Early American Colleges P2

Harvard College, 1636.

Although Harvard was the second college chartered in America, it was the first successful one. Its purpose was to train ministers and also to evangelize and educate Indians. Its rules included: Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well (that) the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life (John 17:3), and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.

And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let everyone seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of him. (Proverbs 2:3) Everyone shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein....seeing the entrance of the Word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119:130).

Harvard, with its motto "Christo et Ecclesiae" (For Christ and the Church), had a Christ-centered focus typical of almost all early American colleges. Among the many Harvard students who became notable patriots are signers of the Declaration - John Hancock, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Eldridge Gerry, William Ellery, William Hooper, and William Williams.

Content sourced from The American Story, The Beginning. David Barton and Tim Barton