Columbia Theological Seminary Bulletin, 10, number 3, January 1918

Vol. X JANUARY, 1918 No. 3

BULLETIN

COLUMBIA

THEOLOGICAL

SEMINARY

COLUMBIA, S. C.

Published Quarterly by the Board of Directors of the Theological
Seminary of the Synods of South Carolina. Georgia, Alabama
and Florida of the Presbyterian Church in the United States

(Entered as Second-Class Matter July 11, 1908, at the Postoffice at Columbia,
South Carolina, Under the Act of July 16, 1891)

FACULTY

THORNTON WHALING, D. D., LL. D., LITT. D.,

PRESIDENT OF THE SEMINARY,
PROFESSOR OF DIDACTIC AND POLEMIC THEOLOGY.

WILLIAM M. McPHEETERS, D. D., LL. D.,

PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT LITERATURE AND EXEGESIS.

HENRY ALEXANDER WHITE, Ph. D., D. D., LL. D.,

PROFESSOR OF NEW TESTAMENT LITERATURE AND EXEGESIS.

RICHARD C. REED, D. D., LL. D.,

PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND CHURCH
POLITY.

JAMES 0. REAVIS, D. D., LL. D.,

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH BIBLE AND HOMILETICS.

EDGAR D. KERR, A. M., B. D.,

INSTRUCTOR IN HEBREW AND GREEK.

GEORGE S. FULBRIGHT, A. B.,

INSTRUCTOR IN ELOCUTION.

W. H. MILLS, M. A., D. D.,

INSTRUCTOR IN RURAL SOCIOLOGY AND WORK OF COUNTRY

PASTOR.

SMYTH LECTURERS.
B. B. Warfield, D. D., LL. D., Princeton Theol. Sem.,
1917-18.

F. L. PATTON, D. D., LL. D., Bermuda Island, 1918-19.

The Unparalleled Growth of the Colum-
bia Theological Seminary.

The whole history of the Church in the South has
in it no parallel to the rapid growth of the Columbia
Theological Seminary. The number of students has
more than trebled within six years and its resources
have been enlarged, although they have not kept pace
with its increase in students. This increase has come
despite the fact of the war, which has cost this Semi-
nary as many .students in proportion as any of our Sem-
inaries ; some students having left the Institution for
service and others who would have enrolled, having
offered themselves as volunteers or having been
drafted. Though quite a number of students were lost
to the Seminary in this way, it is the only Presbyterian
Theological Institution, so far as the writer can dis-
cover, in our country that has more students than last
year; and, in fact, a larger number than ever before in
its history. The reasons of this rapid growth are not
far to seek :

1. The Institution is the kind of Seminary that
attracts progressive and earnest-minded young men,
who seek the best preparation for the ministry in the
Twentieth Century.

The curriculum, while embodying all the classical
disciplines, has been modernized by the addition of
practical courses in quite a number of fields. It is
believed that no Seminary, in our section of the country,
has a course more thoroughly adapted to the needs of
students today.

The professors are the kind of men under whom the
students delight to study; each one is a specialist in
his own field and while their gifts and graces vary, the

combination is one which is certainly unexcelled in our
branch of the Church.

The library is increasingly used as a result of the
scientific cataloguing, now nearing completion. The
riches of this unequalled library are thus made avail-
able for aspiring and scholarly students.

Other advantages, which need not be specified, are
fully recognized by the most thoughtful students in
our schools and universities. The best possible adver-
tisement for an institution is a select body of satisfied
students of high-grade and scholarly ambitions and
characteristics, who attract like students to the institu-
tion which they attend.

2. The number of candidates in the Synods con-
trolling Columbia Seminary has greatly increased, dur-
ing the past few years as compared with a period seven
to ten years ago. For example, the Synod of Georgia
had forty-two candidates under its care the past year
as compared with twenty-two, seven years ago, and the
other Synods have had an increase, which, while not so
great, is quite noteworthy. In addition, the attractive
power of the Institution has so grown that students
have come from a wider range than the four controlling
Synods; Texas, North Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana,
and Tennessee are all represented by students at the
Seminary this year.

3. The splendid history of the Institution is one of its
advantages and assets. From the very foundation of
the school in 1828, the ecclesiastical leaders of the
Church have been found in its Faculty; Dr. Thornwell,
Dr. Palmer, Dr. Girardeau, Dr. Plumer, and Dr. Wood-
row make a list which it is no disparagement of any
other institution to say cannot be paralleled.

The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church of the
United States was written within its walls. The Com-

mittee which planned for the Convention meeting in
Atlanta that brought the Assembly of 1861 into exist-
ence, convened in its Chapel.

Around no other spot in the South do there cluster
so many traditions of great names and great men who
gave their best gifts to the service of this School.

These reasons, and others that might be given, will
explain the fact why students, as they consider the
problem of preparation for preaching the Gospel today,
find the Columbia Seminary so worthy a candidate for
their patronage, that a larger number of promising and
worthy men are enrolled as students there today than
at any time during the ninety years of its splendid
history.

The Present Needs of
Columbia Seminary.

A growing and prosperous institution, in the very
nature of the case, must have growing needs. A
moribund or retrograding institution may not have
imperative needs of a larger kind, but a progressive
school, increasing in the number of its students, cannot
help but have larger demands for financial and mate-
rial resources.

If any Institution in the Church deserves such
increase of resources, Columbia Seminary is that school.
The history of its growth is its most emphatic and mag-
netic appeal.

Of course, it goes without saying, that it needs the
prayers of ministers, officers, and the people of the
Church; and such prayers would be the Golden Key
which opened the way for the desired increase. Chris-
tian people who pray for an institution will endorse
their own prayers in the only way that proves their
sincerity.

1. Of course, the President, Faculty, Board of
Directors, and the controlling Synods need Divine direc-
tion in the discharge of the great responsibilities which
rest upon them. No more solemn duties could well be
laid upon ministers, officers, and Church Courts than
the trust of administering such an Institution.

2. There ought to be real intercessions for the stu-
dents at this School, sixty-six in number, that they may
prove "able ministers of the new Covenant;" and also
that there may develop in the Presbyteries increasing
numbers of worthy and promising young men who
offer themselves to the Church for the work of the
ministry.

3. The hearts and pockets of the Christian people
in these four Synods ought to be opened to meet these
needs. The greatest need is funds for the support of
students. Union Seminary in Virginia has $150,000
for the Scholarship Funds, and Kentucky Seminary at
Louisville, about $100,000, and Columbia Seminary
ought to be equally well provided for, in this respect.
There is no doubt that it will be when its needs are
understood, as they are coming to be. Let everyone
who reads these lines, advertise this need in the name of
Him who called these young men into this service.

The Smyth Lectures for 1917-18.

The Smyth Lectures for 1917-18 were delivered by
Dr. Benjamin B. Warfield, Professor of Theology in
Princeton Theological Seminary. Their general topic
was "The Pseudo-Miracles." The Princeton Professor
was at his best. The range of scholarship and depth
of penetration which marks all of his work character-
ized these lectures. While there was a gleam of humor
and a flash of wit, whicn charmed all hearers, there

8

was also a beauty and glow of literary style which will
make the lectures, when published in book form, a
classic.

The lecturer for next year is the Rev. Dr. Francis L.
Patton. It is not often that a series of lectures for two
years in succession is delivered by men of equal rank
in the Theological world and with anything like the
gifts of scientific, and yet popular, exposition, which
mark these two great leaders of thought in the realm
of Theology.