Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Dec 3, 1903

At the recent opening of New York University, Chancellor Henry M. MacCracken made an address in which he proposed an entrance requirement for college students based upon knowledge of the Bible. He said:—

I wish we could require from every freshman a Sunday-school diploma that would certify that he knew by heart the ten commandments, the sermon on the mount, a church catechism of some kind, and a score of the Scripture psalms and best classic hymns. This university will join any association of universities and colleges that will demand this as an entrance requirement. So much as in us lies, we will make the college a place for preserving and strengthening reverence for things divine.

If parents were doing their duty in their homes, there would be no need that the colleges should think of demanding so meager an amount of religious knowledge as is suggested by Chancellor MacCracken as an entrance requirement. No child ought to be sent forth from the parental roof without having a much larger store of Scripture knowledge in both mind and heart. We hope that every parent who reads these lines will take this matter seriously to heart.