T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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T ke C hu rch and the Schools Dr. John M. Maclnnis Teacher of Philosophy of Religion in Bible Institute of Los Angeles
The church is, -fundamentally, an educational in stitution. Its charter is two-fold—evangelistic and educational. “ Go ye - -, - make disciples;” that is evangelism. “ Teaching them;” that is education. An untaught disciple is contrary to the New Testa
Therefore, the church should be vitally interested in education. To be indifferent to it would be to betray its own nature. The only adequate education is a Christian education. In a country like ours, it is the only logical and strictly scientific education. We are
ment ideal. When either one of these principles is neglected, the church be comes weak and one-sided. A normal church is a church that is interested in evangelism and in edu cation. A normal Chris tian is a “ taught” or “ educated” Christian. Christianity never put a premium on ignorance. It saves an ignorant man, but if the New Testament program is followed, it never leaves him ignor ant. To leave children ig norant, is to go directly contrary to the explicit command of our Lord. History bears out this thought. Every great re ligious awakening is fol lowed by educational ac tivities. Pentecost was followed by the activities which produced the New Testament—the greatest teaching and the greatest literature in the world. The Reformation pro duced the great creeds of modern history. What ever we may think of them, no man can reason ably deny that they were the expression of a sin cere desire to teach a generation that was born in a great religious move ment. The great revivals in our own country were followed by the founding of colleges and schools. This is no accident. It is the genius of Christianity.
not now thinking about an education in the dif ferent sciences, but of an education that is sound in the sense that it is adequate and efficient. This conviction is sup ported by the following facts: First: Historically, our nation ought to be Chris tian. It was bom of a Christian passion and im pulse. The fathers of our country before leaving the Mayflower declared their intention to estab lish a commonwealth that would help advance the interests of the kingdom of God. So clearly is this writ ten in our history that the Supreme Court of the United States has offici ally declared that we are historically a Christian nation. That is our legal standing. Second: No man can therefore efficiently teach American history without constant reference to Christianity a n d t h e Bible. You could no more u n d e r s t a n d the United States of America apart from the Bible than you could understand Turkey apart from the Koran. Christianity is the life that made possible America. If Christianity is sectarian, so is the United States. The Bible sup plied the mould in which
One Woman’s Work It is always inspiring to recognize th e pos sibilities invested in th e life of one individual worker for th e Lord. We are th ink ing now of a little woman upon whose h ea rt God laid th e work of paraphrasing th e Book of Psalms. This was no easy service to undertake, b u t th is good woman accepted the task and year afte r year, as th e Lord led, bu t never except on Sunday afternoons, she applied herself to the labor of love and moulded into poetic form th e wonderful words of David the shepherd King. We ta k e pleasure in quoting th e following testimony from h er pastor: “ I w ant to tell you how highly I appreciate your work. The paraphrasing is accurate and tru e w ithout being merely repetitious. Indeed, a large p art of th e excellence is due to your using the fam iliar words. The .unerring in stinct to catch th e sp iritual meaning is rare and remarkable. The beauty of tne rhythm is most felicitious, and I congratulate you tru ly and from ihy h eart. It m ust have given you many hours of delight to m editate over and reset th e beautiful words of the P salm ist. I t is th e achivement of a worthy life time. May God bless th e book to th e com fort of many saints, and to th e storing of th e minds and memories of many children w ith th e beau tifu l words of the Psalms. I wish these Psalms, as arranged by you, m ight be set to worthy music and sung by all the churches of every nam e.” WILLIAM L. McEWAN, P asto r Th ird P resbyterian Church, P ittsburg, Penna. We are sure th a t no one could possess this volume of “The Peerless Poems of David, the K ing,” by Miss Jane Copley, and pore over its pages w ithout imbibing from its deep fountain many sweet and sublime messages. And we commend to our readers both th e book itself and th e example of p atien t endeavor, through a long life, to produce a work which should m inister to the lives and h earts of others. May God’s richest blessing rest upon Miss Copley.
In this country, education is essentially the child of the church. No one familiar with our early his tory would deny this. Schools were founded in order that men might read and understand the Bible, and intelligently carry out its teachings in everyday life. A school without the Bible was unthinkable to the founders of American education.
its outlines were cast. That is not theory, but history. It is just as impossible to teach American litera ture apart from constant reference to the Bible. A man who has not a fairly intimate knowledge of the thought and imagery of the Bible cannot possibly intelligently appreciate our literature. This, in a more real sense, is true of English literature in gen-
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