Columbia Theological Seminary Bulletin, 46, number 2, September 1953

John Bulow Campbell Memorial Librar

Bulletin

COLUMBIA

THEOLOGICAL

SEMINARY

Decatur, Georgia

Y f f

Dedication of John Bulow Campbell Library

Memorials in the Library

Dedicatory Address Dr. E. D. Kerr

VOL. XLVI SEPTEMBER, 1953 No. 2

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Entered as second-class matter, May 9, 1928, at the post office at Decatur, Georgia under the Act of

August 24, 1912.
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY AT DECATUR, GEORGIA

1 i 1

Dedication of
John Bulow Campbell Library

On May 19, 1953, Columbia Seminary's John Bulow Campbell Library,
named in honor of a distinguished elder of the Central Presbyterian
Church, Atlanta, Ga., was formally dedicated to the glory of God and
for the service of the Church. Dr. Stuart R. Oglesby, a member of the
Board of Directors of the seminary and former pastor of Mr. Campbell,
presided at the service and led the audience in the Ritual of Dedication.

Dr. J. McDowell Richards, President of the seminary, made brief
remarks expressing appreciation for the many gifts which had made
the new building possible and presented for the archives of the seminary
a handsome "Book of Remembrance" which contains the name of every
known contributor to the building fund. He paid especial tribute to Mr.
Campbell as a man without whose aid the present work of Columbia
Seminary would not have been possible. Mr. Campbell became greatly
interested in this institution at the time of the campaign for its re-
moval from Columbia, S. C. to Decatur, Ga. in 1925. The administration
building of the seminary was given by him as a memorial to his mother.
He was a Director of the Seminary from 1926 until the time of his death
in 1940, serving during most of that period as Chairman of both its
Executive and its Investment Committees. On repeated occasions he made
generous contributions to its work. In speaking of him and of his part
in the life of Columbia Seminary Dr. Richards borrowed the famous
phrase inscribed to Sir Christopher Wren on the wall of St. Paul's
Cathedral in London: "Reader, if you would see his monument, look
about you." The monument in this case, he said, was not merely the
library building but also the seminary as a whole.

Dr. S. A. Cartledge, Professor of New Testament Language and
Literature, offered the invocation and pronounced the benediction. Mr.
Harold B. Prince, librarian, read the Scripture and accepted the memo-
rials. Dr. E. D. Kerr, Professor of Old Testament Language and Litera-
ture, made the dedicatory address and Dr. Wm. C. Robinson, Professor
of Church History and Polity, offered the dedicatory prayer.

Plans for the library, which was erected and equipped at a cost of
approximately $350,000, were drawn by the firm of Logan and Williams,
Architects, Atlanta, Ga. The building is of brick and limestone construc-
tion, is fire-proof and air-conditioned throughout, and, like other build-
ings of the seminary, is of academic Gothic design. Space is provided
for a collection of 100,000 volumes on the two stack levels which lie
immediately under the beautiful and well lighted Gothic reading room.
Thirty-six study carrels have been provided on the north side of the
stack rooms. The building also contains the librarian's office, work rooms,
seminar rooms, an audio-visual classroom, a typing room, rooms for
special collections of books and magazines, and rest rooms. It has al-
ready come to occupy a place of indispensable importance in the life of
the seminary.

Memorials in Connection with
the Library

As the name of the building implies, the new library is first of all a
memorial to Mr. Campbell. This fact is indicated on the bronze plaque
placed in its entrance way and bearing the following inscription:

The John Bulow Campbell Library
erected in grateful tribute to a noble christian gentleman.

JOHN BULOW CAMPBELL

1870-1940

BUSINESS MAN - PHILANTHROPIST - PATRIOT

FOR THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS A RULING ELDER OF
THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GA.

A DIRECTOR AND BENEFACTOR OF COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,

WITHOUT WHOSE AID THE PRESENT WORK OF THIS INSTITUTION WOULD

NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE.

A FAITHFUL SERVANT OF CHRIST

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith."

The library also contains many other individual memorials. Opposite the
tribute to Mr. Campbell in the entrance way is another bronze plaque
on which have been inscribed the names of 161 individuals or churches
who had a part of special importance in making the building possible.
The reading room is a gift of the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta
in honor of the late Dr. J. Sprole Lyons and a bronze plaque upon its
east wall bears the following appropriate legend:

THIS READING ROOM WAS GIVEN BY THE CONGREGATION

OF

THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GA.

IN MEMORY OF

REV. J. SPROLE LYONS, D. D., LL. D.

1861-1942

FOR TWENTY-TWO YEARS A BELOVED PASTOR OF THAT CHURCH

GREAT EXPOSITORY PREACHER

ECCLESIASTICAL STATESMAN

MODERATOR OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,

u.s. 1913

A LEADER OF THE MOVEMENT WHICH BROUGHT COLUMBIA SEMINARY

TO GEORGIA

A DIRECTOR OF COLUMBIA SEMINARY 1926-1942
CHAIRMAN OF ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS 1933-1941

"He Being Dead Yet Liveth"

The following portions of the building or its equipment bear bronze
plates indicating that they are named in honor of the persons or the
groups indicated:

The Charge Desk: Mr. John McLeod
Seminar Room: Dr. John McSween
Librarian's Office: James Harvey Whitten, Jr.

Stacks

Mrs. Eliza Newton Conyers
Dr. and Mrs. Ray Evers
Miss C. Virginia Harrison
Rev. and Mrs. Edgar D. Kerr
Mr. Wm. M. Morgan
Mr. John M. Saunders
Mr. Wm. A. L. Sibley
Rev. Alexander Sprunt, D.D.
Mr. and Mrs. George White
Mr. and Mrs. H. Lane Young

Carrels

Rev. J. H. Alexander

Mrs. Susan Ann Newton Bennett

Central Presbyterian Church, Athens, Ga.

Mrs. Mary Small Cunningham

Rev. James Lanier Doom

Easley Presbyterian Church, Easley, S. C.

Faculty and Students of Columbia Seminary

First Presbyterian Church, Bessemer, Ala.

Mrs. Gussie Parkhurst Hill

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur E. Holman

Mrs. R. J. Knight and Mrs. C. M. Richards

Mr. and Mrs. W. V. Ludlam

Frederick Bennett Montanus

Mrs. C. E. Neisler

Rev. Ewell Lee Nelson

Mr. J. F. Schroeter

David Charles Shaw, Sr.

John Richard Snodgrass

H. L. Smith

Dr. J. Holmes Smith, Jr.

Rev. Ellison Adger Smyth

Lulu and Lamar Wescott

Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Woolfolk

Many other memorials, smaller in size, but of no less sacred signifi-
cance and no less deeply appreciated, are recorded in "The Book of
Remembrance" which is on display in the library.

The Place and Importance of Books in the
Quest for Knowledge

(Dedicatory Address Delivered by Dr. E. D. Kerr J

The desire to know seems to be universal in the human race. But what
one desires or aspires to know is properly a matter of great concern. To know
many incidental and unimportant details of the daily life of neighbors near
or far is of no consequence. But to know as much as possible of the course
of human history; of the progress and content of the best human thought;
of the vision and sacrificial devotion of heroes and martyrs who have given
themselves and their all that men might be enlightened and blessed; of the
message of God and righteousness and redemption granted to men through
prophets and seers such things as these are vital to any full and satisfying
intellectual and spiritual life.

In pursuit of the interests just indicated books are essential. But it is
often plausibly maintained that our generation is little concerned with such
interests. To quote: "What do we as a nation care about books?" How much
do we spend altogether on our libraries, public or private, as compared with
what we spend on our amusements, or our needless or harmful indulgences?
Even with regard to shrines of higher thought consider the following. The
story was recently published of a large state university that found itself
with $1,500,000 of undesignated surplus money. It was earnestly recom-
mended that this money be used to improve the library facilities. But the
governing board in cavalier assembly resolved to add 20,000 seats to the
athletic stadium. In contrast, Dean Roberts of Princeton Theological Semi-
nary has declared that next to the faculty the library is the most important
concern of any theological school; and the same applies to any worthy
educational institution.

Books, then, are essential to all who aspire beyond the simplest material
and animal interests. Few would deny that a book that is merely innocently
amusing may have a proper place in our interest. But from this point we
shall have in mind only books of serious purpose, books in which are stored
the treasures of knowledge, thought, aspiration and discovery of the ages.
Books are not absolutely dead things. They impel the soul of the reader to
be as active as the soul that produced them. A book that comes from the
heart will reach other hearts. Great is the power of books and their worth
immeasurable.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, no doubt with a library in mind, says:

"I am the owner of the sphere,
Of the seven stars and the solar year,
Of Caesar's hand and Plato's brain,
Of Lord Christ's heart, and Shakespeare's strain."

He proceeds: "There is one mind common to all individual men. Every
man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted
to the right of reason is made a freeman of the whole estate. What Plato
has thought he may think; what a saint has felt he may feel; what at any
time has befallen any man he can understand. He who hath access to this
universal mind is a party to all that is or can be done, for this is the only
and sovereign agent."

What should be our mental attitude in the use of books? A French philos-

opher used to remark, "Nobody ever grew wise from mere reading." Read-
ing has its place, but it must be supplemented by meditation and analysis,
especially self-analysis. So no one will develop a well-rounded Christian
life by merely reading the Bible. That is necessary. But to attain the best
results the truths of the Bible must be incorporated into life and applied
in our daily thought, word and deed.

It is often suggested that it is important to use books with our minds open,
courageous and teachable. Already mention has been made of the frequently
alleged superficial, secular disposition of our generation. We would not
condemn a whole people of any age but there is a spirit here against which
it behooves one to be on guard.

A recent writer has characterized our generation as gnostic. Gnosticism
in his mind is, of course, not the gnosticism of the early Christian centuries,
but a disposition comparable thereto. It may be defined as (alleged) knowl-
edge mystically acquired, and therefore easily acquired and, strange to say,
most tenaciously held. A young student once said that he held to a dis-
pensational theory of the plan of the ages because it represented the realiza-
tion of his childhood dreams. So, much knowledge, falsely so-called, rests
upon one's subjective determination not to face bitter facts or unwelcome
truths. This is a sort of gnosticism. This baseless self-assurance readily
develops into arrogant and bigoted intolerance with a most pernicious per-
secuting complex. It thrives upon disregard for realty, ignorance of facts,
fallacious misconstruction and falsification of history, and irresponsible
opining on the basis of sincere, but untested, conviction. This kind of error
a discerning and receptive use of relevant and sensible books should obviate.

We may note some obstacles to enlightening quest for knowledge and
truth. One, endemic in the human race is mental indolence which readily
suggests that effort in the sphere of higher thought is futile. It is said of the
whole problem of the invisible, "Nothing can be known of it; why worry?"
Thinkers realize that they hardly know their conclusions in the region of
higher intellectual activity in the same way that a material fact is known.
Yet, firm, satisfying and sustaining convictions may be reached. One may
well emulate the courage of Plato. When an interlocutor objected that the
goals of philosophical quest were unattainable, the philosopher responded:
"Many of my conclusions I hold only tentatively, but of this I am sure,
if we give our best efforts to discover truth we shall be better and braver,
less idle and useless."

Francis Bacon is indebted to Plato's image of the cave for his famous
pericope of the idols. Idols here are not graven images, but, in a more
original sense of the word, delusions, false appearances such as the mirage
of the desert. Omar Khayyam, slightly altered, says in substance:

"Indeed the idols I have loved so long
Have done my credit in truth's eyes much wrong:
Have drowned my glory in a shallow cup,
And sold my reputation for a song."

Bacon lists four types of delusion that militate against the quest for truth.
Idols of the tribe are delusions widely prevalent among mankind generally.
For instance, the mind of man is more readily affected by affirmations than
by negations. "If you tell a lie often enough and big enough, it will be widely
believed." How else can we account for the rapid spread of absurd and
irrational cults in religion and economics?

Idols of the den may be untested traditional ideas held and transmitted

by individuals or groups. These ideas are commonly rigorously opposed to
all progress in knowledge or in ethics. For illustration we may use the fol-
lowing story. Boerhaave, about 1700 A. D., in his History of Chemistry
writes of one of his predecessors that, when a book was published containing
reports of experiments which were out of line with own ideas, he would not
read these "lest his system become untwisted." (For the following comment
credit is due to Dr. Kenneth Foreman.) Many theologians are much like
that ancient alchemist. They have a tightly twisted system, a fabric they took
a long time to knit. Unpleasant facts, inconsistent facts, any fact that would
necessitate their going back and doing the system over, anything that would
untwist the fabric a trifle, they decline to consider at all. A student of the
Bible who is acquainted with theological systems any system is constantly
struck by numerous facts and ideas in that book which have been left
out of the systems not to mention facts in ordinary life. Theologians, it
sometimes appears, are more interested in maintaining a closely knit system
than in getting to grips with that elusive thing called life. Which is worse, a
tapestry of thought which is closely woven, but a monochrome, or a tapestry
which, though but loosely put together, yet reflects the varied and even
clashing colors of the real world?

Idols of the market-place, of popular and informal associations of men,
Bacon declares to be most troublesome of all. Names are imposed which
insinuate themselves into the understanding of men, names given according
to crude popular conception and giving no proper grasp of realities. Names
(words) are often deceptive. It is assumed that their mistakenly supposed
meaning properly describes the object to which they are casually applied.
The remedy must begin in definition. But definition is in words: and the
real remedy can be approached only through most careful and discriminating
thought.

The idols of the theater Bacon dismisses from consideration very lightly,
and no attempt at elaboration of his suggestion will be made here. One may
think of all the world as a stage and ourselves as players thereon, where any
sham deceives no others so much as ourselves.

A bit of preachment suggesting the nature of high truth and its applica-
tion in the true life will hardly be out of place in this company. Thomas
Carlyle was a valiant foe of idols and seeker for truth. Teufelsdroeckh, his
hero in Sartar Resartus, had his own notions about human dignity. The graces
of palaces did not make him forget the humble cottages of the poor. Carlyle's
words may imply a poorer economic system than now prevails in some more
fortunate and more enlightened parts of the world; but the picture is still
essentially true. He speaks:

"Two men I honor and no third. First the toil-worn craftsman that with
earth-made implement laboriously conquers the earth and makes her man's.
"Venerable to me is the hard hand, crooked, coarse, wherein notwithstand-
ing lies a cunning virture, indefeasibly royal, as of the sceptre of this planet.

"Oh, but the more venerable for thy rudeness, and even because we must
pity as well as love thee. Hardly entreated brother! For us was thy back
so bent, for us were thy straight limbs and fingers so deformed: thou wert
our conscript on whom the lot fell, and fighting our battles wert so marred.
For in thee too lay a God-created form, but it was not to be unfolded; en-
crusted must it stand with the thick adhesions and defacements of labor,
and thy body, like thy soul, was not to know freedom.

"Yet toil on, toil on: thou art in thy duty, be out of it who may; thou
toilest for the altogether indispensable, for daily bread.

"A second man 1 honor, and still more highly: Him who is seen toiling
for the spiritually indispensable: not daily bread, but the bread of life. Is
not he too in his duty; endeavoring towards inward harmony; revealing this
by act or by word, through all his outward endeavors, be they high or low?

"Highest of all, when his outward and his inward endeavors are one:
when we can name him artist; not earthly craftsman only, but inspired
thinker, who with heaven-made implement conquers heaven for us!

"If the poor and humble toil that we may have food, must not the high
and glorious toil for him in return that he may have light, have guidance,
freedom, immortality?

"These two in all their degrees I honor: All else is chaff and dust, which
let the wind blow whither it listeth.

"Unspeakably touching is it, however, when I find both dignities united;
and he that must toil outwardly for the lowest of man's wants is also toiling
inwardly for the highest.

"Sublimer in this world know I nothing than a peasant saint, could such
now anywhere be met with.

"Such a one will take thee back to Nazareth itself, and thou wilt see the
splendor of heaven spring forth from the humblest depths of earth like a
light shining in great darkness."

"Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?"
Along with all other suggestions, we need the teachable spirit, openness to
conviction, and submissiveness to all discovered truth. Books are an in-
dispensable tool. May we use them in the true spirit of humble and reverent
inquiry!