Undoubtedly, more failures have come to educational reforms and to schools, through the inability of the founders to select teachers in sympathy with Christian education, and who have the ability to teach the essential branches as directed by the angels who wait to co-operate in the teaching of every class, than through any other one weakness. Teachers have been employed in Christian schools "who could pass well in a worldly institution of learning," but who could not follow the divine pattern as revealed to the founders. For this reason, many schools, established by reformers, soon patterned after the popular schools.
"God has revealed to me that we are in positive danger of bringing into our educational work the customs and fashions that prevail in schools of the world." ("The Madison School," p. 28).
"Let not managers, teachers, or helpers swing back in their old customary ways of letting their influence negative the very plans the Lord has presented as the best plan for the physical, mental, and moral education of our youth. The Lord calls for steps in advance." (The Spalding and Magan Collection, p. 204 [Dec. 27, 1901]).
Oberlin was terribly pressed by her own brethren who were ignorant of the nature and value of the educational light God had so generously revealed to her. But severe as was the criticism and pressure from the outside, Oberlin might carry out God's plan in the preparation of an army of missionaries to give the midnight cry, had not some of her teachers continued to cling to the principles and methods of worldly schools. The germ that finally caused her to stagger in her course was planted in her vitals by members of her own faculty. One example of the many that might be given is sufficient to make this matter clear.
"Professor J. P. Cowles never looked with favor upon such dietetic vagaries; he did not scruple to ridicule and otherwise oppose them, and as he himself states, furnished pepper boxes, and kept the tables supplied with pepper for months, although eventually the prudential committee took them away." (The Story of Oberlin, p. 422).
The influence of this teacher with some others who were opposed to President Finney's position on pepper and other condiments, tea, coffee, flesh foods, etc., and who failed to realize this health reform as an entering wedge, is thus stated,
"Under the pressure of this panic, they rushed with precipitous and confused haste back to their flesh pots; and here, under the exhilarating influence of fresh infusions of the Chinese shrub, the Mocha bean, with the riotous eating of swine's flesh, and drinking the broth of abominable things, they succeeded in arresting a necessary renovating work." (Ibid., p. 424).
Opposition from without, trying; from within, serious
The nagging, the sneers, and the falsehoods of those outside Oberlin's walls, who were out of sympathy with her reforms, were unpleasant and serious obstacles, but the opposition of certain teachers who were continually undermining the love and respect of students for health reform was fatal to progress in all reform. In yielding on health reform, Oberlin began to relinquish her reforms one by one until she was unable to meet the test in 1844. Thus Oberlin failed in the great mission to which she was called by the First Angel, because some of her teachers were not in sympathy with Christian education. On those reforms where the faculty agreed, Oberlin made a world-wide record.
Jefferson's school finally lost out in its reforms because he was unwise enough to select a number of members for the faculty of the University of Virginia from the universities of Europe. Wise as was Jefferson on many great questions, he was weak on this point, and it is said that
"Washington demurred; he doubted the expediency of importing a body of foreign professors who would be inclined to bring from the European schools ideas at variance with the principles of democracy," which Jefferson wanted to make basic in his school. (Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, p. 45).
It was for this same reason that the staunch Puritan reformers lost their hold on those Principles that would have prepared their descendants for the midnight cry. They established a number of schools, such as Harvard and Yale, that for years were recognized as Bible schools, but they were under the influence of teachers who, as we have learned, brought to them the Papal principles of education from Oxford, Eton, and other European schools, and this finally destroyed the desire for reform. If there is one thing above another that Seventh-day Adventists have been cautioned about, it is this point. Wrecks of Christian education have been strewn all along the way, just because teachers have opposed reforms as did that Oberlin teacher who insisted on putting pepper boxes on the tables, and ridiculed health reform and its advocates. Is it possible that some Seventh-day Adventist teachers have used their pepper boxes, filled with the most pungent and caustic remarks against educational reforms?
"It is most difficult to adopt right principles of education after having been long accustomed to popular methods. The first attempt to change old customs brought severe trials upon those who desired to walk in the way which God had pointed out. Mistakes have been made, and great loss has been the result. There have been hindrances which have tended to keep us in common worldly lines, and to prevent us from grasping true educational principles... Some teachers and managers who are only half converted are stumbling blocks to others. They concede some things and make half reforms, but when greater knowledge comes, they refuse to advance, preferring to work according to their own ideas... Reformers have been handicapped, and some have ceased to urge reforms. They seem unable to stem the current of doubt and criticism... We need now to begin over again. Reforms must be entered into with heart and soul and will. Errors may be hoary with age; but age does not make error truth nor truth error." (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, pp. 141-142).
The spirit of the reformed
In the days when the schools of the prophets flourished, the man who had these schools in charge was called "father," and the students were known as "sons." In New Testament times, one of the greatest teachers, barring the Master himself, speaks lovingly of "Timothy, mine own son in the faith;" and "Titus, mine own son after the common faith;" and "My little children of whom I travail in birth." He emphasizes still further the difference between the real teacher and the hired instructor, saying, "For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ Jesus, I have begotten thee through the gospel." It is this spirit of fatherhood on the part of the teacher that makes for success. Emerson has said, "An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man." That one man is the "father."
We have already seen that many of the failures of the educational reform are to be laid at the feet of timid, unbelieving, conservative teachers; wherever there has been real success, and fruit has been borne in an educational reform movement, you will find one or more teachers who have served as fathers or mothers to the enterprise. As a rule, we must recognize that a school which is obliged to have frequent change of teachers or management, will see few results in the way of steady, healthy, educational reform. Luther and Melanchthon were the parents of Wittenberg, and so long as they remained, the institution was a power for reform throughout Europe.
Jefferson as a father
When in his 83d year, Jefferson would ride eight or ten miles on horseback over a rough mountain road to the University of Virginia. "This shows the deep interest with which he watched over this child of his old age, and why he preferred the more endearing title of 'father' to that of founder." Mr. Jefferson carried out this fatherly feeling through the last years of his life, for he used to entertain the students at Sunday dinner in his own home.
"They might be young and bashful, but he knew the county from which they came, the men with whom they were acquainted, and he gave himself to the student family so completely that they soon felt at home." (Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, p. 216).
Oberlin had fathers
Oberlin could never have accomplished what it did had it lacked this parentage. The relation of the founders to the institution when it was conceived in their minds is expressed in these words as they rose from prayer, "Well, the child is born, and what shall its name be?" (The Story of Oberlin, p. 81). Their love for this child was manifested in the same manner that a parent shows love for its offspring; they toiled, sacrificed, and suffered for years without thinking of remuneration. Of Oberlin's faculty it is said,
"Among them was the conviction which nothing could shake, that the faculty ought to go 'by faith' in the matter of salary; that is, should not insist upon any legal obligation to pay them any definite sum, but be content to receive whatever happened to be forthcoming from the treasury." (Ibid., p. 284).
The spirit of fatherhood on the part of Oberlin men is revealed in the following experience of one worker:
"[He] was so much delighted with what he found of religious fervor and democratic simplicity, that not long after he cast in his lot with the colonists, bringing several thousand dollars taken from his own purse or gained by solicitation from his friends. Elected a trustee, he was abundant in financial labors." (Idem).
The spirit of fatherhood means not only to sacrifice on salary, but to utilize your money and to solicit help from friends.
Mr. Finney also bore this same relationship to the institution. Many tried to entice him to what they liked to call more important fields and better remuneration, but he remained as president of the school for over forty years. As Elijah called Elisha from the plow to a subordinate place in the school of the prophets, that he might be trained to become a father when Elijah should depart, so Finney called Fairchild, a young man who had worked his way through Oberlin. Fairchild was afterwards offered lucrative and popular positions, but he chose to remain with Oberlin as a subordinate to Doctor Finney at four dollars per week, and there received the training which put him at the head of the school when Finney was called away. Fairchild's connection with the school lasted over sixty years.
These men each had a vision. Their students had visions. The fathers and mothers of Oberlin loved their children, and their example was not lost upon the students; for they went everywhere with the same spirit to father some enterprise for the salvation of souls. They never hesitated because a field was considered hard. They were as loyal to a hard field as their teachers before them had been loyal to Oberlin. It led Oberlin students to say, "Henceforth that land is my country that most needs my help."
Walking with God, but not with a perfect heart
Of certain kings of Judah it is written that they "did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart." God used Professor Finney and gave him a view of the spiritual condition of the popular churches. He knew what the results would be if they did not reform.
"Professor Finney of Oberlin College said, 'The churches generally are becoming sadly degenerate. They have gone very far from the Lord, and He has withdrawn himself from them.'" (The Great Controversy, p. 377).
Stewart, Shipherd, President Mahan, all founders of Oberlin, understood the situation as well as Professor Finney. They all recognized that the only sensible way to bring about a permanent reformation in the Protestant denominations was through a system of Christian education, for "the hope of the future missionary work lies with the young." These men fought a good fight. They were all reformers of the highest type. They belong in the class with William Miller, Fitch, Himes, and others.
Oberlin hears the first angel's message as preached by William Miller and Charles Fitch
"William Miller, having long since discovered things most marvelous in Daniel and the Revelation, proceeded for half a generation to turn the world upside down in preparation for the end of this dispensation, which this farmer-prophet fixed for 1943." (The Story of Oberlin, p. 66).
"The Rev. Charles Fitch came to preach the doctrine of the immediate second coming of Christ. He was a man of much personal magnetism, intensely in earnest, profoundly convinced of the truth of his message, and called, as he felt, to bring the better light to the good people of Oberlin." (Oberlin: The Colony and the College, p. 86).
The founders were greatly stirred, as were many of the students. But we have already seen the weakness on the part of some Oberlin teachers toward preliminary reforms. We have seen the terribly bitter spirit manifested by most of the denominational leaders. These things almost crushed Oberlin's reforms until she was unable to meet the higher demands made upon her by the midnight cry. Oberlin College was not perfect in her heart, but God rewarded the institution for the loyalty she had shown, and she became a powerful factor in certain reforms in the world's history, although she failed to have a part in that reform of all reforms, the third angel's message. It is well for Seventh-day Adventists to remember that these things happened to Oberlin as an example for those upon whom the ends of the world are come. Oberlin teachers did not "break every yoke" of worldly education, but "placed on the necks of their students worldly yokes instead of the yoke of Christ." To us it is said, "The plan of the schools we shall established in these closing years of the work is to be of an entirely different order than those we have instituted," but Oberlin decided to follow the methods adopted In the older established schools. She yielded to pressure, and thus began that "clinging to old customs, and because of this, we are far behind, where we should be in the development" of God's work. Oberlin men, just before their test came, failed to comprehend the purpose of God in the plans laid before them for the education of their workers. "They adopted methods which retarded the work of God. Years have passed into eternity with small results that might have shown the accomplishment of a great work." Oberlin, by yielding to opposition, unfitted herself to carry the message of present truth in all its fullness to other countries "because she failed to break every educational yoke." She failed at the last to come "into the line of true education," and as a result she could not give the final message to the world.