THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH ETC.                 491

stitutions to the purposes for which she established them
and has nourished them.      The creation and the mainte-
nance of a college give to the Church her right to control.
The ideas are correlative, and follow each other of necessity.
If the Church has done nothing for her college, then she can-
not justly claim a voice in its management. But if she has
brought it to birth and has labored for it and has made its
success possible, it would be an unnatural and thankless
child which would refuse to allow the parent to have any
voice in its life work because some stranger has suddenly
discovered it and desires to magnify himself by building
upon the foundation already so well and so broadly laid.
Certainly the Church has the right to own and control col-
leges which she has built and supported, and those who are
on boards of trustees by virtue of their relation to the
Church should gladly grant to her the right to exercise that
control through her properly constituted authority, as she
may think best.
  It is of vital importance to the permanent and future pros-
perity of our work that the Church shall not fail to empha-
size her obligation to support her colleges. If she claims the
right to control, she must meet the obligation to support,
and to support liberally. But we cannot agree that the de-
nominational college cannot expect any support except from
the denomination which controls it. The denominational col-
lege is to-day characterized by so little of the narrow, sec-
tarian spirit that it justly merits the support of all those
who are interested in educational work. The local commun-
ity gives large support to a college regardless of the denom-
inational control. Wealthy men who are looking for op-
portunities to invest their money for the largest returns
have found the denominational colleges to be worthy recip-
ients of their bounty. And this will continue to be true so
long as these colleges make men and women of high charac-
ter and noble endeavor out of the boys and girls placed in
their care.




			

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