The Crusade Invisible by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 3, 1910

“The Crusade Invisible”

By C. M. S.

SOME time ago there was published in the REVIEW AND HERALD a series of articles dealing with the conditions in American colleges and universities as brought out by Mr. Harold Bolce in the Cosmopolitan Magazine. Those conditions were a remarkable revelation to the majority of the people of this country. It would seem from them that the great educational system of America was being used to an end not designed by the founders of our educational system, and that that end or object was the elimination of the idea of God from the minds of the educated young people of the country as that idea had hitherto been understood by the generality of Christendom.

It was shown by Mr. Bolce that an attack was being made upon the foundations of Christian belief and gospel work. The universality of these conditions in the higher institutions of learning in the land indicates a concerted movement in that direction, whether such a movement was planned by human beings or

not. Mr. Bolce called it “Blasting at the Rock of Ages.”

There was generally very little said in reply by educators, so far as the public prints show, but unimpeded, the process continued, of training the educated young men of the country to disbelief in vital religion, to skepticism toward everything authoritative in the realm of morals, and to a disbelief in the God of the Bible and the Book which he has committed to mankind.

The seriousness of this situation began to dawn upon the really Christian portion of the country when they realized that these educated young men go out into every corner of the nation spreading abroad the ideas imbibed in these institutions of higher learning, bringing them into school work wherever these college graduates are put in charge of common schools, high schools, and academies. They realized that for the entire educational system of the nation to be turned against the Bible and the gospel is a matter of the most vital importance.

In the February issue of the Cosmopolitan Mr. Bolce begins another series of articles entitled “The Crusade Invisible,” in which he takes up the instruction now being given in the various women’s colleges throughout the country. These colleges are giving the same courses of instruction as those given in the colleges considered in Mr. Bolce’s previous series of articles. More than seventy thousand women students annually go through these women’s colleges, and the effect of such instruction upon them is a matter of the deepest concern. Says the editor of the Cosmopolitan: “It will shock the conservative to learn that these educated young women are repudiating ancient and even sacred authority,” and he declares that this “means the overthrow of both sacred and secular tradition, and the reconstruction of society.” A perusal of the article will convince any one that in our higher institutions of learning at the present day, infidelity is in the saddle, and is riding roughshod over the most sacred beliefs, the most substantial hopes, and the most satisfying faith of the Christian age. This education, says Mr. Bolce, is “a gospel that sweeps aside nearly everything cherished by the Christian centuries,” and is “the most remarkable intellectual and spiritual movement in either ancient or modern times.”

As a result of this instruction it is declared that “if the girl comes to college with belief in any special religion, she is soon reduced to the doubting stage. One of the main causes of this, I think, is the tendency to belittle all authority, whether divine or human.” One of the young women being educated in such a college declares that they are given “a psychology without soul; a science which excludes the necessity of a creator; and an ethics which is based on the unstable will and inclination of the multitude.”

A comparison of this with the instruction given in the men’s colleges shows a direct connection between the two, and that the purpose is the same in both,—to unsettle the faith of the student in any authority outside the human. For instance, Boston University, which is largely attended by women, “enjoins its students to cast off the authority of the past.” “Unmistakably,” says Mr. Bolce, “the colleges that teach women, as the colleges that teach men, are arrayed as an academic army against the orthodox church and orthodox interpretations of Holy Writ. There is no hesitancy on the part of these educators in declaring against the Bible. The most advanced positions taken by the Higher Critics in their destructive criticism of the Word are taken by these college professors.” Says one educator: “It is absurd for humanity to stake its hope of salvation” on much of what the Christian world has accepted as inspired writings. These students are taught to reject any plan of salvation that can not be accepted by reason; and then efforts are made to make the plan of salvation as outlined in the Word of God, unacceptable to the reason of these students.

At the Michigan University it is taught that we have “no real knowledge of Moses, who was not a man, but an idealized epitome, thrown back by the later age upon a supposititious past.” Inasmuch as this university teaches that Moses was a myth, it follows that all reference to him must be correspondingly groundless. This, of course, casts discredit upon Christ and his teaching, because of his frequent reference to Moses; so in discrediting Moses, they discredit Christ as well. But this is not left to mere inference, for at both the Chicago and the California University it is taught that “to the scientific mind there is no ‘historic certainty that Jesus ever lived.’”

The University of Michigan repudiates the account of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, and declares that the idea of a revelation of God to man “has no foundation in fact, and the accounts of creation are written down as myths.” Passing from the Old Testament to the New, the university professors seek to break down, if possible, “the validity of the Gospels, and the later books of the new dispensation.” With no other warrant than their own ignorance of the true meaning of the gospel and the mission of Christ, they declare that “the four Gospels were probably substituted for one Gospel under suspicious circumstances,” and that “the Gospels have been worked over.”

Through the manner in which this crusade has been planned, it is made practically impossible for a person to pass through any of the higher institutions of learning in the land without passing through this crucible of doubt and militant infidelity. The effect of these conditions upon the proclamation of the third angel’s message will be considered in another article. C. M. S.