n
the several States, prepared by the Bureau of Education; "Reports of
the Commissioner of Education for 1890-'91;" and the periodical
literature bearing on the subject.

CONTENTS.

I. The Rise of Universities in the Old World, 13

II. The Planting of Colleges in the New World, 36

III. Characteristics of the American College, 69

IV. The Functions of the American College, 104
_a._ A Symmetrical Development.
_b._ The Advancement of Knowledge.
_c._ Preparation for Service.

V. Student Life in College, 156

VI. The Personal Factors in a College Education, 178

VII. The Practical Value of an Education, 196

VIII. Our Indebtedness to Colleges, 229

INTRODUCTION.

I cannot be unwilling to avail myself of any opportunity to turn the
attention of the Christian public to the Christian College. It is a
noble public and an equally noble object. I can conceive of no
worthier or more Christian thing than the caretaking of one generation
that the next one which must necessarily lie so long under its
influence and for which it is therefore so thoroughly responsible,
should receive a Christian education.

To put Christ at the center and make Him felt to the circumference (as
Bungener said in speaking of Calvin's school policy), is exceedingly
difficult. But it is exceedingly important. It is, indeed, vital and
pivotal.

The dangers about it are great and ever greater. They come from the
general worldliness of all things and everybody in this age of
unprecedentedly rapid and splendid material development. They are
increased by the growth of speculative infidelity whether of the
philosophical or scientific phase. They spring out of everything which
lowers the Bible from that supreme and sovereign consideration by
which alone it can hold the place in education which the Old Testament
economy gave it, and which all the books of all the other
book-religions of the world most unquestioningly possess. They are
born of all that false theorizing about the limits of government and
the liberty of conscience which issues in the demands for utter
secularization of every institution of the State, while at the same
time the necessities of popular government are demonstrating that
education must be b