Columbia Theological Seminary Bulletin, 24, number 3, February 1931

BULLETIN

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

1831 =$tbvuaxp- 1931

Centennial of tfje Jtoctetp of

jpts&tonarp Snqutrp

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY AT
DECATUR, GEORGIA

Volume XXIV February, 1931 No. 3

Entered as Second-class Matter May 9, 1928, at the Post Office

at Decatur, Georgia,

Under the Act of August 24, 1912

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2012 with funding from

LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation

http://archive.org/details/columbia1931colu

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

and
The MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE of the
SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

1831 -JFebruarp= 1931

Centennial of tfje J>octetj> ot

j^tsfttonarp Sngutrp

J. LEIGHTON WILSON, D. D.

Charter Member and First Student President of the Society of

Missionary Inquiry.

Graduate in First Class of Columbia Theological Seminary 1833.

Missionary to Africa, 1833-1853.

Secretary of Domestic and Foreign Missions.

"The Chalmers of the Southern Disruption."

FOREWORD

February, 1931, marks the one hundredth anniversary of the
Society of Missionary Inquiry. The Society is celebrating its cen-
tury birthday by addresses from the Mission Secretaries who have
been affiliated with the Society. Dr. J. O. Reavis and Dr. Darby
Fulton will preach to the Society Sunday, February 8, in the First
Presbyterian Church, the Central Presbyterian Church and North
Avenue Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. Dr. S. L. Morris ad-
dresses the Society at its regular meeting, Tuesday, February 10.
The work of the Society for the first century of its existence is pre-
sented by the students in a pageant Wednesday, February 11 at the
Central Presbyterian Church. This pageant includes an address
by Dr. Richard Orme Flinn, the fourth member of his immediate
family to have been president of the Society.

The Bulletin which commemorates this occasion is part of a doc-
tor's dissertation presented by Professor William C. Robinson to
Harvard University, June, 1928. It is anticipated that the other
parts of this dissertation will be published in Bulletin form, and
the alumni and friends of the Seminary are advised to preserve
these Bulletins and to combine them in one volume presenting the
history of the Seminary and its relation to the Southern Presbyterian
Church. The thesis contains an introduction and four chapters,
of which this is the third. The other chapters will be issued as
occasion offers. In these pamphlet presentations the detailed docu-
mentation is omitted. Any one interested in the authentication of
statements is referred to the dissertation on file at the Seminary as
well as at Harvard University.

[3-C]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Missionary Spirit of the Founders

The Society of Missionary Inquiry

The Southern Board of Foreign Missions

Church Extension

Colored Evangelization

"The Chalmers of the Disruption" Dr. J. Leighton Wilson

A Worthy Succession

Social Service

'The Spirit of Missions ... is nothing but the pure religion of
the Gospel, in its most amiable and active forms." J. L. Mer-
rick, The Spirit of Missions

| 5 C]

The Missionary Spirit of the Founders

An early account declares that the Seminary was the child of
labor, prayer and hope. The earliest records show that those
charged with the promotion of the infant cause were warm-hearted,
zealous Christians, burning with evangelistic interest, anxious for
revivings in Zion filled with "the spirit of missions." The letters
of the first paid agent of the Seminary, Rev. R. B. Cater, show
that his journeys, in behalf of funds, were at the same time evan-
gelistic tours. Writing in June, 1826, he speaks of the revival of
religion in Beaufort and of his joy in telling the love of Jesus.
Seeing the tears of God's deeply moved people as they come to
the sacrament, he laments that his own heart is too cold. He sor-
rows that so many are perishing for the lack of knowledge, when
salvation is provided. He desires to see grace prevailing, where
sin abounds; and to that end, would stir the brethren to more active
and energetic interest in measures for the extension of the Redeemer's
Kingdom. He sorrowfully records evidence of spiritual destitution,
and writes in the full tide of revival fervor. In April, 1827, he
writes of preaching five times a week, of many resulting additions
to the church of men "asking the way to Jesus," of "the power of
the Resurrection of Jesus." Like many that earnestly desire re-
vivals, he characterizes those ministers who do not seem bent on
evangelistic efforts as "cold and domineering." The same attitude
toward those who oppose, or are lukewarm toward the "revivalists,"
appears in the minutes of the Society of Missionary Inquiry in 1832.
The Presbyterian is ordered discontinued because of the manner in
which it speaks of revivals; and the Philadelphian is dropped, in
order that its place may be taken by the N. Y. Evangelist.

Rev. M. H. Reid, another early financial representative of the
institution, expresses the same thought in a letter to Secretary Wm.
A. McDowell, December 28, 1826. Some are interested in re-
vivals; but others fear the revival enthusiasm and oppose them.
Mr. Reid wants one of his own type, one who endorses revivals,
"who will be instant in season and out of season" to succeed himself
at the Red River Charge. Synod, 1830, declared it both rejoiced
in revivals and believed that the still small voice of God sometimes
gradually and successfully found its way into the sinner's breast.

The first secretary and indefatigable worker in the cause of the
new institution, Dr. Wm. A. McDowell, of Charleston, was ad-
judged, so richly endowed with the spirit of missions as to be chosen
by the General Assembly of 1835, to be the Corresponding and

[7-C]

General Agent, Secretary, etc., of the Board of Missions; and was
continued in that position by the Old School Assembly.

The choice of the first professor also indicates the evangelistic
fervor in the seminary fathers. The favorite rule for Dr. Thomas
Goulding's own guidance; and one which he continually inculcated
for the guidance of those who were young in the ministry was:
Let every sermon preached contain so much of the plan of salvation
that should a heathen come in who had never heard the gospel
before, and who should depart, never to hear it again, he should
learn enough to know what he must do to be saved.

f8-C]

The Society of Missionary Inquiry

In keeping with this circle in which the Seminary was projected,
the first regular session in a permanent location saw the birth of
the Society of Missionary Inquiry. On the twenty-fifth of January,
1831, the exercises of the Seminary were commenced in the build-
ings procured by Colonel Blanding; and the first regular Seminary
classes were formed after the Andover-Princeton model. The faculty
account of the Society is as follows: "The missionary feelings of
James L. Merrick, since missionary in Africa and Persia, led to the
formation of the Society of Inquiry on Missions, which was organ-
ized in the library room of the Seminary, and has since exercised
a great and salutary influence in the Seminary and in the town of
Columbia." Dr. Adger states that Mr. Merrick was a native of
New England.

The Book of the Constitution of the Society narrates that "at
the monthly concert of prayer, being the first held in the Theological
Seminary of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, in Columbia,
(S. C), February 7, 1831, at which were present, Rev. Dr. Thomas
Goulding, Rev. George Howe, James Beattie, David DeSaussure,
Francis Goulding, James L. Merrick, W. Moultrie Reid, J. Leigh-
ton Wilson, and by invitation, Messrs. G. T. Snowden and William
Shear (citizens of Columbia) : After a free discussion of the ques-
tion, 'Can we do anything for the cause of Missions?' A motion
was made by Dr. Goulding 'That we form ourselves into a society
for the purpose of inquiring into the subject of missions.' After
imploring Divine direction and after a full expression of views on
the question the motion was unanimously carried."

The organization was carried out February 15, 1831, by the
adoption of the Constitution and the election of officers. The Presi-
dents of the Society for the first three years of its life were Rev.
Mr. George Howe, 1831; Mr. J. Leighton Wilson, 1831-2; Mr.
James L. Merrick, 1832-3. The Society began correspondence
with similar societies in sister seminaries such as Andover, Princeton,
Hamilton; with missionaries in Greece, and the Sandwich Islands.
It early took up the matter of a library and a museum.

J. Leighton Wilson, the first student president of the Society,
gives a large part of the credit for stimulating his own spiritual
life and for leading him into a deep interest in missions to a cor-
respondence with John B. Adger. They had been college mates
at Union College, New York. Adger went to Princeton in 1830,
while Wilson studied at home a year and then entered Columbia.

[9-C]

On June 9, 1832, Wilson writes of a visit he is expecting (at Co-
lumbia Seminary) from Adger who was then on his Princeton
vacation. At the semi-centennial of the Seminary, Wilson spoke
of the deep impression of this visit. "The speaker feels that it is
due to himself as well as to this venerable father (Adger), to give
utterance to the feelings of profound gratitude which he has always
felt towards him for the kind interest he took in him when inquiring
about the path of duty; for the wise counsel he gave to him when
he knew as yet nothing of the trials and perils of the missionary
life; and especially for the heartfelt prayers that he offered to God
that his young servant might be guided into the path of duty. If
the speaker ever knew what consecration to God meant, it was
while he and the venerable father were kneeling in prayer in the
foundation-room of the Seminary building. To his memory, even
in the deepest wilds of Africa, that southwest corner has always
been a place of peculiar sanctity."

Carrying out this decision was no easy matter. Wilson's father
was a respected Ruling Elder. But for a South Carolina planter's
son to go as a missionary to Africa was an unheard-of thing. On
December 18, 1832, Leighton Wilson wrote his sweetheart that his
father regarded his determination to go to Africa as a judgment
upon himself for having loved this boy too much. The opposition
of his father was so keen that Wilson expressed his relief that Miss
Jane Bayard had no parents to object. She was an orphan.

At his vacation Wilson returned home from this memorable deci-
sion made in prayer with Adger at Columbia Theological Seminary.
His father still refused to give his consent. " 'Father,' said Leighton,
'would you be willing to go into the room and pray with me?' So
they began, 'Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy
name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.' The father could not go beyond that petition. Brought
face to face with the world-embracing affections and purposes of
God, he could not hold to any little contrary ambition of his own.
Slipping his arm around his son's shoulder, he told him he could go."

[ 10-C ]

The Southern Board of Foreign Missions

The subject of interesting the constituency of the Seminary in
missions was early raised. A paper was read by J. Leighton Wilson,
June 27, 1831, on the subject, "What has been and what ought
to be done by the Southern Churches in behalf of Foreign Missions."
At this same meeting it was agreed that, "a member of this Society
be appointed to deliver a dissertation before this Society during the
meeting of Synod (of S. C. and Ga.) in December next." Brother
Merrick was elected to fulfill the duty, with Brother Wilson as alter-
nate. At this time, 1831, Synod declares, "for foreign missions little
has been done." The manuscript minutes of Synod of 1819 report the
organization of a missionary society within the bounds of the Synod
for the purpose of supplying the destitute portions of the territory
of Synod with the means of grace and of providing religious in-
struction and civilization to the Indians. But this Society seems
to have had a short life; the minutes of 1829 record the transfer
of its Foreign Missions to the A. B. C. F. M. For the reviving
of missionary interest in the Synod, this resolution to present the
cause during the meeting of the Synod, undoubtedly had a part.
The society also solicited the use of the columns of the Charleston
Observer and the files of that publication show that throughout the
decade of the thirties the paper printed contributions from the
society. The same Synod during which the society resolved to have
presented the subject of missions witnessed the Synod's pledge to
support George W. Boggs, a missionary from South Carolina, at
Bombay. The Synod of 1832 declared that this fact had caused
the subject of foreign missions to secure some of the attention to
which it was entitled.

The next year saw the sailing of J. Leighton Wilson for Africa.
Dr. Howe, discussing this at Salem Church, said: "When did our
Presbytery send its first missionary to the heathen? In 1833. He
(Wilson) went away, amid misconceptions, sneers, and bitter words
on the part of many, and but a few months ago planted his feet
on barbarian shores." Wilson spent some time in Boston and
Andover studying Arabic and sailed November 28, 1833.

The Synod of 1833 saw the organization of the Southern Board
of Missions for the purpose of furthering this cause. Dr. Thomas
Goulding, first President of the Seminary, was chairman of the
committee recommending the action. On the first Board of Direc-
tors appear the names of R. B. Cater, Dr. Goulding, George Howe,
Thomas Smyth and C. C. Jones, names indissolubly connected with

[ll-C]

the founding of the Seminary. On the lists of honorary members
of the Southern Board of Foreign Missions appear the names of all
the early professors and leaders in the foundation of the Seminary.
(The price of honorary membership is listed as a hundred dollars
for laymen and fifty for ministers). This Board contributed to the
support of some of the missionaries sent out by the A. B. C. F. M.
The Synod in 1836 declared that the Southern Board of F. M.
was an Ecclesiastical Organization, and that its missionaries were
under the jurisdiction of the several Presbyteries to which they
belong, with no other relation impairing Synod's ecclesiastical au-
thority in the same. After the Old School New School split, the
Constitution was amended (November, 1838), so as to make the
board an auxiliary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby-
terian Church (O. S.). But at the same time fraternal and affec-
tionate regard was expressed for the late associates of the A. B. C.
F. M., and provision made for sending funds so designated through
the A. B. C. F. M.

The Secretary and moving spirit of this Southern Board was
Rev. Thomas Smyth, D. D., pastor of the Second Presbyterian
Church of Charleston, South Carolina. Of his influence, in in-
culcating the missionary spirit, Dr. J. B. Adger says: "If the South
Carolina Synod has been, ever since 1833, peculiarly alive in some
degree (but oh! how small that degree) to the claims of the foreign
mission work, I here record, what will be generally acknowledged
by those who know best, that this has been due, through Almighty
grace, in a very large measure, to the missionary zeal of Dr. Thomas
Smyth." Dr. Smyth was an alumnus of Princeton Seminary; but,
during his forty years' pastorate in Charleston, Columbia had no
more loyal or devoted supporter and friend. His interest in, and
gifts to the library, his marvelous mental contributions to the thought
life of the Seminary through publication and frequent addresses in
Columbia, his labors on the Board of Directors, his endowment of
the library and lectureship, have made his life and influence a vital
part of the history of the Seminary

In his eulogy of Dr. Howe, Dr. Girardeau comments on the
marked change in the attitude toward foreign missions in the period
between 1833 when J. L. Wilson "went away amid misconceptions,
sneers and bitter words on the part of many" until 1883 when such
an attitude would have been impossible. Girardeau attributes this
change "to the able and persistent efforts of Dr. Howe and men of
like spirit with him Church, Talmage, Hoyt, Leland, Smyth and
Thornwell."

In 1836, the missionaries that this board was supporting were
Rev. and Mrs. G. W. Boggs, Mahratto Mission; Rev. and Mrs.

[ 12-C ]

J. B. Adger, Smyrna; Rev. J. L. Merrick, Persia; Rev. and Mrs.
J. L. Wilson, Cape Palma Africa; Rev. J. F. Lanneau, Syria;
Rev. Wm. E. Holly, Choctaw Indians. Of these, two are the
leaders of the Society of Missionary Inquiry and a third, Dr. J. B.
Adger, a graduate of Princeton, is met again and again in the history
of Columbia, in which institution he was professor for many years.
In the same year, the interest in Missions had so risen, that the
Synod declared:

"That the church, by the very elements of her Constitution, is a
missionary society that it is enjoined upon her as a duty to impart
to others the blessings which she herself has received that the great
head of the Church has constituted her the appropriate channel,
through which the light of the Gospel is to be offered among the
nations of the earth, and that her organization is such as to embody
her strength and call forth her resources and bring them to bear
to the best advantage upon the world's conversion to God."

In this increasing interest in the cause of missions, these mission-
aries, particularly, Adger, Merrick and Wilson, bore a conspicuous
part. The minutes of the Executive Committee of the Southern
Board show that Mr. John B. Adger was appointed as their agent
December 9, 1833; and visited South Carolina and Georgia, securing
funds and promoting interest in the missionary enterprise. Mr.
Adger resigned his agency April 8, 1834, and on the 25th of that
month is listed as a missionary to Asia Minor. On that date,
he and Rev. J. L. Merrick were requested to leave behind them
Farewell Letters, addressed to the Southern Churches, to be published
as the first papers of the Board. Adger's autobiography shows that
he and Merrick sailed from Boston, August 2, 1834, on the ship
Padang.

Merrick's address has been preserved; and seems to have been
widely circulated by the Southern Board. There is a minute March,
1836, giving an order on the Treasurer for $52.50 for printing
1,475 copies of The Missionary Spirit.

This may fairly be said to represent the thought of the first mem-
bers and moving spirits of the Society of Missionary Inquiry at
Columbia Seminary. In the closing paragraph the writer is ap-
pealing to some kindred spirit, whose going to foreign lands seems
more certain than even that of the author. The inference is near
that he is particularly appealing to his coworker, Rev. J. B. Adger,
in these words:

"Who will volunteer in this glorious cause? Will you, my
brother? I have heard you plead elequently for the Missionary
cause will you enforce your arguments by the powerful elo-

[13-C]

quence of your example? Are you willing for Christ's sake to
encounter Mohammedan bigotry, or pagan superstition, and
labor and die on the other side of the earth? Go, then, in the
strength of God, and we, who may not be counted worthy of
such trust and honor, will follow and sustain you by our
prayers and efforts."

Merrick chooses as a text for this address Acts 17:16, "His spirit
was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry."
He declares, "The motive which led the Redeemer to leave his
home in the highest heavens, and to journey far down to this ruined
world, was no other than that powerful spring of action, which has
acquired the name Missionary Spirit. It was the Missionary Spirit
that conducted Paul through Asia Minor. It was the Missionary
Spirit that, in the first ages of the church, shed the celestial blessings
of Christianity on all Western Asia that drove from Northern
Europe the terrific religion of Odin, and the same spirit that is now
operating in its redeeming power at various places in Asia and
Africa and in an hundred Isles of the Sea. Such is the Missionary
Spirit and such have been its effects. It is nothing but the pure
religion of the Gospel, in its most amiable and active forms. Its
nature is divine; its object is the temporal and eternal welfare of
mankind."

He protests any throttling of this spirit. "Monopolize the reli-
gion of Immanuel the Missionary from heaven as well might
you monopolize the blessed air that vivifies creation. It is my full
conviction that the destitute around you, and the destitute in your
midst will never be thoroughly evangelized till you, or those who
succeed you on the stage of life, shall be effectually imbued with the
Missionary Spirit, that spirit whose charities embrace the world."
"A large proportion of Missionary Spirit is needed for home con-
sumption; but home is quite too narrow a sphere for the whole of
that charity which seeketh not her own, but the things that are
Jesus Christ's."

In giving the reasons for missions, Merrick says: "The influence
of the Missionary Spirit on the intellect is peculiarly powerful and
happy." "Yet the moral influences derived from the same source
are much more important in their nature and in their consequences."
The reflex influence of interest in Foreign Missions is, mindfulness
of the neglected and destitute at home, the cause of Home Missions,
Bible Societies, Sabbath School Societies, Seamen's Societies, etc.

"But the Missionary Spirit, which is as it were health to the
Christian, is life from the dead to the heathen." The writer

[ 14-C ]

stresses the sad condition of the heathen under arbitrary govern-
ments, oppressions, anarchy, ignorance, pagan superstition, religious
persecution, without hope for eternity. "They are our brethren
and our sisters they are those for whom Christ died. They are
those whom He now commands us to evangelize." The diffusion
of the Gospel will dissipate ignorance, bring tribes into the purity
and liberty of the Gospel and the hope of glory. This diffusion
will tend to harmonize discordant sects of Christians. In order
to reach the unevangelized, the missionaries will have to preach
Christ only and him Crucified and "not those unessential points of
sectarian distinction, which have so long divided and degraded the
true followers of Christ in countries already Christian." The Mis-
sionary Spirit will exalt womanhood intellectually and morally, and
cause her to receive the due meed of merit. The writer closes with
a personal appeal to each one to cherish and diffuse the Missionary
Spirit; and to heed when Jesus calls to the unevangelized lands.

Of the manifold work of Rev. J. L. Wilson, this paper will treat
later.

A third member of the first class of six, Rev. James L. Adams,
consecrated himself to the foreign mission cause, but was prevented
from sailing.

In 1842 the faculty report notes that Richard Way left, just be-
fore examinations, for foreign work in Siam. He had been preceded
in 1838 by Rev. S. R. Brown, a missionary to China.

A copy of the first number of The Banner of the Cross, published
by "the students of the Southern Theological Seminary," has been
preserved. This eight-page publication is dated November 1, 1834.
The purpose of the paper is, "to call upon the churches in South
Carolina and Georgia to regard, with a deeper interest than they
have ever done before, two most important objects, their Seminary
and the cause of Missions." It has articles on China, the History
of the Seminary, Exposition of Ps. 84:1-7; an appeal to young
men to enter the ministry; Advantages of Sunday School, etc.

[15-C]

Church Extension

But Foreign Missions was only one phase of the interests of the
Society of Missionary Inquiry and only one (perhaps the highest)
expression of the Missionary Spirit.

Wilson and Keith Legare, two of the first students, describe the
society as meeting once a month "at which time we usually have a
dissertation, from a member, on some topic connected with the
benevolent operations of the day." They declare that the society
has kindled a very lively interest in behalf of many of the benevolent
operations of the day. They add, "most of our members have al-
ready or soon will engage in teaching Sabbath schools, in the country
around the place." The country hereabouts is populated by an
ignorant and poor class of men and there seems to be providential
opening around us for doing good. "And we hope that the ultimate
end of our lives and the prevailing desire of our hearts may be to
lead souls to Christ." A letter of Wilson's, dated October 27, 1832,
reads: "I attended my sand hill Sunday School this morning, and
had a large and interesting school."

Dr. Howe records the organization of the Sunday School Associa-
tion of Charleston in 1816 and of a Sunday School Union Society
in the same place in 1819 both preceding the organization of the
American Sunday School Union. (1824).

The scope of the Society of Missionary Inquiry's interests may
be gathered from the following minute: "Agreeable to a resolution
passed on February 28, 1832, the following committees were ap-
pointed, viz.:

1. Seamen and Soldiers Wm. B. Yates.

2. Colored Population Adams & Goulding (i. e. Francis
Goulding).

3. Foreign Missions Merrick & Axson.

4. Domestic Missions Reid & Du Bose.

5. Bible and Tract Societies Petrie & Fraser.

6. Sabbath Schools and Revivals Keeney & Beattie.

7. Temperance Cause Legare & Peden.

The work of building up the Kingdom, through the establishment
of Sabbath schools and missions, has been a consistent part of the
work of the Seminary and the Society of Missionary Inquiry. Often
these schools have been the nuclei, not only of a Presbyterian
Church, but of a Presbyterian, a Methodist and a Baptist Church.

The Society has supplied religious workers for the city jail, the

[16-C]

State Penitentiary, convict camps, cotton mill missions, community
missions; as well as teachers and leaders of Sunday School and
young People's organizations, in established churches. In their vaca-
tions, the early students labored as colporteurs for the American
Tract Society, and as agents for the American S. S. Union. The
maintenance and extension of the church in the home field was the
primary consideration in establishing Columbia Seminary. In the
Seminary's appeal of 1845 the wide Savannahs of the West and
extreme Southwest are represented as calling to the Seminary for
ministers.

Dr. Henry A. White, a careful Southern historian, says:

"The spiritual needs of the entire southeastern part of our
country were resting upon the hearts of the men who founded
Columbia Seminary. The two states of South Carolina and
Georgia were at that time sending large numbers of their people
southward and westward, as Colonists, to fill up the fertile
regions within the borders of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
and Florida. The vast territory embraced in these six com-
monwealths, occupied by a homogeneous people, was calling for
ministers of the Word. The other seminaries were not send-
ing them."

He declares that an increase of from 10,000 to nearly 70,000
Presbyterian Christians in this territory "in eighty years" was due
almost entirely to the work of Columbia Seminary and the labors
of the seven hundred and fifty candidates for the ministry who
passed through her halls during that period.

At the time of the earliest efforts to establish the institution the
Synod covered the whole country from the southern border of North
Carolina to the Mississippi River; and it was believed that by the
confluence of the benevolent feelings of the states over which that
body extended they would be more likely to succeed. At the time
of the organization of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia
(1813) there were, in this territory, only thirty-two Presbyterian
ministers.

In the year 1839, the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia avows
that "the very establishment of the Seminary has been the direct
means of bringing into the ministry twice the number that would
have entered it had they been left without this institution in their
vicinity to awaken their attention to the subject." In 1841 the
faculty reports that forty-one (out of eighty educated in the Semi-
nary) were connected with the Synod, while twenty-one were labor-
ing in nearby Synods. In 1844 the statement is made that since
1831 there have been 95 students educated in the Seminary. Of

[ 17-C ]

these nine have been separated in the divisions of the church; but
forty-nine are connected with the Synod of South Carolina and
Georgia (three of whom are Foreign Missionaries) ; and twenty-
two are laboring in other Synods.

The Synod of South Carolina, in its narrative of 1854, declares
that the gradual increase of the number of ministers has come,
mainly, through the instrumentality of the Theological Seminary;
and that about half its ministers are former students of the Seminary.

In 1860 the Board presents, and the Synod accepts and endorses
the following figures showing the steady growth of the Seminary
and the parallel growth in church membership and in the ministry:

Seminary
YEAR Average No. Students

1831-36 17

1836-50 19

1850-56 32

1856-60 50

1860 58

Year State Communicants

1831 South Carolina 6,518

1860 South Carolina 13,074

1831 Georgia 2,893

1860 Georgia 6,812

1831 Alabama 2,094

1860 Alabama 6,534

In 1871 the whole number of Alumni is listed as 374, of whom
84 are deceased and thirteen are foreign missionaries. The cata-
logue of that year gives the complete list of the former members
of the Seminary by classes from 1833 to 1870. The table of resi-
dence of the alumni shows the alumni laboring primarily in the
southeast :

South Carolina 80 Arkansas 14

Georgia 49 Texas 11

North Carolina 38 Tennessee 10

Mississippi 33 Florida 9

Alabama 24 Scotland 13

Other states have smaller numbers: Japan, India, Brazil, China,
Indian Nation are represented. The residences of fifty-eight are
unknown.

The catalogue of 1907 gives the list of alumni, by classes, from

[18-C]

Seminary

inisters

Graduates

54

108

55

37

89

28

42

64

16

1833 to 1906. While no summation of figures is given, the men
represent the same section of the country as in the earlier statement.

In his semi-centennial addresses (1881), Dr. George Howe states,
"that more than three-fourths of the ministers and licentiates of the
Synod of South Carolina, more than half of those of the Synod of
Georgia, about one-third of those of the Synods of Alabama and
Arkansas, that nearly one-half of the Synods of Memphis and Mis-
sissippi were students of this Seminary."

The 1917 catalogue bears this statement (evidently by Dr. Thorn-
ton Whaling, the President), " Although the number of students
at this Seminary has always been thus moderate in extent, yet
Columbia has furnished more than three-fourths of the Presbyterian
ministers who have labored in South Carolina, more than one-half
of those that have labored in Georgia, and a considerable proportion
of those in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas,
Louisiana. Moreover, graduates of Columbia Seminary have given
themselves to the work of Missions in Africa, Syria, Turkey, Persia,
Hindostan, Korea, Japan and South America."

In "The King's Business" in the Synod of Alabama Dr. R. T.
Gillespie, President, sums up Columbia's contribution to the Presby-
terian church in the Southeast. "Columbia has trained 926 ministers,
350 of whom are living. The present ( 1927) enrollment is 65. This
year 42 new students were enrolled. When the Seminary was
founded the only Synod in Columbia's territory was a small one 73
ministers, 11 licentiates, 128 churches and 8,560 communicants, and
five Presbyteries. The territory of Columbia Seminary now contains
five Synods, 1,171 churches (Presbyterian Church in the U. S.),
134,770 communicants, and 632 ordained ministers."

The missionary influence of the Seminary has necessarily been
strongest in its immediate field. But it has, by no means, been
confined to its immediate field. An excellent example of the larger
influence of the Seminary in widely inculcating missions, is the dis-
course delivered by Dr. J. H. Thornwell, by appointment of the
Board of Foreign Missions of the General Assembly of the Presby-
terian Church in the U. S. A. (O. S.), in the First Presbyterian
Church, New York, on Sabbath, May 18, 1856, and published by
order of the General Assembly. Dr. Adger, introducing this sermon
in Thornwell's Collected Writings, says: "It was this sermon of
which Dr. Addison Alexander, who was a hearer of it, remarked
to a friend, that it was as fine a specimen of Demosthenian eloquence
as he had ever heard from the pulpit, and that it realized his idea
of what preaching should be."

The sermon is entitled, "The Sacrifice of Christ, the Type and

[ 19-C ]

Model of Missionary Error:." The text wan John 10:17, IS. The
death of Christ is presented as an act of Worship. "The internal
feelings of the priest must correspond to the external once

of the act." The motives which prompt such an undertaking are:
"The first . . . an intense sense and admiration of the holiness and
justice of God, and a corresponding sense and detestation of the
sinfulness of sin . . . : secondly, the sentiments of pity for man."
"Love to God and love to man which his death, considered as
a sacrifice, expresses constitute the essence of virtue." I: has
grown into a proverb that the spirit of missions is the spirit of the
G:s?el." .As made priests by Christ, "we must be animated by the
same principles which pervaded His offering.* 5 Zeal for the Divine
glory, love to God. compassion to man should stir our souls and
move our feet. "Can we look upon our fellows, members of the
same family, pregnant with the same instincts and destined to the
same immortality, and feel no concern for the awful prospect before
them?

"When I consider the magnitude and grandeur of the mc: a
which press upon the church to undertake the evangelization of the
world, when I see that the glory of God. the love of the Saviour
and pity for the lost, all conspire in one great conclusion ; when
I contemplate our own character and relations as spiritual priests,
and comprehend the dignity, the honor, the tenderness and self-denial
of the office: and then reflect upon the indifference, apathy, and
languor which have seized upon the people of God: when I look
to the heavens above me and the world around me. and hear the
call, which the wail of perishing millions sends up to the skies,
thundered back upon the Church with all the solemnity of a Divine
Commission: when a world says, Come, and pleads hi series;
when God says Go, and pleads His glory, and Christ repeats the
command, and points to His hands and His feet and His side it is
enough to make the stone cry out of the wall and the beam out of
the timber to answer rt

;::-c ;

Colored Evangelization

But from the heights of eloquence the realist will turn with the
question Yes, but what of the black brother at the door? And a
sense of truth will allow neither the Southern Church nor Columbia
Seminary to glibly repeat the words of the Scottish historian, Dr.
Ogilvie, that the Presbyterian Church in the United States has done
a distinguished work for their evangelization.

Dr. Wm. M. McPheeters says bluntly, "Our church has not
done her duty to the colored people. But if she has failed, it has
been for no lack of shining examples of genuine devotion to the
spiritual interest of that people." He goes on to say that the church
has had few sons more gifted, and none more godly than John L.
Girardeau, C. Colcock Jones, Chas. H. Stillman and J. R. Howerton,
each of whom gave the best energies of heart and mind to the evan-
gelization of the colored people. And these four leaders in this
work are Columbia Seminary Alumni.

The Southern Church has not done her full duty in this matter;
but what she has done ought not to be overlooked. The Seminary,
has not done her full duty but the noblest among the sons and
supporters of Columbia, have most nearly manifested the Master's
spirit toward the colored brother. The early records of the Synod
of South Carolina and Georgia show a marked and a continued
interest in the work of giving the gospel to the colored race, even
in years when the small interest in Foreign Missions is lamented.

In 1831, Synod, after lamenting the little done for foreign mis-
sions and the static condition of home missions, adds: "In one fea-
ture, however, they (domestic missions) have assumed an aspect
which deserves a more particular notice than can be given it in
this brief narrative. All along our seacoast, much feeling has been
awakened in reference to our colored population, and inquiries have
been instituted with a view of ascertaining the best means of furnish-
ing them with religious instruction. Hitherto it has been almost
entirely neglected, or left to black preachers, who are, for the most
part, incapable of instructing others in the way of salvation. Many
planters have taken the subject into their own hands, and either
given them religious instruction themselves, or procured it for them
from regular ministers of the Gospel. Societies of planters have
also been formed with this express object in view; and the result
of experience upon this plan, so far as it has been adopted, is favor-
able both to the interest of the planters and the morals of the slaves."

The next year Synod reports: "The spiritual state of our black

[21-C]

population is found to have called forth, during the past year, an
unusually large share of the sympathies of our churches. We hear,
with pleasure, that some of our ministers have begun to think very
seriously of devoting their labors more directly and exclusively to
this part of our population." Sunday schools for the blacks in
South Carolina have been found valuable.

The following year ( 1833) the work of Rev. C. C. Jones prompted
these Resolutions:

1. "That to impart the Gospel of salvation to the Negroes of
our country, is a duty which God in his providence and word im-
posses on us.

2. "That in the discharge of this duty, we separate entirely the
civil and religious conditions of this people; and while we devote
ourselves to the improvement of the latter, we disclaim all inter-
ference with the former.

5. "That every member of this Synod, while he endeavors to
aw^aken others, shall set the example and begin the religious instruc-
tion of the servants of his own household, systematically and per-
severingly, as God shall enable him.

6. "That we cannot longer continue to neglect the duty without
incurring the charge of inconsistency in our Christian character
of unfaithfulness in the discharge of ministerial duty, and at the
same time, meeting the disapprobation of God and our own con-
sciences."

This interest, on the part of Synod, was intense in the circle of
Synod living in closest contact with the Seminary. Among the
first committees appointed by the Society of Missionary Inquiry,
one was on the subject of Colored Evangelism. One of the original
founders and life-long supporters of the Seminary was Rev. Robert
Wilson James, pastor of Indiantown and later Salem, Black River,
South Carolina. Of him, this is written: "He prepared very care-
fully his discourses for the ignorant sons of Africa who flocked in
great numbers from the large plantations on the river to hear his
simple, lucid, earnest and forcible presentation of Gospel truth. He
was largely instrumental in his own Synod in arousing a zeal in
their spiritual welfare; and it is probable that his profound interest
in their spiritual condition was the means of directing the missionary
enthusiasm of his young neighbor and kinsman J. Leighton Wilson,
toward the dark continent."

Dr. White draws this picture of old South Carolina interest in
the colored brother which produced Columbia's foremost exemplar
of the missionary spirit. "As a child he (J. L. Wilson) lived in
daily association with the colored men and women on his father's
plantation. Every Sunday morning he saw virtually all of the

[ 22-C ]

negroes of the community assemble for worship in the grove of pine
trees near Mount Zion Church. He heard hymns of praise, and
often listened to the words of the pastor of the church as he preached
the first sermon of the day to the slaves who lived within the limits
of the congregation. When this service was ended, then the negroes
entered the seats reserved for them in the deep galleries of the
church, and took part in worship there, in association with the white
members of the congregation. Moreover, many of these negro slaves
were members in good standing, with their names enrolled in the
list of the regular membership of the church. On two Sundays
in each year, therefore, all these colored members were brought into
the body of the church and given seats at the long communion
table, and there the elements of the Lord's Supper were administered
to them. Besides all this, every Sunday afternoon throughout the
year the heads of the household called together all their slaves, young
and old, and taught them portions of the Bible. Sometimes also,
the pastor of the church would preach to the colored people every
evening for an entire week. One of the ministers whose preaching
to negroes was followed by many of the signs of God's presence,
was Robt. Wilson Jones."

J. L. Wilson's year between Union College (N. Y.) and Colum-
bia Seminary seems to have been spent with this uncle, whose efforts
for the negro were so fruitful. How much does the development
of the Society of Missionary Inquiry and the Southern Presbyterian
Church owe to that year, under the example and loving industry
of Robt. W. James a father of the Seminary in his work for the
colored brother! John B. Adger, the one most conversant with
Wilson's motives during the year when his spiritual life was revived
and he decided to go as a missionary to Africa, writes :

"In choosing his (Wilson's) field of labor, his mind and
heart were turned to Africa, not only because it had been a very
much neglected portion of the world by Christian Nations, but
because he believed that America, and especially the South,
owed it to Africa to send her the Gospel, inasmuch as so many
of her dark-skinned children were held in bondage here." . . .
"I know it was also a leading motive with him in devoting his
life to foreign missions to exert some reflex influence upon the
Christian people of his native state in extending and deepening
their interest in the spiritual condition of their slaves."

That this was his motive is borne out by the fact that, on his
return to South Carolina, Dr. Wilson provided, both a school and
a church for the negroes near his home. During the last year of
his life, though he refused to preach at Mt. Zion, the nearby white

[23-C]

church, he continued to preach to the colored people at Mt. Sinai.

Crossing the border into Georgia we find, among the fathers of
the Seminary, Charles Colcock Jones. Jones' securing of a five-
thousand-dollar legacy toward the Georgia scholarship, was one of
the first substantial financial gifts, after the reorganization of the
Seminary; and this gift may almost be said to have been the step
between life and death realization and failure for the new insti-
tution. After a good education at Andover and Princeton, a two
years' pastorate of the First Church, Savannah; Jones, at the age
of twenty-eight, returned to his own plantation near Midway Church,
Georgia, to give his life to the evangelization of the negroes. In
this district there was a body of about 4,500 negro slaves. Support-
ing himself from his own plantation, Jones gave himself to the
work of spiritually shepherding this people. He instructed them
day and night. Three church buildings were built for their exclusive
use. Dr. White thus describes his Sabbath "routine" :

"Every Sunday, at an early hour, Dr. Jones mounted his horse
and rode to one of these churches. From all of the neighboring
plantations the servants came in crowds, men, women and children.
First in order, a meeting for prayer was held. During this service
a number of the negroes, known as 'watchmen' one after another
led the assembly in prayer. Then followed the sermon, preached
by Dr. Jones himself, with the usual accompaniment of sacred hymns.
In the afternoon the same congregation was called together as a
Sunday School. The principal part of the exercises in the school
was a series of questions and answers prepared by the leader himself,
and widely known as Jones Catechism." Then there was a period
for inquiry and help to spiritually needy; and reports from and
counsel to "the watchers" by the chief shepherd. Every hour of
the Lord's Day was spent bringing light, knowledge and spiritual
help to "the colored brethren." During the week there were preach-
ing appointments on various plantations.

In 1832 Jones organized "The Association for the Religious
Instruction of the Negroes," the report of which he, as secretary,
issued. From 1833 to 1848 he was the agent of the General As-
sembly's Board of Domestic Missions with reference to the colored
work in the South and Southwest. The proof that this colored
work met the endorsement of the Seminary is shown by the fact
that Dr. Jones was twice called from it to the Chair of Ecclesiastical
History and Church Polity in Columbia Seminary (1836-38; 1849-
59). During these years he served to focus the attention of the
Seminary and the student body on the work so near to his own
heart, but each time his first love carried Jones back to the "planta-
tion darkies," and earned for him the title, "apostle to the negro
slaves." 2+ . c ]

Dr. Jones, as Chairman of the Committee on Domestic Missions
in the first assembly of the Southern Church, addressed that as-
sembly on the subject of the religious instruction of the Colored
People.

By reason of long sickness Dr. Jones was unable to stand through-
out this address; but, seated in a chair, he plead for an hour and a
half, the spiritual interests of the race for which he had spent his
life. He argued, "They are men created in the image of God,
to be acknowledged and cared for spiritually by us. They are our
constant and inseparable associates; whither we go, they go, where
we dwell, they dwell; where we die and are buried, there they die
and are buried; and, more than all, our God is their God."

Stirred by this eloquent appeal the following resolution by Dr.
Jones was, on motion of Dr. Joseph R. Wilson, unanimously adopted
by the first Southern Assembly:

"That the great field of Missionary operations among our
colored population falls more immediately under the care of
the Committee on Domestic Missions; and that committee be
urged to give it serious and constant attention, and the Pres-
byteries to cooperate with the committee in securing Pastors
and Missionaries for this field."

Dr. Jones is the first of a trio of professors who were called)
directly from a ministry to the negroes, to a chair in Columbia
Seminary. Almost a tradition to this effect was established ; and
Columbia may unabashed compare this tradition with that of other
Presbyterian Institutions: The road to her professorial chairs was
an apprenticeship of spiritual service for the slave brother.

Dr. John B. Adger returned, for physical recuperation, after
twelve years of foreign missionary work in Smyrna, and began to
preach to a congregation of negroes in the basement to the Second
Presbyterian Church (Charleston, S. C), of which his brother-in-
law, Dr. Thomas Smyth, was pastor. Adger appealed to the city
and the Presbytery in the interest of these people. His sermon to
Presbytery, May 9, 1847, was on the text, "The poor have the
Gospel preached to them." Shortly after this, there appeared in the
Southern Presbyterian Review a review of the sermon by Dr. Thorn-
well. In this review Thornwell supported Adger's view that, for
their adequate spiritual oversight, the colored people ought to have
their own congregations, a full-time white minister, and the Gospel
preached simply enough for them to comprehend. There was some
opposition on account of the Vesey insurrection cabal among the
slaves unearthed in 1822; but the leading citizens of Charleston,
particularly those of the Second Church, rallied to Adger's plan.

[ 25-C ]

This white support built the first church on Anson Street, Charles-
ton, at a cost of seven thousand seven hundred dollars. The build-
ing was dedicated May 26, 1850.

Under the eloquent leadership of Dr. J. L. Girardeau who fol-
lowed Adger, both into the ministry for the colored people and
then to a chair in the Seminary this building became too small ; and
there was built for the work on Calhoun Street, the (then) largest
church edifice in Charleston. Dr. Girardeau stated that he only
refrained from going to the foreign field that he might preach to
the mass of slaves on the seacoast. Notations in the Communicants'
roll book and in the Minutes of the Session of Zion Presbyterian
Church (1858-1867) testify to the fidelity with which Dr. Girardeau
administered discipline (the chief cause being adultery) ; and the
regularity with which he attended the colored communicants in
their dying hours.

On the occasion of the dedication of the first edifice Dr. J. H.
Thornwell preached the sermon to a large assemblage of the leading
citizens of Charleston on the subject, "The Christian Doctrine of
Slavery." In general, it may be said that Thornwell's view of
slavery is the same as that which the Rev. A. J. and Sir R. W.
Carlyle present in their recent volume, "History of Mediaeval Politi-
cal Theory in the West" as being the view of the patristic writers of
the Christian Church. Thornwell acknowledges the difficulty of
holding the true view in the bitter controversy then raging; and con-
fesses that Southern writers have run into extravagance in their
defense of the institution. He deprecates any attempt to deny that
the negro is "the same blood with ourselves." "We recognize in
him the image of God. We are not ashamed to call him our brother."
He denies that slavery is the "property of man in man," as held
by Channing and Whewell. He affirms, instead, that the right of
the master is not to the man but to his labour; and, therefore, that
the rights of the slave ought not be left to the caprice or interest of
the master.

"That the design of Christianity is to secure the perfection of the
race, is obvious, from all its arrangements; and that, when this end
shall have been consummated, slavery must cease to exist is equally
clear ... In this sense slavery is inconsistent with the spirit of the
Gospel that it contemplates a state of things, an existing economy,
which it is the design of the Gospel to remove. Slavery is a part
of the curse which sin has introduced into the world, and stands in
the same general relations to Christianity as poverty, sickness, disease
and death. In other words, it is a relation which can only be con-
ceived as taking place among fallen beings, tainted with a curse.
It springs not from the nature of man as man, nor from the nature

[ 26-C ]

of society as such, but from the nature of man as sinful, and the
nature of society as disordered."

The speaker held that personal rights and personal responsibilities
pervaded the whole system of slavery. He urged all the brethren
of the South to go into this colored evangelization "until every slave
in our borders shall know Jesus and the resurrection."

Two views of slavery can really be distinguished in the Southeast.
Those who were laboring for the spiritual uplift of the colored breth-
ren were anxious to put Dr. Thornwell's views into practical efficacy.
Thornwell contemplated a memorial to the Legislature of South
Carolina petitioning for the protection of the marriage relation.
Even without slave marriage legislation, Girardeau invoked the ex-
treme ecclasiastical penalty in an effort to preserve the slave home.

In the Southern Presbyterian Review for October, 1863, Dr. J.
Leighton Wilson has an article on the religious instruction of the
colored people. In this article he urged the sanctity of slave mar-
riage. Dr. A. M. Fraser declares that Christians conscientiously
refused to obey State laws which forbade any one to teach a negro
to read. In fact, they allowed these laws to fall into innocuous
desuetude.

The spirit of Missions made the difference between the Christian
viewpoint and the opposite view, which, sad to say, is sometimes
reflected in the statute books and is to be found in an anonymous
article in the Southern Presbyterian Review of October, 1863. It
is at least suggestive that Dr. Thornwell, one of the circle most
concerned for the spiritual well-being of the negro, came to the place
where he was ready to propose emancipation.

In his eulogy on Dr. George Howe, Dr. J. L. Girardeau has this
to say of Howe's interest in colored evangelization : "At a time when
the Southern Church was surrounded by a dense mass of slaves, who
were dependent upon her for the preaching of the Gospel, he was
ever the earnest and able advocate of their systematic instruction by
the ministry of pastors, and their evangelization by the labors of
missionaries. For years he was the chairman of the Committee
of Domestic Missions in his Presbytery."

Perhaps, the best summary, from the standpoint of this paper, of
the work of the Seminary and its constituency for the slave, is found
in the prefatory note to Thornwell's Address, written by the editors
of Thornwell's Collected Writings, J. B. Adger and J. L. Girardeau.
Both editors were professors in the Seminary their publication is
the work of Columbia's greatest mind. Both editors labored for
the evangelization of the negro in the Charleston Church, and de-
lighted to preach in colored churches in Columbia during their pro-

[ 27-C ]

fessorships. The editors affirm that Southern Christians were ac-
tively engaged in efforts to afford the slaves judicious religious in-
struction, and opportunities for securing the salvation of their souls
through the gracious provisions of the Gospel. "Dr. Thornwell
was always the earnest advocate of the evangelization of a people
whom Providence had made dependent on the Southern Church for
a knowledge of Christianity. With all the energy of an enthusiastic
nature, and all the power of his mighty, impassioned eloquence, he
ever in private and in public, on the platform, in the pulpit, and on
the floors of ecclesiastical assemblies, pleaded for the Gospel to be
given to the slaves. Nor was this zeal his, alone. His brethren,
in the ministry throughout the South, reckoned the negroes as their
parishioners, and preached to them in a style adapted to their capaci-
ties. If the mass of the colored race has, in any measure, been pre-
pared for the responsibilities and duties of freemen, so suddenly
thrust upon them, the fact is due mainly to the preaching, of Gospel
Ministers, the instructions of the Sabbath school, and the training
of Christian families. The Southern Church makes no boast that
she did her whole duty to the souls of the slaves. As before God,
she has much to confess; but as before men, she can honestly affirm
that she did not neglect the spiritual interests of the negro, but sin-
cerely endeavored to lead them to Christ."

The minutes of the Synod of South Carolina and other references
support these statements. The earlier records have been referred
to. The narratives of 1853, 1854 and 1858 speak of increasing
and sustained interest in this cause and of large colored accessions to
the churches. Dr. Bean declares that, in this decade, many ministers
were giving one-half their time to the instruction of the slaves. He
gives the following figures for a church in lower South Carolina in
1853:

"The John's Island and Wadmalaw Church had 359 commu-
nicants, of whom 330 were colored. In 1851, membership in Char-
leston, (S. C.) Presbytery was 2,269, of which 1,440 were colored.

Dr. James Woodrow gives the following figures for the number
of colored communicants, in the states in the vicinity of the Seminary,
before these colored brethren became separated during Reconstruc-
tion; in South Carolina 5,767 communicants; in North Carolina
5,490 communicants; and in Georgia 1,109 communicants in one
Presbytery.

Dr. Henry A. White, also a former professor in the Seminary
and a wide student of Southern history, declares that in 1860 nearly
500,000 negroes were members of the various churches. Rev. R. C.
Reed, sometime professor in the Seminary, also uses this figure of
half million negroes being brought into the church in the days of

[ 28-C ]

slavery. His reference and a book review in the Southern Presby-
terian Review of January, 1882, show that the half million figure
is taken from a book entitled "Our Brother in Black!' by President
A. G. Haygood, of Emory College, Southern Methodist Publishing
House, 1881.

The same men, who labored for the slaves, continued to love the
colored brother and labor to hold him in their fellowship. The
Presbytery of South Carolina in 1867 adopted a paper, written by
Dr. Adger, stating their unwillingness to constitute a Freedman's
Church i. e., a church purely and solely of colored (people) into
which white people could not be received, because, "The ground
of color is a schismatical foundation on which a church may not
be built."

Dr. Adger has preserved a heart-breaking letter from Dr. J. L.
Girardeau to himself, on this subject. Dr. Girardeau narrates how
the question of admitting negro members into our church was raised
at the Synod of 1873. He earnestly favored this admission. "I
never from the beginning, was in favor of separating the two races,
of cutting off as I expressed it the negro race from the white,
like casting loose a tow-boat from a great steamship in the middle
of a stormy ocean."

The subject came up by overture from this Synod and from
Mississippi and "the Assembly voted that way (i. e. for separation)
unanimously , excepting one vote that of the writer."

"The issue was, retention of the colored people in our church or
organic separation from them, I did not theoretically approve of
separation, but, as the whole church was going that way, I practically
went with it, but under protest." . . . "Theoretically, I still think
the policy of retention the better one; but practically, separation
now seems a necessity. But I cannot write as I wish. I grow
tired and sick."

"That Assembly effected an organic separation between the two
races ecclesiastically, so that the colored, if it desired to do so, could
withdraw from any formal relation to the white," he narrates how
he explained this at a congregational meeting. The old people op-
posed the separation, "but Young Africa was in favor of it." . . .
"That was how the breach occurred."

The change of the economic, legal, social and political relationship
and views of the colored people during Reconstruction, eventuated,
to the profound sorrow of such Seminary leaders as Adger and
Girardeau, in their organic separation from the white Presbyterian
Church. An article in the Southern Presbyterian Review of April,
1868 on the Future of the Freedmen attributes a part of this result
to the activities of ministers (white and black) sent from the North

[ 29-C ]

to preach who "are simply political emissaries." But the labors
of men like Jones, Adger and Girardeau could not be forgotten,
no matter what the provocation. In 1885 Dr. R. C. Reed a
man who was to give the best quarter century of his life to Co-
lumbia wrote in the Southern Presbyterian Review, urging the
Southern Presbyterian Church to do something more adequate for
the freedmen.

To this new call Columbia has contributed Dr. C. A. Stillman
(Class of 1844) and Dr. J. R. Howerton (Class of 1885). The life,
labors, and love for the colored brethren of such men have brought
into being an institute for the training of colored ministers at Tusca-
loosa, Alabama, now known as Stillman Institute. The Souvenir
of the 1924 Assembly described Dr. C. A. Stillman as the founder
and father of this Institute. This Institute is sending a small, but
steady stream of colored preachers into the work of building up
colored churches and Sunday schools in the South, and into the
foreign mission service. Among these latter, may be mentioned, the
recently deceased colored brother, William H. Sheppard. Sheppard
helped open the Southern Church's mission in the Congo ; and later
labored in the work of colored evangelization under the Southern
Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

The 1927 minutes show, as a result of Stillman Institute, the
Synod of Snedecor Memorial with 45 colored ministers; 48 churches;
1,573 communicants; and 165 (about 10^4 ) added last year on
confession of faith.

r 3o-c

The Chalmers of the Disruption

Columbia's greatest contribution to Southern Presbyterian mis-
sions was J. Leighton Wilson, denoted by his illustrious biographer,
Hampden C. DuBose, as "The Chalmers of the Disruption."

And perhaps, the greatest single service rendered to the Southern
Church by Dr. Wilson was the report of the Committee on Foreign
Missions to this First Southern Presbyterian General Assembly. In
this report adopted by a church struggling to birth in the throes
of an agonizing war, is seen "the sublime spectacle of faith" . . .
"a church hedged in by a cordon of armies, looking out upon the
whole world as its field."

"Finally, the General Assembly desires distinctly and deliberately
to inscribe on our church's banner as she now first unfurls it to the
world; in immediate connection with the Headship of our Lord,
His last command: 'Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel
to every creature' ; regarding this as the great end of her organization,
and obedience to it as the indispensable condition of her Lord's
promised presence, and as one great comprehensive object, a proper
conception of whose vast magnitude and grandeur is the only thing
which, in connection with the love of Christ, can ever sufficiently
arouse her energies and develop her resources, so as to cause her
to carry on with the vigor and efficiency which true fealty to her Lord
demands, those other agencies necessary to her internal growth and
home prosperity. The claims of this cause ought therefore to be
kept constantly before the minds of the people and pressed upon
their consciences."

Wilson's early love for the colored brother, both at home and
abroad, has been noticed. He labored for almost twenty years
(1833-1852) under the A. B. C. F. M. in the African mission-
first at Cape Palmos, then in the Gaboon Mission. His work in-
volved that of naturalist, explorer, linguist, and author as well as
preacher. Wilson's Western Africa: Its History, Condition and
Prospects, New York, 1856, an encyclopaedic book, received the
highest praise from Dr. Livingstone. His biographer gives Wilson
large credit for the final suppression of the African slave trade.
A British naval squadron was at work trying to break up this evil
practice. There was agitation in England to recall the squadron.
Wilson wrote an urgent paper in favor of the maintenance of the
squadron in African waters; and sent it to a wealthy Bristol mer-
chant. The merchant gave it to Lord Palmerston, who published
it in the British Blue Book. The Premier had it widely dissemi-

[31-C]

nated, and afterward informed Wilson that, with the publication
of his article, all English opposition to the retention of the African
squadron ceased.

Returning to America on account of ill-health, Dr. Wilson was
elected a Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions
in 1853. The Memoirs preserve letters from Mr. Wm. Rankin,
Treasurer; and from Dr. John D. Wells, President of the Board,
each testifying to the high esteem in which Wilson was held by his
associates in this office. Of particular moment was Wilson's ad-
vocacy of the sending of Rev. A. G. Smyington, at his own request,
to Brazil. By this act, the Presbyterian Church launched its mis-
sionary work in Latin America. Dr. Charles Hodge, who came
into close contacts with Dr. Wilson, in connection with the fre-
quent visits of the Secretary to the Seminary, is quoted, as having
said to Dr. Samuel B. Jones, that, "Dr. Leighton Wilson was the
wisest man in the Presbyterian Church, and had more of the apostolic
spirit than any one he ever knew." Dr. Wilson's training in the
thoroughly organized offices of the New York Board was to be in-
valuable in the organization of the work in the South.

With the outbreak of the war he saw, from his New York watch-
tower, the great power, the tremendous forces of the North, and
their fixed determination to crush secession the hopeless odds, but
declared "My mind is made up. I will go and suffer with my
people."

On the advice of the Presbyterian Convention held in Atlanta
he visited the Indian Missions in the summer of 1861, so that he
was ready to present this work to the first Southern General As-
sembly, as a definite foreign missionary work ready for its immediate
care. The missionaries to the southwestern Indian tribes, the Choc-
taws, Chickasaws, Seminoles and Cherokees, were ready to cast in
their lot with the Southern Church ; and this trust was by that church
accepted "with joyful gratitude to God."

The first Assembly practically placed the organization of its
Foreign Mission work in the hands of Columbia Seminary. It
elected for Secretary Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, D. D., a member
of Columbia's first class and the first student president of its Society
of Missionary Inquiry. It elected for treasurer, Dr. James Wood-
row, Perkins Professor of Natural Science in connection with Rev-
elation.

Dr. Wilson nominated Columbia as the location of the committee;
and in the home of Professor Woodrow work was centered for
many years. One reason Wilson gave for locating in Columbia
was the facility with which a committee could be organized of the
able ministers there. In addition to Dr. Woodrow on the first com-

[ 32-C ]

mittee were Professors Thornwell, Howe and Adger of the Seminary
Faculty, A. A. Porter and F. P. Mullally of the Alumni and a group
of Columbia elders most closely connected with the Seminary.

Of invaluable aid in this work was the business and executive
ability, the multifarious service, and unswerving honesty of Dr.
James Woodrow. Testimonials by Dr. A. M. Fraser, Dr. Thomas
H. Law, and General W. A. Clark show that, in order to revive
the Southern Presbyterian in 1865, Dr. Woodrow hauled its printing
press to Columbia with a cart, a mule, and at times his own shoulder
and in Columbia at a personal loss published both this and the
Southern Presbyterian Review. A part of his own home was set
aside as the Presbyterian Publishing House. Dr. Law says, "He
proposed to open and conduct a book depository in Columbia for
the supply of our people with much needed religious literature."
"In carrying out these plans Dr. Woodrow became a sort of facto-
tum of our church in this section. We looked to him for informa-
tion on all subjects; we got our books and writing materials at his
hands; and even sent all kinds of Church contributions through his
hands."

Owing to the serious embarrassments to the work of the Executive
Committee of Domestic Missions caused by the war, Dr. Wilson
proposed to the General Assembly of 1863 a temporary union of
the two committees. This step was taken by that Assembly. The
United Committee on Domestic and Foreign Missions was composed
of the same executive officers and included the same members of the
Seminary Faculty as the former Committee of Foreign Mission. It
was a Columbia Committee centering in, and functioning from the
Seminary. The consolidated committee resolved to try to put one
chaplain in every brigade. The secretary sent out a circular letter
to eighty ministers and before July (Assembly met in May) sixty
of these brethren were in the field. Among the foremost of the
Confederate war chaplains stand the names of Benjamin M. Palmer
Columbia Seminary's rich gift to New Orleans and John L.
Girardeau, called from his colored mission to preach the religion of
power to the soldiers.

It was in sustaining, holding together, building up the torn frag-
ments of the Southern Zion after the war, that Dr. J. L. Wilson
and his committee shine with brightest brilliance. No sooner did
the bugle call to battle cease to be heard than he seized the gospel
trumpet and, with its clarion notes, summoned the church to action.
He breathed upon the church the spirit of consecration, awoke the
slumbering energies of the people of fresh resolve, encouraged the
faint-hearted. His office became the "connectional centre" of the

[33-C]

church, and as corresponding agent he was her chief director. "In
the Southern Synods no one has ever equalled him in the power for
good he exerted, and we believe it is impossible in the future for any
man to obtain the position of commanding influence that he exercised
during the ten years following our civil struggle." He helped minis-
ters find their field or exchange them; and churches find ministers;
he secured and disbursed the funds to maintain struggling churches.
In 1865 he called, "for the restoration of our crippled and broken-
down churches." To the next Assembly he presented the Sustenta-
tion Plan, which was to be the life of the feeble, the new, and the
border churches for many years.

This resulted in a change of the committee name, from Committee
of Domestic Missions to Committee of Sustentation, but the person-
nel continued to be the same as that of the Committee of Foreign
Missions, and the center of the organization and work, the Seminary.
Dr. Craig, a successor to Dr. Wilson in the home work, declares
that, but for this effort of sustentation by Wilson's committee "many
churches would have fallen into disorganization." Dr. DuBose de-
clares that Dr. Wilson was gifted as a financier; in that, even in
years of financial ruin, people listened to the earnestness and solemnity
of his appeal and gave with self-denying hand ; in that, in times of
threatened disaster he would go to the liberal Presbyterians of Ken-
tucky and Missouri, spend a couple of months going from church
to church with soul-stirring addresses and secure the funds for this
work; and in that, he administered his funds with utmost wisdom.
"We doubt if the finances of the church, in any period of the history
of God's people can show greater returns from small investment
than from the money spent in Home Missions during the decade
succeeding the war."

A member of the Columbia Committee, Dr. A. A. Porter, was
sent to visit the state of Texas. His stirring report touched the
committee and Dr. Wilson sounded and re-sounded the appeal for
men for Texas until they were found and sent. Dr. R. L. Dabney
is quoted as saying in the Christian Observer, that "Dr. Wilson
saved Texas to our church." Other plans which Wilson advocated
were the "Relief Fund" for the families of deceased ministers, from
which has grown the work of Ministerial Relief and the Annuity
Plan; and a special collection for the evangelistic work.

In the department of Foreign Missions Dr. Wilson kept alive
the work for the Indians during the war. He found a way, even
amidst Reconstruction, to establish a mission at Hangchow, China,
by the sending of Rev. E. B. Inslee and family there in June, 1866;
to send Miss C. Rouzone back to her native land, Italy, under the

[ 34-C ]

support of the Southern Church, to aid the Waldensian Church; to
open the Brazil Mission and the Columbia Mission in 1869.

With the improvement of home conditions came also a mission
to Greece, and one to Mexico, and finally one to Africa the conti-
nent which had enjoyed the strength of his own youth.

[35-C]

A Notable Succession

Nor has the Seminary's influence in directing the great missionary
forces of the Church ended with Dr. Wilson. Dr. R. C. Reed
points out that, "in furnishing secretaries for the committees of
both Home and Foreign Missions, Columbia Seminary has done a
notable part"; that for almost twenty years (1883-1900), Dr. J. N.
Craig, an alumnus of the Seminary, had the Home Mission work
in hand; and that the retiring Executive Secretary of Home Mis-
sions, Dr. S. L. Morris, is a Columbia man. Dr. Morris' wise and
energetic administration, already extending over more than a quar-
ter of a century, "has marked a new and striking era in this vastly
important and ever-expanding department of the King's business."

Dr. Morris has found time, somehow, to produce several valuable
books, in his own, and other fields of thought. The wide dissemina-
tion of these books, through Bible classes, Mission study classes,
Circles and Brotherhoods, has deepened the church's denominational
consciousness, accentuated her sense of responsibility and obligation,
and stimulated her endeavors. Among these are: At Our Own
Door, the Task That Challenges, Christianizing Christendom, Pres-
byterianism, Principle and Practice, the Country Church, Its Ruin
and Remedy. The Romance of Missions, the Fact of Christianity,
etc.

Dr. Wm. M. McPheeters mentions in the home field the labors
of the following Columbia workers and organizers, Josephus Johnson,
A. P. Smith, and S. F. Tenney in Texas; T. D. Witherspoon and
E. M. Green in Kentucky.

Many others are equally entitled to honorable mention for their
valiant service in the homeland. But the thousand sons of Columbia
have always been willing to belong to

"The legion that never was listed,
That carries no color nor crest,
Yet split in a thousand detachments
Is breaking the road for the rest."

On the present executive force of the Foreign Missionary Com-
mittee Columbia is represented by Dr. J. O. Reavis, for ten years
Professor of English Bible, Missions, etc., in the Seminary; and by
Dr. C. Darby Fulton, an alumnus with a record for distinguished
missionary service in Japan.

On the basis of his earlier Retrospect and the catalogues of the
Seminary, Dr. Wm. M. McPheeters gives the following list of
Columbia Theological Seminary Alumni who have gone as Foreign
Missionaries:

[ 36-C ]

To Africa F. McC. Grissett, Cameroun, W. Africa; Samuel
H. Wilds, Luebo, Congo Beige, Africa; C. L. Voss, J. Leighton
Wilson, Hoyt Miller.

To India L. L. McBryde, M. M. Charlton.

To China S. R. Brown, R. C. Way, J. W. Quarteman, J. K.
Wight, J. A. Danforth, H. C. DuBose, J. N. Montgomery, H. M.
Smith, P. C. DuBose, Geo. A. Hudson, S. I. Woodbridge, H. L.
Reaves, W. P. Mills (Y. M. C. A.), W. B. White.

Japan S. R. Hope, R. E. McAlpine, S. P. Fulton, C. Reese
Jenkins, W. B. Mcllhvaine, C. Darby Fulton, V. A. Crawford,
H. H. Bryan.

United States of Columbia, and thence to Mexico and Cuba
J. G. Hall.

To the Indians A. M. Watson, C. J. Stillman, J. H. Colter,
J. J. Read, J. C. Kennedy.

Brazil Wm. C. Emerson, J. R. Baird, H. S. Allyn, A. L.
Davis, W. G. Neville, Geo. Henderlite, R. D. Damn, J. Knox
Johnston.

Korea L. O. McCutchen, D. A. Swicord, John McEachern,
W. A. Linton.

Mexico Walter E. Shive.

Persia Knoshaba Shimmon.

Central America J. T. Butler.

Siam Alexander Waite, James Waite.

The Church fruitage of the work of Dr. Wilson, his colaborers,
and successors on the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions has
been a missionary communion. For the last five years the Southern
Presbyterian Church has contributed from $1,200,000 to $1,500,000
per year for the support of its foreign missionary enterprise. The
year which closed April 1, 1927, saw $1,662,443.84 contributed for
Foreign Missions. Its per capita gifts for all denominational benevo-
lences for the same period have been about twelve dollars a year.
A summary of the 1926 mission statistics shows that she has a native
Christian constituency of 103,620; a native communicant member-
ship of 47,879; a force of 499 foreign and 3,606 native workers,
laboring in 1,664 outstations and 314 organized congregations.

A comparison of these figures with the givings and per capita
givings of the Old School Assembly would indicate that the Southern
Presbyterian Church has had some success in realizing the purpose
avowed for it by Dr. Thornwell to bring out the energies of our
Presbyterian system of government. In 1859, under that board
system against which Thornwell protested, the Old School Assembly,
with 279,630 members, contributed $114,962 for Foreign Missions,
and slightly less than two dollars per capita for all denominational
benevolences. -

Social Service

Among the sons of Columbia, sent out by the Southern Presby-
terian Church, perhaps none has a deeper hold on the affectionate
memory of the church than Hampden C. DuBose the biographer
of Dr. J. L. Wilson. Dr. DuBose was a South Carolinian, a
Confederate soldier and for almost fifty years, a soldier of the
Cross claiming for his King the city of Soochow, China, (1872-
1910). He preached indefatigably in the market and the street.
He used his pen in translating and in writing a religious literature
for the Chinese. Among these works he translated a book by his
old Seminary professor, Dr. Wm. S. Plumer The Rock of Our
Salvation. He was made President of the Chinese Anti-Opium
League and wrought so effectively in that endeavor that the move-
ment to suppress the opium traffic became "the strongest movement
in China." Dr. Tenney described its victory thus:

"He (DuBose) appealed to Rt. Hon. John Mosley, to members
of the British Parliament, to President Roosevelt, to the American
consuls in China, and interviewed Governor Chen, of the Province
of Kiangsu, to Viceroy Luan Fang, in Nanking, who suggested
'a memorial signed by the Missionaries,' promising to present it to
the Throne. Dr. DuBose wrote the memorial, secured 'the signa-
tures of 1,333 American and British missionaries,' and these were
presented to the throne on August 19th. On September 20th, the
Imperial edict was issued 'an almost verbatim copy of the memorial
written by Dr. DuBose.' "

Dr. H. A. White quotes this estimate of Dr. DuBose made by
an observing traveler in the East, "This daring and chivalrous soldier
of a great ideal lived to see the approach of the consummation of
the noblest ministry a white man ever rendered China."

An excellent example of a crusader for civic righteousness is to be
found in the protagonist of the non-secular character of the Church,
Dr. B. M. Palmer, Jr. In the effort to free the State of Louisiana
from the lottery, Dr. Palmer took a most conspicuous part. In
addition to earlier services, he was called upon to make the keynote
speech in the campaign of 1891, carried on by the Louisiana Anti-
Lottery League. On this occasion he was introduced by Colonel
Wm. Preston Johnston, Chancellor of Tulane University, as "the
first citizen of New Orleans." The following tribute by a Jewish
Rabbi to this speech would indicate that he measured up to the
occasion and the introduction:

[38-C]

"I have heard the foremost American public speakers, in the
pulpit and on the rostrum. Beecher commanded a more lurid
rhetoric than Palmer. For a combination of logical argument
and noble and brilliant rhetoric, neither he nor any other has
equalled Palmer, when he was at his best. I heard him that
night in the Grand Opera House. Always, except on this occa-
sion, when listening to an address, even a great one, I have been
able to say to myself how far do you agree with the speaker?
What do you reject? How far will you go with him? Where
will you stop? But I give you my word, sir, that night Dr.
Palmer did not permit me to think for myself, but picked me
up and carried me whithersoever he would. It did not seem
to me that it was Palmer that was speaking. He spoke as one
inspired. It seemed to me that God Almighty was speaking
through Palmer. He had filled him with His Spirit and Mes-
sage as He filled the Hebrew prophets of old."

Perhaps an even stronger testimony from this distinguished Rabbi
is the fact the next morning after the speech he advised a wealthy
friend to draw out of the lottery, declaring that it was doomed, for
"Dr. Palmer has spoken." This speech aroused the moral sense
of Louisiana and was regarded by the able Rabbi as essential to the
victory of the anti-lottery crusade (563). Under Palmer's inspiring
leadership the victory was won and the lottery banished.

Dr. S. M. Tenney, the curator of the Historical Foundation of
the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches, has had this to say in
the introduction to a souvenir issued for the General Assembly of
1924:

Much is said today of the ministry and social problems.
Our church is noted for its conservatism. Yet among these
(leaders of the church) are three, whose names will ever be
connected with great social reforms, Dr. J. L. Wilson, with the
cessation of the British slave traffic, Dr. B. M. Palmer, with
the expulsion of the lottery from our borders, and Dr. H. C.
DuBose with the opium reform in China.

In a day, when every organization is stressing its accomplishments
in the field of social betterment, Dr. Tenney has chosen to summarize
the accomplishments of the Southern Church in that field, and he
has used wholly the names of Columbia alumni.

With this record of the work of some of the illustrious sons of
the Seminary should be placed the name of another of the sons of
Columbia a son, not of the class rooms of the institutions; but of
her families and of her homes, of her religious faith and life. The

[ 39-C ]

man who has probably done more than any other statesman in history
to give the world an international conscience was, in this sense, a
son of Columbia.

Her library fed his alert mind ; her sacred rhetoric awoke the
strains of eloquence in his soul. In a series of prayer meetings held
in the old Seminary Chapel, the boy Tom was converted and con-
fessed his Saviour. Virginia, the mother of Presidents, needs no
recessional to foster her pride as the place of his birth; Episcopacy
seeks no throbbing elegy to hallow the cathedral tomb of his body;
but alas! how little has a debtor world remembered this School
of the Prophets, as the communion of the saints in which and of
which, by God's grace, his spirit was reborn for eternity. The
father of this great American was Professor of Pastoral and Evan-
gelistic Theology and Sacred Rhetoric in Columbia Theological
Seminary during the years when the boy was changing from child-
hood to manhood. A maternal uncle, Dr. James Woodrow, was,
in the same institution, Perkins Professor of Natural Science in
Connection with Revelation. A sister married Dr. George Howe,
the son of that professor, who exceeded all others in years of service
given Columbia. This sister, Mrs. George Howe, was a frequent
visitor to the White House until her death. The mingled and
various emotions which the name of this son have brought to the
patriots of a score of nations, to the statesmen of the world, to the
idealists of all climes, to every lover of peace are too many and too
deep to here present. Sympathizing with, and sharing in these emo-
tions, Columbia rejoices in the privilege which was hers of giving,
for this world vision and service, of her blood, of her homes, of her
faith, of her ideals, of two of her names, honored for their Columbia
devotion and ability doubly honored as they stand united in this
rich gift of the Seminary, this twentieth century apostle of world
brotherhood, world democracy, world peace. Woodrow Wilson.

r 4o-c ]