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 3 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.