Part 7

Nicodemus said: “How _can_ these things be?” He longed for proof, for demonstration. “_Proof_ is indeed the method of science, including theology; it has, no doubt, a function in religious teaching; but _it is not the method of the highest form of religious teaching_. The fundamental truths of religion are directly revealed to the human consciousness, and are not argued out or logically established.... _The greatest religious truths lie deeper than formal reasoning._ This is the reason why the _greatest religious teachers have worked below the proposition-and-proof level_; as said before, they have something of the prophetic gift. It may be added that no preacher [or teacher] who works mainly on this line will attract the most religious minds; he will not attract even those who have the piety of the intellect, to say nothing of the piety of the affections and the will. He may develop logical acumen, critical ability, and controversial power, but he will prove unequal to the generation of spirituality.... Such a minister will be sure to lead his flock into the error that is now far too common,—of assigning a disproportionate place in religious faith and life to the understanding, to the partial exclusion of the heart.”[49]

[Sidenote: His pupils]

His actual work as a teacher is seen in His dealings, first, with the apostles, His immediate followers, who were in training that they in turn might become teachers; second, with the multitudes who thronged His way; third, with the children who were brought to Him by mothers, and who were taught by Him, that mothers and apostles might the better know how to deal with youthful minds. Primarily, His was a training-school for workers, and His pupils represented every phase of human disposition. He chose humble fishermen, because their minds were unprejudiced, and they had less to unlearn before accepting the truth. “He knew what was in man.” That is, He had insight into the minds and hearts, and knew just what was needed to awaken the soul-life of each student. This is a necessary gift in the successful teacher. How much that is now taught would be dispensed with if teachers could read the soul conditions of pupils, and then feed them with only such food as would nourish. _This, too, is Christian education._ Before the teacher can have such an experience, however, he must have soul culture, and be in such close touch with the fountain of truth that he can draw whatever is needed. The well is deep, _and faith alone can bring the water of life to the surface_.[50]

[Sidenote: His schoolroom the country.]

With His chosen apostles, Christ “_withdrew from the confusion of the city to the quiet of the fields and hills_ as more in harmony with the lessons of self-abnegation he desired to teach them.... Here, surrounded by the works of his own creation, he could turn the thoughts of his hearers _from the artificial to the natural_.” Those schools to-day which are located in some quiet country place afford the best opportunities for education.

[Sidenote: Text-books]

The books used seem to be two, and only two: _the writings of the prophets_ and _the great book of nature_. Hinsdale says: “Scripture furnishes the basis of His teaching.... It is impossible to say how many distinct recognitions of Scripture are found in His teachings, but the number and range are both large.... One of the most interesting of these [methods] is his constant habit of expanding Scripture, or, as we might say, of reading into it new meanings. He thus treats not merely prophetic passages, but also dogmatic passages; moreover, His meanings are sometimes new, not merely to the Jewish teachers, but also to the authors of the passages themselves.”[51] This was because the teacher was led by the Spirit of truth, which guides into all truth.

[Sidenote: His system emphasized the practical]

It must be remembered that this instruction was given to men of mature minds, and tended to fit them to become teachers of all men in whatever station. Probably none of the apostles were under thirty. They were men who had become settled in a life work. John, the youngest, was most susceptible to spiritual teaching, and at length developed this nature so fully that his spirit left his body in vision.[52] Painter expresses well the method of instruction followed by Christ. He says: “He observes the order of nature, and seeks only a gradual development,—‘first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.’ With His disciples, He insists chiefly upon the _practical_ and _fundamental_ truths of religion, _building_, as it were, a substantial framework in the beginning, which the Holy Spirit was to conduct afterward to a harmonious and beautiful completion.”[53]

[Sidenote: Visible results of His teaching]

It was thus that all the truths we call doctrines were taught. The lesson on the resurrection was at the tomb of Lazarus; the one on Sabbath observance was in the synagogue, healing the withered hand, or bidding the dumb to speak. “One finds in His program,” says a French writer, “neither literary studies nor course of theology. And yet, strange as it may seem, when the moment of action arrives, the disciples—those unlettered fishermen—have become orators that move the multitudes and confound the doctors; profound thinkers that have sounded the Scriptures and the human heart; writers that give to the world immortal books in a language not their mother tongue.” If the worth of a system of education is to be judged by results, the world must hold its peace when looking upon the work of Christ. Astonishment will again take hold of men when Christians return to His methods. Of His reference to nature we have no need to write, for His parables are the wonder of the ages, and take a unique position in the literature of all times. Christ was not, as many other teachers, a writer of books. His writing was on the hearts of men. He spoke, and the vibratory waves set in motion have continued until to-day, and still beat upon our hearts. The soul of the spiritually minded hears, and men to-day become pupils of the Man of Nazareth as verily as did Peter, James, and John.

[Sidenote: Indications of a completed course]

A student was ready to go forth from Christ’s teachings to open the truth to others only when he could say, “Lo, now speakest Thou plainly.... Now we are sure that Thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask Thee. By this we believe that Thou camest forth from God.”[54] With the multitudes He did a work similar to that with the disciples; but because they were coming and going, He could not do the same thorough work. His teaching, however, was _always practical_, and the farmer went to his field a better man, seeing God in the growing grain; the fisherman returned to his nets with the thought ringing in his mind that he should be a fisher of men; the mother returned to her home recognizing her children as younger members of God’s family, and with a strong desire to teach as He taught. The tendency always in all His teaching was to arouse thought, to awaken soul-longings, and cause hearts to beat with a new life fed from above. Standing between heaven and earth of the musical scale, His life vibrated in unison with those higher notes of the universes circling round His Father’s throne, and with His human arm He encircled the world, imparting to beings here the same life, striving always to bring them into tune with the Infinite. “I, if I be lifted up,” He said, “will draw all men unto Me.”

IX

EDUCATION IN THE EARLY CHURCH

[Sidenote: The church to teach all nations]

“I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify [teach] them through Thy truth.”[55] As He lifted His eyes to heaven in those moments of quiet, just before entering Gethsemane, these words fell from the lips of the Son of man. Looking upon the little company of men clustering around Him, He saw in them the nucleus of the church which was to be called by His name, and His heart yearned for that body of Christians. Many and fierce would be their struggles; for He had breathed into the hearts of men a system of instruction which, because it was truth, would awaken all the bitterness of the enemy of truth; and the new system must be able to resist all the darts which human minds, swayed by the prince of evil, could hurl. _Divine philosophy must meet and vanquish human philosophy_. That was now the controversy, and it was left to a few weak men to start the work. What power was in that Spirit of truth with which they were baptized! His commission to this same company, as they watched Him recede from earth on the day of His ascension, was, “Go ye therefore, and _teach_ all nations.” They, the true Israel, were now to become teachers of nations.

Recognizing the difficulties to be met, He had, on another occasion, said: “I send you forth as sheep among wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and simple as doves.” In no boasted philosophy, no high-sounding words, but in _simplicity of truth, was to lie their strength_. Of the works of the apostles and those who believed on Christ through their teaching, we have this divine testimony, “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast labored and hast not fainted.”[56] It is therefore evident that a great work was done, and that very speedily; for again Inspiration describes it: “Behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; ... and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.”[57] Men, though admonished to be as harmless as doves, were nevertheless, when teachers of truth, enabled to make themselves felt in the world.

[Sidenote: A call from popular education]

To accept Christianity in those early days meant the withdrawal from everything before cherished; it meant not only the separation from heathenism in worship, or Babylon, but also _from heathenism in thought_ and education, or _Egypt_. It was a second exodus. Justin Martyr, a Christian born near the close of the first century, is quoted by Painter, as he describes the life of a follower of Christ: “We who once delighted in lewdness now embrace chastity; we who once embraced magical arts, have consecrated ourselves to the good and unbegotten God; we who loved above all things the gain of money and possessions, now bring all that we have into one common stock, and give a portion to everyone that needs; we who once hated and killed one another, now pray for our enemies.”

With this spirit in the church we are not surprised to find that in the words of Coleman, “_The tender solicitude of these early Christians for the religious instruction of their children is one of their most beautiful characteristics._ They taught them, even at the earliest dawn of intelligence, the sacred names of God and the Saviour. They sought to lead the infant minds of their children up to God, by familiar narratives from Scripture, of Joseph, of young Samuel, of Josiah, and of the holy child Jesus. The history of the patriarchs and prophets, apostles, and men whose lives are narrated in the sacred volume, _were the nursery tales_ with which they sought to form the tender minds of their children. As the mind of the child expanded, the parents made it their sacred duty and delightful task daily to exercise him in the recital of select passages of scripture relating to the doctrines and duties of religion. The Bible was the entertainment of the fireside. It _was the first, the last, the only schoolbook almost, of the child_; and sacred psalmody, the only song with which his infant cry was hushed as he was lulled to rest on his mother’s arm. The sacred song and the rude melody of its music were, from the earliest periods of Christian antiquity, an important means of impressing the infant heart with sentiments of piety, and of imbuing the susceptible minds of the young with the knowledge and the faith of the Scriptures.”

[Sidenote: True education developed missionaries]

Painter writes: “The purpose of these early Christian parents, as of the ancient Jews, was to train up their children in the fear of God. In order that the children might be exposed as little as possible to the corrupting influence of heathen associations, _their education was conducted within the healthful precincts of home_. AS A RESULT, they grew up without a taste for debasing pleasures; they acquired simple domestic tastes; and when the time came, they took their place as consistent and earnest workers in the church.”[58] These words make several facts very prominent:—

_1._ _Christian education should begin in the home._

_2._ _Bible stories should be the basis for nursery tales and infant songs._

_3._ _Christians should carry out the plan of education which the Jews failed to obey, and which Christ revealed in a new light._

_4._ _The results of such Christian education in the home school will be elevated characters and workers in the cause of God._

Would that it could be said of Christian mothers to-day, as a heathen orator once exclaimed concerning those early followers of Christ, “What wives these Christians have!”

[Sidenote: The duty of parents]

One of the early Fathers thus expresses the danger of children and youth in the schools of the world, and shows the character of the education needed: “Mothers ought to care for the bodies of their children, but it is necessary also that they inspire their offspring with love for the good and with fear toward God. And fathers will not limit themselves to giving their children an earthly vocation, but will interest themselves also in their heavenly calling.

“The most beautiful heritage that can be given children is to teach them to govern their passions.... Let us have for our children the same fear that we have for our houses, when servants go with a light into places where there is inflammable material, as hay or straw. They should not be permitted to go where the fire of impurity may be kindled in their hearts, and do them an irreparable injury. A KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCRIPTURES IS AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST THE UNREASONABLE INCLINATIONS OF YOUTH AND AGAINST THE READING OF PAGAN AUTHORS, in which heroes, the slaves of every passion, are lauded. _The lessons of the Bible are springs that water the soul._ As our children are everywhere surrounded by bad examples, the monastic schools [what would correspond to-day with church schools] are the best for their education. _Bad habits once contracted, they can not be got rid of._ This is the reason God conducted Israel into the wilderness, ... that the vices of the Egyptians might be unlearned.... Now our children are surrounded by vice in our cities and are unable there to resist bad examples.... _Let us take care of the souls of our children_, that they may be formed for virtue, and not be degraded by vice.”

This writer might well address a modern audience, for he recognizes the influence of pagan authors, and states that the Bible alone can counteract this influence; _he recognizes the worldly schools as Egypt_, and says that Christians should take their children out; and finally he recognizes the value of having schools located in the country, and advises people to move out of the cities with their children.

[Sidenote: Church schools among early Christians]

Mosheim says: “There can be no doubt but that the children of Christians were carefully trained up from their infancy, and were early put to reading the sacred books and learning the principles of religion. For this purpose _schools_ were erected everywhere from the beginning.”[59]

[Sidenote: Training schools for missionaries]

From these schools for children, we must distinguish those _seminaries_ of the early Christians, erected extensively in the larger cities, at which adults, and especially _such as aspired to be public teachers_, were instructed and educated in all branches of learning, both human and divine. Such seminaries, in which young men devoted to the sacred office were taught whatever was necessary to qualify them properly for it, the apostles of Christ undoubtedly both set up themselves, and directed others to set up.[60] St. John, at Ephesus, and Polycarp, at Smyrna, established such schools. Among these seminaries, in subsequent times, none was more celebrated than that at Alexandria; which is commonly called a catechetic school.[61] In addition, then, to home and church schools for children, the early Christian church established seminaries for the education of workers. In reading the history of the times the course of instruction is seen to adhere closely to the Scriptures, and to draw a sharp distinction between the science of salvation and the Greek and Oriental philosophy as taught in the pagan schools.

[Sidenote: Pagans feared Christian schools]

Christian education was often regarded as narrow and limited by those who loved to study the mysteries of Greek wisdom; but as long as they adhered to their simple studies, and made faith the basis of their work, there was a power in the truths taught by the students of these schools, which made the pagan world, with all its great men, tremble. It is an interesting fact that as late as the fourth century, after the Christian schools had lost much of their power through the mingling of pagan with Christian methods, and the adoption of some of the pagan studies, they were still regarded as the stronghold of Christianity. When Julian, the apostate, began to reign, an attempt was made to revive paganism throughout the Roman Empire. One of his first acts was to _close the schools of the Christians_. “He contemptuously observes,” says Gibbon, “that the men who exalt the merit of implicit faith are unfit to claim or to enjoy the advantages of science; and he vainly contends that if they refuse to adore the gods of Homer and Demosthenes, they ought to content themselves with expounding Luke and Matthew in the church of the Galileans.

[Sidenote: The public schools of Julian]

“In all the cities of the Roman world, the education of the youth was intrusted to masters of grammar and rhetoric; who were _elected by the magistrates, maintained at the public expense_, and distinguished by many lucrative and honorable privileges.... As soon as the resignation of the more obstinate teachers had established the unrivaled dominion of the pagan sophists, Julian invited the rising generation to resort with freedom to the _public schools_, in a just confidence that their tender minds would receive the impressions of _literature and idolatry_. IF THE GREATEST PART OF THE CHRISTIAN YOUTH SHOULD BE DETERRED BY THEIR OWN SCRUPLES, OR BY THOSE OF THEIR PARENTS, FROM ACCEPTING THIS DANGEROUS MODE OF INSTRUCTION, THEY MUST, AT THE SAME TIME, RELINQUISH THE BENEFITS OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION. Julian had reason to expect that, in the space of a few years, the church would relapse into its primeval simplicity, and that the theologians, who possessed an adequate share of the learning and eloquence of the age, would be succeeded by a generation of blind and ignorant fanatics, incapable of defending the truth of their own principles, or of exposing the various follies of polytheism.”[62]

Julian can not be counted as a fool; for, wishing to make the world pagan, he proceeded to do so, (1) _By closing the Christian schools where the “merit of implicit faith” was taught_; (2) _By compelling attendance of the public schools, taught by pagan teachers_, and WHERE LITERATURE AND IDOLATRY WERE COMBINED.

As Gibbon says, he had _just reason_ to expect that in the course of a generation the Christians thus educated would lose their faith, cease to oppose paganism, and sink into insignificance. If a pagan emperor expected this in the fourth century, is it any wonder that Protestants to-day, allowing their children to remain in the public schools where precisely the same things are taught, in principle as Julian had his public instructors teach, should lose power and cease to be _Protestants_? From the words of Gibbon one would infer that in the days of Julian there were parents who refused to send their children to the public schools; some children who, “because of their own scruples,” refused to attend; and some teachers who ceased to teach rather than teach literature and idolatry in state schools.

[Sidenote: The seminary at Alexandria]

Special mention is made of the Alexandrian school, as it was located in an Egyptian city to which flocked many noted pagan scholars. Sad as it may be to do so, it is yet necessary to see how these schools, and especially this one at Alexandria, lost their simplicity as they came in contact with pagan scholars, and attempted to meet them on their own grounds.

[Sidenote: Alexandria adopts philosophy of Plato]

Mosheim says: “This philosophy [of Plato] was adopted by such of the learned at Alexandria as wished to be accounted Christians, and _yet to retain the name, garb, and the rank of philosophers_. In particular, all those who in this century presided in the schools of the Christians at Alexandria ... are said to have approved of it. These men were persuaded that true philosophy, the great and most salutary gift of God, lay in scattered fragments among all the sects of philosophers; and therefore that it was the duty of every wise man, and especially of a Christian teacher, to collect those fragments from all quarters, and to use them for the defense of religion and the confutation of impiety.”[63]

[Sidenote: Result of adopting worldly methods]

The lesson so dear to Paul—that the gospel of Christ is the “power of God unto salvation”—was lost sight of when these Christian teachers assumed the philosopher’s garb, and used the philosopher’s vocabulary to confute impiety. “I have somewhat against thee,” writes the divine historian of this age, “because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and _do the first works_; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place.”[64] The heaven-lit taper of Christian education in its purity was beginning to grow dim. Its flame must have a constant supply of truth, or, like the candle without oxygen, it burns low, and finally goes out. Paul, writing to the Corinthians who were placed in circumstances similar to those of the school at Alexandria, that is, pressed upon all sides by pagan philosophy, said: “I came toward you with weakness and fear and great timidity. And my thought and my statement was not clothed in captivating philosophical reasons; but in demonstrated spirit and power, so that your trust might not _be in human philosophy_, but in divine power.... What we speak is not in an artificial discussion of a human philosophy, but by spiritual teachings, comparing spiritualities with the spiritual.”[65]

[Sidenote: Dialectics versus the Scriptures]

Again, “Dialectic,” or logic, was that science of which Aristotle, the disciple of Plato, boasted as being the father. Says a writer of the church after the decline was well begun, it “is the queen of arts and sciences. _In it reason dwells_, and is manifested and developed. _It is dialectic alone that can give knowledge and wisdom;_ it alone shows WHAT AND WHENCE WE ARE, AND TEACHES US OUR DESTINY [human philosophy and evolution]; through it we learn to know good and evil. And _how necessary is it_ to a clergyman, in order that he may be able to meet and vanquish heretics!” Men have more than once reverted to logic to vanquish heretics, but it was only when the Spirit of truth was lacking.

[Sidenote: The educational question caused a division]