Lo! the world unchained through Jesus, Shout for joy, O Magdalena ! Death destroyed, He comes to save. Lift thine eyes, O Magdalena ! Lo! thy Lord before thee stands ; Wake and live, O Magdalena! Hail thy loving joys returning. Halleluia ! He often used his moments of vacation recreation in reading rare old Latin authors, as his most pleasant pastime. It was interesting to him to see how they verified the words of Solomon, "There is no new thing under the sun." He would often break out with a laugh, saying, "Here it is again! such or such a modern theory is only a rehash of what this old Latin fellow wrote centuries ago." His article on Lucretius, in the "Quarterly" for January, 1876, claims that the philosophy of this ancient poet, "in its essential features, in its merits which have stood the test of centuries, and in its failures which are common to all who have followed him, is the prototype of all subsequent materialistic philosophy." In his college life, as well as elsewhere, he made his duties to the Church of God of paramount importance. So far from finding these to require any neglect of college work, he used to say that the one aided the other. As the mental and spiritual nature complemented each other, so the labors of each mutually increased their capacity. He thought that college life, instead of tending, as he saw it often did, to lowering the standard of morality and religion, ought to be always an incentive to greater and more manifest spiritual power. He believed the design of college founders was only thus accomplished. The intensity of his feeling on this subject found expression in an article published in "The Methodist Quarterly" of October, 1879, entitled "Our Coleges," from which are the following extracts: "There can be no question that the original purpose of the college was mainly as an auxiliary to religion. Whatever may have been its design as a means of mental culture, the dominant one was to promote the cause of Christ. The founders of these institutions in our early history were eminently pious men. Their chief thought in their noble work was to inaugurate a powerful agency of an aggressive Christianity. No doubt they believed, what is true, that the college as a means of liberal culture, as a centre of intellectual power whose utterances should exercise an authoritative control upon the popular mind, and as a discoverer and disseminator of useful knowledge, would be such an agency in a very high sense. But that culture, intellect, and knowledge, without the vitalizing forces of religion, would realize their intent in the founding of a college, never entered their minds. Academic culture was rather the instrument of religion; a blade of cold steel, that must be tempered in the blood of Christ if it would do any real service to humanity. Education was not regarded as a Christianizing force, except in the hands of religion. Every effort to promote the one, from the common school to the college, was made on the belief that it was the outgrowth and auxiliary of the other. A large part of the funds given to found William and Mary College were given as a missionary donation, and conditioned on such an application of them. The seal of Harvard bears the motto, 'Christo et Ecclesia. The seal of Yale has the words, 'Lux et Veritas;' and what other light and truth than that of the Holy Scriptures were in the thought of the ten clergymen who laid the foundation of that beacon on our shores? Dartmouth College began as an Indian mission. The announced purpose of the Synod of New York in founding Princeton College was, 'to supply the Church with learned and able preachers of the Word.' President Witherspoon well embodied its spirit in the words: Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ; cursed be all that learning that is not coincident with the cross of Christ; cursed be all that learning that is not subservient to the cross of Christ.' There is not a New-England college but is the result of the religious enthusiasm of its founders as a means primarily of defending and propagating the gospel. A large number of Western colleges are missionary enterprises, designed to furnish a supply of pious and learned ministers in those new and growing regions. And the history of the very few institutions that have been founded in irreligion shows them a failure until they have passed under the controlling influence of religion. The founders of Methodist institutions were men of whom it would be sacrilege to suppose that they did not intend them to be directly, as well as indirectly, a power for Christ. They are the children of the Church, born and baptized with the hope and purpose that they should become the giants of her advancing armies, and the invincible bulwarks of her defence. . . . "An unchristian man, or a man of doubtful religious character, much more a man of well-known sceptical opinions or an irreligious life, should have no place in a board of college instruction. Without doubt, such an opinion will be met with the charge of bigotry and illiberality. These are days in which men are exceedingly sensitive to such a charge. The glamour of liberalism charms like a Circe, and petrifies like a Gorgon. To be called narrow, is to be reckoned in conflict with the advancing tread of the ages; and to be called an adherent of the old-time faith, and pious after the Puritan fashion, is to be called narrow. Broadness is deified. Strip off the angelic garb from our Satan, and his name is Liberalism; and it becomes Christianity to do what it can to disrobe him. . . . "We are no advocate of a dogmatic Christianity, nor of religious asceticism. The college is not a monastery. Its chief function is the culture of the intellect, through the channels of art, science, and language. But these channels will inevitably carry a moral current too. It is the solemn duty of a Christian college to see to it that its moral teaching be pure. It needs no parade of religious profession, no offensive boasts of its religious character. It should be as unostentatious as true religion always is; but it should be as firm as the hills in its principles, and well known by its fruits. . . . "There is no goal like a Christian goal, no purpose like a Christian purpose. There is no antidote for instability, discouragement, and defeat, like Christian principle. If the atmosphere of a college is helpful for this, its students. stand on the highest vantage-ground. In proportion as a college possesses this positive and leading element, will the standard of its culture rise, and the results of its mission be accomplished. ... "It is one of the most serious errors of the day, that the educational system of our country ought to be divested of the religious element; that this element of itself, and by itself, and in its own specific channels, is sufficient for the religious welfare of the young. Nothing is more strange than such an idea in a Christian country. Nothing but the hypocrisy of Romanism, seconded by the demagogism of politics, could have given it such currency. The very heathen have a better theory. The Constitution of Lycurgus made the morals of the Spartan child, after their standard of morality, the principal thing in their education. Philip of Macedon thanked the gods, upon the birth of Alexander, not so much that they had given him a son, as that Aristotle might be his instructor; and none like Aristotle comprehended the immortal nature of man, and strove to mould his pupils by that lofty conception. The Chinese blend religious with secular instruction, and the Persians teach their children virtue as the best of all knowledge. The Christianity of history has never dared |