03.08. Intellectual Culture

8. Intellectual Culture In speaking of your being a polished corner-stone, there is one needful point on which I have not yet touched. It does not rise to the level of the moral and spiritual growth which is beyond all things essential. But at the present day it cannot be neglected without great loss to yourself and others. "Knowledge is power," and the careful study which will furnish you with it in its various branches, will make you far more useful than you could be otherwise. It is not wise or right for any Christian girl to neglect those fields of knowledge which are spread out before her.

Unless by force of circumstances, your time is so much engaged that it becomes impossible — endeavor in some measure to cultivate carefully some or other of them. Language, poetry, history, recent discoveries in distant lands, natural science, works which tend to elucidate the meaning of Holy Scripture, or to confirm the evidences of revelation — all these become most valuable in self-improvement, and in giving you that treasury of information which will be of real help to you wherever your lot may be cast.

Some of us have had few opportunities for this in our earlier days, and we never cease to regret the loss it has been to us. We can never make up for it; we can never overtake the years that are gone. Hence we press it the more earnestly on those who have youth and opportunity on their side.

Remember such culture is a precious gift you may lay at the feet of the Divine Master. God’s chosen servant in the Old Dispensation was "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds." And in the kingdom of Christ, the Apostle of the Gentiles, who carried the Gospel to the ends of the earth, was the one far above the rest in his acquaintance with the literature of the day in which he lived.

Such servants, Christ needs both among men and women. In possession of this gift of secular knowledge you may often catch up a thread in conversation and leave a good impression as to some point that is being discussed. The wife may guard the husband, and the mother the son, from being carried away by some popular fallacy. You may use the facts of science, history, and the like to illustrate Christian truth in the Sunday school, the Bible class, or among a few pupils committed to your care. Besides this, posts of vast importance in society are open to those who are fitted to enter upon them, and if you can fill such a position you may have immense influence in upholding Christian truth.

Especially is this the case in the education of young ladies. As a principal or teacher in a College or High School, or as taking charge of pupils in the higher circles of society — who can tell how far your words may go, and whether you may not lead to the Savior those whose position may enable them to do noble service for our King?

There is another reason for earnest diligence in this matter which ought not to be overlooked. It may at any time become almost essential for your subsistence or your comfort. By a single turn of the wheel, by a failure in business, by the breaking of a bank, by some neglect or unfaithfulness in the care of trust money, or by some other casualty — many are suddenly reduced from wealth to the barest pittance or to absolute poverty!

I could tell of a near and dear relation of my own who was brought down from an income of some four hundred a year, and left with only about fifty to bring up a family of six young children. But she had the gifts she needed, and she buckled to hard work, gathered a school of little boys, and for many a long year drilled them well in the elements of Latin, and in a good English education, and so fulfilled nobly the task to which God in His providence called her.

I can only in this chapter give a few brief hints as to the best way of gaining the knowledge and culture which is so helpful.

I need scarcely say many words to any young friends who may yet be at school, or in the schoolroom. To you the path is very plain. Go heart and soul into whatever you do. Be thorough in every lesson and in every branch of study. Do your very best. Strive to grasp very firmly the underlying principle in arithmetic or any branch of mathematics, so that you can easily apply it to practice. Never be content with merely using the memory, without understanding the "why" and the "wherefore."

Throw yourself into your work, and it will become a real pleasure and delight to you. Never give up in despair, because your work may be more difficult to you than to another. You are not responsible for the measure of ability you possess, but only for the good use of what you have. Remember too that what is dearly won, will be dearly prized. In most cases the knowledge acquired with most effort, will become a more enduring treasure to you than if it came more easily.

Neither relax your efforts because you can easily complete your task and keep up with those in the same class with you. When I was at the University I noticed in many cases, that through trusting in their natural ability and neglecting hard, patient study — the first became last, and often took a very poor degree indeed. The path of those who have finished their school days is far more difficult. To carry on the work you have begun, and to make constant progress when very much left to your own resources, is by no means easy. But it is worth any effort and any self-denial.

Settle it in your mind when you leave school, that while you may have the foundation, you need — to build upon it day by day. Whatever you know already, whatever interest you have found in any part of study, only take as vantage-ground for new work.

It is well to choose out some particular branch of study, and give time steadily to pursue it. It may be some language, of which you have learned the elements — but determine to know thoroughly. It may be geology, or botany, or history — but, in any case, give your strength to some one thing, though, for the sake of variety, you may turn for a time to something else. You might find help in joining some such society as the "Christian Women’s Education Union," which has been formed to help young ladies whose schoolroom days are over. By means of correspondence, and a certain amount of time for reading, promised by themselves, at least six hours a week, there is considerable encouragement afforded. Once a quarter accounts of studies and lists of books read are to be sent in, and in return members receive comments upon work done and suggestions for continuing it. The following subjects are specially suggested: English language, English literature, Greek, Latin, French, German, history, physical geography, mathematics, logic, political economy.

Another suggestion I would make. I believe nothing would be more useful than carefully prepared essays on Christian or general subjects. The evidences of Christianity afford a wide and most useful field for such work — especially the internal proofs of its Divine origin — from the character of Christ and the power of Scripture to meet the various needs of the human heart. If a few young friends who have known one another at school or college could agree on something of this kind, and then send their essays one to the other, it might be still more useful. In every way the frequent use of the pen is most valuable in taking a firm hold of whatever you learn. Have your note-book and make extracts of choice passages. Take down the outline of able sermons, or lectures, or addresses, or illustrations, and thoughts from them. Endeavor also to gather out gems from any book you read, and especially be on the look-out to glean illustrations from science, from the events of daily life, from the lives of those you meet with. Noted down carefully for future reference, these will aid you very materially in any Christian work you may hereafter undertake; and possibly may enable you to write the article or book which may be of real service in Christ’s Church.

There are two cautions with which I will close this chapter.

Beware of the mania for novel-reading, which is the most real hindrance to many young ladies. It is an enemy to all self-improvement, and it is a terrible stumbling block in the way of a true Christian life. It robs you of your greatest treasure — precious days and hours which can never be recalled. It unfits the mind for anything requiring deep thought and attention. It not seldom lodges deadly poison, the venom of the old serpent, within the soul. It puts evil for good — and bitter for sweet. It suggests wrong trains of thought, though with such subtlety, that sin looks fair and lovely.

Even when grace has come and given a new taste and a new desire, many a dark stain abides on the memory, which cannot be erased.

Besides, the time wasted might have been so spent as to have brought in great or lasting profit. An elderly lady, who had learned to love the Master, found her sight growing dim, so that she could no longer read the Scriptures. It was her delight to speak of the Savior and to hear of Him, but she had one constant source of regret. It stung her to the quick to remember, when her sight was good in early life, how she had used it in constant novel reading. It seemed as if her dim sight were a direct chastisement from God for sight misused previously. How thankful would she have been if only she had well-stored her mind with the truths of Holy Scripture. How great the comfort and help they would have been to her afterward! And many others, too, have regretted the same evil. Through this one fault, through this habit being formed, many a life has become a blank. As to any real peace or usefulness in the home or out of it — all has been sacrificed to this pernicious form of self-indulgence. Let it not be so with you. Whatever it may cost you, take the novel back to the library, or put the book in the fire — rather than waste time that is given for a far higher and nobler purpose.

I am not condemning all works of fiction. An occasional hour given to a really wholesome tale can do no harm. But this is very different from the hours and days given to the novels usually taken from the circulating library. It would be very injurious to your health to live upon pastry and sweets, especially if large measures of arsenic were among the ingredients. The moral from this is not far to seek. It will be a lifelong blessing, if you are willing to learn it.

There is a second caution I should like to add. Do not let intellectual culture take the highest place. The heart needs culture as well as the intellect, and I know nothing more painful than to meet a young lady who is far ahead of most others in secular knowledge — yet with little home affection, with little kindly interest in others, and still less care for spiritual things. Ah, it is a sad exchange to have a keen and polished intellect, but a heart shriveled up and withered, and scarcely to be discovered at all! A most sorrowful feature of the day is to find not a few young ladies so occupied with their studies, that they turn away from Him "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." If but Jesus of Nazareth is named, if some portion of Scripture is referred to — the young friend who the moment before was full of life and animation in discussing a new book or magazine article — looks over her shoulder, begins to yawn, or thinks that other duties call her away.

There are others too who take up one or more of the broad skeptical theories of the day. They sail further and further from the shore of plain scriptural teaching, and in a light, frivolous way take up current views without an idea of the tremendous outcomes at stake. I for one would not gag conscience. I do not wish you to live or act a lie. If you are troubled with real, earnest doubts — then honestly face them, and seriously consider what they are worth, and what answer can be given to them. But beware of accepting new views, because their novelty makes them attractive. The spirit of unbelief is abroad, and pervades very much of the literature of the day. There is danger both to morals and to faith in almost every novel and magazine that is published. I quote the words of Miss C.L. Maynard in an excellent paper on the Cultivation of the Intellect, and to which I am indebted for several thoughts in this chapter: "Think of the novel where the keen edge of right and wrong is blunted, and a false estimate of the value of life is the rule in story after story. Think of the poem, where amid a crowd of beauteous images, we are taught to think more leniently of sin, and to excuse it in many of its forms as natural. Think of the brilliant article on the forms of society in our day, with carelessness expressed in every sentence, and delight in defying old landmarks. Think of the semi-religious essay, where the Savior’s words are praised, and His mission denied, and the Son of Man is betrayed by a kiss — and say if we are not indeed in danger."

If these pages should perchance fall into the hands of any young friend who has hastily taken up loose views on Scripture and revelation, may I ask you at least to pause and consider before you plunge deeper into the gulf. Have you ever taken the trouble carefully to see what may be said on the other side? Have you ever thought whence these views came, and where they lead? Have you ever read and studied the New Testament with the earnest heed it demands? Suppose you cast aside your early faith — have you anything to take its place? Have you considered the awful void, the fearful desolation of a sick-bed, or a death-bed, without a hand to uphold you, without a ray of hope as to the future? Ought you not to think twice and thrice before you take up any view which shuts out a living, Personal Savior? Is it possible that there can be no truth in the cheering words of the Son of Man, which have been a staff of strength to ten thousand times ten thousand children of sorrow, and which have lighted so many a pilgrim through the dark valley? For my part, as years roll on, I am more and more firmly persuaded of the truth of our most holy faith. There are objections against prayer, against atonement, against the eternal judgment threatened against sinners. There are difficulties in reconciling certain statements of Holy Scripture with facts or theories which we may believe. But these cannot shake my faith. They are not to be weighed in the scale with the positive evidences which assure me of the truth of the Gospel.

Take but one fact. The Resurrection of Christ has a historical basis which can never be overthrown. The strange and marvelous unbelief of the disciples, the rising of the Christian Church in Jerusalem, the courage and steadfastness of the apostles in their testimony, the Apostolic Epistles which bear the stamp of truth in every line, the way in which the resurrection of Christ underlies almost every doctrine — exhortation and precept in the epistles of Peter and Paul. All this and much more make it to me as plain as noonday, that this fact is no "cunningly devised fable," nor any mere vision of a few enthusiasts. It is truth — truth standing as firm as a rock, and attested by unnumbered witnesses who had nothing to gain by their testimony — but stripes, imprisonment, exile, or death. And if this is so, I am at rest. Christ is true, He is the very Son of God, His promised Spirit was given to His Church, and His Words stand fast for evermore. The waves of unbelief and doubt may beat against this Rock — but they will never overthrow it. Men may launch their puny weapons at this miracle or that, at this doctrine or that — but no weapon shall prosper. Christ has risen, Christ has conquered, Christ lives as our glorious King, and He shall reign for evermore! By and by He shall come, and the whole universe shall confess that He is Lord. May God keep you steadfast in this faith, that you may at that day receive a crown of glory that never fades away!

If this be your desire, may I entreat you to act wisely and cautiously as to the evil which is abroad. You pray, "Lead us not into temptation." And is it not to rush headlong into the very sorest temptation, to read books and periodicals which are saturated with doubt or error? There may be those who are bound to read such, that they may more wisely speak or write on the topics discussed. But unless you do it as a duty, unless you are well grounded in the truth, and have opportunities of reading on the other side of the question — is it not better to let such works alone? But the best defense against all enemies of the truth — is the thoughtful, prayerful study of the Word. It has a mighty power. It speaks to the heart, and often with irresistible force, bears witness to its own perfect veracity. Do not let the unbelief that is abroad, lead you to cast aside the Scriptures, but to search more deeply into the mine of wealth which they contain. Do this and you will rejoice in fresh certainty of their truth, and in richer possession of the precious lessons which they unfold.