Daily Devotion

“A few months after I had begun my work at Yenching, Charles Corbett, Lucius Porter and I met to find a motto. All of us had been born in China and shared in the conviction that a Christian university should represent a blend of religious faith, the scientific spirit and method, and fearless unhampered inquiry. One of the others urged the saying of Jesus about ministering rather than being ministered unto. I recalled the quotation Thomas Jefferson had carved in Greek over the main gate of the University of Virginia, which was similarly inscribed over the entrance to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, "Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free." Somehow, as we talked, the inspiration came to combine these two great sayings of Jesus and thus sum up the essence of His teaching, "Freedom through Truth for Service."”

John Leighton Stuart · Fifty Years in China: The Memoirs of John Leighton Stuart, Missionary and Ambassador (1954), "Yenching University: a Dream that Came True"

Scripture

John 8:32 “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Matthew 20:28 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Reflection

Yenching University's motto is not a worldly slogan, but rather founded on the truth and self-sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. Reflecting on the present, we often pursue knowledge in our academic or professional pursuits, yet easily develop rational arrogance; we yearn for freedom from bondage, but if separated from the love of Christ, we degenerate into indulgence and selfishness. True freedom is not about doing whatever one pleases, but about willingly bowing down to serve others after being released by the truth. Only by rooting knowledge in spirituality and pouring freedom into dedication can life be preserved in truth and live out the likeness of the Son of Man.