Chapter 6

Building a Depression Era College: A Study of

Educational Survival at NNC

The Financial Cost of Building a College

Financial needs plagued Northwest Nazarene College (NNC) from its inception. Nazarene churches stretched sporadically through the northwestern states from Minnesota to the Pacific coast. Only one college represented this geographical area, and many constituents did not want their college in Nampa, Idaho. An unnamed "early friend of the college" admitted that "We had to pry open the doors everywhere in order to get a hearing at all. You can see that with no endowment, no other financial support, with a growing institution of many needs, and no thoroughly sold constituency, there were difficulties."[322] The young President Wiley met these financial challenges by establishing educational "zones" of financial support within the denomination when he was a member of the General Board of Education. While NNC's president, Wiley traveled through the educational zone to build an enthusiastic and supportive constituency.

Dealing with Finances Administratively: General Board of Education and Denominational Policy Concerning Higher Education

In the summer of 1918, the General Board of Education for the Church of the Nazarene considered new policies for the educational interests of the young denomination. The seven members included Wiley who was secretary-treasurer. The Nazarene Messenger reported that one of the major responsibilities delegated to Wiley involved the decision to classify Nazarene schools as four-year liberal arts colleges.[323] For the next decade, Wiley spearheaded the effort to standardize and accredit Nazarene higher education institutions as liberal arts colleges. In one of his first actions in denominational leadership, Wiley wrote an article on educational policy as the editor of the official Nazarene periodical, the Herald of Holiness. In "Standardizing Our Colleges" (1928), he admonished the general Church of the Nazarene to meet state standards and requirement of regional accrediting institutions in order to legitimize the preparation of Nazarene young people for ministry and service.[324] The legitimate college, in the minds of these early leaders, deserved to be supported by its constituency, in this case, the denominational membership. Of the Nazarene colleges in operation in 1918, the last was finally accredited in 1969.[325]

Wiley's responsibilities as a member of the General Board of Education also included raising funds nationally to support regional colleges. In 1922, the Board asked for every Nazarene district to contribute $2.00 per member to support higher education.[326] At the same time, the General Superintendents continued the call to raise funds nationally for regional colleges to pay their debt and to meet educational standards.[327] The General Superintendents' address at the 1923 General Assembly admitted "we cannot hope to have our schools self-supporting."[328] To enable a college to receive enough support, the United States was divided geographically into six educational zones.[329] Each college could actively recruit and raise funds within its particular educational zone. Attempts were made to raise funds within the denominational church structure.

A nationwide Education Day for the Church of the Nazarene became one of Wiley's first attempts to make higher education a denominational priority. The first day focused on education was advertised as May 4, 1924.[330] However, denominational records showed that general church expenses for educational work was only 1.99 percent of the total funds raised for all purposes by the denomination.[331] Allowing regional colleges to be supported by regional constituencies was effective, since all six colleges assigned to regions have survived to this day.[332] However, the earlier decision in 1918 to restrict colleges efforts at fundraising and recruitment to certain geographical areas led to inevitable conflict between institutions.

The trustees of Pasadena University, the college located within the Southwest educational zone,[333] submitted a letter of "protest and request" to the alignment of the six educational zones. [334] According to the letter, two recognized Nazarene institutions of higher education were not given equal geographical territory. The letter asked why the two oldest universities (Pasadena University and Olivet College) should not have equally divided territory. The trustees argued that Olivet College should have received the territory east of the Mississippi River, and that Pasadena University was entitled to the land to the west of the River. No other colleges, they asserted should have been allotted an educational zone. The trustees suggested that Pasadena University deserved the largest portion of land, because it was the "real university" of the denomination founded by Bresee. However, they suggested that they might settle for equal distribution but only with Olivet Nazarene College.

The underlying issue, however, was revealed in the suggestion that an alternative realignment be made. The suggested allotment offered by the Pasadena trustees suggested that the Southwest educational zone[335] assigned to Pasadena University was permitted to raise funds and recruit over the entire West Coast. The Northwest educational zone and Northwest Nazarene College in Nampa would have been allotted only Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Canada. The Pasadena University trustees maintained that their college, being one of the oldest Nazarene institutions and dearest to the denomination's founder, deserved an education zone with a larger population for recruiting and fundraising.

The General Board of Education, argued the Pasadena trustees, had given NNC (the youngest school at the time) a definite advantage for becoming financially stable, while located in a zone with a population three times greater than that assigned to Pasadena. This was the crux of the disagreement. The trustees noted that the General Board of Education Report in the Herald of Holiness (November 27, 1918) did not list Canada as part of the Northwest educational zone and was therefore "misleading." Pasadena was allotted the smallest educational zone in terms of actual population and felt "discriminated against," although it was the original Nazarene University established by "our much loved and honored founder, Dr. P. F. Bresee, and for which he gave his life." Furthermore, since Pasadena University was not consulted, the trustees felt that the General Board of Education "arbitrarily" took part of its constituency away. The Board's action was characterized as "unfair," "unjust" and "not in harmony with the holiness we profess." In other words, the trustees of Pasadena College thought there was "no need of taking from us our original territory and limiting our expansion" and assigning the larger territory to "the younger institutions."

Therefore, the trustees of Pasadena College hoped that the General Board of Education would reconsider its action "prayerfully" for an issue that "vitally affects the interests" of Pasadena, "but also of the whole denomination." The letter, addressed to Wiley, as secretary of the General Board of Education, goes on to say,

The leaders of Pasadena University desire an opportunity to carry out the God-given Vision for this institution of our sainted founder, Dr. P.F. Bresee; and in order to accomplish this end they should be given as free a hand as possible to secure students and funds, and not have our success needlessly abridged by other younger institutions, which have come into existence against the wishes of the founder of our denomination, thus entailing an unnecessary burden upon us all.

Pasadena University trustees declared that they wished to remain in harmony with the General Board of Education in its attempt to "standardize our schools and limit the number." But they wanted "the priority of our more important schools of learning be recognized," weighing the importance of each school by its commitment to the denomination's mission to "spread.scriptural holiness." These faithful institutions, such as Pasadena University, should be given "first consideration and opportunity in the distribution of territory" and other vital matters. The letter was signed by seven of the trustees including A. O. Hendricks who replaced Wiley as president at Pasadena University two years earlier.

On behalf of the General Board of Education, Wiley responded to the trustees at Pasadena University.[336] Wiley offered several responses to their complaints concerning the territorial allotment for educational zones. First, he explained, Olivet Nazarene College had enough population to draw financial support and student recruits. Secondly, the Board of Trustees did not consider the possible establishment of new schools in each zone. Thirdly, Canada was not included in the Northwest educational zone, because a new college began in Canada the week after the General Board of Education met. "We [meaning NNC] never made "any extensive canvass of the territory." The number of NNC students from Canada, Wiley considered, would change as the new college took root in Canada. The NNC educational zone had 3,834,133 people and 2,800 Nazarenes. The Pasadena University educational zone had 2,837, 153 people and 4,000 Nazarenes. The Northwest educational zone may have been more populous, but there were about 25% more Nazarenes in the Southwestern United States. Fourth, location of the colleges was only one factor in determining educational zones; other factors included the number of church members, geographical location, commercial interests and social issues. And lastly, Northwest Nazarene College may have been the youngest school, but Wiley argued that its location in Nampa did not restrict its influence upon churches on the West coast to only Oregon and Washington. Wiley hoped the trustees at Pasadena University would discuss the matter again "for the best interests of all of our schools and colleges." Wiley then offered his assistance and assured them that having solid schools would put Nazarenes "in a good light" before other people. The General Board of Education maintained its position on the boundaries for each educational zone in spite of the pressure from the trustees at Pasadena University to change the Board's policy for supporting the denomination's colleges.

Wiley's role on the General Board of Education helped focus the financial abilities of a small denomination so that the colleges could become financially and academically viable-to be without debt and to meet accrediting standards. The General Board of Education helped the younger institutions of Nazarene higher education to focus on a particular goal, namely, to receive the "hundreds of young men and women [who] are seeking an education in an institution where the spiritual atmosphere is wholesome. The Church of the Nazarene must care for them."[337]

Dealing with Finances Spiritually: Road Trips and Prayer Meetings

In addition to his policymaking, Wiley frequently traveled on behalf of NNC, especially during December between the semesters. Ross Price mentions that Wiley usually missed Christmas Day celebrations with his family while traveling for the College.[338] One such event was a fundraising tour that took several college officials and students to a church convention in Ontario, Oregon.[339] Wiley traveled continuously as he built a constituency to support the college. The Oasis in 1918 describes the welcome Wiley received upon returning from a long road trip:

February 8th, The dean and groups of students were up in the middle of the night to welcome the late night arrival of President Wiley from a fundraising trip.

As the 4:10 train pulled in the crowd drew closer. A weary, wayworn traveler descended into the midst of a crowd of young people lustily singing the college yell, 'Hallelujah, Amen, Hallelujah, Amen.' Hearty handshakes followed, and after warmly expressing his appreciation, President Wiley was escorted to an auto and driven out to the school. A bountiful breakfast was served in the college dining room after which our beloved president led the morning worship, which was a time of great spiritual blessing and uplift. Truly the windows of heaven were opened and showers of blessing descended. All were melted together in divine love and there was shouting and crying and rejoicing all over the room. It was a time long to be remembered for we all felt that 'It was good to be there.'[340]

Though traveling was sometimes lonely and difficult, the young president personally experienced the overtly spiritual expression of the students' gratitude upon his return from the long road trip.

The relationship between finances and spirituality were made explicit during Wiley's presidency. One story relates how Wiley became concerned over the diminished supply of coal for the campus heating plant. As he walked across campus, he reportedly said, "Lord, why is it that the holiness schools are always on the ragged edge of things financially?"[341] These kinds of questions were responded to in prayer meetings attended by administrators, faculty, and students. One story described the drama with which the coal bins were kept full:

One day in the dead of winter the school was out of coal. Faculty and students gathered in the chapel with coats and wraps to keep warm. All knelt down and called upon the Lord to supply their needs. While they were on their knees a dray drove up to the coal bin, and the shoveling of coal began. What a praise meeting followed![342]

Other financial needs were met accordingly. Another story noted the need for $10,000 to pay a bank loan without any viable means to meet the need. A student suggested during a chapel service that they ask the Lord to provide the necessary funds. Wiley doubted it could happen, but they prayed anyway. Later that week, a layperson in Boise, Idaho donated property worth $10,000 after hearing about the need during a service in a Nazarene church.[343] Sometimes needs were reportedly met as they prayed:

On another day, ten in the forenoon was the final hour given us for the payment of a certain note, and the College did not have the money. Dr. Wiley called the faculty and students together at nine, and what a prayer meeting we had! While we were on our knees, a man who had not been approached personally went into the bank and paid the bill at ten o'clock [for] a thousand dollars![344]

Times of prayer sometimes went late into the night in the offices of the President and his Bursar. These stories have similar strands. Whether they are apocryphal or authentic, it is clear that the financial burdens of the college were interwoven into the spiritual fabric of this small Nazarene liberal arts college. The indebtedness of the college intensified the financial concerns during the college's first decade. To surmount this hardship, Wiley and the administration launched a campaign to decrease its indebtedness and test the generosity of the college's constituency.

Victory over Indebtedness

In 1918, Wiley initiated a "Victory campaign" to raise funds to clear the college of outstanding debt. The financial needs were listed in the Nazarene Messenger as $5,000 for indebtedness, $2,000 for improvements to the campus, $3,000 for a temporary endowment to provide for operations and salaries and to keep student costs low.[345] During one Sunday morning service at Nampa First Church of the Nazarene, $4237 was received in subscriptions and pledges.[346] By April, $12,000 in pledges had been tallied from the educational zone supporting the college. [347] The Nazarene Messenger and Wiley, as its editor, stated, "It is the policy of the college to build only as money or subscriptions are received. We do not propose to go in debt."[348] With the promised funds, building more facilities was now a possibility.

The Oasis printed an advertisement for the Victory campaign noting the $10,000 goal along with photographs of Wiley and N. B. Herrell, the Nazarene superintendent for the Idaho-Oregon district.[349] The college and church were united with strong bonds. The churches sent students and support, while the college offered a spiritual environment in which to educate their children. During the Educational Rally at the Idaho-Oregon District Assembly, people marched around the campus praying for proposed building sites. The Nazarene Messenger printed a headline that read: "Shouting the Walls Up." Within the week, pledges were given to build the necessary buildings, and Wiley was offered an increase in salary.[350] The battle over indebtedness was now won. The possibility for "building a college for Jesus," and keeping it open, were now in view. The Victory campaign of 1918, however, was to be a precursor of multiple attempts to raise enough funds to avoid the uncertain financial challenges that lay ahead.

The Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919

The "School Notes" section of The Oasis of 1919 carried only two stories from the previous school year. First, in September, a two-week series of revival meetings uplifted the faculty, staff, and students at the college. Secondly, during October, the college was hit with the nationwide influenza epidemic. There were about 200 cases of flu reported on campus. Only twenty-five older students did not show symptoms. The students who remained healthy followed the directives of Dr. Magnum in the Medical Sanitarium and provided care for those who were sick. No persons associated with the college campus died of the illness.[351] "Nazarene nurses" were on-call from the college to assist with local cases of influenza. Those students living on campus were quarantined for six weeks.[352] The school remained closed until January, because of the contagious sickness.[353]

The influenza outbreak caused a serious financial strain on the college. Another Victory campaign was launched in January 1919. Wiley's goal for this fundraising campaign hoped to collect ten times more revenue than the previous one. Under the supervision of the President, the Board of Directors, and the Nazarene District Superintendents, the campaign sought to raise $100,000 for constructing new facilities on campus without incurring debt. The rallying cry became "sending forth workers into His great harvest field."[354] Wiley united his dream to build a school for training missionaries with his drive to raise the funds needed to build without costly loans.

The Idaho-Oregon district superintendent N. B. Herrell penned a song entitled "Victory Campaign" to be sung at fundraising rallies. The song makes the point that the President is intellectually fit to lead such a large fundraising campaign. One of the verses reads:

Like Elisha in the school long ago,

Doctor Wiley is our man, all aglow,

Trusting in the Lord,

he's wide awake and sane,

By faith they're in the 'Victory Campaign.'

Herrell's admonition was not enough for some residents of Nampa.

The Nazarene Messenger printed an article headlined, "Crazy Nazarenes." The article described a Nazarene who overheard a local Nampa resident say, "These crazy Nazarenes give away all they have and shout while they are doing it." [355] However, the college newsletter indicates that two persons not professing to be Christian believers donated $100 to campus improvements. According to the same college newsletter, churches visited by the campaign gave on average $113.30 per member. The giving was tremendous for a small constituency supporting a small college, but the financial strain still remained for the rest of Wiley's tenure at NNC.

Joseph E. Janosky

Wiley's fundraising efforts were not conducted alone. Church leaders and college trustees encouraged and participated in the campaigns each year. Joseph E. Janosky was given the responsibility to organize the financial records of the college and to balance the budget while paying the bills. Janosky was first listed as a Bookkeeping faculty member in 1922.[356] Janosky, however, did not graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree until 1925. Eventually, Janosky became the Bursar who was heard "late into the night" praying with President Wiley as the college faced difficult financial situations.[357]

Janosky, by taking on the responsibilities as the college's first Bursar, systematized how the college handled its finances. His position symbolically reflected the college's commitment to avoid debt and operate the college with fiscal responsibility. The "Bursar's Page" became a regular feature in the Nazarene Messenger. The monthly report offered financial statistics in the following outline: "What We Own; What We Owe; Who Owes Us; Whom We Owe; What We Have Earned; What We Have Spent; The Gain or Loss; What We Are Worth."[358] The next year, however, Janosky reported in the Bursar's Page that "every bill, salary, and expense has been paid. Thank God!"[359] NNC's openness about its financial picture could have been an encouragement to potential donors.

Janosky also traveled with the fundraising campaigns. The Christmas campaign in 1924 offered a glimpse of Wiley's fundraising efforts that had begun eight years earlier. Setting out for Washington on December 27th, the group traveled from church to church through the beginning of January. Janosky, Wiley, and the "Quartet," comprised of student singers, including Wiley's outstanding religion student Mildred Bangs, traveled through the Northwest District from Oregon to Portland, north through Washington to Seattle, finishing at Everett. Wiley conducted lectures on Hebrews during their stay in Seattle. He also spoke at the churches they visited in each town. The traveling band joined with Martha E. Curry, an evangelist from Boston and friend of Olive Winchester's, during her evangelistic meetings in Washington at Kirkland, Mukilteo, and Tacoma. Wiley and the student quartet were invited back in March 1925 to take up a larger offering than they did on their first tour.[360] Student involvement in representing the college and raising funds became a consistent factor in Wiley's plan to make the college financially viable.

The College Quartet

The college quartets were the musical side of a fundraising team, which also included a speaker. The singers were usually students, and the speakers were usually college administrators or church leaders. In the summer of 1919, one of the first teams set out to raise funds and represent the college to the constituency-donors and potential students. N. B. Herrell, the Idaho-Oregon district superintendent, led the student singers, Grace McHose, Ethel Shern, and Harold Hart. The speakers were Wiley, Olive Winchester, and Herrell.[361] By 1923, there were two quartets, a male quartet called the Ortonians and a female quartet called the Olivians.[362] In the summer of 1923, two sets of speakers joined these quartets and covered the entire educational zone for NNC.

According to the Nazarene Messenger, Wiley helped cover the educational zone by speaking at three district assemblies stretching thorough Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. He was joined by a student singing quartet, J. T. Little, a Nazarene church leader, and Mrs. DeLance Wallace, a Nazarene evangelist, in ministering and raising support for the college. Another student quartet joined Little as they later traveled to the eastern boundary of the NNC educational zone through Montana, the Dakotas, and Minnesota. Wiley added, "The college quartets did some excellent singing which greatly added to the interest and pleasure of these rallies."[363]

Home Mission Bands joined in representing the college on trips that were not specifically for raising funds, but for building awareness of the college through student ministries. In one particular incident, a student speaker and singing quartet traveled with a district superintendent during a weekend in the spring of 1923. During that weekend, the group sang and the speaker preached in two local churches, the State Penitentiary, and a Japanese Baptist Sunday School Convention. During the 1922-23 school year, Home Mission Bands conducted 260 services with 60 (mostly student) workers and reported 129 seekers at the altar. Students were maintaining eight preaching appointments each weekend through these traveling bands.[364] One student described the experience of Home Mission Bands as the practical side of Nazarene education: "We are not only getting the theory, but also the practice.We learn to do by doing."[365]

Wiley traveled as much as possible with these traveling bands,[366] although he attempted to maintain his family responsibilities as much as he could. During one extended trip to Seattle and Spokane, Wiley was able to return in time to see Ward, one of his sons, graduate from the grammar school at NNC.[367]

During his travels, Wiley became a popular Bible study leader and speaker. A 1924 issue of the Nazarene Messenger advertised an upcoming Camp Meeting for the Idaho-Oregon District during the summer. Evangelist J. A. Kring and the new district superintendent A. E. Sanner were listed as speakers, former students and current pastors, Fairy Chism, as the children's worker, and Harold J. Hart as song leader. Wiley was advertised as "widely known as one of the foremost educators and teachers of the holiness movement." During the camp meeting, he delivered a daily lecture series on the Book of Hebrews.[368] During a recent conference of Nazarene Sunday School teachers I attended, one of the eldest teachers in the room responded simply, "Camp meeting," when Wiley's name was mentioned. She immediately recalled Wiley's involvement in Nazarene camp meetings at Beulah Park, near Santa Cruz, in the 1930's, '40's, and '50's.[369]

Putting Faith Before Finances

Wiley worked hard to make solvent the educational institutions he served. From the Victory Campaigns of Northwest Nazarene College to the Troubadours traveling student group of Pasadena Nazarene College, Wiley gathered people and ideas to pull these colleges out of indebtedness and essentially made higher education possible in times of financial uncertainty. When the financial situation looked bad, Wiley relied on his spiritual faith. Faith is a human response of trust in self, others, and the Ultimate in times of adversity. For Wiley, faith was experienced as more than a theological doctrine; faithfulness was a reality of life.

Faith in the midst of financial doubt became a dominant image throughout Wiley's career. Wiley spent most of his career asking for people to give money to a project or plan for education that some of donors would never actually see the results or directly reap the benefit for their gifts. Faith, trust, and giving became intertwined in Wiley's theological teaching. An example of this practical and theological congruence can be found in Wiley's description of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Christian teaching about the Trinity.

For Wiley, Pentecost was a Jewish feast during which the Holy Spirit came to early Christians, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. Wiley wrote, "The Pentecostal gift was the gift of a Person."[370] The personality of the Holy Spirit was the "Gift and the Giver."[371] The Holy Spirit, according to Wiley, is "the Gift of the glorified Christ to the Church, and abides within it as a creating and energizing Presence."[372] The creative and energizing responsibility of the Holy Spirit could be depicted as an "administrator of redemption."[373] The image of "Giver" is prominent throughout Wiley's career as a source of survival and continuance for his vocation within the church as a college administrator and professor. In the same way, Wiley used the imagery of giving to describe the Holy Spirit and the presence of redemption and justification within the Christian experience.

For Wiley, the human response of trust, faith, and giving occurs not just individually, but within a community. According to Wiley,

God did not create men as a string of isolated souls, but as an interrelated race of mutually dependent individuals; so also the purpose of Christ is not alone the salvation of the individual, but the building up of a spiritual organism of interrelated and redeemed persons.[374]

The "spiritual organization of interrelated and redeemed persons" also included the Christian college. Wiley believed that during one's time in college, a sense of vocation developed. What kind of vocation? "The Holy Spirit as the Agent of Christ, makes known His divine purpose for the salvation of the world, through a Proclamation.known as the Vocation or Call"[375] that is available to all persons.

Giving was one of the dominant images of Wiley's life. This divine image of giving extended also to the Christian community that supported Christian higher education.

Building a College and a Legacy

The financial struggles at NNC, though harsh, were not a detriment to Wiley's legacy at the college. From 1917 to 1924, the student tuition at NNC doubled from $25.00 per year to $50.00.[376] Nationally, the ability to pay for the rising cost of education was listed as the "most critical determinant" for students choosing to attend college during the 1920's.[377] However, at NNC, enrollment doubled from 1917 to 1924 (166 students to 328).[378] It was not a secret that professors subsisted on "poverty-level salaries." The General Assembly report of 1923 by the General Board of Education noted that the "sacrifices by faculty and students will go down in history as one of the great assets of our movement."[379] Although attendance dropped off from 1923-25, attendance rose again to 317 students in the 1925-26 school year. Wiley's ability to gather a team of individuals and create an atmosphere of common purpose made possible the continued existence of NNC in the face of difficult financial circumstances.

Wiley's contributions to financing Nazarene higher education included the assistance of colleagues and students. Traveling bands of students projected a positive image of the college to its constituency and advertised the school to potential students. Church leaders helped raise awareness and funds through local church ministries and district assemblies. Wiley's contribution also included developing new policy for the educational structure of the denomination. By the end of his tenure at NNC, Wiley more than doubled enrollment and built five wooden-fame buildings, including an administration building, grammar school, club building (dining hall, kitchen, music studios, heating plant, storage room and printing press (later a gym), and two student dormitories. Wiley eventually left NNC in 1926 to return to Pasadena Nazarene College once again as its president.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

By Dr. H. Orton Wiley, President Emeritus, Pasadena College

(Keynote Address delivered at the Third Educational Conference, Church of the Nazarene, held at Pasadena College, Pasadena, California, October 17-19, 1951.)

I. INTRODUCTION: THE ANCIENT HEBREW LEGEND

There is an ancient Hebrew legend that Enoch, who walked with God and was not for God took him, being forewarned of God that the world would be twice destroyed-once by water and once by fire-caused two pillars to be erected upon which he had written "all the knowledge that had been revealed to or invented by men. These pillars became the center of learning-the first university of the world and an ancient landmark. Kings and princes came to study and to learn, and as a consequence peace reigned on earth for two hundred and fifty years. When the flood eventually came and had receded, it was found that the pillars still stood. Two things are here set forth: first, the wisdom of divine revelation, and second, the wisdom acquired by human experience. Evidently the purpose of Enoch, at once a great scientist and a great teacher, was to elucidate and convey both divine revelation and human acquisition, and in this he set the goal for all future religious education. These pillars, like those of the ancient temple, should have their place at the gates of every Christian college and university.

II. THE CHURCH AS THE MOTHER OF COLLEGES

It is well known that the church is the mother of colleges, and that religion has furnished the motive for all true education.

1. The earliest Christian schools were catechetical. Later there grew up those great schools at Alexandria., Antioch, Caesarea, Nisibis, Edessa, Constantinople, and Athens.

2. Higher education in our own country began under the auspices of the church. Harvard College began with one hundred men and was founded because the people dreaded the thought of an illiterate ministry, when their present ministry had passed on. The motto of Harvard College at this time was "For the Glory of Christ." It has been significantly stated that before the first baby boy born in the new world was twenty-one years of age, they had a college ready for him.

3. Yale was founded at Newtown, the governing board consisting of twelve men of whom Thomas Jefferson was one. A company of ministers marched around a table, each laying a few books upon it, saying, "I bequeath these books for the founding of Yale College." For some time four-fifths of the students at Yale College were preparing for the ministry, while in New Haven, it was interesting to learn that the green where the old churches stand was definitely specified to be held in trust as a meeting place for the saints when our Lord should come.

4. Columbia was founded for the dissemination of religious truth and its courses were specifically stated to be open to men of all denominations. In the earlier days of the University of South Carolina, the students were required to take examinations each Monday morning on the sermons of the previous Sunday.

5. Of the first 119 colleges founded in this country, 104 of them were church colleges. In 1860, less than a century ago, there were 250 colleges in the United States, and only 17 of these were state institutions. Then began the process of the secularization of learning until the state colleges and universities have taken the lead in numbers and material equipment, but not in the true purpose of education. As to the church colleges, Dr. Van Dusen in a recent article in Religion and Life points out that most of these have sloughed off the last vestiges of ecclesiastical control, and the remainder find themselves greatly embarrassed and uncomfortable in their present circumstances.

6. What is the cause of this secularization of education? The author cited above, Dr. Van Dusen, attributes it to the following causes:

(1) The rapid expansion in the numbers of students, tenfold in the last forty years.

(2) The multiplication of courses-in the universities, a multiplication of divisions; in the colleges, a multiplication of departments.

(3) Specialization which stunts large-mindedness and threatens any comprehension of truth as a whole. Against this multiplication of courses Professor Whitehead says, "The increasing departmentalization of universities during the last hundred years, however necessary for administrative purposes, tends to trivialize the mentality of the profession," and Dr. Van Dusen adds, "but hardly less by contagion and reflection, the mentality of those who are taught. "

Dr. Van Dusen has this significant paragraph. "The present day curriculum in many universities reminds one of nothing so much as a lavish cafeteria, where unnumbered tasty intellectual delicacies are strung along on a moving belt for each student's choice, without benefit of dietary or caloric balance. 'The bargain counter theory of education,' someone bas called it." He says: "I have myself confronted a transcript from a respectable state university which testified to the student's competence as a Bachelor of Arts, to pursue postgraduate in philosophy and theology, by the fact that he had successfully completed courses in Band, Military Science, Folk Dancing, Swimming, Animal Husbandry, and Mortuary Science. The prevailing assumption plainly testified by the structure of the curriculum and the manner of teaching, even when not openly avowed, consists of countless fragments of truth, spread forth higgledy-piggledy, to be savored or swallowed like so many morsels of miscellaneous pabulum. And the result in the mind of the student? All too often, obesity or mental indigestion; or it may be malnutrition and even pernicious intellectual anemia." (Van Dusen, Religion and Life, Summer. 1951)

7. Dr. Louis Evans in a recent address attributed the causes of secularization to the following:

(1) To the French infidelity that early pervaded the colleges of this time, until there was at one time but one professed Christian in Yale College.

(2) To the German conception of colleges and universities, i.e., the multiplication of courses until the worth of the institution was judged by the thickness of its catalogue. Majors and minors, he continued, hopped about like grasshoppers without any pretense at unity. Everything became superficial. The underlying spirit was gone and only the form remained. One student spent three years studying the proboscis of a mosquito. They taught many things but they did not teach the distinction between right and wrong. The moral quality being gone, the B. A. could well be interpreted, "Builders of Alibis."

III. THE TASK OF THE CHURCH COLLEGE

Since the worldly colleges and universities have secularized knowledge, it is evident that the first task of the Christian college is to set forth and maintain a spiritual view of life. Like the pillars of Enoch of old, its purpose is, first, to cherish and preserve knowledge; and second, to convey this knowledge to others. It must then gather into great libraries what the church has gained from men of wisdom and experience through the past ages. Following this it must adopt means for conveying this knowledge. In the first instance it becomes a great elucidating and establishing agency; in the second, an equally great evangelistic and missionary agency. The church college is thus at the opposite pole of the Communistic line which is first of all to break with the past, destroy all the old books, and substitute in their stead the new and untried ideologies. The schools and libraries thus become institutions for propaganda. Only the Church stood out against these false teachings, and be it said to the honor of these with a deep and abiding spiritual experience, they stood firm, esteeming the reproach of Christ better than life itself.

Dr. Keppel on the Difficulties of the Task

The difficulties of maintaining a spiritual view of life in the face of present world conditions are ably set forth by Dr. Keppel as follows:

1. The task of interpreting truth in a time when ingenious, vicious, and poisonous propaganda, the world over, poses in garments of truth.

2. The task of teaching life, when the present philosophy is a philosophy of death.

3. The task of guiding the growth of personality in a time when personality itself is apparently the object of annihilation.

4. The task of building a cooperative commonwealth of nations, when as in no other time the world's peoples are torn asunder by suspicions, hatreds, and atrocities.

5. The task of educating for peace when today all the world appears to be a school for war.

6. The task of helping to build a Christian world order when the foundations upon which the structure is to be built is nothing but pagan quicksand.

7. And the most baffling task of all, that of attempting to surmount the barriers by helping today's youth to become a leaven that will permeate and raise the world-culture, when as a matter of fact educational institutions are very largely becoming places where there are no youth who desire to become the subjects of such leaven. There are some of the appalling tasks which sober and humble educational as well as the spiritual leaders of the land.

IV. MISCONCEPTIONS OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

Before attempting to define the nature of Christian education, it may be well first to give attention to some of the misconceptions concerning this important subject.

First, Christian education does not consist in a multiplication of courses in the Bible and cognate religious subjects. That there has been too little emphasis upon these subjects and too few of them offered we freely admit; and we take pleasure in the fact that our colleges are enlarging and strengthening their curricula along these lines.

Second, it does not lie wholly in what is termed "religious environment," College catalogues have long boasted of this "religious influence" without being able to clearly define it. Its importance, however, cannot be overestimated; and any firsthand knowledge of Christian students coming from worldly institutions must recognize their appreciation of this wholesome environment. No, the seeds of decay are in the system of education itself, and given time it will destroy the holiest of environment and lead to moral degradation. On the other hand, a true Christian education, even in situations which are not conducive to its welfare, will eventually purify and mold its own environment. This has ever been the history of Christianity in its onward spiritual progress.

IV. THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

We shall now attempt to set forth the more positive aspect of this important subject. By Christian education we mean the complete overhauling of the educational system itself, and its establishment upon the sound basis of Christian principles, interpreted in both their spiritual and intellectual character. Any true system of education must recognize the moral and spiritual character of the intellectual processes. Its primary purpose is to shape character while it furnishes the mind with truth, and its ultimate goal is to bring the student to the full Christian consciousness of duty and privilege.

Perhaps a quotation from the words of our Lord may serve to give us a proper point of view. He said to His disciples on one occasion, "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so with you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:25-28). Here it is perfectly clear that Christ makes service to men, rather man authority over them, the true standard of greatness. The present turmoil and strife in the world is a struggle for authority and power. It is born of a false conception of greatness and is anti-Christian in the extreme. Totalitarianism by subjecting its people to false ideological standards makes them slaves of the government, destroys human freedom, and contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction.

As in the governmental realm, so also [it is] in the realm of education. Colleges and universities which were the outgrowth of spiritual motives and based upon sound Christian principles have only too often, in their desire to advance the standards of education, allowed the emphasis to change from the sincere Christian desire to serve, to the worldly ambition of maintaining high standards regardless of their effect upon those they should serve. Christian education then, we may say, is first of all an emphasis upon service rather than authority, whatever the nature of this authority may be-governmental, ecclesiastical, or scholastic-and it rests ultimately upon the character and mission of our Lord himself, who came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many.

VI. THE SCOPE OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

Closely related to this emphasis upon service is the fact that Christianity demands the surrender, not only of the intellect, but of all the powers of redeemed personality. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all my heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these" (Mark: 12:30-31). Christian education, therefore, must deal with every aspect of personality. To exalt one of these to the disparagement of others is to fall short of Christian standards. In particular, our danger is rationalism, which exalts the intellect to the detriment of the affections and the will. Hence the student on entering college is greeted with a barrage of tests, battery after battery. If he succeeds he is rated high, while his brother with less intellectual ability but with far more character and worth must take a lesser place, if admitted at all. What is the result? Intellectual giants and moral pygmies. One of our leading educators recently wrote: "We have now educated man to the place where he can destroy the world; perhaps we should begin to educate women to save it." We have no objections to tests insofar as they serve to help individuals; we strongly object to them when they become masters instead of servants.

The danger of course lies in the fact that the tests are one-sided, emphasizing generally mere intellectual ability, and too often only in particularized fields. Only last week, President Purkiser in a chapel address, unique and informing, called attention to Reuben, the first-born son of Jacob, who was "excellent in dignity" and "excellent in power," but, being unstable as water, he could not excel. Likewise Issachar was quick of perception; "he saw the goodness of the land," and also saw "that rest was good." But he was weak in that he bowed down between two burdens, and became a servant unto tribute. Of Joseph, on the other hand, it is written that he was a fruitful bough by a wall, whose branches ran over the wall; and of Judah, that the scepter should not depart from him, "nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come" (Gen. 49: 10). I think one of the keenest disappointments of an instructor is to find that too frequently his brilliant students are "unstable as water" and fall hopelessly; while others less gifted intellectually have qualities of heart and life that make for the greatest success. True Christian education destroys egotism with humility, and superficiality with inherent worth.

VII. THE CHALLENGE OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

Christian education depends, further, upon the challenge with which it confronts its students. Our Lord recognized the differences in ability found in men, but He made a challenge to all. To one He gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, with the instructions to improve the gifts bestowed upon them. One gained other five talents and received words of commendation. Another gained two talents and received the same words of commendation. Who will say that had the man with one talent gained one other talent he would not have received the like commendation? The point is, all were given an opportunity, and all were rewarded according to the progress made.

In our commendable strugg1e for higher standards and more efficient service, should we not guard against the danger which has overtaken so many church-related colleges-that of losing our earlier vision of service to all, especially the lowly? Was not this what St. Paul meant when he said, "Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate"? Our Lord chose His twelve apostles from the common class of ordinary workmen. They were called "ignorant and unlearned" solely because they had not received instruction in the rabbinical schools. And St. Paul also drew a lesson from the history of the early Church for our instruction, when he wrote: "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world, and the things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence" (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

Still further, we are Nazarenes and, as our name implies, were called out to minister to the lowly. No Christ-redeemed young man or woman should be denied entrance to our schools and colleges. The all-important entrance test should be, Are these young people in hearty sympathy with the moral and religious standards which we maintain? If so, we are to challenge them as did our Lord and, through our ministry in things intellectual and spiritual, seek to bring them to the highest levels of which they are capable. The humble men whom our Lord chose soon filled the world with the knowledge of the Son of God and the good news of full salvation. Who knows but that among these lowly ones there may be an Uncle Buddie Robinson or a Harmon Schmelzenbach.

VIII. THE STANDARD OF OUR FOUNDERS

We have a right to be justly proud of the educational principles set forth by our worthy founders. Not only did Dr. Phineas F. Bresee stand as a tower of strength for those who suffered from the appellants of the doctrine and experience of holiness, but the fact that he had served on the governing boards of colleges and universities led him to see the futility of much that passed for higher learning. We sincerely hope that our educational institutions will never deviate from the goals set by our founders, nor ever allow themselves to become the means for the dissemination of false doctrines in the churches. The statement to which we refer is as follows:

"The promoters of this work recognize that the training of the intellect is not the sole function of an educational institution. They recognize the greater importance of the true culture of the heart, which is the fundamental principle upon which any system of true education must rest; that the true and legitimate purpose of education is to cherish the mentality with which God has endowed us in loyal relation to the divine. On every school, on every book, on every exercise shall be stamped, "Loyalty to Christ and the Bible." The great need is for an institution where spirituality is at the front, and where it is clearly seen that an intense and enthusiastic devotion is a help instead of a hindrance to intellectual development." This emphasis upon the development of a symmetrical Christian character and a fervency of devotion to Jesus Christ was born out of a deep concern for the propagation of the gospel, and is exceptionally broad and farsighted. May the principles and purposes here stated be our guide as we seek to make our colleges and our seminary the sources of increased service to the church.

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