Mystery quotation: Who is a Christian? Open question? Or settled?

by Dan Phillips

I don't think it too likely that anyone can source this without cheating. I'll keep the identity of the writer a mystery for just a bit, to make it fun. But go ahead and discuss the content of the quotation. I will tell you in advance that the context of the quotation will be essential in understanding it. This will unfold, DV, in the meta.

As to the quotation's source, for now, no tricks—

1. Use your memory (or guessing) alone
2. No electronic tools
3. No Googling

So, without further eloquence:

Is it not offensive and intolerant to suppose that anyone can distinguish true Christians from others? Are there not, it is said, many kinds of followers of Christ and does not love demand that we regard them all as 'fellow Christians'?

This objection often proceeds on the basis of another argument — usually unstated — namely, that the New Testament itself does not give us enough light to be definite. And if Scripture does not resolve the question, 'What is a Christian?' then we must tolerate and justify a breadth of opinion on the subject. But if the New Testament does settle the question then we have no liberty to redefine 'Christian' in terms which neither Christ nor his apostles ever authorized. Evangelicalism has historically been distinguished by its conviction that Scripture speaks plainly on this fundamental issue; it gives us all the light we need to discern between the true and the false, between the nominal and the real.

Have at it.

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UPDATE: after a few hours' discussion in the meta, I've decided to provide the answer and context in the post.

The source is Iain H. Murray, from Evangelicalism Divided (Banner of Truth: 2000), 151. You may not know this Murray, but you really should. He's authored a number of really helpful, solid works. This one focuses on the changes within evangelicalism between the years 1950 and 2000.

I'm re-reading it, and a sad read it is. It put John Stott, J. I. Packer, and Billy Graham in lights of which I'd been previously unaware, and confirmed suspicions about F. F. Bruce.

You really should read the book rather than relying on my summary. HSAT, Murray's argument is that evangelical leaders became overly concerned with the wrong things, which led to a disastrous fragmentation, pollution, and derailing of the movement. Those concerns included:

1. Academic respectability (in the eyes of the Gospel's enemies)
2. Impressive numbers
3. Ecumenical/denominational/ecclesiastical unity at any price

In the immediate context of the quotation above, Murray has just asked "What if the first need of the Church and the nation was not Christian unity but the recovery of Christianity itself? In that case the question, 'What is a Christian?' demanded a very different order of priority."

So the context of my quotation is not primarily the identification of individual Christians among orthodox professors, but the identification and separation of genuine Christian leaders from faux-Christian leaders. In the larger context of the book, can those who deny the truthfulness of the Gospels, the atonement, the bodly resurrection of Christ, and other fundamentals of the Gospel be identified as "Christian"? And if not, should they be embraced as leaders by evangelica;s? Should evangelicals form common-cause with them? Should evangelicals concern themselves with pleasing and being accepted by such men?

It's Murray's argument, developed convincingly with great specificity and documentation, that acceptance of these false criteria and goals has been ruinous. Our great need is for a return to the centrality of the Gospel, which can only come in the framework of the absolute authority of Scripture.

So you see, this is germane to a great deal of our discussions — including Frank's open letters.

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Mystery quotation: the flesh

by Dan Phillips

It's been a good long while, so...how about another round of Mystery Quotation? This one goes well with our recent talk of sarkicophobia.

Remember, no tricks—

1. Use your memory (or guessing) alone
2. No electronic tools
3. No Googling
4. No murmuring about the "no tricks" rule
5. No murmuring about the "no murmuring" rule
   

And so, without further eloquence, here is your Mystery Quotation:

A young man, who had been "in fellowship with the brethren," wished to join the church at [omitted]. I knew that they would not grant him a transfer to us, so I wrote to ask if there was anything in his moral character which should prevent us from receiving him. The reply they sent was laconic, but not particularly lucid:—"The man _____ has too much of the flesh." When he called to hear the result of his application, I sent for a yard or two of string, and asked one of our friends to take my measure, and then to take his. As I found that I had much more ‘flesh’ than he had, and as his former associates had nothing else to allege against him, I proposed him for church-membership, and he was in due course accepted.

Have at it.

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Mystery quotation: disciples, discipleship, and pastors

by Dan Phillips

I have a post I'm working on, not quite ready for Prime Time. In the meanwhile... how about another round of Mystery Quotation? I believe I have one to share that is lengthy, but good, and worth tracking-through.

Remember, no tricks—

1. Use your memory (or guessing) alone
2. No electronic tools
3. No Googling
4. No murmuring about the "no tricks" rule
5. No murmuring about the "no murmuring" rule
   

And so, without further eloquence, here is your Mystery Quotation:

Convince them how impossible it is to go the way to heaven without knowing it, when there are so many difficulties and enemies in the way; and when men cannot do their worldly business without knowledge, nor learn a trade without an apprenticeship. Convince them what a contradiction it is to be a Christian, and yet to refuse to learn; for what is a Christian but a disciple of Christ? And how can he be a disciple of Christ, that refuseth to be taught by him And he that refuseth to be taught by his ministers, refuseth to be taught by him; for Christ will not come down from heaven again to teach them by his own mouth, but hath appointed his ministers to keep school and teach them under him. To say, therefore, that they will not be taught by his ministers, is to say, they will not be taught by Christ; and that is to say, they will not be his disciples, or no Christians.

Make them understand that it is not an arbitrary business of our own devising and imposing; but that necessity is laid upon us, and that if we look not to every member of the flock according to our ability, they may perish in their iniquity; but their blood will be required at our hand. Show them that it is God, and not we, who is the contriver and imposer of the work; and that therefore they blame God more than us in accusing it. Ask them, would they be so cruel to their minister as to wish him to cast away his own soul, knowingly and wilfully, for fear of troubling them by trying to hinder their damnation? Acquaint them fully with the nature of the ministerial office, and the Church’s need of it; how it consisteth in teaching and guiding all the flock; and that, as they must come to the congregation, as scholars to school, so must they be content to give an account of what they have learned, and to be further instructed, man by man. Let them know what a tendency this hath to their salvation, what a profitable improvement it will be of their time, and how much vanity and evil it will prevent. And when they once find that it is for their own good, they will the more easily yield to it

Have at it.

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Mystery Quotation: murmuring

by Dan Phillips

Since my betters here at the blog are busy...how about another round of Mystery Quotation?

Remember, no tricks—

1. Use your memory (or guessing) alone
2. No electronic tools
3. No Googling
4. No murmuring about the "no tricks" rule

Better fasten your seatbelts for this one.

Here is your Mystery Quotation:

Murmuring is no better than mutiny in the heart; it is a rising up against God. When the sea is rough and unquiet, it casts forth nothing but foam: when the heart is discontented, it casts forth the foam of anger, impatience, and sometimes little better than blasphemy. Murmuring is nothing else but the scum which boils off from a discontented heart.

Ah, discontentment. Yow. If that quotation didn't singe you — re-read.

Since we have some of the most intelligent, well-read readers in the world, should be a piece of cake.

So start slicing!

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The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

posted by Phil Johnson

f you think you know who said the following, leave a comment. I'm traveling today, with no time to write or answer comments. But unless weather (or worse) delays me, I'll be home by this evening. So if nobody's got it yet, I'll post the correct answer then.

"These are the things we have stood for: tolerance, an inclusive Church, the right to think religion through in modern terms, the social applications of the principles of Jesus, the abiding verities and experiences of the gospel. And these are right. I am not sorry we tried this experiment. It was worth trying. We have lifted a standard that no one will put down. We have stated an issue that no man or denomination is strong enough to brush aside. . . . They call me a heretic. I am proud of it. I wouldn't live in a generation like this and be anything but a heretic. But I carry some of you on my heart in ways that heretics are not popularly supposed to do. I want you to be Christians. I want your lives for Christ."

No Googling.

AFTERNOON UPDATE: Those who guessed (or googled) Fosdick were correct. Harry Emerson Fosdick, that is, not the Al Capp character.

Fosdick, one of the most militant modernists of the twentieth century, would feel right at home with both the views and the rhetoric of Emergent Village. The similarity of his ideas and the standard talking points at Emergent Village belies the utterly groundless claim that post-modernized "evangelicalism" somehow constitutes the abandonment of modernity rather than the further advancement of it. (One intrepid commenter at one of the post-evangelical trash-talk blogs recently accused me of misconstruing Spurgeon's position with regard to Emerging trends. Spurgeon hated modernism, this fellow reasoned. Therefore he surely would have embraced post-modernism, right?)

Fosdick's words refute such a notion. Sample any of Fosdick's books or sermons and you'll see that they read like an Emergent manifesto. Same arguments; same style of rhetoric; same appeal to "tolerance"; same revulsion for substitutionary atonement and biblical inerrancy; same tactics of decrying the militancy of conservatives while declaring war on conservative principles. If you want to understand the Emergent trajectory, read up on Fosdick.

Here's another excerpt. This one's from Fosdick's most famous sermon, "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?"

Just now the Fundamentalists are giving us one of the worst exhibitions of bitter intolerance that the churches of this country have ever seen. As one watches them and listens to them he remembers the remark of General Armstrong of Hampton Institute, "Cantankerousness is worse than heterodoxy." There are many opinions in the field of modern controversy concerning which I am not sure whether they are right or wrong, but there is one thing I am sure of: courtesy and kindliness and tolerance and humility and fairness are right. Opinions may be mistaken; love never is. As I plead thus for an intellectually hospitable, tolerant, liberty-loving church, I am, of course, thinking primarily about this new generation. We have boys and girls growing up in our homes and schools, and because we love them we may well wonder about the church which will be waiting to receive them. Now, the worst kind of church that can possibly be offered to the allegiance of the new generation is an intolerant church. Ministers often bewail the fact that young people turn from religion to science for the regulative ideas of their lives. But this is easily explicable. Science treats a young man's mind as though it were really important. A scientist says to a young man, "Here is the universe challenging our investigation. Here are the truths which we have seen, so far. Come, study with us! See what we already have seen and then look further to see more, for science is an intellectual adventure for the truth." Can you imagine any man who is worthwhile turning from that call to the church if the church seems to him to say, "Come, and we will feed you opinions from a spoon. No thinking is allowed here except such as brings you to certain specified, predetermined conclusions. These prescribed opinions we will give you in advance of your thinking; now think, but only so as to reach these results."

But the fundamentalists did win—at least in the battle against modernism. And today's evangelicals could learn a lot from that episode.

Although Fosdick insisted that those who believe in the truth of Scripture were evil aggressors destroying the unity of the church, and he decried the efforts of fundamentalists and evangelicals to drive liberals out of their denominations, in the end it was the fundamentalists and evangelicals who were driven out. Most liberals thought they had gained the upper hand. But virtually all the mainstream denominations declined drastically under liberal leadership, and some ceased having any kind of spiritual influence whatsoever. Moreover, the independent churches and institutions founded by fundamentalists and evangelicals grew pretty steadily in size, strength, and influence for most of the twentieth century.

But then fundamentalists and evangelicals went to war with one another. Fundamentalists turned their attention away from the fundamental doctrines of Christianity and spent a few decades fighting over secondary matters. And most evangelicals abandoned their evangelical principles in search of the world's friendship.

That's why the church today is weak, divided, and once again desperately seeking "relevance" by aping the world's fashions. We have we've come full circle, and the typical evangelical and post-evangelical of today have more in common with Fosdick than with their own spiritual ancestors. In the immortal words of Shirley Bassey:

It's all just a little bit of history repeating.

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Mystery Quotation: right doctrines rightly treasured

by Dan Phillips

Well, folks, another week, another Mystery Quotation.

Remember, no tricks—

1. Use your memory (or guessing) alone
2. No electronic tools
3. No Googling

Here 'tis:

“…a diligent endeavor to have the power of the truths professed and contended for abiding upon our hearts, that we may not contend for notions, but what we have a practical acquaintance with in our own souls. When the heart is cast indeed into the mould of the doctrine that the mind embraceth; when the evidence and necessity of the truth abides in us; when not the sense of the words only is in our heads, but the sense of the things abides in our hearts; when we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for, — then shall we be garrisoned, by the grace of God, against all the assaults of men. And without this all our contending is, as to ourselves, of no value. What am I the better if I can dispute that Christ is God, but have no sense or sweetness in my heart from hence that he is a God in covenant with my soul? What will it avail me to evince, by testimonies and arguments, that he hath made satisfaction for sin, if, through my unbelief, the wrath of God abideth on me, and I have no experience of my own being made the righteousness of God in him, — if I find not, in my standing before God, the excellency of having my sins imputed to him and his righteousness imputed to me? Will it be any advantage to me, in the issue, to profess and dispute that God works the conversion of a sinner by the irresistible grace of his Spirit, if I was never acquainted experimentally with the deadness and utter impotency to good, that opposition to the law of God, which is in my own soul by nature, with the efficacy of the exceeding greatness of the power of God in quickening, enlightening, and bringing forth the fruits of obedience in me? It is the power of truth in the heart alone that will make us cleave unto it indeed in an hour of temptation. Let us, then, not think that we are any thing the better for our conviction of the truths of the great doctrines of the gospel, for which we contend with these men, unless we find the power of the truths abiding in our own hearts, and have a continual experience of their necessity and excellency in our standing before God and our communion with him.”

Savor those thoughts for awhile, then have at it!

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Mystery Quotation: Thanks giving

by Dan Phillips

Well, brothers and sisters, how about another round of Mystery Quotation?

Remember, no tricks—

1. Use your memory (or guessing) alone
2. No electronic tools
3. No Googling

And so, here is your special Thanksgiving (not "Turkey") Day Mystery Quotation:

Jesus’ encounter with the ten lepers illustrates the importance of thanksgiving. Countless sermons have been preached about the healing of the ten lepers, focusing attention on the theme of gratitude. The thrust of many of these sermons has been that Jesus healed ten lepers, but that only one of them was grateful. The only polite response to such preaching is to call it what it is—nonsense. It is inconceivable that a leper enduring the abject misery he faced daily in the ancient world would not be grateful for receiving instant healing from the dreadful disease. Had he been one of the lepers, even Adolph Hitler would have been grateful.

The issue in the story is not one of gratitude, but of thanksgiving. It is one thing to feel grateful; it is another thing to express it. Lepers were cut off from family and friends. Instant cleansing meant release from exile. We can imagine them deliriously happy, rushing home to embrace their wives and children, to announce their healing. Who would not be grateful? But only one of them postponed his return home and took time to give thanks. The account in Luke 17 reads: “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan” (verses 15-16; italics mine).

Thus spake... who?

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Mystery quotation: shrinking from telling unwelcome truth

by Dan Phillips

Well kiddies, how about another round of Mystery Quotation?

Remember, no tricks—

1. Use your memory (or guessing) alone
2. No electronic tools
3. No Googling

And now, without further eloquence—

We have a base man-pleasing disposition, which will make us let men perish lest we lose their love, and let them go quietly to hell, lest we should make them angry with us for seeking their salvation: and we are ready to venture on the displeasure of God, and risk the everlasting misery of our people, rather than draw on ourselves their ill-will.

Timely? Have at it!

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Mystery Quotation: knowledge

by Dan Phillips

It's high time for another round of Mystery Quotation. Remember, no tricks—

1. Use your memory (or guessing) alone
2. No electronic tools
3. No Googling

Here 'tis:

Reader, If it be not strong upon thy heart to practise what thou readest, to what end dost thou read? To increase thy own condemnation? If thy light and knowledge be not turned into practice, the more knowing man thou art, the more miserable man thou wilt be in the day of recompense; thy light and knowledge will more torment thee than all the devils in hell. Thy knowledge will be that rod that will eternally lash thee, and that scorpion that will for ever bite thee, and that worm that will everlastingly gnaw thee; therefore read, and labour to know, that thou mayest do, or else thou art undone for ever. When Demosthenes was asked, what was the first part of an orator, what the second, what the third? he answered, Action; the same may I say. If any should ask me, what is the first, the second, the third part of a Christian? I must answer, Action; as that man that reads that he may know, and that labours to know that he may do, will have two heavens — a heaven of joy, peace and comfort on earth, and a heaven of glory and happiness after death.

Appropriate thoughts, I think, for readers (—and writers!) of Biblically contentful blogs.

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Mystery Quotation: Giddy Men

by Dan Phillips

It's high time for another round of Mystery Quotation. Remember, no tricks—

1. Memory (or guessing) alone
2. No electronic tools
3. No Googling

Here 'tis (emphases added):

...those who, having forsaken Scripture, imagine some way or other of reaching God, ought to be thought of as not so much gripped by error as carried away with frenzy. For of late, certain giddy men have arisen who, with great haughtiness exalting the teaching office of the Spirit, despise all reading and laugh at the simplicity of those who, as they express it, still follow the dead and killing letter. But I should like to know from them what this spirit is by whose inspiration they are borne up so high that they dare despise the Scriptural doctrine as childish and mean. For if they answer that it is the Spirit of Christ, such assurance is utterly ridiculous. Indeed, they will, I think, agree that the apostles of Christ and other believers of the primitive church were illumined by no other Spirit. Yet no one of them thence learned contempt for God's Word; rather, each was imbued with greater reverence as their writings most splendidly attest.

...From this we readily understand that we ought zealously to apply ourselves both to read and to hearken to Scripture if indeed we want to receive any gain and benefit from the Spirit of God—even as Peter praises the zeal of those who were attentive to the prophetic teaching, which nevertheless could be seen to have given up its place after the light of the gospel dawned [II Peter 1:19]. ...Yet indeed they contend that it is not worthy of the Spirit of God, to whom all things ought to be subject, himself to be subject to Scripture. As if, indeed, this were ignominy for the Holy Spirit to be everywhere equal and in conformity with himself, to agree with himself in all things, and to vary in nothing! ...He is the Author of the Scriptures: he cannot vary and differ from himself. Hence he must ever remain just as he once revealed himself there. This is no affront to him, unless perchance we consider it honorable for him to decline or degenerate from himself.

Have fun.

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Mystery quotation: inexhaustible grace

by Dan Phillips

Ready for a short post? For a switch, I'll be your host!

It's been a while, kids, but let's do another round of Mystery Quotation. Remember, no tricks—

1. Memory (or guessing) alone
2. No electronic tools
3. No Googling

Here 'tis:

And on this ground it is that if all the world should (if I may so say) set themselves to drink free grace, mercy, and pardon, drawing [Cant. v. 1; Isa. lv. 1; Rev. xxii. 17; John vii. 37, 38] water continually from the wells of salvation; if they should set themselves to draw from one single promise, an angel standing by and crying, “Drink, O my friends, yea, drink abundantly, take so much grace and pardon as shall be abundantly sufficient for the world of sin which is in every one of you;” — they would not be able to sink the grace of the promise one hair’s breadth. There is enough for millions of worlds, if they were; because it flows into it from an infinite, bottomless fountain. “Fear not, O worm Jacob, I am God, and not man,” is the bottom of sinners’ consolation. This is that “head of gold” mentioned, Cant. v. 11, that most precious fountain of grace and mercy. This infiniteness of grace, in respect of its spring and fountain, will answer all objections that might hinder our souls from drawing nigh to communion with him, and from a free embracing of him. Will not this suit us in all our distresses? What is our finite guilt before it? Show me the sinner that can spread his iniquities to the dimensions (if I may so say) of this grace. Here is mercy enough for the greatest, the oldest, the stubbornest transgressor, — “Why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Take heed of them who would rob you of the Deity of Christ. If there were no more grace for me than what can be treasured up in a mere man, I should rejoice [if] my portion might be under rocks and mountains.

Have fun. You may be surprised.

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Mystery quotation: "The Gifts" {tm}

by Dan Phillips

It's been awhile, but here we go again.

PLEASE NOTE FIRST: One same rule, one special rule:

1. Same rule: do not use any search tool of any sort
2. Special rule: if you know the answer, please don't post it until after the first ten guesses. (Frank's usual Dan-thread-post ["Plastics! That's the ticket! Why, I should make a T-shirt...."] won't count.)
   

And now, without further eloquence, here it is:

And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered... [then follows a paraphrase of part of 1 Corinthians 12, including the enumeration of gifts of tongues and other revelatory gifts]. ...And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that all these gifts of which I have spoken, which are spiritual, never will be done away, even as long as the world shall stand, only according to the unbelief of the children of men. ...And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth that if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief.

Have fun!

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"It's time to play... Mystery Quotation (#3)!"

by Dan Phillips 

Bwahh hahaha, you'll never get this. But remember, no fair using Google or any electronic search tool! (Kinda defeats the whole point of this.)

One becomes humble, not by opposing to the swellings of pride lowly or mean thoughts of himself, but one becomes humble by thinking upon Christ and exalting Him to others.

Have at it! 

In other news, I put out a search-inquiry on my blog, but no passers-by had the answer. This is a quotation I can't source, though I've searched for decades. I turn to my other resourceful readers here at the team-blog.

I could swear that I read, at some point, J. Gresham Machen saying that for a pastor not to know Greek makes about as much sense as a professor of French literature not knowing French. But I've never been able to source that quotation; and I'm a bit obsessive about not using quotations I can't source.

Does anyone know where that's from?

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"It's time to play... Mystery Quotation (#2)!"

by Dan Phillips

(Reminder: please, no Googling!)

This blast from the past, for two main reasons:

1. It is a "Whoa, dude" quotation, that hits dead-center, takes no prisoners, leaves no survivors. It's worth a reading, a re-reading, a re-re-reading....
2. As a sincere compliment to our readership. That is, it is quite obscure, but you folks are so sharp, I bet someone gets it.

And so, "without further eloquence" (-- name the movie that comes from for bonus points):

The Christian is to proclaim and prosecute an irreconcilable war against his bosom sins; those sins which have lain nearest his heart, must now be trampled under his feet. ...Soul, take thy lust, thy only lust, which is the child of thy dearest love, thy Isaac, the sin which has caused most joy and laughter, from which thou has promised thyself the greatest return of pleasure or profit; as ever thou lookest to see my face with comfort, lay hands on it and offer it up: pour out the blood of it before me; run the sacrificing knife of mortification into the very heart of it; and this freely, joyfully, for it is no pleasing sacrifice that is offered with a countenance cast down — and all this now, before thou hast one embrace more from it.

...Who is able to express the conflicts, the wrestlings, the convulsions of spirit the Christian feels, before he can bring his heart to this work? Or who can fully set forth the art, the rhetorical insinuations, with which such a lust will plead for itself? One while Satan will extenuate and mince the matter: It is but a little one, O spare it, and thy soul shall live for all that. Another while he flatters the soul with the secrecy of it: Thou mayest keep me and thy credit also; I will not be seen abroad in thy company to shame thee among thy neighbors; shut me up in the most retired room thou hast in thy heart, from the hearing of others, if thou wilt only let me now and then have the wanton embraces of thy thoughts and affections in secret. ...Now what resolution doth it require to break through such violence and importunity, and notwithstanding all this to do present execution? Here the valiant swordsmen of the world have showed themselves mere cowards who have come out of the field with victorious banners, and then lived, yea, died slaves to a base lust at home. As one could say of a great Roman captain who, as he rode in his triumphant chariot through Rome, had his eye never off a courtezan that walked along the street: Behold, how this goodly captain, that had conquered such potent armies, is himself conquered by one silly woman.

Have at it! And...

(Reminder: please, no Googling)

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It's time to play... Mystery Quotations!

by Dan Phillips

These quotations all come from the same source. Who do you think said them? When? Where?

First:

Let us not fear the opposition of men; every great movement in the Church from Paul down to modern times has been criticized on the ground that it promoted censoriousness and intolerance and disputing.

Second:

Mysticism unquestionably is the natural result of the anti-intellectual tendency which now prevails; for mysticism is the consistent exaltation of experience at the expense of thought. But in practice mysticism is seldom consistent; indeed it cannot possibly be consistent if it seeks to explain itself to the world. The experience upon which it is based, or in which it consists, is said to be ineffable; yet mystics love to talk about that experience all the same.

Third:

The depreciation of the intellect, with the exaltation in the place of it of the feelings or the will, is, we think, a basic fact in modern life, which is rapidly leading to a condition in which men neither know anything nor care anything about the doctrinal content of the Christian religion, and in which there is in general a lamentable intellectual decline.

Fourth:

Facts, in the sphere of education, are having a hard time. The old-fashioned notion of reading a book or hearing a lecture and simply storing up in the mind what the book or the lecture contains--this is regarded as entirely out of date. A year or so ago I heard a noted educator give some advice to a company of college professors--advice which was typical of the present tendency in education. It is a great mistake, he said in effect, to suppose that a college professor ought to teach; on the contrary he ought simply to give the students an opportunity to learn.

This pedagogic theory of following the line of least resistance in education and avoiding all drudgery and all hard work has been having its natural result; it has joined forces with the natural indolence of youth to produce in present-day education a very lamentable decline.

Fifth:

...nothing makes a man more unpopular in the controversies of the present day than an insistence upon definition of terms. Anything, it seems, may be forgiven more readily than that. Men discourse very eloquently today upon such subjects as God, religion, Christianity, atonement, redemption, faith; but are greatly incensed when they are asked to tell in simple language what they mean by these terms. They do not like to have the flow of their eloquence checked by so vulgar a thing as a definition.

Have fun. Bunch of smart cookies like you, I bet someone will nail it. And no fair Googling! Then I'll unveil the source in the Comments section, after you've played with it awhile. (This will form the basis for a later post, DV.)

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