Colleges in America Part 9

"The progress grows more rapid," says William T. Harris, "as the Christian spirit which leavens our civilizations sends forward, one after another, its legions into the field; for great inventions, as well as great moral reforms, proceed from Christianity."

No one can afford to be indifferent to the power and influence for good of the Christian college. These are immeasurable. The Christian Church and all the friends of human progress and welfare must, more and more, emphasize the lesson that, if we educate in our colleges the leading minds of the nation, we will be able so to control the prevailing habits and modes of thought throughout the country as to secure the permanency and glory of Christian liberty and religious inst.i.tutions.

These truths may be enforced by many historic examples. The Jesuits have always been eminent for their adroit management of men. They recovered a large part of Europe to the papacy by seizing and controlling the colleges and universities as fountains of power. They had at one time under their control 600 colleges. They made it their business to educate the leading minds, and through them to guide and govern communities and nations. When only one in thirty of the inhabitants of Austria adhered to the papacy, Professor Ranke says that "the Jesuits obtained a controlling influence in the universities, and in a single generation Austria was lost to the Reformation and regained to the papal hierarchy."

In the sixteenth century, the Protestant King of Poland appointed a Jesuit minister of public instruction, who soon filled the professors'

chairs with members of his own order. The "scale was soon turned, and the doctrines of the Reformation never again recovered the ascendency."

In our own day, the influence of a college education is seen in the case of a number of young Bulgarians at Roberts College, in Constantinople. These students rekindled hope and courage in the people and revived the feeling of nationality in the hearts of the Bulgarians. This prepared the way for a general uprising in 1876, the b.l.o.o.d.y repression of which brought on the war with Russia, which led to the liberation of the province. Thus, influences descend with power from above into society. The colleges are the right arm of strength for all n.o.ble efforts for human welfare. Professor Van Holst, in his recent address, delivered at Chicago, said: "The most effectual way to lift the ma.s.ses to a higher plane--materially, intellectually and morally--is to do everything favoring the climbing up of an ever-increasing minority to higher and higher intellectual and moral alt.i.tudes. Therefore, universities of the very highest order become every year more desirable--nay, necessary--for the preservation and the development of the vital forces of American democracy.

Undoubtedly, to have them established is the interest of those who would frequent them, but it is still infinitely more in the interests of the American people in its entirety."

It is impossible to estimate all the good that comes to society through the influence of the college. It is quite evident that our colleges stand for the production of the highest manhood and womanhood, and their friends should marshal their forces to enhance their growth and usefulness. It is the underlying forces at work for good in our colleges that insure the integrity and safety of our social and religious organizations. Men and women who have means should regard it a privilege to lavish their gifts upon the colleges that labor for the imperishable things of life, and provide incentives for the highest Christian character and activity. He who consecrates his money to found a professorship in a Christian college erects a monument to the worth of the human soul, and perpetuates his own fame.

He helps the colleges to determine, in a large measure, the character of the persons who shall fill our pulpits, teach our schools, edit our papers, write our books, and give direction to all the political and social movements. The dangers that menace our nation lie in the lack of intelligent Christian leadership. It is within the power of friends of the colleges to enroll among the college graduates a vast army of the youth of our land, whose largeness of manhood and womanhood and magnificence of character will commend themselves to the love and esteem of the lowly and suffering in every land.

Lord Macaulay once said that "the destiny of England is in the great heart of England," and we may safely say that the power for usefulness of the colleges is in the great heart of the Christian people of America, who will be more and more loyal to the sacred trust.