Chapter XVII: CHRISTIAN EDUCATION (Continued) 380 (3)

In order to understand the fertility of the seeds of pagan education, it is necessary to regard with care the master mind of that system, and this we find in Plato. Emerson, in his “Representative Men,” defines his position and the position of his philosophy in the pagan and in the so-called Christian world, making the teachings of this Greek, schooled in Egypt, crowd out the Word of God itself. He says: “Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated among men of thought.... _The Bible_ of the learned for twenty-two hundred years, every brisk young man, who says in succession fine things to each reluctant generation ( ... Erasmus, Bruno, Locke, Rousseau, Coleridge) is some reader of Plato.”

That is saying that for twenty-two hundred years Plato and his educational system, known everywhere as Platonism, have taken the _place of the Bible to the leading minds of the world_. “Plato is philosophy, and philosophy, Plato,—at once the glory and the shame of mankind, since neither Saxon nor Roman have availed to add any idea to his categories,” continues Emerson. “No wife, no children had he, and the _thinkers of all civilized nations are his posterity_, and _are tinged_ with his mind. How many great men nature is incessantly sending up out of night, to be _his men,—Platonists_!”

Then he gives a list of illustrious names who have stood for learning in the various ages of the world’s history, and continues: “Calvinism is in his [Plato’s] _Phædo_: Christianity is in it.” How little this writer knew of the power of the truth as given by Christ! Doubtless he formed his judgment from professedly Christian teachers. But he continues: “Mahometanism draws all its philosophy, in its handbook of morals, ... from him [Plato]. Mysticism finds in Plato all its texts. This citizen of a town in Greece is no villager nor patriot. An Englishman reads, and says, ‘How English!’ a German, ‘How Teutonic!’ an Italian, ‘How Roman and how Greek!’” And to show that the recognition of Plato is not stopped by the Atlantic, our versatile New England writer says: “Plato seems, to a reader in New England, an American genius.” Has the reader any suspicion that our American educational institutions may have recognized the universality of this master of philosophy, and adopted into their curricula his system of reasoning? One traces, without the aid of magnifiers, the thread of pagan philosophy throughout the American schools.

“As our Jewish Bible has implanted itself in the table talk and household life of every man and woman in the European and American nations, so the writings of Plato have preoccupied _every school of learning, every lover of thought, every church, every poet_,—making it impossible to think, _on certain levels, except through him_. He stands between the truth and every man’s mind, and has almost impressed language and the primary forms of thought with his name and seal.... Here is the germ of that Europe we know so well, in its long history of arts and arms; here are all its traits, already discernible in the mind of Plato.... How Plato came thus to be Europe, and philosophy, and almost literature, is the problem for us to solve.”[38]

One ceases to wonder that, surrounded as was the Corinthian church by _this philosophy_ and in daily touch with these ideas which have swayed the world, Paul wrote to it against accepting the philosophy of men in place of that divine philosophy which he and other apostles were preaching through the cross of Christ. “When I came to you, brethren,” writes the apostle, “I came not proclaiming the testimony of God with _grand reasoning or philosophies_, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and He was crucified.... 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.”[39] “Beware lest any man spoil you _through philosophy_ and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements [margin] of the world, and not after Christ.”[40]

[Sidenote: Evolution the basis of Platonism.]

Seeing, then, that the Platonic system of education has exerted, and is still exerting, such an influence over the minds of men, it behooves us to ascertain the basic principles of his system. What did the man believe, and what did he teach? Quotations have already been given showing that he is the father of _modern philosophy_. Emerson defines this philosophy. He says: “_Philosophy is the account which the human mind gives to itself of the constitution of the world._” All attempts, then, to account for the constitution of the world when a “thus saith the Lord,” is refused, is philosophy. And philosophy is Plato.

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”[41] But Platonism is the _mind_ trying to account to itself for the constitution of the worlds. How, think you, did the author of this philosophy go about to account for things which can be grasped by _faith alone_? “To Plato belongs the honor of first subjecting education to a scientific examination,” says Painter. Here began the laboratory studies which have been continued by Huxley, Darwin, and others. And thus from Plato Europe and America have gained their ideas of evolution. Plato brought these ideas from Egypt and Babylon, and the schools of to-day follow this man-made philosophy. Our men of intellect write text-books which they place in the hands of youth, teaching them to account for the constitution of the worlds according to the reasoning of men’s minds.

A few more thoughts concerning Plato, and we shall see what evolution is, and where it is now found. Aristotle, the illustrious pupil of Plato, “created the science of logic,” “the science of _exact_ reasoning,” as Webster puts it. Says Emerson: “The balanced soul came.” “His daring imagination gives him the more solid grasp of facts.... According to the old sentence, ‘If Jove should descend to the earth, _he would speak in the style of Plato_.’” This last, the Christian can readily believe; but the Son of man used an entirely different speech, although Plato antedates his birth over four hundred years, and was, at the time of the advent of Christ, the ruler of the intellectual world.

[Sidenote: Platonism in modern schools]

“In reading logarithms, one is not more secure than following Plato in his flights.” Plato himself is given credit for saying: “There is a science of sciences—I call it Dialectic—_which is_ the _intellect discriminating the false and the true_.” There is indeed a science of sciences—the science of salvation. There is verily a way of judging between the false and the true, for the Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth. But the human brain can never do this. It was this same logic, Plato’s “science of sciences,” which was given such prominence in the papal schools and all medieval education. Here stand the two systems side by side, the one guided by human reason, the other by the Spirit of the living God. Remember that the world bows to Plato; and, raising its hands in an attitude of worship, lays at his feet its tribute, its dearest idol,—its educational system. Chambers’s Encyclopedia, art. “Plato,” shows conclusively that this Greek philosopher holds still his exalted position in literary circles and among educators. It says: “Since the French Revolution particularly, the study of Plato has been pursued with renewed vigor in Germany, France, and England; and many of our distinguished authors, without expressly professing Platonism,—as Coleridge, Wordsworth, Mrs. Browning, Ruskin, etc.,—have formed a strong and growing party of adherents, who _could find no common banner under which they could at once so conveniently and so honorably muster as that of Plato_.”

Christians are to be gathered under the ensign of Christ;[42] but many educators of to-day find “no common banner under which they could so conveniently and so honorably muster as that of Plato.” Christianity or paganism, which shall it be in the education of Protestant children of to-day? How did it happen that the ideas of Plato were so generally accepted throughout Europe? The article in Chambers’s Encyclopedia, from which the foregoing quotation is made, tells in the following words how the early Christian church became contaminated by the teachings of Plato: “The works of Plato were extensively _studied by the Church Fathers_, one of whom joyfully recognizes, in the great teacher of the academy, the schoolmaster who, in the fullness of time, was destined to educate the heathen for Christ, as Moses did the Jews.” If the early church adopted the educational system of Plato, one does not wonder that by the Middle Ages Europe was ready for Greek philosophy.

[Sidenote: Platonism in Europe and America]

In the year 1453, the Turks captured Constantinople, and “many Greek scholars took refuge in Italy. The times were propitious for them.” Let it be remembered that this was one of the mileposts in the history of the Dark Ages. The Latin tongue had been the universal language during the days of papal supremacy. There was an uprising against the tyranny of the papacy over thought, and the modern tongues began to appear. In order to stem the tide without losing ground, the papacy turned the attention of men’s minds to Greek classics rather than to the Bible of Wyclif or Erasmus, and a little later to the writings of Luther. Indeed, for the papacy the “times were propitious.”

“Noble and wealthy patronage was not lacking, and under its fostering care they (the Greeks) became for a time the teachers of Europe. _They succeeded in kindling a remarkable enthusiasm for antiquity._ Manuscripts were collected, translations were made, _academies were established_, and libraries were founded. Several of the popes became generous patrons of ancient learning.... Eager scholars from England, France, and Germany sat at the feet of Italian masters, in order afterward to bear beyond the Alps the precious seed of the new culture.”[43] Painter further gives the effects of this spread of Greek classics: “In Italy it tended strongly to _paganize_ its adherents. Ardor for antiquity became at last intoxication. Infidelity prevailed in the highest ranks of the church; Christianity was despised as a superstition; immorality abounded in the most shameful forms. The heathenism of Athens was revived in Christian Rome.” And scholars from England, France, and Germany sat at the feet of these heathen teachers, drinking in their philosophy, and then hastening across the Alps to propagate these ideas in the schools for the education of the young. This was the influence against which the Reformation had to fight. It is from Oxford, Cambridge, and the universities of Germany and France that American colleges and universities have imbibed these same pagan ideas.

[Sidenote: Nature of the classics]

The classics form the backbone of paganism, as _the Bible forms the basis of Christian education_. The classics are enduring, because they are the highest product of the human mind. The recent move in educational circles, and on the part of some of our leading colleges against the study of the “humanities” (the Greek and Latin classics), and in favor of the study of “moderns” (that is, science, modern languages, and history), can never reach a point of stability until the Bible is put in its proper position as an educational factor, for to push out the classics without putting in their place that which is equally as strong, _if not stronger_, is useless. A reaction is inevitable, and the classics will be returned to their old-time place of honor. Christian education in its simplicity is the only alternative.

This does not mean the substitution of a class in Bible or sacred history for the former classics. As the classic literature has been the basis of all instruction in our schools since the Middle Ages, a reformation necessitates a decided breaking down of the old system, and the adoption of a new system built upon an entirely different foundation,—a system in which the Word of God shall be the basis of all education, and the text-book in every line of study.

[Sidenote: Paganism and our children]

Parents, reading this, may say that but a small proportion of the people ever obtain a classical education. But if you send your child only to the modern kindergarten, he is there told the story of Pluto; or of Ceres, goddess of the golden grain; Mercury, the winged messenger god; the wood nymphs; Æolus, who rules the winds and brings the storms; or Apollo, who is driven across the heavens in a chariot of fire. Or, if the real Greek names are dropped, _nature is personified_ in such a way as to give the childish mind a distorted idea of things which leads to anything but the pure and simple truth of God’s Word. He thus drinks in the myths and fables of the Greeks from very infancy. One of his First Readers has the story of Proserpina, who was stolen, and hidden under the earth for a season. Nature-studies are often made attractive to youthful minds by being associated with the ancient Greek gods and goddesses. But even in a more subtle way the ideas of classic lore are taught in the evolutionary theories of science and philosophy, through primary, grammar, and high-school grades.

[Sidenote: Evolution]

“Philosophy,” as before quoted, is defined to be “the account which the human mind gives to itself of the constitution of the world.” That philosophy is now termed _evolution_, for evolution is man’s way of accounting for the constitution of the world, and the creatures which inhabit it. Take notice of these words from the pen of Henry Drummond. In a paper prepared for the Parliament of Religions, entitled “Evolution of Christianity,” he says: “Working in its own field, science made the discovery of _how God made the world_.” “Through faith _we_ understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God,” writes Paul to the Hebrews.[44]

Mr. Drummond continues: “To science itself this discovery was startling and as unexpected as it has ever been to theology. Exactly fifty years ago Mr. Darwin wrote in dismay to Mr. Hooker that the old theory of _specific creation_—that God made all species apart, and introduced them into the world one by one—was melting away before his eyes. He unburdened the thought, as he says in his letter, almost as if he were confessing a murder. But _so entirely has the world bowed to the weight of facts before which_ even Darwin trembled, that one of the last books on Darwinism by so religious a mind as that of Mr. Alfred Russell Wallace, contains in its opening chapter these words: ‘The whole scientific and literary world, _even the whole educated public, accepts as a matter of common knowledge the origin of the species from the other allied_ species, by the ordinary process of natural birth. _The idea of special creation, or any other exceptional mode of production, is absolutely extinct._’”

It would be well if each could read the words of Drummond for himself; but in brief he says: “It is needless at this time of day to point out the surpassing grandeur of the new conception [evolution]. How it has filled the Christian imagination and kindled to enthusiasm the soberest scientific minds from Darwin downward is known to everyone. For that _splendid hypothesis we can not be too grateful to science_; and that theology can only enrich itself which gives it even temporary place in its doctrine of creation.”

How strange that God failed to make known this stupendous truth (?) through his Word, and left it for science in the hands of Plato’s descendants to figure out! “What it needed,” says Drummond, “was a credible presentation, in view especially of astronomy, geology, paleontology, and biology. These, as we have said, had made the former theory simply untenable. _And science has supplied theology with a theory which the intellect can accept._” Faith has been laid aside. The human intellect has been exalted. Paganism has cast out Christianity, and our boys and girls now study the nebular hypothesis, explanatory of the creation of the worlds, in their astronomy and geography; they dwell upon the eons of ages consumed in the formation of the geologic strata of the earth; they study the fossils of the ages past, and from them describe the evolution of man from a polyp.

[Sidenote: Schools have greatest influence]

Of what use is the preaching of the gospel on one day of the week, while six days out of seven paganism guides the intellect? Why sit dreaming of heaven, or spend money to proselyte, while pagan education leads your own children by the hand, and weaves about their mind a network of theories which blinds their eyes to spiritual truths? There is weight in the words of President Harper, of Chicago University, who says: “It is difficult to prophesy what the result of our present method of educating the youth will be in fifty years. We are training the mind in our public schools, but the moral side of the child’s nature is almost entirely neglected. The Roman Catholic Church insists on remedying this manifest evil, but our Protestant churches seem to ignore it completely. They expect the Sunday-school to make good what our public schools leave undone, and the consequence is that we overlook a danger as real and as great as any we have had to face.”

VIII

CHRIST THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS