LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^ 
 
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 1858 
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 ADDRESS, 
 
 3DEX.I-VEK.E3D OlST THE TTH JTJXi^ 1858, 
 
 BEFORE THE TRUSTEES 
 
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 Charge delivered by Rev. James Pains, of Somn-ville, Tonu., at tlie InanguratioQ of the PresiJont 
 and Professoi-3 of La Grange'Synodical College, July 7th, 1S58. Together 
 w ith the Inaugural Address of the llev. J. H. Gray, 
 D. D., President of the College. ' 
 
 
 •f WASH"- 
 
 ^MEMPHIS: 
 
 AVALANCHE JOB_^PKINTING AND PUBLISHING HOUSE. 
 1858. 
 
 -ey 
 

ADDRESS. 
 
 Trustees, Patro'^ and Friends of the La Grang^^ynodical College: 
 It is with extreme diffidence that I rise to address you on the 
 present interesting occasion, and upon the deeply momentous 
 itAgwe of Education ; d, theme which connects itself with every- 
 thing that is great, patriotic and holy, and involves the deepest 
 problems in Politics, Ethics and Religion. 
 
 After the eloquent and solemn address which you have heard 
 from the appointed organ of the Synod, j^ou can justly appre- 
 ciate the magnitude of the interests involved. It is enough to 
 make the Faculty tremble under the solemn responsibility. 
 
 It is not our purpose to discuss the abstract question of Edu- 
 cation, or the respective duties and rights of the Church and 
 State, but to give a brief outline of the argument which justifies 
 the Church in her Educational policy, and consequently this 
 Synod, in her attempt to endow an Institution for the promotion 
 of learning on a Christian basis. 
 
 Originality on such a theme would be impossible, and will not 
 be attempted. All that can be done is to collect, arrange and 
 present such a train of thought as shall justify our position in 
 the eyes of an enlightened and unprejudiced community. 
 
 Our first argument is, that the Church, in all ages, and under 
 both dispensations, claimed this right, and, with a greater or less 
 degree of fidelity, executed this hallowed trust. 
 
 " It would certainly be a serious thing for the Church either to 
 omit a high duty, or to intrude violently into matters belonging 
 to other authorities, not less divinely instituted than itself." — 
 Such is the language of a learned writer opposed to denominational 
 or Church education, yet we adopt it as a correct premiss, and 
 shall proceed to demonstrate that she has understood her mission ; 
 that she has a divine warrant for her faith and practice. 
 
4 ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 The history of Education has not "been written so clearly that 
 we can trace it very continuously to its origin. As far as it has 
 been written, it testifies that Education has been guided and con- 
 trolled by men in their religious, rather than their political char- 
 acter. "Education, as originally designed, was more or less in- 
 timately allied with the ancient religion. The Grammarians, the 
 Poets, the Orators, the Philosophers of Greece and Rome, were 
 the writers whose works were explained and instilled into the youth- 
 ful mind. The vital principle, as Julian asserted, in the writings 
 of Homer, HesiolP, Demosthenes, Herodotus, Thftcydides, Isocra- 
 tes and Lysias, was the ivorship of the Gods. Some of these 
 writers had dedicated themselves to Mercury, and others to the 
 Muses. Mercury and the Muses were the tutelary deities of the 
 Pagan schools." 
 
 The family was the original form of government, and when 
 families were united under a common head, and developed them- 
 selves into the State, or Civil Society, the Theocratic was the 
 prevailing element, and dominant power. It would appear, there- 
 fore, reasoning a priori, from the nature of the origin of society, 
 that Education would partake more of the moral and spiritual, 
 than of the physical and intellectual, and would give a prominence 
 to our relations to God and Eternity. Consequently, we find from 
 the only authentic history of our race, and the foundation of the first . 
 civilized nation on earth, the education of children divinely ap- 
 pointed, and their rights solemnly enjoined and enforced. It is 
 worthy of notice that the Divine Law-giver enacted and promul- 
 gated, first the moral, and afterwards the municipal law. In the 
 moral law, our duty to God is contained in the first table. Im- 
 mediately after the enactment of the law, the decree goes forth, 
 '' These words which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart, 
 and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children." This ordi- 
 nance was not limited in its operations to the period of the The- 
 ocracy, but was obligatory throughout their entire existence as a 
 nation. The character of their educational policy may be inferred 
 from the character of their scholars, whose writings have come 
 down to us, having outlived the reverses of time. Her sages 
 were wiser than the sages of Greece ; her bards and orators have 
 not been excelled even in the Augustni age. If time would per- 
 mit, we might compare the writings of the Jew with the Greek 
 
LA GRANGE SYNODICAL COLLEGE. 5 
 
 and Roman. Whose names have eclipsed the fame of Moses, 
 Solomon, David, Isaiah, Daniel and Paul? A late and elegant 
 writer remarks, "To have written and published in Grreece or 
 Rome any one of the thirty -six treatises, which makeup the Bible, 
 would have immortalized Solon or Lycurgus, Aristotle or Plato, 
 Socrotes or Xenopheme, Seneca or Cicero, Tacitus or Pliny." 
 
 These are the proofs that the schools under the control of the 
 Church, in the former dispensation, had no mean, narrow or 
 bigotted curriculum, but Avere Avorthy of their divine original. 
 
 Descending the stream of time till we pass the terminus of the 
 dispensation of the law and the Prophets, and enter upon the Chris- 
 tian era, we find the Church still exercising her divine right of 
 supervision over the subject of education. The testimony of His- 
 tory is equally clear, consistent and decided. 
 
 Mosheim says, " The Christians took all possible care to accus- 
 tom their children to the study of the Scriptures, and to instruct 
 them in the doctrines of their holy religion, and schools were 
 everywhere erected for this purpose, eveti from the very commence- 
 ment of the Christian Church." 
 
 We must not, however, confound the schools designed only for 
 children, with the gymnasia or academies of the ancient Chris- 
 tians, erected in several large cities, in which persons of riper 
 years, especially such as aspired to be public teachers, were in- 
 structed in the different branches, both of human learning, and of 
 sacred erudition. 
 
 We may undoubtedly attribute to the Apostles themselves, and to 
 the injunctions given to their diciples, the excellent establishments 
 in which the yuth, destined to the holy ministry, received an edu- 
 cation suitable to the solemn office they were to undertake. St. 
 John erected a school of this kind at Ephesus, and one of the 
 same nature was founded by Polycarp, at Smyrna; but these 
 were not in greater repute than that which was established at 
 Alexandria, supposed to have been erected by St. Mark. — Mos., 
 1st vol., part 2cZ, chap, 3, p. 7. 
 
 This testimony assumes more importance, and gains the strength 
 of a demonstration, because it is in accordance with various texts 
 of Scripture, especially JEp>h., 4 ch., 11 v. Paul, in enumerating 
 the ascension gifts of Christ to his Church, says, "He gave some 
 Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evangelists, and some 
 
6 ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 Pastors and Teachers — see also Rom., 12 cli., 7 v. The Reformed 
 Churches, the S^Yiss, French and Scotch understood this, in con- 
 nection Avith other simihir texts, as a divine warrant and command 
 to supervise the work of education. The Scotch Book of Disci- 
 pline says, the office of Doctor or Catechiser is one of the two or- 
 dinary or perpetual functions that travel with the Word. They 
 are such, properly, as teach in Schools, Colleges and Universities. 
 
 The Westminster Divines say, "the Sacred Scriptures doth hold 
 out the name and title of Teacher, as well as Pastor. A Teacher 
 or Doctor is of most excellent use in Schools and Universities, as 
 of old in the Schools of the Prophets. This testimony is strength- 
 ened by the fact that the success and efficiency of these Christian 
 Schools aroused the enmity of the Apostate Julian, and he issued 
 an edict prohibiting Christians from teaching in the Public 
 Schools." Gibbon thus speaks of his policy : 
 
 "Julian invited the rising generation to resort, with freedom, 
 to the Public Schools, in a just confidence that their tender 
 minds would receive the impressions of literature and idolatry. 
 If the greatest part of the Christian youth should be deterred 
 by their own principles, or by those of their parents, from accept- 
 ing this dangerous mode of instruction, they must, at the same 
 time, relinquish the benefits of a liberal education. Julian had 
 reason to expect that in the space of a few years, the Church 
 Avould relapse into its primeval simplicity, and that the Theolo- 
 gians, who possessed an adequate share of the learning and elo- 
 quence of the age, would be succeeded by a generation of blind 
 and ignorant fanatics, incapable of defending the truth of their 
 own principles, or of exposing the various follies of Polythism.'' 
 
 This is indirect and circumstantial, but powerful, testimony to 
 the existence and patronage of Christian Institutions. 
 
 When Christianity, under Constantine, became the religion of 
 the Empire, then education was fostered by the State, and the 
 Professors in the different Sciences becran to be allowed ren;ular 
 salaries from the Government, and became objects of public regu- 
 lation and discipline. 
 
 The effect of this alliance was as disastrous to science as re- 
 ligion; for after a transient and meteor-glow of prosperity, they 
 both relapsed into a state of profound formalism, and while the 
 body remained, the spirit was fled. 
 
LA GRAiJGE STfNODlCAL ^COLLEGE. 7 
 
 It is true, that Council after Council enacted decrees, ordering 
 Schools to be established in the country towns and villages, yet a 
 mental and moral paralysis had befallen the world. Hallam, in 
 his History of the Middle Ages, says that, "general ignorance 
 prevailed, and lasted for five centuries, during which every sort 
 of knowledge was confined almost wholly to the ecclesiastical 
 order. Science was indebted for its preservation to the Church." 
 Even Hume admits that the Church was the. depository of learn- 
 ing in the days of Alfred the Great. He says, " the monasteries 
 were destroyed by the ravages of the Danes, the monks butchered 
 or dispersed, their Libraries burnt, and thus the only seats of 
 erudition in these ages were totally subverted." 
 
 In the year 563, Columba founded a College on the Island of 
 lona, in Scotland, which v^as a fountain of light and knowledge 
 for many ages, and supplied both England and Scotland with 
 Ministers and Teachers. It is supposed that Mosheim refers to 
 this College when he says, " If Ave except some poor remains of 
 learning which were yet to be found at Rome, and in certain 
 cities of Italy, the Sciences seem to have abandoned the conti- 
 nent, and fixed their residence in Britain and Ireland. Those, 
 therefore, of the Latin Avriters, who were distinguished by their 
 learning and genius, were all (a few French and Italians 
 excepted,) either British or Hibernians, such as Alcuin, Bedi,' 
 Egbert, Clemens, Dungalus, A6ca, and others." The Church 
 Avas the depository of the only light of Science and Religion 
 which struggled against the Egyptian darkness of the Middle 
 Ages. When Ave reach the period of the glorious Reformation, 
 the evidence of the agency of the Church in this grand achieve- 
 ment, is tAvo overAvhelming to need confirmation. Ignorance and 
 superstition alike retire. The School and the Church, Literature 
 and Religion, unite in this holy crusade, and go forth to the con- 
 quest of the world. It Avould be a Avork of supererogation to 
 trace the relation betAveen the Church and Education, from that 
 time to the present. 
 
 The Pilgrim Fathers had not been long resident upon this conti- 
 nent till they laid the foundation of Harvard. The objects contem- 
 plated by the founders, are expressly stated to be, "Piety, Mor- 
 ality and Learning." The same motives prompted to the estab- 
 lishment of Yale, and Nassau Hall at Princeton, N. J. 
 
6 ktmm.mmnm mmi m 
 
 So >ve have briefly traced the history of Education, tlnd witli 
 some degree of certainty, from the very origin of the Jewish 
 polity, through successive ages, clown to the present time, and this 
 was our first argument to justify the educational policy of the 
 Church, viz : That the Church had always claimed the right, and, 
 with a greater or less degree of fidelity, executed the sacred 
 trust. In the present century, and in this happy land, an effort 
 has been mane to rob the Church of her time-honored rights and 
 dignity. The State, like Julian and the Jesuits, has attempted 
 the cojitrol of this momentous interest. 
 
 The State is deeply interested in the subject of Education, for 
 the intelligence of the people is one of the strong pillars of a free 
 Government. Intelligence and virtue are the jDarents of civil 
 and religious freedom. 
 
 But the State is also deeply interested in agricultual, mechan- 
 ical and commercial prosperity. While it is the true policy of 
 the State to encourage and assist, it will hardly be contended 
 that it is the function of the State to supervise and control either 
 one of these great sources of national prosperity and renown. 
 The results of her interference and exclusive jurisdiction in the 
 cause of Education, furnishes our second argument. 
 
 Institutions under State patronage and control, by the very 
 principles of their organization, are prohibited from the inculca- 
 tion of the doctrines of Christianity. 
 
 The Board of Trustees is composed of men of every shade of 
 political and religious faith, and for fear of giving offense to some 
 political or religious denomination, it is compelled to adopt the 
 principle of non-intrusion. Knowing, however, that there is a 
 religious sense in the public mind, the Trustees so far consult 
 this prejudice as to select, commonly, a 3Iinisier for their Presi- 
 dent, and the other members of the Faculty from the prevailing 
 denominations in the State. Now, Avhile this is a tacit compli- 
 ment to Christianity, it effectually excludes religion, while it bears 
 simply the liberal name of non-intrusion. For while the Profes- 
 sional corps may all be religious men, their theological differences 
 and mutual jealousy, destroy and nullify their religious influence, 
 and their entire weight in the College is equal only to their ability 
 as a Professor, and not as a Christian. The maxim of Julian's 
 policy is carried out. The study of the Heathen Poets, Orators 
 
LA GRANGE SYNOBICAL COLLEGE. 9 
 
 arid Philoaephers, with all their corrupting and debasing views of 
 virtue and the Gods, gives the impress to their faith and practice. 
 Such a system cultivates tlie mental, to the neglect of the moral 
 sense, and the result is intellectual giants, and moral dwarfs ; a 
 race of men unprepared for the solemn responsibilities of living 
 or dying. Miserable themselves, and sources of wretchedness to 
 others. 
 
 Many persons reject this representation as exaggerated, if not 
 false and slanderous, because they have not seen these conse- 
 quences. State Institutions may be compared to the tree of 
 knowledge of good and evil, very pleasant to the eyes, and a tree 
 to he desired to make one wise. The participation of its fruit 
 brought sin and death to the world, and with it all our woes 
 Sufficient time has not j^et elapsed for their full development. — 
 It has been said that a person in traveling in a conveyance, a 
 ship or car, that moves Avith equable, but less and less velocity 
 will not be sensible that the motive power has been removed un- 
 til there is a perfect cessation. The great mass of society is 
 under the propelling force of a religious education ; a force in- 
 herent in bygone Institutions, but v.'hose momentum is gradually 
 diminishing, and hence many are not conscious of the change. 
 But only look at the state of society, and you cannot fail to see 
 a manifest and sad deterioration in the manners and morals of 
 the young. There is a woful and wide-spread disregard to 
 parental, and consequently to all rightful authority. The change 
 is gradual, but certain and terrible (it is the beginning of this 
 system of education). The waters gather^ silently for years 
 in the basin of the Alps, trickling down drop by drop, but at last 
 they rend the solid mountains, and spread desolation and death in 
 their course. So generation after generation may pass away be- 
 fore we can discern the ripe fruits of the system of a godless 
 education. But it does not require a Prophet's vision to forsee 
 what will be the character of a society whose childhood and youth 
 have been spent in Institutions where religion has been excluded, 
 and who have grown up with a superficial acquaintance with 
 Science, and without the inculcation of our saving doctrine of 
 Christianity. The experiment has been made in other times and 
 other lands In the language of the eloquent Henry, "I have 
 
10 ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 but one lamp by Avliicli m}'- feet arc guided, and that is the lamp 
 of experience." I know no way of judging of the future but by 
 the past, and judging by the past, what has there been in the 
 workings of the Institutions from which the Bible has been ex- 
 cluded, which justifies the zeal of the advocates for such a sys- 
 tem. One of the most distinguished Philosophers of the present 
 day, and a Professor of the University of Paris, fearlessly asserts 
 that " a religious and moral education is the first want of a peopZe." 
 Bonaparte is reputed to be the author of the following, which 
 embodies our principle: "No society can exist without morals, 
 and there can be no sound morals without religion. Hence there is 
 no firm or durable bulwark for a State but what religion con- 
 structs. Let, therefore, every School throughout the land assume 
 the precepts of religion as the basis of instruction. Experience 
 has torn the veil from our eyes." 
 
 The history of nations teaches this truth, that the education of 
 the intellect can never supercede or supply the place of the edu- 
 cation of the conscience — that the civilization of wealth and 
 knowledge, the diffusion of science, the cultivation of the fine 
 arts, does not, and cannot, secure a corresponding development 
 of moral civilization. The times and the places, when and where 
 knowledge abounded, and a taste for the beauties of art prevailed, 
 have not been the times and places where virtue, truth and righte- 
 ousness have attained their maximum. Beyond all doubt and 
 all comparison, the Greeks excelled all nations of antiquity in 
 intellectual attainments, in the power to execute and appreciate 
 the beautiful. If it were possible, certainly one might conclude 
 that all these imperishable monuments of intellectual greatness, 
 would teach and constrain them to shun the base and false, and 
 practice the noble and true ; and that all that realization of the 
 beautiful with which her Poets and Sculptors overhung her skies, 
 as with the splendors of an unfading rainbow, Avould preserve the 
 nation from vice, and inspire them with virtue. But what is the 
 melancholy fact? What is the record of history ? All the graces 
 of poetry and sculpture were insufficient to preserve them from 
 moral debasement and national ruin. Rome confirmed this lesson. 
 In its infancy it Avas characterized for its manliness and virtue, 
 but when the Grecian learning flourished in the Boman Schools, 
 and -when Roman literature bloomed out in the Augustan age, 
 
LA GRANGE SYNODICAL COLLEGE, 11 
 
 their former virtue began to decline. The baser pleasures and 
 passions asserted their victory over the enjoyments of the 
 intellectual nature, and the Roman, and even the Italian charac- 
 ter, became so degraded that through the wonderful vicissitudes 
 of its experience for the last 18 centuries, no essential recovery 
 has taken place. 
 
 The Italian Republics of the period preceding the Reforma- 
 tion, afford still further illustration of the fact, that no intellec- 
 tual training can supply to a State the functions of a conscience. 
 Every attentive reader of history must remember that the cul- 
 minating glory of the Italian art, was coteraporaneous with the 
 deepest degradation of Italian manners. 
 
 The history of the period preceding the French Revolution, 
 and the Revolution itself, will exhaust the demonstration. It was 
 Science that was to introduce the reign of virtue by her analysis, 
 she was to bring back the golden age, and deified Reason was to 
 shower countless blessings from a cloudless sky. The experimen- 
 was made; the problem solved; the answer known, and well 
 would it have been for the honor of our common humanity if the 
 "recording angel could have dropped a, tear, and blotted it out 
 forever." 
 
 Thus, by two separate and independent trains of argument, we 
 arrive at the same conclusion, that Education is, and of right 
 ought to he, under the supervision of the Church. 
 
 The richest and ripest fruits of Science have been gathered 
 from minds nurtured under religious influence. There is no an- 
 tagonism between Science and Religion. They are, in fact, twin 
 sisters, Avhose blended graces render each more lovely and attrac- 
 tive. While we do not impute to our legislators any settled or 
 preconcerted purpose to dissociate Science and Religion, or to 
 educate our sons without the fear and knowledge of Grod, by ex- 
 alting the intellectual, and depressing our religious nature; yet 
 8uch is a logical sequence. The moiety of attention given to 
 Christianity in the establised curriculum, is often a detriment, and 
 not a benefit. It is like a "little learning — a dangerous thing." 
 The young and plastic mind concludes that if this brief course 
 embraces all that can be said in defense of Cliristianity, its claims 
 are scarcely w^orth the attention of men of enlarged and cultiva- 
 ted minds ; and hence our sons return from College often skepti- 
 cal, if not confirmed, Infidels. 
 
12 ADDllESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 As patriots, therefore, as well as Christians, you ought to re- 
 joice that anofJier College has been added to the number of those 
 which honor God, by recognizing his Word as a guide to the in- 
 tellect, as Yrell as the heart. In a recent lecture of Mr. Layard's, 
 delivered in London, in speaking of the Educational policy of 
 India, he quotes Dr. Duff, the able, learned and pious head of the 
 Scotch Mission, and of the College at Calcutta, as saying, " Only 
 save us from one thing; do not let the Government interfere 
 with us." 
 
 The Presbyterian Church, ever alive to her solemn trust; 
 knowino; her ris-hts, able and willing to maintain them, led the van 
 of opposition to the secularization of Education, and restored the 
 policy of the primitive Church, by establishing Parochial Schools, 
 Presbyterial Academics, and Sjmodical Colleges. In the year 
 1739, when the number of Presbyterian ministers was only fifty, 
 they initiated measures for the organization of an Institution un- 
 der ecclesiastical control, and in 1743 it went into operation un- 
 der the administration of Rev. Mr. Alison, at New Lebanon, Pa. 
 The Log College, the nucleus of the present College at Prince- 
 ton, an Institution second to none in our country, was founded on 
 the same principle, and prior to the one at New Lebanon. 
 
 The first Academy in the State of Tennessee v/'as founded in 
 1788, by a Presbyterian Minister, the Rev. Dr. Doak, and still 
 exists as a chartered institution, under the style and title of 
 "Washington College." 
 
 The friends of learning and piety in the bounds of this Synod, 
 weighing the responsibility on every hand, after mature and 
 prayerful deliberation, resolved that, by the help of God, they 
 would rear an Institution at which should be taught, at one and 
 the same time, the lessons of revealed truth, and the elements of 
 human science. 
 
 These spacious walls, this goodly band of noble youth, and 
 these scenes of thrilling interest which have just transpired, are 
 the first fruits of that solemn and high resolve. We may con- 
 gratulate you, to-day, on the auspicious commencement of your 
 undertaking, in the degree of prosperity which has marked our 
 progress for the first collegiate year. This success is not referred 
 to in a boastful spirit; is not ascribed to the merits of you^. 
 Faculty; to their extensive fame and acquirements in literature 
 
LA GRANGE SYNODICAL COLLEGE. 13 
 
 and science ; but to the special favor of God, to whose honor this 
 College was founded and dedicated. 
 
 We assume it as an axiom, that Education is designed to qual- 
 ify rational l)cings for their destiny, and if so, it will follow that 
 it should be commensurate with, and proportionate to, their posi- 
 tion and prospects. 
 
 The son of a King and heir of a throne, should enjoy every 
 facility to qualify him for the difficulties, labors and responsibili- 
 ties of his anticipated elevation. All our sons are the sons of a 
 King, and heirs to a Crown and Kingdom. The Bible is the only 
 book, and Religion the only Science, that will prepare them for 
 admission to the classes of the blessed. The Bible is not only 
 tlie fountain of wisdom, and the text-book of our Science of 
 morals, but it is the touch-stone of all Science, for we hold that 
 no teachings of Philosophy can be true which conflict with the 
 dicta of revelation. It is the " spear of lihuriel, whose slighest 
 touch detects and exposes falsehood." 
 
 Patient investigation, and a laborious analysis, make advances*, 
 in the Ph3^sical Sciences, and hence old text-books are superseded; 
 but Divine Science, being perfect, is incapable of improvement, 
 and its text-book, the Bible, never can become obsolete. 
 
 Just as in the illumination of our cities, you may improve and 
 advance from the flickering and oiTensive light of the common 
 lamp, to the brilliant and cheering splendors of gas ; but there is 
 no need, and no attempt to add to the brightness of the day by 
 improvements upon the sun. The Bible is the sun of the intel- 
 lectual and spiritual vforld. 
 
 III. In conclusion, permit me to call your attention to another view 
 of this subject, Avhich justifies the Church in her zeal and vigi- 
 lance in the cause of Education; and this is our third argument. 
 The Church is justly responsible to her great head for the 
 continuation and supply of a succession of able and faithful min- 
 isters. In the language of our excellent Form of Government, 
 chap. 14, sec. 4, it reads, " Because it is highly reproachful to 
 religion, and dangerous to the Church, to intrust the holy minis- 
 try to w^eak and ignorant men. The Presbj-ter^r shall try each 
 candidate as to his knowledge of the Latin language, and the 
 original languages in which the Holy Scriptures were written. 
 They shall also examine him on the Arts and Sciences." From. 
 
14 ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 this statute, it is manifest that high literary qualifications are re- 
 quired for the ministry. 
 
 It is essential, but does not supply the place of experimental 
 religion. Deep, ardent, personal piety is the first and last quali- 
 fication. Nevertheless, the statute book requires that " the Priest's 
 lips should keep knowledge." Whence, then, shall we derive an ed- 
 ucated ministry ? The answer must be: from our Colleges. But,for 
 a series of years, the painful truth was standing out before our 
 eyes, that the number of candidates for the sacred ministry was 
 annually decreasing. This fact, confirmed by the yearly Reports 
 of our Board of Education, created a deep impression upon the 
 minds of the friends of the Church, and much anxious thought 
 and prayerful inquiry as to its cause. 
 
 Among the many causes which contributed to this sad decline 
 there can be no doubt that the prevailing system of Education 
 exerted a controlling influence. 
 
 Young men generally select their future profession during the 
 term of their collegiate course. This choice is the natural result 
 of their literary training, their mutual associations. They hear 
 from their Professors, and read in their daily studies, of Heroes, 
 Orators, Poets and Sages, whose temples were wreathed with the 
 unfading laurel, and who received honors almost divine. It is 
 not strange that their young, generous and ardent spirits should 
 catch the inspiration. These men are, in their estimation, the 
 models and standards of human greatness, and hence they copy 
 and resolve to tread in the same path that led them to glory. — 
 The very air w^e breathe, the state of our country, the genius of 
 our free Institutions, all conspire to increase their thirst for fame, 
 and to assure them of success, either in the Political, Military or 
 Literary world. 
 
 The Heroes, Orators, Poets and Sages of the Bible, are not 
 known. There is no one to magnify the office of the ministry, and 
 to tell them of the claims of God, and the spiritual wants of a 
 dying world — to tell them that honors, bright and lasting, may 
 be won in the Pulpit as wxll as the Forum — honors that will 
 shine Avith undecaying splendor when the dazzling distinctions of 
 this world shall fade away, and be forever forgotten and un- 
 known. For they that are Avise, or as the margin reads, teachers, 
 shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn 
 many to righteousness, as the stars, forever and ever." 
 
LA GRANGE SYNODICAL COLLEGE. 15 
 
 Where is the Professor in a State Institution, who either from 
 the power of love divine or a sense of duty, wouhi ask his class, 
 " Who has accomplished most for his land, its warriors and 
 statesmen, or the ministers of the Gospel? Who most for 
 England, Ed. Burke and W. Pitt, or Geo. Whitefield and R. Hall ? 
 Who for Scotland, Roht. Bruce and Wm. Wallace, or John Knox 
 and Thos. Chalmers ? Who has done most for the world, Ed* 
 Payson or Prince Talleyrand ?" Payson, just as his time of ser- 
 vice was about to close, said : ! if ministers only saw the incon- 
 ceivable glory that is before them, and the preciousness of it 
 they would not be able to refrain from going about, leaping and 
 clapping their hands for joy, and exclaiming, I am a minister of 
 Christ, I am, &c. Talleyrand Avas in another hemisphere, but 
 was the cotemporary of Payson. He was the most distinguished 
 man of his age in the political world. He originated and con- 
 ducted more important negotiations than any statesman who ever 
 lived; he was literally oppressed Avith honors and loaded with 
 wealth. The day previous to his death, he left the following 
 lines upon his table : " Behold eighty-three years have passed 
 away ! What cares ! What agitations ! What anxieties ! What ill 
 will ! What sad complications ! and all without other result except 
 great fatigue of body and mind, a profound sentiment of discour- 
 agement of the future and disgust of the past^ Who is the bet- 
 ter model ? Payson or Talleyrand ? 
 
 The want of such teaching, of such appliances, as those in our 
 literary institutions, explain the sad decline, in former years, of 
 the number of candidates for the ministry. This discovery 
 aroused the Church, not only to seek out the cause but to apply 
 the remedy. Since the establishment of denominational colleges 
 the ranks of the ministry are rapidly filling up. The Pulpit, as 
 a field of power, usefulness and honor, has been vindicated, and 
 our educated young men are seeking admission in her altars. 
 
 This last argument triumphantly justifies the Church in all the 
 educational means she has adopted, and should stimulate her to 
 higher aims and nobler efforts in this interesting and momentous 
 cause. It is her duty to redeem colleges from the odium that 
 has hitherto attached to them, that "they crucify Christ between 
 tAvo thieves — mathematics and the classics." She can yet make 
 improvements in the science of teaching, baptise it and imbue it 
 
16 iliAUGURAt ADDRESS H^ J. H. GRAY. 
 
 with a spiritual nature, so that every Professor shall, like the 
 harbinger of Christ, point to the Great Teacher, and every stu- 
 dent shall he constrained by the power of an inward and irrepres- 
 sible conviction to say, I count all things but loss for the excel- 
 lency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. 
 
 This is a work of such diifficulty and magnitude, that it must 
 call into requisition the wisest heads and warmest hearts. What- 
 ever additional appliances the Trustees, in their wisdom, may 
 adopt for the better and speedier attainment of this great desid- 
 eratum, the Faculty, to the best of their abilities, will endeavor 
 to execute. Then will LaGrange Synodical College be a monu- 
 ment to your wisdom and benevolence — a tower of strength to 
 the Church, and a fountain of purest blessings to succeeding 
 generations. 
 
 (Thanks to the audience for their respectful and patient atten- 
 tion. Dismissed.) 
 
BY 
 
 REV. JAMES PAIIE. 
 
 Gentlemen of the FaGulty : 
 
 As I address you by the appointment of my brethren of the 
 Synod, you will not look upon me as arrogating to myself any 
 authority or qualification to instruct you, touching the nature of 
 the duties and responsibilities of the offices into which you have 
 just been so auspiciously inducted. Indulge me, however, while 
 I remind you that the duties and responsibilities of the offices 
 now assumed, and with which you are now invested, are weighty 
 and momentous. To you are committed the cherished interests 
 of this infant Institution — of this loved school of our Synod — 
 the object of so many prayers and self-denying labors — around 
 which so many fond hopes cluster, and to which we look with 
 such intense anxieties. 
 
 You have been elected, gentlemen, with great unanimity to 
 take charge of this College. And we take pleasure in saying 
 that we have the fullest confidence in your abilities and qualifica- 
 tions to impart useful knowledge to our sons — to train them for 
 much usefulness — to develope by a thorough course of mental 
 and moral culture, and the exercise of wholesome discipline, those 
 faculties v/ith which God has endowed them. In the performance 
 of these arduous duties your intensest energies will be taxed, 
 and your highest wisdom called into requisition. But be encour- 
 aged, you have the prayers and sympathies of your brethren, 
 and I trust for your success they will avail much. 
 
 Let me remind you again, that a College is, or ought to be, a 
 religious institution — that your great duty is to teach. Govern- 
 ment and discipline are indispensable items or elements in the 
 success of any institution, but after all, they are subordinate to 
 the master function of teaching. The Great Teacher has com- 
 
18 CHARGE DELIVERED BY 
 
 mitted this office and interest to the Church, and whatever form 
 it may assume, whether it be literary, scientific, or theological, — 
 whether it be from the Professor's chair or the Pulpit — the great 
 duty of the Church is to teach. The command and the commis- 
 sion of the Master is, " Go teach." In teaching, I charge you 
 first— 
 
 1. To use unwearied efforts to inspire your pupils with a love 
 of learning. Until this is, in a large measure accomplished, 
 there will not be that close application to study, that diligence in 
 the acquisition of knowledge, or those studious habits formed, 
 which are essential elements of success. The most important 
 object of education is to develope, exercise, strengthen and direct 
 the several faculties of the mind. When these are well disci- 
 plined, the acquisition of every kind of knowledge will be easy ; 
 without this discipline, the accumulation of stores of knowledge 
 will be of little value ; or to speak more correctly, the mind which 
 has not been properly trained, is incapable of acquiring the most 
 important branches of knowledge. Sir Isaac Newton said, that 
 he professed " no uncommon talent beyond an aptitude for pa- 
 tient thinking and laborious investigation." But by what educa- 
 tional process or appliance is the mind to be developed, disci- 
 plined, strengthened, and trained,in order to secure the most 
 desirable results ? 
 
 We answer that it has been fully ascertained, that the study of 
 the Latin and Greek languages has the best effect, not only of 
 exercising the memory, but the judgment, and that the good 
 taste of the pupil is most effectually cultivated by a thorough 
 acquaintance with the ancient languages. The opinion which is 
 hostile to the study of Latin and Greek as a part of liberal edu- 
 cation, greatly mistakes the primary objects of education. Keep 
 steadily in view the great truth that the great end or design of 
 education is not the acquisition of knowledge, but a thorough 
 training that will fit and prepare the pupil to acquire useful 
 knowledge. The distinguished metaphysician, Dugald Stewart, 
 gives a very striking testimony in favor of studying the ancient 
 languages. He remarks that during many years employed in 
 teaching mental and moral philosophy, he noticed, that such of 
 his pupils as had been Avell drilled in the elements of the Latin 
 and Greek languages, made the most rapid and solid progress in 
 
KEV. JAMES PAINE. 19 
 
 the subjects belonging to his department. On the other hand^ 
 those who were not thoroughly acquainted with the languages, 
 found great difficulty in arranging and classifying their ideas. 
 They labored to great disadvantage, learning scarcely anything." 
 And so it must ever be with those students who pursue a partial 
 or irregular course. Let this College endorse no such procedure. 
 The sending out of half educated men must damage your repu- 
 tation. Half educated men can never add to your character. 
 Besides, the time for the employment of dull axes and blunt 
 hatchets is past. Hereafter, men of superficial education and 
 meagre attainments, need not expect to rise as did men of this 
 description in former times. Pre-eminence in any of the learned 
 professions can only be expected now by those who are thorough 
 and well-trained scholars. There was a time when there was 
 dano;er of the learned lano-nages beino; excluded from a course of 
 liberal education. In some colleges the Greek language was dis- 
 pensed with and some other substituted in its place. Even Yale 
 was moved for a season by this ill-omened and silly conceit. But 
 there is reason to hope that on this subject the darkness is past 
 and the true light now shineth. 
 
 But again and in the second place — 
 
 2d. In educating, that is, in cultivating, training, exercising 
 the mind, require and insist upon a full and thorough course in 
 mathematics, as well a§ in physical, mental, and moral science. 
 It has become fashionable with certain parties, to praise certain 
 systems of education, and certain studies used in education as 
 useful, practical, and denounce all other systems and studies as 
 antiquated, unpractical, antagonistic to the spirit of the age. 
 They regard trades and professions as the main business of life, 
 as the chief end of man. They say that education is acquiring 
 knowledge for practical life — that the gaining of knowledge is 
 education, and that all the knowledge gained in education should 
 be practical. In connection with these views, tliese utilitarians 
 denounce the dead languages, mathematics and metaphysics as 
 studies worse than useless. They are useless because not imme- 
 diately applicable to the practical vrorkings of every-day life. 
 You need not be told that the gaining of knov/^ledge is not edu- 
 cation, although here made synonymous with it. This pitiful cry 
 for practical education would destroy all education. That edu- 
 
20 CHARGE DELIVERED BY 
 
 cation is the most practical and useful which, by a clue course of 
 training in the studies indicated, is found to give the fullest de- 
 velopment to the faculties of the human mind. Several colleges 
 have been carried away with this utilitarian folly, and some have 
 with difficulty weathered the storm. We plead for sound classical 
 literature and for a thorough training in profound mathematical and 
 mental science. We have no sympathy with literary quackery, 
 dreamy or transcendental nonsense. In conducting a course of 
 liberal education, it is difficult to say how much time should be 
 devoted to the languages, the mathematics, the physical and 
 mental sciences, and the study of the Bible as a classic or other- 
 wise. Each has its rightful claim and each demands serious con- 
 sideration. The field of learning has become so extensive that 
 every branch cannot be comprehended in a college curriculum. 
 And it should be a fixed principle in education not to build a 
 large structure on a slender foundation. Solidity and strength 
 should never be sacrificed to variety. Some branches of knowl- 
 edge must be omitted, or slightly touched, in our literary insti- 
 tutions. The rule should be to render the students thorough in 
 the elementary and fundamental parts, and to add of others as 
 much as can be comprehended in the time allotted to the course, 
 still giving precedence to those branches which are the most im- 
 portant and useful. But let it never be said of this college as 
 Henry Martyn did of his Alma Mater — that there Christ was 
 crucified between two thieves, the classics and the mathematics. 
 Avoid extremes. Let your motto, if one you must have, be : 
 iVee dextrorsum, nee sinistrorsum. An exclusively intellectual 
 education is a misdirected education, and leads to ill-proportioned 
 attainments in knowledge, and, by a very easy and obvious pro- 
 cess, to the contempt of all moral influences. An exclusively 
 moral education tends to fatuity and to an ill-balanced growth of 
 the mental powers, by the over excitement of the sensibilities. 
 An exclusively religious education may, and often does, produce 
 fanaticism, — sometimes in the form of Monkery, sometimes in 
 the form of Communism, and somxCtimes in the worse form of 
 Islamism, if it do not take the directly opposite course and end 
 in Atheism. There must be a proportionate enlargement and 
 cultivation of the mental, moral and religious affections. The 
 annals of the world — the experience of past ages — the events 
 
REV. JAMES PAINE. 21 
 
 and experience of our own, abundantly confirm all this. Facts 
 have everywhere proved that the progress in mere intellectual 
 development has been everywhere followed by the progressive 
 increase of immorality, insubordination and crime. For it has 
 ever been true, that " where great men are wicked there wicked- 
 ness is great." 
 
 Now, this college has been erected and inaugurated for the 
 purpose of combining a sound literature with moral and religious 
 training. Not science without religion, — not religion without 
 science, — lut science and religion. This can only be done by a 
 sanctified literature and a science baptized in the blood of Calvary- 
 Nor do we desire that you should teach an off'ensive sectarianism. 
 A narrow, bigoted, exclusive sectarianism is altogether foreign to 
 the genius of the Presbyterian Church. The truth is, we 
 have nothing to make us sectarian. The Confession of Faith 
 simply declares how we understand the Bible. The Shorter 
 Catechism and the Bible constitute our denominational ma- 
 chinery. As Presbyterians, as republicans, we sing — 
 
 " The Bible is our only creed, 
 Our only monarch, God," 
 
 Let the religious instructions which you impart, the doctrines 
 and duties which you inculcate, be of that type of living evan- 
 gelical piety which have ever distinguished the Presbyterian 
 Church. 
 
 To exclude religious instruction from our schools and colleges 
 is madness. Religion is infinitely the most important and neces- 
 sary part of an education. Leave this out, and it will be doubt- 
 ful "whether our schools and colleges will not do more harm than 
 good, for sound morality rests upon religion as its only reliable 
 basis. The truth is, that no education can be complete, even as 
 it relates to the early history of the world, to ancient customs and 
 nations, without the instructions of the Bible. The religious is 
 the chief element in an education. For it is the religious princi- 
 ple that gives vitality to education, that renders it practically 
 efficient for the highest good. 
 
 Religion there must be, to teach us our duty to God, our rela- 
 tions to eternity — to nerve us to higher and holier efforts and 
 aspirations than the rewards of literary fame — to awaken in us a 
 consciousness of our spiritual nature and immortal destiny. 
 
22 CHARGE DELIVERED BY ' 
 
 Religion there must be, and it must hold a prominent place. To 
 secure this, the Bible must occupy the foreground. It must not 
 be a sealed book — it must not be thrown into a corner. Morality 
 cannot be sustained without religion, nor religion without the 
 Bible. Rome teaches a religion without the Bible, but what 
 kind of a religion is it. It is the religion of ignorance and su- 
 perstition — of prayer-books and beads — of credos and ave 
 niarias — of form and pageantry, rubricks and rosaries. There 
 is no fundamental doctrine of the Bible that Rome has not cor- 
 rupted. I rejoice that none of the foul leprosy of Popery is 
 found on our garments. You have no facilities, no appliances, 
 for the protection of morals apart from the Bible. By faithfully 
 and diligently inculcating its great truths, you will secure the 
 respect and confidence of an enlightened community — you will 
 be instrumental in training, educating men for high and holy ser- 
 vice in the world and in the church. What right-minded man 
 expects a college to succeed — to prosper — from whose curriculum 
 the Bible and the religion of the Bible is excluded. This would 
 be to crather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles. The thing 
 has been fully tested in many colleges, and in no place with 
 fairer prospects of success than in the University of Virginia. 
 More than thirty years ago, under the most favorable auspices, 
 it flung its infidel banner on the breeze. With magnificent build- 
 ings — ample State patronage — with professors of European ce- 
 lebrity — Avith the nation's idol as its chief patron, it commenced 
 its career. After years of painful trial, it proved a miserable 
 failure. Infidelity was "weighed in the balance and found vrant- 
 ing." Its policy was wisely abandoned. The Bible, the chaplain, 
 the pious professor, took the place of ribald and ruinous skepti- 
 cism. I-IoAV is it now? I am proud to say that it stands on the 
 foreground of American colleges, vnth more than six hundred 
 students — a large number of who.m are followers of the Saviour. 
 The separation of religion from secular education is not only 
 impracticable, but positively evil. The choice is not between 
 religion and no religion, but between religion and irreligion — 
 between Christianity and infidelity. " It is all idle," says Mr. 
 W^ebster, " it is a mockery and an insult to common sense, to 
 maintain that a school for the instruction of youth, from which 
 
aEV. JAMES PAlNE. 2S 
 
 cKristiau instruction is excluded, is not deistical in its purpose 
 and tendency." Again lie says; " It is in vain to talk about the 
 destructive tendency of such ; to argue upon it, is to insult the 
 understanding of every man. It is mere, sheer, low, vulgar, 
 ribald deism and infidelity. It opposes all that is in heaven and 
 all that is on earth that is worth being on earth. It destroys the 
 connecting link between the creature and the Creator — it opposes 
 the great system of universal benevolence and goodness that 
 binds man to his Maker." 
 
 A word on Discipline. In every well-ordered society there 
 must be rule, authority, government. Do not advertise that the 
 government of this college is parental, for in these days that is 
 equivalent to no government, except it be that the children gov- 
 ern their parents. In the exercise of discipline be kind and 
 firm. You have good and wholesome laws — 'See that they are 
 observed. Il3q[uire of every student a strict obedience to col- 
 lege laws and, regulations. You must preserve good order, and 
 insist upon upright, moral deportment. Without these you must 
 fail — without these you will look in vain for close application to 
 study. Do not hesitate to dismiss from your college any young 
 man who is eudangering his moral welfare by the formation of 
 bad habits. In no case suffer an idle, disorderly, immoral stu- 
 dent to continue in your institution, unless he amend his conduct 
 after being duly admonished. Nothing is gained by the reten- 
 tion of incorrigible idlers. Send them home. It is better that 
 they should loaf at home than about town or college. One idle 
 student may do much mischief — produce much disaffection and 
 insubordination. " One sinner destroyeth much good." Treat 
 your pupils as gentlemen, and if any should not demean himself 
 as such, send him home. Yo u must have order. " Order is 
 Heaven's first law." You cannot succeed without it, and in order 
 to secure it you must exercise discipline. 
 
 Tlius, gentlemen, I have endeavoredto mark out your great and 
 glorious work, and have ventured a few thoughts on the best 
 means to accomplish it. The blessings Avhich are to flow from 
 this college are not the blessings of a day, of a year, of an age 
 — but must tell upon eternity. May you be greatly successful 
 in accomplishing a great work for the world and for the church. 
 And oh ! that this institution may be as a fountain of living 
 waters, from which shall go forth many streams making glad the 
 city of our God. 
 
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