That our readers may clearly understand what this church is we give some of her leading theological positions and some points wherein she differs from other Presbyterians. Her theology is commonly known as medium theology-is so called because it occupies a medium ground between Calvinism and Armenianism, as the following brief summary will show: 1. Election-Calvinism teaches that election is unconditional. Armenianism that there is no election. Medium theology that election is conditional. 2. Salvation-Calvinism teaches that salvation is unconditional to sinners, but certain to Christians. Armenianism that it is conditional to sinners, but uncertain to Christians. Medium theology that it is conditional to sinners, but certain to Christians. 3. Date of Election-Calvinism teaches that election was before man was created. Armenianism that it is not prior to death, if then. Medium theology at the moment of regeneration. 4. Extent of the Atonement. Calvinism teaches that the atonement is for the elect only. Armenianism that it is for all, but certain to none. Medium theology that it is for all and certain to the regenerated. 5. Perseverance of the Saints-Calvinism teaches that it depends principally upon the immutability of the decree of unconditional election. Armenianism that it depends principally upon good works. Medium theology that it depends upon the love of God, the merits of Christ, the abiding of the Spirit and the covenant of grace. These are some of the leading differences between the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and other Presbyterians. The data is not at hand from which to compile a full and complete history in the earliest settling of the county. Many of the emigrants to this county were from Kentucky and Tennessee, and when they came to their new homes they left behind them strong petitions for preachers of their own faith. These petitions were not unheeded, but in due time a number of God-fearing men came to this new empire to plant the standard of the Cross under the auspices of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Rev. Green P. Rice came to St. Louis in 1817 and preached in the then small French village. His course was westward. Revs. R. D. Morrow and Robert Sloan were also among the first ministers who operated in Pettis county. In 1827 and 1828 Rev. J. T. A. Henderson, now residing in Sedalia, preached at the house of Reuben Gentry, the father of the older members of that family. The present Cumberland Presbyterian churches of Pettis county are the following: The First Church of the City of Sedalia, of which Rev. A. H. Stephens is pastor; Prairie Chapel, four miles north of Dresden, Rev. G. W. Mathis, pastor; Greenridge, Rev. Caleb Weedin, pastor; Stony Point, near Smithton; Heath's Creek, Rev. James Martin, pastor. This church has been aggressive from the first, and is well qualified to occupy a territory made up of a cosmopolitan element like this. She stands a unit on the subject of politics, and has always been so. At no time during the war did political prejudice wound her ecclesiastical body. Her churches are found from Pennsylvania to Texas and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Her medium ground on the subject of theology places her in a favorable position to command the approbation of the unprejudiced mind. Her corner stone lies in the doctrine of the Bible that Christ died for all men, and that the regenerated will finally be saved. The zeal that characterized the fathers has been transmitted to the sons, and thus the work continues. She was among the first to join hands with her sister denominations and go into the highways and hedges and the lanes and streets and compel them to come in. Among the first to come into this new country and "mash down the weeds and pull up the stumps." One of the immediate works that the church has under way now is raising an endowment of $100,000 for a college to be situated somewhere in Central Missouri. Sedalia seems the natural location for such an institution of learning, and should she arouse to a proper appreciation of her opportunities her prospects for securing the location are most flattering in every way. CHAPTER IX.-EDUCATIONAL HISTORY. Introduction-Early Schools in Pettis County-Methods of Different Ages-Interest in Schools-The State School Fund-First Teachers-Georgetown Schools-School Commissioners-Law of 1865–1875-Reform Period 1875-1882--Superintendency-Teachers' Institutes--Normal School-History of Institutes and Proceedings--County School Officers from 1868-1882--The Future Outlook of Pettis County. Bacon said, "Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; morals, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend." Education in its most comprehensive sense, includes the development of the physical, mental and moral faculties of the individual. Hosea Ballou has said, "Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within the hearsay of little children, tends towards the formation of character." The people of Pettis county should feel proud of their progress in education. The pride they have taken in the cause of common schools, from the time they were taught in log cabins, in 1833, to the present day of handsome school buildings and other educational advantages, has been on the increase. The progress of education here is only a minature production of what has actually taken place among civilized nations. Of recent years new modes of mental culture have placed within the reach of the teacher, new and better materials which have aided him in securing better results. The primary object of educating children is not that they may escape labor thereby, but that they may labor more intelligently. Children should be taught that employment leads to happinness; indolence to misery; and that all trades and professions, whereby an honest livelihood is maintained, are honorable. Right living is the end to be achieved, and it is the workers that do the most good in the world. The man who constantly and intelligently thinks is above temptation. The women who honorably labor in the different trades are to be preferred and honored above those who sit with folded hands. It is education that makes duty more apparent, lessens toil, and sweetens life. It is by true education that the moral responsibilities of the human family are better understood. The more education the better the Christian. Methods are now pursued in the school room. The child's capacity is better understood now than in pioneer days. The rod is laid aside. Children no longer are forced under the lash or gag to order or erudition. Fretful and cruel teachers will soon give place for those who love children, and again will mankind draw nearer to God through the influence of the law of love. In this age due attention is paid to hygiene of the school room. Houses are better ventilated than formerly. Since the introduction of the "automatic" school desks there need be no more disagreeable seating in our school houses. The inventor of this new desk will have a reward in the numbers of healthy men and women, who in this generation, as children, are comfortably seated in many of our best schools. New and better studies have been added to the course of study in our common schools within the last decade. Now the child is taught to apply what he learns, directing his course of study in the line of his mental activity, cultivating the good, and restraining the evil propensities. The time was, not far back, when only a limited knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic were taught in the common schools. The highest aim of the youth of the common schools in the pioneer days of Pettis county, was to write a fair hand, spell orally, and solve mathematical puzzles. This age is moving in a better educational sphere. The change came gradually. It was a long struggle of ignorance against education, in which the latter is crowned the victor. But few teachers cling to the old theory. Little by little they are growing away from the old system. A few teachers, those who do not improve, are yet votaries at the shrine of their idols. "Too weak the sacred shrine to guard," they must soon yield to the new education and enter the conflict against error and for a better intellectual life. In this struggle for better methods, opinions covered with honors have been marched off the stage of human action and supplanted by facts and principles, which have cost years of toil to discover, and more years to establish. To the close student and observer this theory is only new in its application of our schools. It is the normal or natural method. This is the theory of education that antedates all others. The ancients taught by objects, when but few of the most wealthy men of that day could afford books. In fact, text-book theory is a new thing to the world. The first teachers of the world taught orally; they were independent of text-books. To this excellent method has been added the written method. Then it was principally by the observation of objects that pupils received instruction. By placing the object before the pupils the teacher could easily reach their mind by his lectures. In this age blackboards, spelling tablets, slates, charts, and other school apparatus is in general use in our best schools. In schools of to-day, it is from the printed page through the eye a mental picture is formed, which children draw upon paper or boards from the ends of their fingers. Well qualified teachers do not think of taking a text-book to their recitations-imitating the ancient normal methods. In order to meet the demand for better qualified teachers, normal training schools have been established in this and other states. The teachers' institute is also an outgrowth of the demand for better qualified teachers. Now true education is found to be the drawing and developing of that which the child already possesses, instead of the old crowding theory of pioneer days. The educated teacher of this age has complete living in view as the end to be attained in this life and a happy eternity in the unseen world. In a county there is probably no question which so directly interests the people as that of teachers—of teachers of known and tried ability. In the early settlement of Pettis county almost anyone could teach. That time, with all of its rude school appliances, has rolled away. The claims of to-day can no longer be met by appliances of even a decade ago, for experience is beginning to show that teaching, like every other department of human thought and activity, must change with the onward movements of society, or fall in the rear of civilization and become an obstacle to improvement. The educational problem of to-day is to obtain useful knowledge--to secure the practical part of education before the ornamental, and that in the shortest time. An intellectual life of the highest culture is what is called for in a free country like ours. An intelligent man is better qualified for any of the duties of life than an uneducated person. This is an admitted fact. In truth, a free nation's safety is wrapped in the intelligence of its people. Only an educated people can long sustain a free republic; therefore it is the duty of the state to educate, that her free institutions may stand through all ages as sacred and endeared institutions of the people. As education made strides westward, the wild man, the savage ruffian, their common weapons, the scalping knife of the Indian, and the bowieknife and pistols of the ruffians, gave way to the peaceful influence of culture and refinement. Education sweetens and hedges in the family circle, and drives away frivolity and gossip from a community, protecting the members from the inroads of vice and immorality. It is the strong bulwark of education that binds this nation of upwards of 50,000,000 of people together for advancement that she may shine, in the near future, the brightest star in the constellation of governments. Rapid strides have been made in education within the last half century. However, the field of improvement is yet boundless, and the work of education must still go on and make perhaps greater changes than those from the time when, "The sacred seer with scientific truth, In Grecian temples taught the attentive youth, to that of to-day, when men's thoughts are directed to the investigation of what they see around them. Missouri is one of the leading states of the American Union in the cause of popular education. No state has taken deeper interest in the education of her youth than the State of Missouri. The constitutions of 1820, 1865 and 1875, all make this subject one of the first importance, and guard the public school funds with zealous care, while the constitution of no state contains more liberal provisions for popular education than the constitution of Missouri, adopted in 1875. Not a sentiment inimical to schools can be found in any of her statute books for more than threescore years of her existence. No political party has been in the ascendency in all her history which has arrayed itself against free schools, and her governors, from 1824 to the present time (1882), have been earnest advocates of a broad and liberal school system. In 1839 she established a general school law, and in 1853 she dedicated one-fourth of her revenue annually to the maintenance of free schools. Her people have taxed themselves as freely as the people of any state, and much more liberally than the people of a majority of the states. The State of Missouri levies a tax of five cents on the $100.00, and permits a local tax of forty cents without a vote of the people, or sixty-five cents in the country districts and $1.00 in cities and towns by a majority vote of the tax payers voting. Missouri has more school houses to her population than Massachusetts. The amount she |