Missionary alliance 1888.pdf - DSpace

52 INTER-SE)[INARY M[SSIONARY ALLIANCE.Education cannot cure sin, nor take the passion out of the human heart.The ancient Grecians gloried in their culture and perished in their sins.~ult~re does not. believe in sin, To the cry of the soul seeking salvatlOo,It turns an lDcredulous look. Personified in the beautiful andscholarly Hypatia, culture draws her classic robes around her and refusesto be ?o.ntamin~ted ~y t~e touch of her false sister Pelagia. 'Any systemof rehgLOn, whIch disclaIms any alliance with religion, can never purifyHond ~~ve those who have H Changed truth into a lie, and worshiped thecreatIon more than the Creator." Intellectual culture is not so fine80 broad, so high without religion as with it. I1ence, since the earlies~day the church ~as sought to establish schools aiming to give a properculture, and seekIng to awaken, develop, stimulate, and direct the variouspowers of the human mind; to imbue the whole knowledo-e thus impartedwith the spirit of true religion. 0. Says D.r,. Noah Po.rter: "Christianity needs the college to improve:ts Own SPlf1tu~1 q~ahty, and . enlarge its attractive power. For thiseason the ChrlstaIn college IS an essential appendage to the Churchtherefore d should be emphatically . . Christian" ' etc . If th e Importance ' '~n use.fulness of Christian colleges in this country is admitted howImperative the necessity of establishing such institutions in those 'lands~he~e ~he work of evan~elizi.tio.n ~s only begunj and where an attemptIS belno ma~e to estabhsh Christianity on a firm basis. Colleges are_M~_nee~e d , and mdeed have been established in such a benl'ghted IEdl1cate~ men are demanded in such countries to do literary workreduced· tunWrItten tonuues tl) translate the Sc . t .'to b ·ld f 0 , Clp ures, to orgamze and.trec , UI rom the foundation the structure of Christian '·1two.'I't..: VI Iza-. . :he great field of missionary operation at present is amon~lv~lzed nOD-~hri8tiaD nation. ; PerSia, where the race had its o~ ;~neaoouage Its birth, and history its beginning wh . h )~P:':li~dayS learned and dauntless missionaries w::~ f~~th\Oe p;'~ ~~n ap Ize 10 the name of Christ· a nation h .religion furnish the seeds of lUany' of th . :vd.os e philosophy andh . th e mSI 10US and dangerousereSles at ruined the early Christian Chur h · I d·are doubtless the most acute and t h . c , n la, whose peopleliterature so abounds in poetic if m~ ap YSlCal of all races, whose. e USlons and romantic Ie dcaptivate the fan cy of fiany cultured E ' gen s as tothe faith of Buddha some wh h uropeans and even convert tosionaries. Her ancient lano-u: e~:~lgone to ,In~i a as Christian Misthes~udent of Philology, is °ackgnowle~ ~~n:cnt-ls the admi.ration ofcertalDly the most refined of a 1 g ~ ~e the most COPIOUS, andny anguage hVJQu or dead All th' ,b ut the glamor of heathenism Th H' d .0 . IS 18. e lD oos still grop . . 11d arknes8, ignorant of II the Wa th T e 10 lOte ect11o.lBrahmlnism and MOhftlOmedani;:n he Id ruhth, aod th~ Li g~ t,1I for botho t e people 10 their 8edu ctive•• •CHRISTIAN COLLEGES IN FOREIGN .lnSSIO~ARY FIELDS. 53and despotic sway, Both these religions have colleges aided by go,'ernmentgrants, Ohina is a country where letters are most highly honoredand patronized, where the importance of generally inslructing thepeople was acknowledged even before the time of Oonfucius, Educationflourished in Cbina when other nations of the world had no suchsystem, It is said in the Book of Rites, 1200 B. 0,: "That for thepurpo3e of education among the ancients, villages had their schools,districts their academies, departments their colleges, principalities theiruniversities." The hope of obtaining office and honor is the greatstimulus to the pursuit of education in China. Their schools are stillfill ed with students who remain in them sometimes to an advanced age,anxious to master the course of education prescribed by law. In fact,the Chinese seem to hav~ advanced in education and to have attainedthe great needs of human government to as high a degree as it is possiblefor men to attain without the knowledge of Divine Revelation."Notwithstanding the high opinion in which education is held and thegenentl d iff usion of knowledge," says Dr. [Prof.] Williams, H thedefects of their educ