Colleges in America

by John Marshall Barker

The majority of colleges are positively religious. According to Dr. Dorchester, even Harvard, the oldest college in the United States, that wishes to be understood as non-denominational, has been, for more than half a century, "under the direction of a Board of Fellows, all of whom have been Unitarians, except one elected within a few years; and, besides, the theological school of Harvard College is usually mentioned in the Unitarian Year Book as a Unitarian institution." Leland Stanford University is one of the youngest and richest of our American colleges. The regulations declare it to be the duty of the trustees "to prohibit sectarian instruction, but to have taught the immortality of the soul, the existence of an all-wise and benevolent Creator, and that obedience to His laws is the highest duty of man."

Both of these colleges, reported as "non-sectarian," generously provide buildings and pastors for religious services and lectures. Dr. Dorchester believes that one-third of the State universities are under the presidency of evangelical divines. He further states that "in 1830 the students in the denominational colleges were 76.6 per cent. of the whole; in 1884, they were 79.2 per cent."

All the foregoing facts show the strong and enduring progress of Christianity in the United States; that it is "identified with the highest educational culture of the age; that the denominational institutions are incalculably leading in number and students all the undenominational colleges, and that the great principles and blessed experiences of Christianity are voluntarily and intelligently adopted by a far larger proportion of college students than ever before."

The colleges have upheld the vital truths of the gospel by expounding the scriptures, and setting forth their ethical and religious teaching. They recognize that the divine order in saving men is through the inward working of the truth and spirit of God in their souls. Since knowledge is essential to salvation, it is a duty to enlighten men and bring them to understand the divine plan of salvation. The Bible has been communicated to us in foreign languages, and requires prolonged study and extensive knowledge in order that these oracles of God may be known and accepted among men.

The colleges have given a higher efficiency to the Christian ministry. There are those who have obtained their training and knowledge outside of the college who have accomplished great good. There are pious and devoted men who are illiterate, but whose Christian work has been attended with more apparent results than some college-trained ministers. These, however, are the exception. The rule is that those who combine with their piety scholarly acquisitions exert by far the greatest influence for good. The history of Christianity shows how God has raised up a multitude of scholarly men to uphold the supremacy of the gospel over all its foes. Paul, Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, Knox, Cranmer, Wesley and Fletcher were all college-trained men. These men, with others, endowed with mental vigor, great learning and executive force, have been used by God to accomplish His great task of building up His kingdom on earth.

The church has learned that there is no need of antagonism between knowledge and spirituality. Knowledge and intellectual training may work evil in an undevout mind, but when consecrated to the service of Christ, learning becomes the handmaid of piety. The strength and power of the Christian Church of to-day are attributable in no small degree to the Christian colleges, that have not only encouraged mental training, but have fostered refinement and humble evangelical piety. The union of scholarly training and a holy life has raised the ministry in the public estimation so that it commands more respect and influence for good than ever before. The cause of Christ never took such hold on the popular mind, and its influence never penetrated so deeply the foundations of our social organism as it does in our day.

It is farthest from our aim to exalt and magnify the knowledge that "puffeth up," or unduly to glorify the human faculties, but we do plead that the widest opportunity be offered our youth to enlarge their knowledge, and strengthen and train their mental powers, and make the most of themselves, and that they may be consecrated to the Master's service. Men and women thus trained in our Christian colleges, and eminent alike for learning and piety, will more and more esteem the divine revelations, and through them help to hasten the establishment of the Kingdom of righteousness on the earth.

The Students' Volunteer Movement began in 1876. It aims to awaken a deeper interest in foreign missions among college students, and to enlist their services. Within a brief period, more than 4,000 students consecrated their lives to this heroic Christian work. Already, since the movement began, 600 young men and women have entered the mission field, and thousands of others are waiting on a hesitating church to furnish the means to send them to work in foreign lands. Well did Ex-President McCosh say that the Christian Church had not witnessed such a spirit of consecration since the day of Pentecost.

The colleges have done another valuable service in awakening and strengthening in the national life a deeper sense of the value and importance of human knowledge. They are monuments of the dignity and worth of ideas, and the aspirations of the human soul.

In a new country, with its marvelous possibilities, the danger has been in having an excessive and exaggerated estimate of our national advantages, and our civilization has tended to take on a too mechanical and material character. We need to have more time to cultivate the nobler nature, and, by Christian and scholarly associations and more intimate friendships, discover and prize the fineness and sweetness of character in others, which may enrich our own life and incite us to worthy action. It is the province of higher education to help foster those conditions of mind and heart whose flexibility and natural aptitudes lead the individual "to draw ever nearer to a sense of what is indeed beautiful, graceful, and becoming." Such wisdom and goodness are of the highest practical utility in the life of a nation. The colleges have helped to offset the material tendency of our civilization by holding up high ideals and emphasizing the supremacy of the unseen mental, moral, and spiritual forces in our life. Through their leadership in the schools, and through the press, platform and pulpit, they have introduced into the fomenting mind of the republic the noblest ideals and the most generous incentives, which have, in a large measure, transformed public sentiment for the better. We have, at least, learned one great lesson in our history: that if we would have peace, contentment, happiness and prosperity, we must give the people a Christian education, and put all we can into character.