Edward McShane Waits, A College Man's Religion and other Studies in Religion and Life (Ft. Worth, Texas: Stafford-Lowdon, 1929). Waits was president of Texas Christian University in a difficult time.
Our generation is like a despairing ship tossed upon an angry sea. Industry, politics, international relations, even religion unite to produce a panicky world. Our colleges are the storm centers, the citadels from which a conquering and prophetic leadership must come. take out of our brotherhood the men produced by our colleges and we would at once become a disappearing brotherhood.
You who have assembled here in this school of the prophets, you have chosen the task golden. It is to you that our oncoming generation must look for its prophetic leadership. Are you going to be prophets or parrots? It is going to be your task to look after the vastnesses, the immensities, the imponderables of our lives and keep us to our bigness. It is yours to tell us of the majesty we are and the majesty we shall be. To do this your soul must be kept in tune with the infinite. You must tarry upon the mountain like Moses until your soul is aflame with God. You must take up the harp of life, smite upon its chords with might, smite the chord of self and selfishness until they too pass in music out of sight.
Written in 1929--it almost sounds like 2009. I like his challenge to education--will we be prophets or parrots?
No comments:
Post a Comment