees, their origin, 204-209;
      a papal mark, 334.

    Diet, its relation to education, 38;
      its place in Christian education, 403.

    Discipline weakens in universities, 263.

    Doubt, effects of, 32;
      its place in modern education, 353-360;
      its place in theology, 354;
      the Socratic method, 356, 357;
      not highest means of knowledge, 363.


    Early Christians, education among, 139-155;
      early training among, 142;
      home education among, 143;
      divided in opinion, 153;
      gradually accept pagan methods, 154.

    Eck opposes Reformation in education, 244.

    Eden, school in, 22-37;
      home in, 26;
      subjects taught in school of, 27-29;
      methods of education in, 29, 30.

    Education, birth of rival systems, 20, 21;
      the two systems of, 37, 38, 40, 43;
      should be based on faith, 39;
      life result of true, 40;
      death result of false, 40;
      first murder a result of wrong methods in, 44;
      affects government, 44;
      before the flood, 45, 46;
      wrong methods in cause of flood, 49;
      false one the cause of removal of God’s Spirit, 50, 51;
      starts anew after flood, 52;
      decline in, 54, 55;
      in Israel, 68-91;
      system of for Israel, 72;
      its threefold nature, 82;
      spiritual made prominent in Jewish schools, 82;
      at same time spiritual and practical, 88;
      reforms in among the Jews, 90;
      among the Spartans, 100;
      in Athens, 100;
      influence of Plato in, 101-111;
      offered by Jesus, 130-132;
      among early Christians, 139-155;
      in homes of early Christians, 143;
      division of opinion concerning, 153;
      becomes papal, 158-183;
      its three representatives, 170;
      controlled by monks, 179;
      propagated by Arabs, 200-202;
      reform in needed, 212;
      the secret of papal power, 214;
      Reformation and, 221;
      favored by Protestantism, 225;
      Luther’s plans for, 231;
      Melancthon’s influence in, 235-247;
      in Wittemberg, 239;
      Melancthon on, 240;
      effect of Protestantism on, 252;
      its part in the Reformation, 255;
      return to papal methods in, 258;
      cramming system in, 259, 323-325, 347;
      Sturm’s influence on modern, 262;
      controlled by the Jesuits, 264-287;
      papal or Christian? 286;
      among Puritans, 294;
      among Congregationalists, 295;
      in the United States, 293-338;
      effect on republicanism, 297;
      at Harvard, 297-302;
      at Yale, 303;
      during colonial days, 305;
      during Revolutionary period, 306;
      given over to the state by all the churches, 312-315;
      effects of modern, 327;
      elective system in, 329;
      means character development, 332;
      union of with state, 335;
      Catholic in America, 335;
      doubt in modern, 353-360;
      place of farm in, 375;
      defined by Pestalozzi, 380;
      should be threefold, 385;
      since the time of Christ, 385-387;
      neglect of principles in, 393;
      see also “Christian Education.”

    Egyptian education, 83, 85, 96, 101;
      a symbol of darkness, 92;
      its licentiousness, 95;
      its so-called wisdom, 99.

    Elective system, 329;
      affords freedom, 330-332.

    England, Jesuit schools in, 280;
      she loses her golden opportunity, 290.

    Enoch, 43;
      chooses not to live in cities, 46.

    Episcopalians and education, 290;
      their college in America, 304.

    Erasmus, a forerunner of the Reformation, 225.

    Evolution, its origin, 45;
      attempts to account for effects of flood, 48;
      the basis of Platonism, 105;
      in education, 113;
      in education of America, 322;
      taught in astronomy, 387-389;
      in zoology, 389.


    Faith supplanted by reason, 18, 41, 48, 97, 168, 171, 174, 182, 385;
      a lesson in, 31;
      immortal life its result, 36;
      education based on, 39, 397;
      in education after the flood, 52;
      of Abraham, 56;
      strengthened by trial, 58;
      how taught, 59;
      few learn to live by, 70;
      learned by Israel, 86;
      education by, lost, 255;
      highest means of education, 363.

    Farm, the, as an educating factor, 375.

    Finance in Jesuit schools, 279.

    Flood, schools before, 45, 46;
      warning of, rejected by reason, 47;
      cause of, 49-51.

    France, Jesuit schools in, 278.

    Froebel, 326;
      on complete education, 384.


    Gardens, value of in schools, 376-378.

    Government affected by education, 44, 45, 297;
      influenced by students, 211.

    Greece, education in, 101;
      a symbol of worldly wisdom, 408.

    Germany establishes Protestant schools, 223;
      Jesuit schools in, 273, 278.

    Geography as taught in papal schools, 190, 191.


    Harvard, founding of, 297-299;
      object, 299-301;
      raising of fund for, 301;
      early course of study in, 302;
      assumes name of university, 310;
      science in, 322.

    Healing, true, 194.

    Health, reform in accompanies reform in education, 90;
      attention should be given to, 403.

    Heidelberg, Jesuit schools in, 275.

    Higher criticism, introduced by Clement, 164;
      Origen’s part in, 172;
      is Platonism, 173;
      modern, 360.

    Home, in Eden, 26;
      its place in education of early Christians, 143;
      its place in Christian education, 403.


    Industrial schools; see “preparatory schools.”

    Isaac, 62.

    Israel, education in, 68-91;
      a peculiar people, 68;
      chosen to teach, 71;
      church schools among, 76;
      studies in schools of, 77-80;
      effect of their educational system, 81;
      spiritual education in schools of, 82;
      deliverance from worldly education, 86, 87;
      reforms in their educational system, 90;
      education among, prior to Christ, 118.


    Jesus, see Christ.

    Jesuits, influence in education, 264-287;
      their course of instruction, 266;
      effect of their educational system, 267;
      their object, 271;
      methods in education, 270, 342;
      value of their methods, 272;
      spread of their schools, 273, 276;
      in Germany, 273;
      in Vienna, 274;
      at Heidelberg, 275;
      preparatory schools of, 276;
      reputation of their schools, 277;
      in France, 278;
      in England, 280;
      in America, 281;
      in South America, 282;
      in the United States, 282, 285;
      their schools kill Protestantism, 290, 337.

    John the Baptist, his coming, 119;
      education of, 120.


    Knowledge gained by experiment, 35;
      comes through the senses, 39, 397.


    Latin, in papal schools, 186;
      its value to the papacy, 188;
      Ratich on, 343;
      Comenius on, 344.

    Life, the result of faith, 36;
      comes through true education, 40, 67;
      true science of, 40, 41.

    Locke, John, on classics, 345;
      on choice of a teacher, 346.

    Logic versus Scriptures, 152;
      in papal schools, 189, 200.

    Lot, chooses a worldly school, 65, 66;
      result to him of wrong education, 67.

    Loyola, his influence in education, 264.

    Lucifer in the heavenly school, 16-21.
      See Satan also.

    Luther, his part in reformation of education, 227-247;
      as a teacher, 227;
      his plea for schools, 228;
      his educational plans, 231;
      his ideas of teachers, 232;
      recognized the value of nature-study, 234;
      one with Melancthon, 237;
      his students, 240;
      his words concerning the Bible, 291.


    Mann, Horace, father of the public school, 317-319.

    Manual training, Christ’s attitude toward, 125;
      correlated with mathematics, 369-373;
      its value in education, 375, 402;
      in farm and garden, 375-378.

    Mathematics made practical, 369-373.

    Melancthon in education, 235-247;
      one with Luther, 237;
      his students, 240;
      views of education, 240;
      prepares text-books, 241.

    Medical study, effect of Dark Ages upon, 194-196;
      corrupted during Dark Ages, 199.

    Memory work, prominent in papal schools, 186, 187, 342;
      after Reformation, 259.

    Meteorology, 27, 28.

    Mind, the highest form of creation, 24, 25;
      effect of disobedience on, 34;
      of man before the flood, 42.

    Mineralogy, 27, 28.

    Ministers, trained at Harvard, 299-301.

    Missionaries, children rightly trained will become, 143.

    Modern reformers, 326;
      oppose too much language study, 343.

    Monks, their system of education, 178;
      control education, 179.

    Montaigne on cramming system, 348.

    Murder, a result of education by reason, 44.

    Music, in schools of Israel, 80.

    Mysticism, 177.


    Nature, result of studying if God is not taken into account, 52, 53;
      the first study of Christ, 121;
      taught from by Christ, 134, 314;
      Luther on study of, 234;
      study of in modern schools, 327;
      study of prevents “cramming,” 352;
      its study based on doubt, 354;
      study of not to supersede the Bible, 387.

    Noah a teacher of righteousness, 46, 47.


    Origen, his birth and education, 169;
      his reasons for studying philosophy, 169, 170;
      represents mixture of pagan and Christian ideas, 170;
      his system of education, 170-175;
      a higher critic, 172.


    Pagans, education of, 92-116;
      education of was self-worship, 93;
      classics in education of, 109-112;
      their attitude toward Christian education, 147.

    Papacy, human origin of, 36, 44, 154-162;
      produced by mixture of educational systems, 72, 73;
      as seen in school of Clement, 163-167;
      to be overthrown only by Christian education, 183;
      its tyranny over thought, 184;
      primary schools of, 185;
      emphasized memory work, 186, 187;
      taught Latin, 186;
      text-books of, 188;
      studies in schools of, 188;
      geography as taught in schools of, 190;
      manner of meeting opposition, 199;
      medicine as taught by, 199;
      suppresses Arabian schools, 203;
      grants degrees, 208;
      why it wishes to control education, 211, 212;
      secret of its power, 214;
      relation to Arabian learning, 219;
      dropped in education, 238;
      a return to, 258, 269;
      aided in United States by Jesuit schools, 285;
      its influence as seen in Harvard, 303, 310;
      principles of in William and Mary College, 301;
      tendency to revert to, 308;
      union of with Christian principles, 309;
      degrees a mark of, 334;
      consists in union of church and state, 335;
      mechanical teaching a mark of, 344;
      “cramming” one of its methods, 347;
      doubt a characteristic of, 355.

    Pelagianism, its origin, 181.

    Penance, its origin, 181.

    Pestalozzi, 326;
      defines education, 380.

    Philosophy, origin of false, 45;
      false, 98, 104;
      personified by Plato, 110.

    Physics, 27, 28.

    Physicians, treatment during Dark Ages, 195-197.

    Physical degeneracy the result of sin, 38, 39.

    Physical plane as opposed to spiritual, 43, 44, 69, 83-85, 385.

    Physiology, in Jewish schools, 79;
      during Dark Ages, 198;
      the central science, 399, 402.

    Plato, his work as an educator, 101-111;
      result of adopting his philosophy in a Christian school, 150-152;
      Origen studied, 170;
      personifies heathen philosophy, 170.

    Platonism the source of higher criticism, 173.

    Poetry in Jewish schools, 80.

    Preface, 1.

    Prenatal influence, instructions concerning, 76.

    Preparatory schools, those of Melancthon, 242;
      of Jesuits, 276;
      during Revolutionary period, 306;
      standard for set by colleges, 320;
      should follow church school, 405.

    Protestantism favorable to education, 225;
      effect on education, 251;
      fails to see importance of education, 255;
      result of her failure to educate, 264;
      intrusts her children to Jesuits, 277;
      Jesuits seek to destroy, 283;
      papal or Christian education for? 286;
      born of Reformation, 288;
      killed by Jesuit schools, 290-337;
      in American schools, 292;
      weakens with coming of false education, 308;
      must educate her children, 407-415.

    Public schools of Julian, 148-150;
      in the United States, 317-319.

    Puritans, their attitude toward education, 294;
      leave England, 292;
      in New England, 296.


    Ratich on Latin, 343.

    Reason supplants faith, 18, 33, 41, 97, 168, 171, 174, 182, 385;
      accepted by Cain, 43;
      rejected warning of the flood, 47;
      result of exalting, 362-364.

    Reformation, its relation to education, 3, 4;
      an educational reform, 214-247;
      classics in, 216-218;
      Agricola a forerunner of, 220;
      science during, 220;
      education and, 221-247;
      part of Erasmus in, 224;
      its meaning in education, 234;
      Reuchlin, a forerunner of, 224;
      opposed in education, 243;
      part of in education, 254;
      results of, 248-251;
      reaction after, 268.

    Republicanism, its origin, 288;
      affected by education, 297;
      weakened by wrong education, 308.

    Reuchlin, a forerunner of Reformation, 224.

    Rome, English college at, 281.

    Russia, school gardens of, 376-378.


    Satan, his teaching in Eden, 30-36.
      See Lucifer.

    Saxony school plan, 244.

    Senses, education of not to be trusted, 34, 48, 396;
      the source of _knowledge_ not _wisdom_, 39;
      cultivation of among pagans, 97.

    School, in heaven, 15-21;
      in Eden, 22-37;
      character developed in worldly, 44;
      before flood, 45, 46;
      of Abraham, 63, 64;
      location for, 66;
      Sturm’s 260-263.

    Schools of prophets, 77;
      of early Christians, 146, 147;
      gradually become pagan, 156-183;
      of the Dark Ages, 180;
      cling to papal methods, 192;
      reform needed from these methods, 193, 212;
      Arabian, 200-203;
      Luther’s plea for, 228;
      strength to church, 230;
      established in Germany, 233;
      of Melancthon, 242;
      Protestant, 253;
      Sturm’s influence on modern, 263;
      of Jesuits, 266-287;
      methods in Jesuit, 270;
      ask state support, 311, 332-334;
      of Catholics in America, 335;
      of Comenius, 365;
      gardens in connection with, 376-378.

    Scholasticism kills education, 256;
      in American schools, 309, 312.

    Science, rejects warning of flood, 47;
      taught in Harvard, 322;
      without Bible produces infidels, 327;
      modern study of, 353, 387-393;
      physiology the central, 399;
      correlation of, 401.

    Sin, physical death its result, 36;
      results in physical degeneracy, 38, 39.

    Spirit of God the source of wisdom, 39;
      withdrawn because of wrong education, 50, 51;
      the true teacher, 340.

    Spiritual plane of living opposed to physical, 43, 44, 52, 69, 385;
      reached by faith, 70;
      Israel to live on, 71;
      chosen by Christ, 123, 126.

    Spartans, their educational system, 100;
      Socratic method, 356;
      accepted by ministers, 360.

    Solomon, his wisdom, 87.

    State schools ask support of, 311;
      assumes responsibility of education, 313-315;
      should it support schools? 332-334;
      unites with education, 335;
      can not teach religion, 383.

    Students, their influence on government and society, 211;
      character of Luther’s, 240;
      character of after Reformation, 263.

    Sturm, his school, 260-263;
      influence on modern schools, 262.


    Teacher, Christ the true, 18, 19, 127;
      Noah as, 46;
      Abraham as, 57;
      Luther as, 227;
      Holy Spirit the true, 340;
      qualifications of Christian, 398.

    Teachers, the first ones angels, 16;
      a choice made of, 19, 20;
      Israel chosen as, 71;
      Luther’s idea of, 232;
      how Locke would choose, 346.

    Teaching, divine method of, 29;
      depends upon life, 128.

    Temptation, the first, 30-35;
      of Christ, 127.

    Text-books, Bible as chief one, 78, 381-383;
      Christ used Bible as first one, 134;
      Bible the chief one used by early Christians, 142;
      used by papacy, 188;
      a reform needed in, 193;
      prepared by Melancthon, 241;
      Luther opposes too many, 245;
      too close adherence to, 376;
      need of, 403.

    Theology, modern method of study in, 354.

    Trade, learned by all Jewish youths, 82.

    Training-schools among early Christians, 146;
      need of at present time, 405.

    Tree of life, a symbol of true education, 40, 50.

    Tree of knowledge, a symbol of false education, 40;
      brought death, 50.


    United States, Jesuit schools in, 282;
      education in, 293-315.


    Vienna, Jesuit schools in, 274.


    William and Mary College, papal principles in, 304.

    Wisdom, its source, 9-14;
      comes through God’s Spirit, 39;
      Solomon’s, 87;
      of the Egyptians, 99;
      differs from knowledge, 397.

    Wittemberg, Melancthon in, 236, 238;
      education at, 239.

    Worldly schools, character developed in, 44;
      chosen by Lot, 64;
      death the result of education in, 67;
      in Egypt, 83-85.


    Yale College, 303.


    Zoology, taught in Eden, 27;
      false teaching of, 389.




The Desire of Ages

By MRS. E. G. WHITE.


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LOOKING UNTO JESUS

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OR CHRIST IN TYPE AND ANTITYPE.

BY URIAH SMITH.


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GOOD FORM AND CHRISTIAN ETIQUETTE,

By the Late Mrs. S. M. I. HENRY,

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