ILLINOIS

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

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2015THE ENDOWMENT OF OUR COL,
LEGES FOR WOMEN

The Christian education of the young wom-
en of the land is confessedly a matter of the
gravest importance. Necessary as it is that the
boys should be thoroughly trained under the
auspices of religion, it is none the less so that
the girls should have at least equal opportu-
nities to fit themselves for the effective dis-
charge of the serious responsibilities of life. In
fact, after a somewhat extensive observation as
a preacher, a teacher, and an editor, I do not
hesitate to go still farther, and to say that when
parents find themselves compelled by circum-
stances to make election between their sons and
their daughters in the matter of bestowing the
benefits of higher education they should hesi-
tate a long time before giving the preference to
the former. If the sons have sound bodies and
an average endowment of good sense, they will
be able somehow or other to make their way
with reasonable success even in the face of the
keen and incessant competitions of our modern
life. But the daughters, unless they start with
something more than ordinary intellectual dis-4

THE ENDOWMENT OF

cipline, are at a tremendous disadvantage in the
struggles through which they must pass; and
this proposition is equally, true whether, as in
the case with many, they are to be breadwin-
ners on their own account, or on the other hand
are to bear sway as wives and mothers in the
quiet recesses of their own homes.

Wanteds A Generation of Great Mothers,

We could make no greater mistake than to
suppose that married women can afford to
dispense with the richest available cultivation.
They of all others ought to be polished after the
similitude of a palace. Holding, as they do, the
characters and the destinies of unborn genera-
tions in their keeping, they need to be equipped
at all points in order to discharge the tasks
providentially committed to their hands—4he
hardest and noblest tasks ever entrusted to ra-
tional creatures. A wise friend of mine, whose
name would carry great weight were it men-
tioned here, is accustomed to say that the great
want of the world at the present day is a gen-
eration of great mothers, who shall esteem the
functions of motherhood not as a repulsive bur-
den to be despised and avoided, but as a holy
and glorious vocation, to be accepted reverently
and in the fear of God. It is through suchOUR COLLEGES FOR WOMEN.

5

mothers—devout, dutiful, intelligent, strong—
that the redemption of the world is to come. May
God pity the people whose women are worldly,
flippant, and ignorant, with no ambition except
to be leaders in the social farces of the corrupt.
Little hope have they of cutting any large fig-
ure on the wide field of human affairs, or even
of avoiding that slow decay of moral vigor which
ends in absolute impotence and sterility.

One of the South's Crowns,

Reproached as the Southern States of Amer-
ica often are by ignorant and prejudiced parti-
zans in other sections for their backwardness
and conservatism, it is, nevertheless, a fact to be
set down to their credit that they long ago took
the lead in supplying adequate facilities for the
fuller education of women. It is history and
not fiction that the Wesleyan Female College,
of Macon, Ga., founded under the wise direction
of such men as Lovick Pierce, Augustus B.
Longstreet, and James O. Andrew, was the first
regularly chartered college for women in the
whole world. For largely more than half a cen-
tury it has shone like a city set on a hill. Thou-
sands of students from the best homes in all the
land have flocked to its doors in quest of knowl-
edge, and have gone away fitted to be queens
1*6

THE ENDOWMENT OF

in society, ornaments in well-ordered house-
holds, and diligent workers in the Church of
God. Not till the judgment books are opened,
and the events of time are read in the light of
eternity, will it be known how vast an influence
for truth and righteousness has been exerted
by this pioneer school.

A Good Example Followed,

Nor has it stood alone. Stirred up by the
splendid example of the Georgia Methodists,
other similar seats of learning have been cre-
ated in every part of our Southern country, so
that now there is a wide sisterhood of colleges
having the same general aim in view. It is to
their everlasting credit that, though as a general
thing they have been compelled to do their work
without full staffs of teachers, or large libraries,
or complete cabinets, museums, and laborato-
ries, they have yet wrought with telling effect
upon the life of the times. Despite the self-con-
stituted censors and critics, who have fallen into
the habit of sneering at all the achievements of
the Southern educators of other days, I make
bold to speak of them in terms of the heartiest
praise. Judged by the infallible test of practi-
cal results, their labors were not in vain. Their
works do follow them. Toiling within unbend-OUR COLLEGES FOR WOMEN.

7

ing limitations, they have left their impress upon
our whole social organism so deeply that noth-
ing can obliterate or deface it. Honor to whom
honor is due. No good end is to be secured by
belittling and deriding the worthy activity of
those who have gone before us and broken the
way for us who follow after. Had they not
blazed a path for our feet, we should still be wan-
dering in the wilderness with no fixed goal in
sight.

New Machinery Demanded,

But the times and conditions have changed,
and our plans and policies must change with
them. The period is rapidly approaching—if, in-
deed, it has not already been reached—in which
it will be imperative upon us either to put our
colleges for women on a broader and safer foun-
dation or else see them lose their commanding
position and possibly close their doors. Here-
tofore the profits accruing from the boarding-
departments have been sufficient to supplement
the salaries of professors and teachers up to at
least a respectable point. But this will be so
no more. Competitions have arisen such as our
fathers did not dream of. In the Eastern States
and elsewhere wise and generous philanthro-
pists have given money without stint or limit to8

THE ENDOWMENT OF

endow foundations which propose to do for the
education of girls, all that the best colleges can
hope to do for boys. Vassar and Bryn Mawr
and Wellesley and the Baltimore College for
Women, to say nothing of other institutions, are
bidding high for the brightest and best of our
daughters. Free tuition, large scholarships,
and access to all the means of culture are actu-
ally urged upon the acceptance of those who are
willing to take them and competent to stand the
prescribed tests.

I am not complaining at this state of affairs.
On the contrary, it gives me, in many respects,
the sinoerest gratification, But the truth nev-
ertheless abides that, if we wish to preserve in
the minds and hearts of the girls of the South
those peculiar ideals of character and conduct
which we justly hold at so high a rate, we must
keep them during the impressionable years of
their youth in an atmosphere of a favorable sort.
It is not to be thought of that the South should
permanently surrender the training of her own
children into other hands. All the dictates of
self-respect require and demand that we should
establish and maintain schools in our own bor-
ders that shall be equal to the best in any part
of the United States.

It is also to be taken into account that fromOUR COLLEGES FOR WOMEN.

9

this time forward the Church colleges for wom-
en, in addition to having to run a race with the
heavily endowed institutions of other sections,
will be compelled to compete with the State.

Obstacles to Be Overcome.

What has been done by Mississippi at Colum-
bus, and by Georgia at Milledgeville, and by
Virginia at Farmville, and by North Carolina
at Greensboro, is going to be done by all other
states. These industrial colleges, offering a
good training in books and in handicrafts of va-
rious sorts, at the lowest possible cost, are per-
manent. Their scope is sure to be enlarged
rather than contracted. Did we even doubt the
wisdom of their existence, it would not be worth
while to rail against them. As far as they bring
light and knowledge to eager minds that would
otherwise have been held fast in the bonds of ig-
norance, let us rejoice in their work.

All the foregoing facts, however, put the
Church under bonds to renewed activity in be-
half of her own enterprises. Whatever the
State may or may not do, she, at any rate, must
maintain colleges for young women, in which
the inculcation of belief in the supreme verities
of the Christian faith shall be considered as of
equal importance with instruction in letters, sci-IO	THE ENDOWMENT OF

ence, and art, and the very atmosphere of
which shall be saturated with everything that is
distinctive of our holy religion. To accom-
plish this object, more money and still more is
needed! "Will there be no end to the de-
mands?" say some. None at all. Expanding
opportunities create new calls for outlay and
expenditure.

Some Encouragement

It is a token for good that Randolph-Macon
College for Women, at Lynchburg, is already
reasonably well endowed. But the Virginia
Methodists ought to give Chancellor Smith at
least $250,000 for that young and healthy en-
terprise. And who will dare to intimate that
the Georgia Methodists should not be equally
generous to Dr. Hammond and historic Wes-
leyan, or that Texas Methodists should not in
like spirit rally to the Girls' Annex at the South-
western University? By every consideration
they are pledged to fall in line with the move-
ments of the times, and to do something that
shall be as distinctly progressive and heroic as
was the action of their broad-minded fathers in
the early part of the century.

O that God would send us a man with a soul
that is large enough and a voice that is loudOUR COLLEGES FOR WOMEN.	II

enough to stir the slumbering conscience of the
Church on this most vital subject! Is there not
among our wealthy laymen a man that is ready
to immortalize himself by giving grandly for the
purposes which I have indicated? Are there
not many among those who are not rich that
will make sacrifices to aid in the fulfilment of
the great design?

The Board of Education Is Awake/

Our Board of Education has all these things
on its mind and heart. With a keen eye and a
discriminating intelligence, it looks all around
the horizon, and discerns the signs of the times
to know what Israel ought to do. But it can
not make brick without straw. Let it plan as
wisely as it may, nothing will come of it unless
the resources are furnished to put their plans
into execution. The Church will be grossly
recreant to its duty if it does not hold up its
hands.This book is a preservation facsimile produced for
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
It is made in compliance with copyright law
and produced on acid-free archival

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which meets the requirements of
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Preservation facsimile printing and binding
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Northern Micrographics
Brookhaven Bindery
La Crosse, Wisconsin
2015