THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH ETC.                     475

critics must admit, and do admit, that the cause of education
is a great debtor to the Church. She has, indeed, been the
mother of the colleges of this country.          Wherever      the
preacher went in the pioneer days, he called forth the school-
house; and after the schoolhouse, he called forth the col-
lege,-the "small college" it may have been, but at any rate
it was the college which trained the men who have made our
nation what it is. It is of such colleges as these that Mr.
Bryce declares in "The American Commonwealth:"
 Men may not duly realize the services which these small colleges
perform in the rural districts of the country. They get hold of a
multitude of poor men who might never resort to a distant place of
education. They set learning in a visible form, plain indeed and hum-
ble, but dignified even in her humility, before the eyes of a rustic
people in whom the love of knowledge, naturally strong, might never
break from the bud into the flower but for the care of some zealous
gardener. They give the chance of rising in some intellectual walk of
life to many a strong and earnest nature who might otherwise have
remained an artisan or storekeeper, and perhaps failed in those avoca-
tions. They light up in many a country town what is at first only
a farthing rushlight but which, when the town swells to a city, or when
endowments flow in, or when some able teacher is placed in charge,
becomes a lamp of growing flame which may finally throw its rays
over the whole state in which it stands.  In some of these smaller
colleges one finds to-day men of great ability and great attainments.
One finds students who are receiving an education quite as thorough,
though not always as wide, as the best universities can give.
  It is generally admitted that up to the present time in this
country the denominational colleges have educated the larger
proportion of college graduates.
  What, then, has brought about the present agitation of
this question?  Why, after all the centuries of college work
done by the Christian Church, are we called upon to show
our credentials, to vindicate our right, to engage in the work
of collegiate training? Has the mission of the Church been
changed, or has any other agency been established which is
doing the work formerly done by the Church more effi-
ciently or with anything like the efficiency of the Church?




			

OHS/National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center Serial Collection

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 1

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  01
Date:  07/1911