THE KING’S BUSINESS
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that the ministry of Jesus Christ and the Church of God have, in many in stances, made to the modern school most undesirable contributions. Many young men, who, feeling called to the active ministry of the Gospel, animated by the honorable desire ot equipping themselves, enter the mod ern school to be caught by the skepti cism which characterizes the century, and carried from their moorings, crip pled in their faith in the verity of the Scriptures, pushed by polemical professors into doubts concerning the deity of Christ, ■carried away from “the faith once for all delivered,” to the fad of “Darwinion Evolution,” have said, “We cannot preach, but we will teach.” A majority of them do not even know that “Darwinian- ism” is already on the decline, and, in the judgment of the world’s great est scientists, is doomed. Filled with an intellectual conceit that refuses to receive aught from an instructed past, they easily forget that in the realm of true science, and on the part of the greatest scientists the Scriptures have not been discredited; that Kep ler and Newton, who cleared the very path along which these men profess to travel, were men of unshaken faith: that the most brilliant galaxy of mathematicians the world has ever seen held to the utter authority of the Scriptures. I speak of Sir W. Man- son, "Sir George Stokes; Professors Tait, Adams, Clerk-Maxwell, and Bagley, not to mention such lesser lights as Routhe, Todhunter, Ferrers, and others! Men whose paths would be better illumined if they allowed their little candles to be lighted at the torches of these true scientists, are now telling us that “the Bible is in no sense an infallible book; and that it is a marvel that any one could ever have conceived such an idea.” They:are stating, with all the assur ance of those who dare set themselves
Men have a statement that “the dollar is almighty” and a philosophy that all needful favors follow in the- wake of financial success; and men know that a trained intellect becomes as near a magic wand with which to convert commercial minerals into gold as anything known to modern inven tion.' And yet, if experience proves anything it is this, that the youth who regards financial profit as the end and aim of the whole educational process is degraded to the Pauline descrip tion: “Men shall be lovers of their own sèlvés, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accus ers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitbrs, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God ; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” No wonder the great Apostle adds, “From such turn away.” Nor is it any wonder that he con tinues in further description: “For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to corné to the knowledge of the truth,” for, as the Apostle further remarks : “These also resist the truth ; men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith” (2 Tim. 3:2-6, 8). This word of Paul suggests that: The Most Dangerous Opponent of Modern Education is Present Day Infidelity. Far be it from me to bring a whole sale indictment against school instruc tors. Taken as a class, they are scarcely surpassed by any of the world’s noble professions. The very impulse that puts a man into the profession of teaching is well-nigh as sacred as that which impels another to preach ; and yet, it has come about
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