A School the Foundation of a Nation
By M. Bessie De Graw
WALTER PAGE tells of a “school that built a town.” The Bible gives the history of a school from which a nation developed. Nearly two thousand years before Christ there lived in Ur, an opulent city in the land of Chaldea, a man destined to do a great work in the world. Ur was an idolatrous city. Few families knew of God; most of the inhabitants were devoted to the luxury of the city, and its festivals and its carnivals. The name of the head of one wealthy family was Terah, who could readily trace his ancestry to the patriarch Noah. Terah had three sons, and the youngest, Abram by name, was a man in whose heart truth was cherished. In spite of the prevailing iniquity, he chose to seek God. The history of the fathers, handed down from son to son, told of God’s purpose that men should scatter upon the face of the earth. Evidence was not wanting that men were following the opposite course by congregating in cities. Abram proclaimed the message to come out of the cities. So earnest and persistent was he that his father’s household disposed of the family property, bade kindred farewell, and moved out, going they knew not whither, but guided, as they believed, by Jehovah. A halt was made at Haran, a hill town in the northern part of the Mesopotamian Valley. The message to come out into the country was proclaimed there, and all who accepted it—ten or fifteen hundred souls—joined the family of Abram. Upon the death of Terah, now an old man, Abram and those who united with him in his desire to lead an exodus from the cities, journeyed toward the west. They crossed the Syrian desert, forded the Jordan, and pitched their tents in a fertile valley in the land of Palestine. There he established an industrial school, where not only the children but the heads of families were trained. The location of that school is an interesting feature. “Patriarchs and Prophets” says, “It was under the shade of the oaks of Moreh, in a wide, grassy valley, with its olive groves and gushing streams.” The Scriptures describe it as “a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey.” What more appropriate place could be found for an industrial school from which a nation might take its growth than that with “the free air of those upland plains, with their olive groves and vineyards, their fields of waving grain and the wide pasture grounds of the encircling hills”? It was here that the Hebrew nation was born; it was in the midst of such surroundings that children learned to love the God of heaven, and were taught to obey his precepts. In this school three lines of education were co-ordinated: mental discipline, physical training, and spiritual education were so combined that students developed into living missionaries, surrounded on all sides by heathen peoples to whom they were to preach the gospel. One may judge of the subjects taught in this school by giving thought to the conditions and requirements of the time. Such elementary subjects as reading, writing, arithmetic, the geography of the land, and surveying were necessary to enable them to perform ordinary business transactions, which history records that they did with perfect ease. History was familiar to every child, for its study was begun as nursery tales told by the parents; government was studied as the school family increased; and such fundamental principles as the equality of all men, integrity, benevolence, and unselfish courtesy were so thoroughly taught that the pupils of this school won the admiration of neighboring kings. Abraham, who stood at the head of this school-nation, was honored by surrounding nations as a mighty prince and able chief. He was noted for his “unswerving allegiance to God and his affability and benevolence inspired confidence and friendship.” Notwithstanding he was known as the teacher of a new religion, three kings invited him to enter into an alliance with them. This school is a connecting link between the Eden lost by our first parents and the earth restored to its Edenic state—the fulfilment through Christ of the promise made to the patriarch Abraham. As we draw near to the time for the consummation of that promise, the history of this school may well be studied as a model for industrial schools in which to train modern missionaries. In point of location, for subjects taught, and for methods, where could wiser counsel be found?