^/O,/ 
 
 -7 
 
 LIBER A I. EDUCATION A NECESSITY OF THE CnURCII. 
 
 1)1 S COURSE, 
 
 PKLIVKUKI) AT TIIK 
 
 ^i 
 
 irtccntlj ^^uuibcrarir 
 
 SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF COLLEGIATE AND THEOLOGICAL 
 EDUCATION AT THE WEST. 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, ALBANY, NEW YORK, 
 October 2dTiT, 1859. 
 
 • BY 
 
 JONATHAN F. STEARNS, D.D. 
 
 PASTOR or TUE FIKST PKESBYTERIAN CllUnCU, NEWARK, N. J. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 
 
 3 7 7 & 3 7 9 BROADWAY. 
 18C0. 
 
LIRKIIAL EDCCATIOX A XKCESSITY OF THE CHURCH, 
 
 1)1 S COURSE, 
 
 PELIVERK.D AT THE 
 
 ^irtfcnll] ^luiiljcrsiirn 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF COLLEniATE AXD THEOLOGICAL 
 EDUCATION AT THE WEST. 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, ALBANY, NEW YORK, 
 October 2otii, 1859. 
 
 • BY 
 
 JONATHAN F. STEARNS, D.D. 
 
 PA6T0K or TUE FIHST PRESBYTERIAN ClirRClI, NEWARK, N. J. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 
 
 Z11 k 379 BROADWAY. 
 18G0. 
 
" On motion, the thanks of the Board were presented to Rev. Dr. 
 Stearns, for his Sermon preached last evening, and a copy requested 
 for publication." 
 
 An extract from the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Directors 
 of the Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Educa- 
 tion at the West, at their Annual Meeting at Albany, New York, Oc- 
 tober 2Gth, 1859. 
 
 JonN Spaulding, Recording Secretary. 
 
DISCOUKSE. 
 
 Moses was Icnrncd in all tho wisdom of llio Egyptians. — Acra 
 vii. 22. 
 
 Wiii'N God has a special work to perform He 
 knows how to prepare the instruments to be cm- 
 ployed in it. Ill tlie days of the captivity in Egypt, 
 He had it in His mind to make a great religious na- 
 tion out of a race of ignorant slaves ; therefore He 
 saw fit to educate their leader in all precxistent 
 learning, and thus lay broad and deep the founda- 
 tion on wliich to rear the superstructure of new 
 thouglits and sentiments. 
 
 Moses was a divine lawgiver, an inspired reli- 
 gious teacher. The object of his life was to teach 
 the Hebrew people to know, love and serve the 
 livinf^ and true God, of whom all tlie heathen na- 
 tions were ignorant. And yet Moses, be it remem- 
 bered, for there is important instruction in the fact, 
 was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. 
 The erreat Head of the ancient Church sent him to 
 that school, for the purpose of acquiring a thorough 
 knowledge of that very pagan literature and science, 
 
which, in their pagan forms, were to be wholly su- 
 perseded. Egypt was then, and for many centu- 
 ries, the school of the world. Thither old Homer 
 was said to have repaired to gather materials for his 
 songs; Herodotus journeyed thither to collect the 
 dim traditions of the past for his history ; Lycurgus 
 and Solon to learn the principles of legislation ; and 
 Thales, Pythagoras, and Plato to be instructed in the 
 sublime mysteries of philosophy. Thence were de- 
 rived some of the seminal principles of Grecian learn- 
 ing, art and civilization. And thither the God ot 
 Israel sent Moses, as to the best college of his day, 
 to gather up all that was good in the traditional 
 knowledofe and culture of the ancient Avorld. 
 
 Something similar to this took place in the case 
 of the Apostle Paul. He was appointed as the ex- 
 pounder of a heaven-descended faith — a faith which 
 stood, not in the wisdom of man but in the power 
 of God. And yet, under the direction of Divine 
 Providence, he was not only brought up at the feet 
 of Gamaliel, the most renowned Jewish teacher of 
 his day, and so thoroughly trained in all Jewish 
 lore ; but introduced, probably in the schools of 
 Tarsus, to an acquaintance with the literature of 
 Pagan Greece, and, by his free birth as a Roman 
 citizen, initiated early into the principles of Roman 
 law. It is true, not many wise, as well as not many 
 mighty and noble, were called to take part in the 
 first planting of Christianity ; yet to the untaught 
 among the apostles was the gift of tongues commu- 
 nicated on the day of Pentecost. And Avhat God 
 himself interposed to furnish in the age of miracles. 
 
may be taken as a symbol of wliat the Church should 
 aim at in her subsequent and more regular arrange- 
 ments. 
 
 The present age presents to the cfibrts of the 
 Cliureh a work second to none in the entire history of 
 humanity. God has assigned the task to our own sec- 
 tion of it to raise up in this new and vast land a form of 
 Christian civilization and social life, a state, a nation, 
 a branch of the Church universal, fitted to perform 
 no mean part in the great drama of His purposes. 
 Nor only this. This mighty host, this grand corps 
 cTarmee in the great army of righteousness is not 
 only to be mustered and equipped and disciplined, 
 but led on con(|uering and to conquer among the 
 nations, under the standard of the Captain of our 
 Salvation. In such a work the Church needs men 
 of no limited or superficial training. She needs 
 men of breadth, men of i)rofound and varied know- 
 ledge, men of well disciplined powers, men of 
 quick, versatile and practised faculties. She needs 
 and must have, at least among the leaders of the en- 
 terprise, clerical or lay, men of liberal education in 
 the truest, fullest acceptation of the words. The 
 diffusion of knowledge, characteristic of our times, 
 can scarcely be over estimated, liut besides this, 
 and partly because of this, advanced knowledge, 
 and such mental culture as the mass of men under 
 the best circumstances cannot be expected to ac- 
 quire, is, for the teachers and leaders of the age, an 
 indispensable requisite. 
 
 The furnishing of this sort of education is the 
 special object for which colleges are established. 
 
With reference, therefore, to our duty in sustaining, 
 and, as opportunity may ofl'er, availing ourselves of 
 the benefit of such institutions for ourselves or our 
 children, it seems proper that I should attempt to 
 define the nature and aim of such education, 
 and shew why the Church needs it for a portion of 
 her members, and on whom she must depend to 
 afford the requisite facilities. 
 
 I. What then are we to understand by a liberal, 
 in distinction from all other sorts of education ? 
 The term is an ancient one. Among the Romans 
 it was appropriated to those departments of study 
 which seemed adapted to men of leisure and easy 
 circumstances, who could pursue learning for learn- 
 ing's sake, and had no necessity to reduce all their 
 knowledge to immediate practice. This class were 
 denominated liherales, and the education they pur- 
 sued was called liberal, both from its supposed 
 adaptation to their condition, and to denote its am- 
 plitude or freedom from a servile aim. With us 
 all education is designed for use, and the highest 
 especially so, though its uses may seem at first less 
 obvious. By a liberal education, I understand one 
 that is radical in distinction from superficial — a 
 planting of the deep, strong, vital roots instead of 
 gathering the blossoms of the tree of knowledge, 
 and one that is general and comprehensive in dis- 
 tinction from specific and restricted — a training of 
 the whole man rather than some single faculty, an 
 introduction to the entire domain of thought in- 
 stead of the exclusive pursuit of a particular de- 
 partment, that which confers upon its f\ivored ob- 
 
ject tlic comj)lctc freedom of tiic city, instead of fit- 
 ting liini up comfortable lodgings in some narrow 
 corner. 
 
 There is an education which prepares men for 
 a particular profession. The practical lawyer must 
 be educated in the principles and rules of legal 
 practice, the physician in those pertaining to the 
 practice of medicine, the Christian pastor in what 
 relates immediately to the service of the pulpit and 
 the cure of souls. And so with those who devote 
 themselves to a particular science or branch of lite- 
 rature. So with the man of business. Such an 
 education is like that of the apprentice, having for 
 its object the ability to perform well the particular 
 processes of his trade. If extended, in any case, 
 beyond the boundaries of professional service, it is 
 only as the seaman finds it well to acquaint himself 
 with mathematics for its use in nautical calculations, 
 or the mechanic and manufacturer with the laws of 
 physical forces or the principles of chemical science. 
 The object is not knowledge simply, but knowledge 
 for a specific end, not the improvement of the mind 
 as a whole, but its adaptation to the performance of 
 a definite work. 
 
 Such an education I by no means wis!i to dis- 
 parage. It is important. It is necessary. Many, 
 unquestionably, perform a noble part in usefulness 
 to their fellow-men and service to the cause of 
 Christ, without attempting to secure for themselves 
 any thing further. Only, I wish to distinguish it 
 from what is properly to be denominated liberal 
 education. The object of that is to furnish the key 
 
8 
 
 of all knowledge in whatever department, and de- 
 velop and perfect all the powers in their symme- 
 trical proportions. 
 
 The question is often raised, What is the use of 
 such an education? What, for example, is the use 
 of Latin and Greek among a people wdio speak only 
 English ? What is the use of Astronomy to those 
 who neither intend to foretell eclipses nor journey 
 among the stars ? In simple words. Why should a 
 man spend time and strength in getting knowledge 
 which he may never have occasion to reduce to 
 practice ? The answer to this question is obvious. 
 The immediate object of these studies is not prac- 
 tice, but ability. If there is a species of education 
 fitted to give to a man's faculties their highest per- 
 fection, and to the endow^ments with which God 
 has favored him their largest scope and efficiency ; 
 to open in the soul avenues of light from every 
 quarter, and enable it to perceive not only the spe- 
 cific end which it may at any time have in view, 
 but the relations and bearings of that end in all 
 their complicated ramifications through space and 
 time and into the depths of infinity ; to place the 
 mind in a posture to pursue truth, not in this or that 
 particular direction, but in all possible directions, 
 as the exigences of the world may require, it seems 
 manifest on the slightest inspection, that they who 
 have it possess immense advantages. They, other 
 things being the same, will be the true lords in the 
 realm of thought and the true leaders of the world's 
 progress. And docs not Christianity, does not the 
 Church require, among the instruments of her sta- 
 
bility iinil progress, a class of inoii thus tniiiica and 
 instructed ? 
 
 1 r. Briefly to answer this question will be my 
 object in the second place. 
 
 And hero let me revert to a fact already hinted 
 at, that the Chuvii in all ages has borne her practi- 
 cal testimony to the adirmativc of this question. 
 The cases of Moses and Paul during the period of 
 inspiration were followed by a long line of corre- 
 sponding cases in the subsequent ages. Such names 
 as Jerome and Augustine and Chrysostom and Origeu 
 and Tertullian stand amidst a host of others as monu- 
 ments of the value and influence of learned men in 
 the early Church. By such men was the battle with 
 paganism fought successfully. By such men was 
 the faith once delivered to the saints, developed in 
 its systematic relations and the Scriptures translated 
 and expounded for the use of the people. They 
 were men who understood languages, were familiar 
 with Jewish and pagan law, and had sounded the ob- 
 scure depths of pagan philosophy. Nor is it easy 
 to over-estimate the service which such men per- 
 formed, not for their own times only, but for ours. 
 The works of Athanasius and Augustine .still shed a 
 flood of light on the truth as it is in Jesus; and wc 
 are enjoying at this day the benefit of their learning 
 -their acquaintance, I may say, with heathen litera- 
 ture and philosophy, in the beautiful and exact state- 
 ments of Christian doctrine, which now lie familiar 
 as household words on the pages of our catechism. 
 Not that they transferred pagan philosophy into the 
 Christian creed— so far as any of them did that, they 
 
10 
 
 did the Gospel a wrong. But that philosophy 
 helped them to perceive where lay the dangers to 
 which the human mind is most exposed in its in- 
 quiries for truth, and what were the avenues of 
 error which most needed to be guarded. 
 
 Even during that long and gloomy period pro- 
 verbially denominated the dark ages, when classic 
 literature and refinement, having grown prurient 
 through pagan immorality, had been overborne 
 and trampled down by barbarian rudeness, and 
 Christian truth, as yet but partially apprehended, had 
 not gained such ascendency over the minds and 
 habits of men as to produce a civilization and a social 
 culture properly its own, intellectual light was pre- 
 served from being quite extinguished, more by the 
 fact that the Church, even in her degeneracy, believed 
 that learning ought to be cherished, and learned men 
 enlisted in her service, than from any other cause. 
 And it was chiefly because the learning of those same 
 men was not more ample and varied, more liberal in 
 the best sense of that term, that it became subservient 
 to so great an extent to the cause of a corrupt Chris- 
 tianity. It deserves particular notice, that the first 
 dawnings of a better day — a day which rose in 
 splendor at the breaking in of the Protestant Refor- 
 mation, were to be discovered in tlie recurrence to 
 departments of old classic literature which, for a long 
 time, had been left in neglect. The chains of scho- 
 lastic and papal divinity, riveted as they were by an 
 exclusive adherence to the Aristotelian philosophy, 
 were just loosened by the revival of classic studies 
 in general, and the philosophy of Plato in particular. 
 
11 
 
 And thus it was that men were loci back to the study 
 of the Scri[)tures in their orif^inal hmgungcs, and to 
 athoroup^h reexamination of the whole system of Gos 
 pel doctrine. WicklifTe and IIuss of the earlier day, 
 Erasmus^ Luther, Mclancthon, Calvin and Beza were 
 learned men ; and their learning, under God, was the 
 chief weapon with which they fought the mighty 
 forces of the papacy, entrenched as that foe was be- 
 hind a system of most inveterate prejudices, and 
 institutions strengthened by self-interest and de- 
 fended by power. Thus were they successful in 
 letting in the light of day upon the dungeons of 
 error, and giving back the precious Bible and the 
 glorious liberty of the children of God to a world 
 enslaved and spoiled of its best treasure. 
 
 I know indeed that learned men sometimes go 
 astray from tlic simplicity of the true faith. Ex- 
 amples of the fact may be found all down the history 
 of Christianity. Infidelity, in all its shapes, has its 
 learned champions. Heresy has found its chief sup- 
 port in the subtle reasonings of learned men. But 
 this fiict does but make the necessity of well-directed 
 and sanctified learning the more apparent. You 
 cannot refute and put down fixlsehood, unless you 
 know thoroughly the basis on which it has erected 
 itself It is perfect folly to stand by in cold dignity 
 and say the Gospel is true and divine, and needs no 
 defence. The truth may stand. But sinful men, 
 led away by the devices of Satan, will refuse to stand 
 by it. And if you would save men from error, you 
 have got to refute its boastful sophistries. If the 
 attack is made from the department of geology, 
 
12 
 
 somebody must know geology in order to wrest from 
 the foe that stronghold. If from physiology or natural 
 history, somebody must have acquaintance enough 
 with those sciences to show them to be where they 
 truly are, on the side of truth, and not of infidelity ; 
 if from philosophy,ancient or modern, French, English 
 or German, somebody must have so mastered the sub- 
 tiltiesof that philosophy, as to discover the secrets of 
 its power and be able to expose its false pretensions. 
 Nor will any partial or restricted education, any ex- 
 clusive devotion to a particular science, qualify a man 
 to perform successfully this service. There is a com- 
 mon bond, as an old master of learning has said, among 
 all the branches of knowledge. And the principles^ 
 at least, of them all must be understood, if we would 
 defend truth when attacked on one side, without the 
 risk of opening a new breach to the foe on some other. 
 It has been the grand mischief attendant on the sin- 
 cere efforts of some eminently scientific men, that for 
 want of a more broad, systematic and radical training, 
 they have given arguments to the unbeliever in the 
 very act of taking others out of his hands. 
 
 The Church needs men of this sort of education, 
 to lead or pour their influence into every depart- 
 ment of Christian civilization. For, be it observed, 
 Christian civilization. Christian society and a Chris- 
 tian State are both the natural product and the in- 
 dispensable instruments of Christian piety. They 
 are, so to speak, the crystallized results of the Church's 
 influence, and to be cherished, purified, and directed 
 to the wisest ends with the same jealous care as her 
 own proper organization. She needs men of this 
 
13 
 
 stamp in the cliiiir of magistracy, on the bench of 
 justice and at the bar, in the houses of legislation, on 
 the stage of public debate or popular harangue, in 
 the editorial sanctum or the author's closet, among 
 the leaders of popular education, and at the head of 
 all sorts of great enter[)rises of benevolence and 
 social improvement. To be a statesman, for ex- 
 ample, in the noblest sense, there is need of some- 
 thing more than a familiarity with politics. There 
 must be also an acquaintance with the history of 
 states, and the })rinciples on which social order and 
 the intercourse of communities rest. There must be 
 a profound knowledge of human nature, individual 
 and social, intellectual, moral and religious. There 
 must be a true and profound knowledge of the laws 
 of God, the principles on which this vast universe is 
 built. Maxims and precedents may guide a man in 
 ordinary circumstances. Shrewd practical common 
 sense may avail in many cases. But exigences wil 
 arise requiring a resort to first principles. And then 
 only he is adequate to the position, who, with practi- 
 cal judgment, based on observation and experience, 
 combines a large share of comprehensive and radical 
 knowledge. lie must know principles as principles, 
 and have some acquaintance with their mode of de- 
 velopment, not only in the particular sphere in 
 which he is now required to apply them, but in 
 others whose connection with that is to be found 
 only in the princif)les. 
 
 But while it is true that, in all the great depart- 
 ments of her service, the Church has need of men 
 liberally educated, preeminently true is it in the de- 
 
14 
 
 partrncDt of religion, specifically so called. No 
 science occupies so central a position or is so inti- 
 mately and widely related as that of Theology; 
 history, philology, natural science, mental and ethi- 
 cal philosophy, the science of law and government — 
 all have a direct and manifest relation to it ; so that an 
 error in either of these departments produces error 
 or raises doubts or difficulties in that. Theology 
 has been said justly to be the science of sciences, 
 the science of those deeper first principles, out of 
 which, what are esteemed first principles in all the 
 others have their beginnings. Hence, in order to be 
 well versed in theology, especially to be a com- 
 petent theological teacher, a man must be able to 
 take a wide range among all the departments of 
 human thought. I might point, were it desirable, to 
 some notable instances of defective systems of theo- 
 logy, framed .by good men and displaying eminent 
 genius, whose defects, vitiating all their excellences, 
 could be traced plainly enough, to some want of 
 breadth and comprehensiveness in the mental train- 
 ing or attainments of those who composed them. Had 
 certain truths of which they are ignorant been 
 once communicated to them, had their minds 
 traversed certain fields of thought of Avhich they 
 now seem to have no conception, such positions as 
 they take and hold would at once have been aban- 
 doned. The Church will never reach that most de- 
 sirable of attainments, a full-orbed system of Chris- 
 tian truth, till our theologians are able, through a 
 more complete mental culture and intellectual furnish- 
 ing, to contemplate the doctrines of their faith more 
 
15 
 
 comi.rcl>ensivcly as well as radically, in their wide 
 and manifold relations. 
 
 The service of the preacher and pastor finds 
 occasion for, if it does not indispensably require an 
 education as complete if not as profound as that ot 
 the theologian. The men who have moved the 
 world most dccplv an.l produced the most lasting 
 impressions upon the hearts of the people have not 
 usually been men of small or confined knowledge. 
 Not such was Whitclicld or Wesley, Baxter or Ld- 
 wards. Our missionaries in foreign lands have met 
 with a success unrivalled if not unparalleled, in 
 their efforts to impress Christian truth upon the 
 minds and hearts of the most diversified speci 
 mens of the human race, because, unlike those who 
 have been sent out by some other missionary 
 associations, they have been generally above the 
 ordinary rank, both in ability and learning The 
 churches of America have not acted upon the prin- 
 ciple of sending abroad those who were too igno- 
 rant to be useful at home, but have in genera culled 
 their choice men, and had them trained in the best 
 manner which the facilities of the country would 
 allou' Hence they have been at once respected by 
 forei-n sojourners in their fields of labor, and, by 
 the "race of God, made deep and lasting impres- 
 sions on some of the strongest, as well as the most 
 suscei.tiblo minds, of their respective communities. 
 
 In a special manner the exigences of the pre- 
 sent a-e demand this chiss of scholars both for the 
 defen °e and promulgation of the Christian faith. It 
 is with us an age of unparalleled mental activity. A 
 
16 
 
 spirit of inquiry has been aroused, and truth is 
 questioned for its credentials from every quarter. 
 New sciences, or new discoveries in science, are 
 continually breaking in upon us, which demand, 
 with a tone of authority, that religion should either 
 bow before them or reduce them to her service. 
 There is, besides, growing up around us a vast and 
 powerful democratic nation. All sorts of elements 
 are included in it, and all forms of thought ever gen- 
 erated in any portion of the world go to make up 
 its public opinion. The men who are to instruct 
 such a people and bring them to accept, in spite of 
 all their prejudices and their lawless self-confidence, 
 a religion that shall control and mould them, must 
 be no novices. Meanwhile, all the world seems 
 opening to receive the arguments and feel the influ- 
 ence of Christian truth. All forms of error, super- 
 stition, infidelity and paganism, are coming into im- 
 mediate contact and uncompromising conflict with 
 the relif>:ion of Jesus. And what sort of men must 
 they be who shall grapple successfully with these 
 manifold and strong hostile forces, who shall root 
 out Buddhism, andTaouism, and Confucianism from 
 China, llindooism and Lamaism from the interior 
 of the Asiatic continent, and Maho'mmedanism, 
 Judaism and false Christianity from Western Asia 
 and luirope ? ^len who know little of languages 
 and history, little .of the various forms and phases of 
 literature, little of science and pliilosophy ? God 
 may work a miracle if He chooses; but until He 
 authorizes us to expect a miracle, we have not the 
 slightest reason to expect lie will convert the world 
 
17 
 
 by such instnuncnts. Thcpolished shafts with which 
 He oraii.arilv accomi)lishes such achicvcincnts-the 
 iMstnuncnts which lie has give.i us reason to bchcve 
 suit His purposes, arc formed and sharpened for Ills 
 use after another manner. 
 
 111. Admitting, then, that the Church needs— 
 especially in such a land and age as ours-for the 
 accomplishment of her grand n.i.ssion in human his- 
 tory, a class of men liberally educated, the question 
 arises, in the third place, on whom must she depend 
 to provide the rc.iuisite facilities for their training ? 
 As already observed, the furnishing of precisely 
 this sort of education is the object for which colleges 
 are established. The functions which they perform 
 are twofold-the cultivation and advancement ot 
 the higher learning in general, and the training of 
 
 individual men. 
 
 In the former, they may be regarded as standing 
 witnesses, strong and permanent garri.sons great 
 licht-bearers of truth and knowledge. Around them 
 clu'^ter as to a common centre all sorts of scholarly 
 influences. In their libraries, lecture-rooms and 
 cabinets, all that is rare in learning or significant m 
 the products of nature, or excellent in human art, 
 finds a natural depository. In their chairs of science 
 and literature, the choice intellects of the land, 
 themselves liberally educated, devote the rase ves to 
 the cultivation of each his own particular dcpar - 
 ment; while the daily mutual intercourse of such 
 men, the geologist and chemist with the mcta- 
 physician, the philologist with the professor of na- 
 tui'al history, the professor of history or law with 
 2 
 
18 
 
 him of Latin or Greek, the mathematician with the 
 professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres, the professor 
 of moral science and practical divinity with them 
 all — maintains the liberal character of every scientific 
 and literary specialty, and guards effectually against 
 the narrowing tendency of devotion to departments. 
 Nowhere is learnins: so cultivated in its full-orbed 
 beauty and organic completeness ; nowhere are its 
 varieties so displayed in their unity, or the crown of 
 unity made so resplendent with all the gems of va- 
 riety ; and nowhere is the division of mental labor 
 made so available without the slic^htest discon- 
 nection or disproportion of the product. There 
 is a silent influence going forth, hour by hour, from 
 such institutions, of immense value. The flirmers 
 and mechanics feel it as they come and go in sight 
 of the collec^e walls. The verv si^^ht of those walls 
 stimulates the thirst for knowledge. And the little 
 lads, as they pass and strain their eyes up to the 
 venerable towers, reminded that within sits en- 
 throned the queen of learning and what a beautiful 
 queen she is, vow to pay her their homage as soon 
 as their young frames shall begin to acquire manly- 
 proportions. Thus arc hundreds led to devote them- 
 selves to learning, who, but for the presence of the 
 college, would never have aspired to higher know- 
 ledge than that of the mechanism of a shoe or the 
 qualities of beeves and horses. 
 
 Turn we then to the other function of these in- 
 stitutions, and here we find them performing a ser- 
 vice to which no other known agency is competent. 
 Not that all who enter and pass through a college 
 
19 
 
 actually become lil)orally educated, nor that libe- 
 ral education, in some true sense of the word, may 
 not sometimes be obtained apart fioni their train- 
 ing ; but bcH'ausc ordinarily there alone are to be 
 found the facilities and api)liances, the inteHectual 
 discipline, incitement, direction and controlling in- 
 fluence, which will carry a young mind through the 
 obstacles, and straight forward to the goal of his 
 aspirations. Into those quiet retreats the din and 
 turmoil of the world seldom intrude, or are heard 
 only as a distant ruml)ling. The gayeties of social 
 life, so apt to entice young minds from fixed 
 thought, arc reserved chiefly for the solace of vaca- 
 tions. The control of authority and college rules, 
 are just sufficient to relieve the pressure of indi- 
 vidual responsibility, and secure the greater mental 
 freedom. The curriculum of college studies, in 
 which the student begins at the beginning and goes 
 forward in regular series to the close, has been ar- 
 ranged Avith special reference to just the object he 
 is aiming at. The same essentially in all well regu- 
 lated colleges, it is the result of the collected wis- 
 dom, not of our own country only, but of the vene- 
 rable universities of the old world. And though, it 
 is true, our best college systems are as yet imper- 
 fect, and attention needs to be drawn to depart- 
 ments hitherto neglected, as well as a higher stan- 
 dard to be raised in departments now deemed im- 
 portant, the course which prevails at present could 
 not, it is believed, be fundamentally changed, with- 
 out serious disadvantage to the end in view. There, 
 in every department, are provided the best facilities 
 
20 
 
 for instruction and illustration. Some of the best 
 minds of the age come into direct and daily con- 
 tact with the student's own. The noblest of the 
 youth of his own age are brought into generous 
 competition with him. The leading men of the 
 community watch his progress as trustees or patrons, 
 and meet to witness his success at the public exami- 
 nations or the annual commencement. A numerous 
 body of Alumni sympathize with his progress and 
 wait to welcome him to their fraternity and rejoice 
 in the honor he confers on their and his Alma Ma- 
 ter. And it is all his own fault if, possessing tolera- 
 ble natural abilities, he does not, during the four 
 quiet years he spends under such influences, lay, 
 broad and deep, the foundations of mental culture, 
 and seize the keys with which to unlock the bound- 
 less treasures of knowded^'e. 
 
 But the question returns : if the Church must 
 have men liberally educated, and colleges are the 
 proper institutions in which to give that sort of 
 education, on whom is the Church to depend to es- 
 tablish and foster these institutions? They are not 
 the spontaneous growth of circumstances. Some- 
 body has got to exert himself Some man or class 
 of men has got to supply the means, and to supply 
 them bountifully. And here, I do not hesitate to 
 reply : Tiie Church has got to depend upon herself 
 I use the word Church with no restricted applica- 
 tion, meaning thereby, not this or that denomi- 
 national organization, but the great body of the 
 disciples of Christ, with those who sympathize with 
 them in the great mission which God has assigned 
 
21 
 
 thein. If she does not sui)ply these institutions for 
 herself, slie \Yill either not hiive them or not be able 
 to avail herself of their influenec. 
 
 It is a fact too well authenticated to be denied, 
 that almost every great impulse given to education 
 in modern times has owed its origin to religion. 
 Of all the great schools and universities in the 
 world, by far the greater part were f(junded by re- 
 ligious men, and for religious purposes. The world 
 at large are not insensible (jf the value of learning, 
 and worldly men are often ready enough to avail 
 themselves of their opportunities to give their sons 
 so valuable a benefit. It has often happened that 
 men of this class have given liberally to the endow- 
 ment of colleges. But few among them have had 
 the forethought, or the benevolence, or the faith to 
 encounter the discouragements of raising from its 
 infant feebleness an institution of the higher order. 
 Corrupt or defective Christianity has had vitality 
 enough to do it ; but infidelity or religious indif- 
 ference almost never. 
 
 And did the disposition exist, the Church would 
 be exceedingly unwise to leave to such hands the 
 founding and direction of colleges. The education 
 which she requires for her purposes is Christian 
 education, an education based and constructed 
 throughout on religious principles, one whose cul- 
 ture shall be moral and religious no less than intel- 
 lectual, and whose learning, in all its departments, 
 shall not fall short of those first principles which are 
 to be found only in the attributes and purposes of 
 God. The college which ignores Christianity will 
 
22 
 
 be, to all practical purposes, an infidel institution. 
 And as are the colleges such are likely to be the 
 common schools of the country. As are the col- 
 leges, such will be, sooner or later, the pulpits, 
 such the prevailing character of the 2:)rcss, such all 
 the other great fountains of popular opinion. Who- 
 ever controls these institutions, holds the key to the 
 reliiiious character of the surrounding region. Har- 
 vard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, — these formed, 
 in the early days, our northern quadrilateral. It 
 was hard for infidelity or heresy to get much foot- 
 hold while these remained faithful. What was it 
 that made eastern Massachusetts to so great an ex- 
 tent Unitarian ? The religious defection of Har- 
 vard. What led the w^ay in the recovery ? The 
 advancement of Williams and the rise of Amherst. 
 Yale college has, for years, given tone to the the- 
 ology of Connecticut. And the strong Presbyte- 
 rianism of New Jersey is to be traced, not more di- 
 rectly to Princeton Theological Seminary than to 
 Princeton college. Over its own graduates, the 
 religious influence of a college is hardly less than of 
 a mother's early lessons. Even the worldly among 
 them feel its force. It abides through life, and in- 
 sinuates itself into all their habits of thinking. The 
 opportunity thus oifercd of impressing Christian 
 truth upon the minds of those who shall hereafter 
 occupy posts of influence in the State and the secu- 
 lar i)rofessions, is one which must rcpny tenfold all 
 the expense which the Church must incur in taking 
 these institutions umbn- her ])alr()iinge. And then, 
 there is the education of her own nunisters. Will 
 
23 
 
 she trust to tlic State, infected as all its agencies 
 are, and must be, with the corrupt atmosphere of 
 politics, will she trust to any agency not specifi- 
 cally and emphatically Christian, to give them the 
 most controlling elements of all their thinking? 
 Will she trust to her ability to give that thinking a 
 new direction afterward, in the theological semina- 
 ry ? It is the marvellous outpourings of God's 
 Spirit, in connection with the lessons of holy wis- 
 dom given in Christian colleges, that is bringing so 
 many young men into the classes of these semina- 
 ries. And were it otherwise, it might then be 
 quite too late to give their minds a new bias, espe- 
 cially if the chairs of sacred science were all filled, 
 as they would be likely to be, by ambitious men 
 trained themselves in the same manner. No. If the 
 Church would have at her service, and as the leaders 
 of progress in her noble enterprise, men of the 
 right stamp, she must educate them herself She 
 must have colleges of her own. Indeed, in every 
 aspect of the case, it is an essential requisite of suc- 
 cess that she possess the colleges of the land and 
 imbue them with her influence; and if so, then she 
 must foinul them. She must incur the expense of 
 sustaining them ; she must endow them. ^The motto, 
 *' Christo et ecclesiai," and that still earlier device 
 on the seal of the first college ever founded in our 
 land, an open Bible with Veritas written across its 
 sacred leaves, must be the stamp of their character 
 and the guide of their destiny. 
 
 Thank God the Cliurch in this country has ncit, 
 thus far, been unmindful of her privilege in this par- 
 
24 
 
 ticular. Our fathers showed a pious alacrity to an- 
 ticipate all others in the founding of colleges. 
 Scarcely had the band of Puritans in Massachusetts 
 Bav reared their houses and their churches before 
 they were at work breaking ground for such an in- 
 stitution. Nor was it a casual occurrence that the 
 theology of Calvin, transplanted to this unknown 
 wihlerness, began thus, and has gone on multiplying , 
 and improving institutions of the same character at 
 every step of its progress. It was a necessity grow- 
 ing out of its own nature. The tree was in the seed 
 germ, and time and circumstances did but give it 
 development. The faith of the Gospel is a vigor- 
 ously intellectual, as well as emotional and aesthetic 
 faith. This strong form of the Christian faith, this 
 faith which more than all others grapples with roots 
 and lays its foundations among the primitive forma- 
 tions of mental and ontological science, requires 
 learning, requires libraries as the food of learning, 
 requires colleges as the trainers of the mind to 
 vigorous and penetrative thinking. Harvard Col- 
 lege was emphatically the child of the Churchy and 
 the Church nurtured it. Yale was founded a few 
 years later " from a sincere regard and zeal for the 
 upholding of the Protestant religion by a succession 
 of learned and orthodox men." Princeton had its 
 birth in a great religious revival, and its chief motive 
 was to ])rovide men who should perpetuate the influ- 
 ence of the revival. And what shall we say of our 
 young and yet struggling colleges of the West ? A 
 touching incident, related in one of the reports of 
 this Society respecting one of them, may serve as a 
 
specimen : — " The enterprise was resolved upon at 
 the close of a meeting for consultation and piayer 
 held by several almost penniless Home Missionaries, 
 and continued throni^di three days. Tliis little com- 
 pany of praying men then ])roceeded in a body to 
 the intended location in tlie primeval for(»st, and 
 there, kneeling on the snow, dedicated the site to 
 the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, for a 
 Christian college." There is something to me in- 
 imitably beautiful and sublime in that simple inci- 
 dent. When the valley of the Mississippi shall be- 
 come the centre of an empire second to none that 
 the world ever saw for numbers and power, and 
 from its now infant institutions shall go forth an influ- 
 ence to be felt round the world, this little story of 
 the founding of Wabash College will, Idoubtnot, take 
 rank in respect to interest with the story of the Pilgrim 
 Fathers, or the oath of Gri'itli in the land of Tell. 
 
 To assist in sustaining, during their infant pci'iod, 
 such institutions as these, is the object for wliich 
 this Society was formed. It had its origin in a spe- 
 cial exigency. Four colleges and one theological 
 seminary, all of which had been prosperous, were 
 in great need, and some of them, through disap- 
 pointed expectations, on the verge of ruin. Its 
 timely aid saved them from the catastrophe ; and 
 by the encouragement it has aflbrded, three of the 
 number have already reached permanent endow- 
 ments, and the rest, with others since brought into 
 existence, require only one more strong and gene- 
 rous effort to place them beyond the need of de- 
 pending upon its patronage. 
 
26 
 
 Meanwhile the boundaries of the west have 
 been removing fiirther and fartlier from the eastern 
 coast. New states have sprung into being with a 
 startling rapidity, and with them have been devel- 
 oped new Christian activities, and new demands for 
 institutions of learning. Long since has the enter- 
 prise of this Society crossed the Mississippi. Its 
 fosterin": care has been extended from the nei2:h- 
 borhood of St. Louis within the borders of the 
 Southern States, to the Falls of St. Anthony and the 
 beautiful Minnehaha, and far away to the Pacific 
 coast in California and Oregon. And still its field 
 is expanding. Still are the calls coming to it to 
 rock the cradle of learning in Kansas and Nebraska, 
 and throughout the length and breadth of our yet 
 unoccupied territory. 
 
 Some may fear lest we multiply too fast these 
 imperfect nurslings. And doubtless there is need 
 of a wise caution in this particular. It is one of the 
 merits of this Society that it has been the means of 
 exercisinrj this wise caution. But, with its exercise, 
 I have little fear. The exigencies of the present 
 day require that the fiicilities of learning be brought 
 to the very door of every newly gathered commu- 
 nity. No doubt, one or two great universities, 
 amply endowed and amply oflicered, would present 
 some decided advantages. But the time has not 
 come for these yet. We are building now what 
 seem isolated colleges. But the occasion may arise 
 hereafter to combine them into a grand unity. 
 When we compare their distances with the wide 
 spaces of the country, and then consider the incrcas- 
 
27 
 
 ing fiicilitics of intercommunication, they arc scarce- 
 ly more distant from eacli otlier tlian are the par- 
 ticuhir colleges that go to make up the grand old 
 universities of Cambridge and Oxford,— St. Johns, 
 for example, from Christ Church, or Queens from 
 Jesus. And the time may come when Iowa and 
 Yellow Springs, Beloit and Knox and Illinois, Wa- 
 bash, Western Reserve and ^larietta, may be united 
 by some system of organization and intercommuni- 
 cation into one grand western University, bearing 
 relations to the destinies of the Valley of the Mis- 
 sissippi somewhat like those which the Universities 
 of England have borne so long to those of that com- 
 pact kingdom. But we must not despise the day 
 of small things. 
 
 It is to meet the particular exigencies of such a 
 day as this, that this Society asks the co-operation 
 of the Church of Christ. She can point confidently 
 to what she has done, as an earnest and evidence of 
 what she is yet competent to do. Nine noble insti- 
 tutions on the east of the ^lississippi, already 
 firmly seated in the confidence of the country, often 
 blessed by the gracious influences of God's Spirit in 
 a remarkable manner, in which already more than a 
 thousand Christian men equipped for the Lord's ser- 
 vice have, it is believed, been born from above, 
 and many more. Christian ministers, missionaries 
 and others, have been prepared to go forth for the 
 redemption of the world, require now only the 
 small sum of twenty-nine thousand dollars to place 
 them all beyond dependence and complete the So- 
 ciety's work in that section of the western valley. 
 
28 
 
 Wc call for aid from tlic generous and able men of 
 this old and thriving community. Shall this Socie- 
 ty hold its annual meeting in the good old city of 
 Albany, and not go forth strengthened by large and 
 liberal accessions to its working means? Is tliere 
 not some individual in this assembly, who, by a 
 single generous donation, will take at least one of 
 the institutions in question off the hands of the So- 
 ciety ? Are there not as many as four wdio will 
 take each his own institution, and thus leave the 
 Society free to move its entire force triumphantly 
 across the Mississippi ? If any are ambitious, where 
 will they find a nobler object of ambition than to 
 link their name (as are the names of Harvard and 
 Yale and Bartlett linked with noble institutions of 
 New England) with some promising and beneficent 
 institution of learning in the western valley ? If 
 any are desirous of doing a good work whose in- 
 fluence shall spread wide and last long, where can 
 they find a more fitting opportunity ? 
 
 We commend this cause, brethren and friends, 
 to your sympathies, your benefactions and your 
 prayers. It is for no merely secular purposes that 
 we urge forward the enterprise of founding and 
 sustaining institutions of Christian learning. It is 
 for the Church's sake and for the sake of her great 
 and sublime work of converting this fallen world 
 and all that belongs to it, transforming it by the 
 divine energies of trutli; for tli(; l)l(.'se^ed I^laster's 
 Bake whose are the riches and tlic power, the ca- 
 pacities and the allections of men, and whose cause 
 requires just this class of iustrumeiits for theaccoin- 
 
29 
 
 plishmcnt of its purposes. There is a day coming 
 when all knowledge sliall be seen and felt to be, as 
 it truly is, the knowledge of Cod and His wonder- 
 ful works, and when all human powers and attain- 
 ments shall be devoted, as they ought ever to be, to 
 the service of Christ. In tliat day Christian colleges 
 will be among the most sacred as well as beneficent 
 and pow^erful institutions. Their instructors will be 
 true priests of the living God, and the learning and 
 culture of tlie land will be a sweet incense ascend- 
 ing from pure hearts to His throne. AYe work, in 
 all our efforts to establish and advance them, in an- 
 ticipation of that day — a day predicted by the seers 
 of old — a day sure to come, though we know not 
 how soon, when the whole earth, ignorant and be- 
 nighted as are now large portions of it, shall be 
 filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters 
 cover the sea.