Columbia Theological Seminary Bulletin, 4, number 1, January 1911

BULLETIN

OF

OF THE

Synods of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida, Located at
Columbia, South Carolina.

Published Quarterly by the Board of Directors of the Theological Seminary of the

Synods of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama, of the

Presbyterian Church in the United States.

VOLUME 4.

JANUARY, 1911,

No. 1

THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AS A HOME MIS-
SIONARY AGENCY.

Facts Worth Pondering.

Few perhaps are in the habit of thinking of our several
Theological Seminaries as Home Missionary agencies. Hence
a glance at the following table may bring a surprise to many.
It shows the number of students in the Middle (30) and
Junior (23) Classes at Union Seminary, Virginia, last session
(1909-'10), the Synods from which they came, and the Synods
in which they labored last summer.

H.

Miss'n

Union Seminary

Students

IN

Workers

i

From

co

CO

CO

CO

CO

CO

a -

CO
CO

Synod.

o

d

s

D

d
3

>

-4->

d

*c3
o

Virginia

11

8

19

19

17

36

North Carolina

5

8

13

4

3

7

Alabama

1

1

Georgia

4

2

6

Florida

2

1

3

Mississippi

4

4

2

2

Tennessee

1

1

Arkansas

1

1

1

1

Texas

1

1

Missouri

1

2

3

1

1

2

Louisiana

1

1

1

1

Canada

1

1

Unaccounted for

o

2

2

The foregoing table shows that for the four summer months
not less than forty-three of the mission fields of the Synods of
Virginia and North Carolina were ministered to by the students
of the Middle and Junior Classes at Union Seminary. Seven
mission fields in other Synods were also cared for by workers
from the same source, making thus the handsome total of fifty
workers for Home Mission fields. What such work means
for the permanent development of the Synods that enjoy the
benefit of it will be matter of comment later.

An Equally Significant Table.

The following table gives similar data for Columbia Sem-
iary during the same period. It tells also the same story:

Home Miss'n

Columbia Seminary

Students

IN

Workers
From

Synods.

a

d

o

O

C/3

*d

a

c/r

(A

a

d

O

South Carolina

2

5

7

6

2

8

Georgia

North Carolina

1

2

1

2
2

3
1

3
1

Tennessee

1

1

Kentucky

Florida

6

1

7

1

13

1

1

Total

From these figures it will be seen eight mission fields in
South Carolina and three in Georgia were supplied for the
summer months by students from last year's Middle and
Junior Classes at Columbia Seminary. It is of course to be
regretted that no more mission fields in the territory of Colum-
bia Seminary had similar student supplies for the summer. It
should not be overlooked, however, that the supply of student-
workers in this territory was limited only because the supply
of students at Columbia Seminary was limited. In other
words, had there been, say nine, more students at Columbia

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Seminary there is every reason to believe that nine more of
the mission fields in the territory that Columbia was founded
to serve would have been supplied.

Permanent Results of Student Summer Work.

Some may be under the impression that student work during
the summer vacation is, after all, merely a negligible quantity
in the permanent development and upbuilding of the Church.
The facts, however, point to just the opposite conclusion. The
facts show that where students labor during term-time and
during their summer vacation, there they tend to settle on
leaving the Seminary. For instance, of the thirteen young men
who graduated from Union Seminary, seven took work in
Virginia, and three in North Carolina ; one settled in Alabama,
and one went to Africa. Of the seven settling in Virginia one
expects ultimately to go to the foreign field.

Similarly of the seven young men who graduated from
Columbia Seminary last spring, four settled in the Synod of
South Carolina, two in Alabama and one in North Carolina.

Now it- is not an accident that the Synods nearest to our
Seminaries get the lion's share of the graduates from these
institutions. The explanation is that the churches adjacent to
the Seminaries being accessible to students are served by them
during term-time and during their Seminary vacations. The
result is that relations are formed between the students and
the churches thus served which in many instances mature
in the most natural and satisfactory way into permanent
pastorates.

A Shining Illustration.

The following concrete case speaks for itself: Within the
past four years the chairman of the Home Missions Committee
in a single Presbytery of the Synod of South Carolina has
secured from Columbia Seminary permanent supplies for no
less than seventeen of the home mission fields of that Pres-
bytery.

An Important Corollary.

The facts given above are worth considering from yet
another point of view. Do they not justify the wisdom of our
fathers from Princeton to California, and from New York to
Texas in distributing centers of theological education through-
out the Church rather than centralizing this .important work
in one or two sections of the Church? Notice: Out of just
fifty-three men in last year's Middle and Junior Classes at
Union Seminary who were available men for student summer
work, the Synods of Virginia and North Carolina furnished
thirty-two and got forty-three. Whereas, the Synods of
Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi and
Texas between them furnished eleven and got only six. And
the Synods of Georgia and Florida furnished nine and got
none.

Again, of just thirteen young men in last year's Senior Class
available for the permanent work of the ministry, the Synods
of Virginia and North Carolina furnished eight and got ten.
Whereas, while the Synods of South Carolina, Arkansas and
Tennessee between them furnished five men to that Class, not
a single one of these three Synods got from it a single minister.

And what was true of Union Seminary was true also of
Columbia. Of just thirteen men in last year's Middle and
Junior Classes at that institution, the Synods of South Carolina
and Georgia furnished eight and got eleven. And, whereas,
the Synods of Tennessee and North Carolina between them
furnished four men to the Class, they got but one worker
from it.

And of the seven men in last year's Senior Class at Columbia
Seminary who became available for the permanent work of
the ministry, the Synod of South Carolina furnished three and
got four; the Synod of North Carolina furnished two and
got one.

The figures we have been giving are no cause for either
surprise or complaint. They only show that the Seminaries
mentioned each according to the opportunity afforded it are
doing the very work they were primarily founded to do
namely, supplying their respective constituencies with ministers.

It is for that specific purpose tho not for that purpose exclu-
sively that each of these Seminaries was originally founded
and located just where it is.

The Law of Supply and Demand.

Modern business methods are again illustrating the fact that
the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the
children of light. No doubt there is in very truth such a thing
as a "law of supply and demand.'' Formerly business men
trusted to this law r to work itself. Latterly, however, they have
begun to work it. The motto of the modern captain of indus-
try is, "Create a demand for what you have." He does not
wait for some one to come to him with a demand for his
goods. He "goes after business." Home Missions is the
Church's means of creating a demand for what she has to
offer.

Humanly speaking, the probable measure of the development
of any Church or of any section of a given branch of the
Church is its willingness and its ability to create a growing-
demand for the gospel that it is commissioned to preach. A
larger body of students at Columbia Seminary means a larger
home mission force for the Synods controlling that institution.
That means a growing Church in these Synods.

"Who is wise, let him understand these things ; and prudent,
let him know them."

COLUMBIA SEMINARY SMYTHE LECTURES.

The Seminary at Columbia and the Presbyterian Church in
South Carolina is, in more ways than one, indebted to the late
Dr. Thomas Smythe, of Charleston. What seems likely to
prove a benevolence of large value, not only to Columbia
Seminary, and the Synod of South Carolina, but to the entire
Church, is the provision made by Dr. Smythe in his will for
the establishment of a course of lectures to be delivered each
year before the faculty and students of the Seminary. He set
apart this is mentioned not only as a matter of interesting
information, but in the hope that it will prove to be a valuable
suggestion to some Christian man or woman under whose eyes
these lines may fall he set apart, in his will, we say, a sum of

6

money, the interest on which was to be allowed to accumulate
and turned back upon the principal until the latter should yield
an income sufficient to serve as an adequate foundation for a
lectureship, after which the entire interest for each successive
year was to be devoted to the purpose mentioned.

At its last meeting, the board found that the interest upon
this fund had reached the amount named by Dr. Smythe in
his will.

It is with peculiar pleasure that we are now able to announce
that the first series of lectures upon this foundation will be
delivered by the distinguished Dr. Francis L. Patton, of
Princeton Seminary. Dr. Patton's subject will be, The
Fundamentals of Christianity. The lectures will be delivered
on March 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th, consecutively. This
timely notice is to enable persons, especially in the Synod of
South Carolina, who may desire to hear these lectures to
arrange to be present. If notified in time the faculty will be
pleased to try to arrange for the entertainment of any persons
who may desire to hear Dr. Patton.