Living Fountains or Broken Cisterns: An Educational Problem for Protestants

by E. A. Sutherland

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.

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.

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]