Education - True and False by MRS. F. S. JENKS

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 5, 1914

Education — True and False

By MRS. F. S. JENKS

MRS. F. S. JENKS

Recently in my reading, both in books and in the daily papers, I have come across articles deploring the present trend of education in the public schools, and more and more have been impressed with the goodness of God in establishing in our denomination a school system which leads to a higher and better life.

Our Seventh-day Adventist schools appeal to our children and youth to live up to the highest ideal of character,—that of Christ,—so earnest, so gentle, so cultivated, so friendly, so ideal, so filled with all that elevates humanity, that Christianity to the public eye shall mean a combining of all virtues and a superior quality of manhood and womanhood.

Dr. C. O. Judkins, my former pastor in the Methodist Church, was one of the speakers at the interchurch banquet, given in the First Methodist Episcopal church at Saratoga, N. Y., some time ago. Speaking of the popular and prominent churches of today, he said, in part:—

"We are in a hard plight religiously at this time. It is the same with all the churches. If there are any Catholics or Hebrews here, they are no exception. There is a different spirit from that of the early days. Go to any Jewish rabbi, and he will tell you of the falling away of the young men of that old faith. Go to the Catholic priest, and he will tell you that the young Catholic men have changed their attitude toward their church, that many rarely come to confession, and that their faith is much more shaky than it was a few years ago.

"The Congregationalists are going backward. In the Methodist Church our progress has come almost to a standstill. The Baptists are no better. All religious teachers in all the churches realize that religious life has become a secondary matter."

And we hear the echo of prophecy, uttered unconsciously by this D. D., "Babylon has fallen." Dr. Judkins then went on to say:—

"We have different boys and girls to do with today. They come out of the high school with the evolution idea of creation, and this idea has spread through the masses. We have come to a critical time."

This, then, is one of the greatest factors in the undoing of the orthodox churches today. The evolution idea, higher criticism, etc., in our public schools and institutions, are bearing fruit.

Mr. Mauro, in his book "The Number of Man," has much to say of the system of education in our great American colleges and universities. He says:—

"There is probably no institution in the United States that exerts a greater influence upon the formation of ideas than Harvard University. Some of the greatest men of our country have had their minds formed and their ideas shaped by this ancient and respectable institution of learning. And, after leaving it, they became the propagators of its ideas and ideals. Of the complete departure of the great university from the teaching, encouragement, or recognition of anything partaking, even remotely, of evangelical truth, it is needless to speak, for the facts in this regard are well known."

The idea of the supremacy of man instead of the supremacy of God, pervades the atmosphere, as is illustrated in a poem by the class poet of 1908:—

"O holy spirit — O heart of man! Will you not listen, turn, and bow To the clear voice, since time began, Loud in your ears, and louder now? Mankind the Christ, retried, Recrowned, recrucified. No god for a gift God gave us; Mankind alone can save us."

The essence of this poem is contained in this one stanza — that the Holy Spirit is the heart of man, and that mankind is the Christ. How different the teachings of the Bible, which declares, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The Harvard class poet declares a flat contradiction in the statement, "No god for a gift God gave us." One was written by inspiration of God and the other by inspiration of Satan. It is easy to see that one statement is true and one false, and to discover the respective sources from which they came. Therefore Sister E. G. White's instruction, which applies to schools and sanitariums alike, that our young people should not go to worldly institutions even to finish their education, is both reasonable and timely.

Let us thank God that he has a church on earth that is not going backward, nor standing still, as Dr. Judkins says the other churches are doing, but that our world-wide progress is ever increasing. May the Lord help us to heed the instruction so graciously given us through the spirit of prophecy concerning our children, that they may be saved.

Lockport, N. Y.