The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1928, Page 169

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

169

always been an essential feature of missionary
policy, yet in the judgment of some eminent mis-
sionaries the hour has now come when there is a call
for a decisive advance in the direction of a more
thorough Christianization of all missionary institu-
tions and the establishment of Christian universities
with their affiliated colleges.

“The inestimable value of Christian education as
a factor in the higher progress of India is apparent.
The guidance of its modern development will be
chiefly in the hands of its educated leaders. Shall
they represent the agnostic and materialistic or the
Christian view of life and destiny? ‘he ultimate

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efficiency altogether outranking its social standing.
Taking into consideration its recent origin, with no
historic prestige and no caste lineage, its present
position and prospects indicate that Christian
education holds the key to social destiny in India,
despite the protest of traditional exclusiveness. It
opens a door which even the dominance of caste sen-
timent cannot effectively close. It is fast becoming
an illustration of the Gospel paradox that ‘the last
shall be first and the first last,? when we find the
small Christian community of India fairly in com-
petition with the Brahman for the leadership of the
twentieth-century progress. In university examina-

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Industrial School.

conversion of India, so far as human instrumentali-
ties are concerned, must be the work of Christian
‘natives, so that a preaching and teaching corps
drawn from the varied ranks of Indian society be-
comes essential for this gigantic task. Education,
moreover, is an aggressive and creative force in the
making of manhood. It is an accredited method of
storing away in the individual personality an endow-

ment of power which God’s guidance and blessing.
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may render of priceless value to those nascent faces
in their formative and unifying era, just as they are
entering upon the responsibilities and perils of
modern culture. It is already manifest that the
Christian community of India, under the stimulus
of missionary education, is gaining a vantage-
ground which insures it a place of influence and

tions the successful Christian candidate for degrees
are already far above the proportion which one
would expect from the size of the Christian com-
munity. This is especially true of lady graduates.”
The following words of Dr. Dennis should be
carefully noted by all of us. They emphasize the
great need of Christianity in all education and show
how only Christianity can give moral force to it.
“Education alone, apart from Christianity, will
not accomplish it. It isnot in itself a moral force.
In fact, if it is out of touch entirely with Chris-
tianity, it often becomes a powerful weapon of evil
and may be subsidized in violent hostility to the
higher welfare of society. Let us here guard care-
fully our meaning. We do not intend to assert that
education under Christian auspices, pervaded by the