Columbia Theological Seminary Bulletin, 29, number 4, July 1936

BULLETIN
COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

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PUBLISHED QUARTERLY AT
DECATUR, GA.

Volume XXIX July, 1936 No. 4

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

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William Marcellus McPheeters

BORN APRIL 8, 1854
DIED AUGUST 14, 1935

PROFESSOR OF

OLD TESTAMENT LITERATURE AND EXEGESIS

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

1888-1935

MEMORIAL SERVICES OF

REV. WILLIAM MARCELLUS McPHEETERS, D.D., LL.D.

SEMINARY CHAPEL

MAY 7, 1936

Dr. J. Sprole Lyons. Chairman of the Board, Presiding

Doxology

Invocation Dr. Lyons

Hymn No. 205

Scripture Lesson Dr. Kerr

Hymn No. 309

Addresses:

Dr. McPheeters The Servant of the Church

Dr. S. C. Byrd, Charlotte, N. C, for the
Alumni

Dr. McPheeters The Educator

Dr. J. McDowell Richards, Columbia
Seminary, for the Faculty

Dr. McPheeters The Man of God

Dr. John McSween, Chester, S. C, for
the Board of Directors

Prayer Dr. Green

Hymn No. 290

Benediction Dr. Lyons

[3]

Dr. McPheeters The Servant of the Church

By Rev. S. C. Byrd, D.D., LL.D.,
Vice-President of Queens-Chicora College, Charlotte, N. C.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

The Rev. William Marcellus McPheeters, A.B., D.D., LL.D.,
was born at St. Louis, Mo., on April 8, 1854. He was a son of the
Rev. Samuel Brown McPheeters, D.D., and Eliza Shanks Mc-
Pheeters. Completing his secondary education in the secondary schools,
he entered Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va., and
graduated with the degree of A.B. in 1874. He then entered
Union Theological Seminary, Hampden-Sydney, now at Richmond,
Va., and graduated in 1878. He was ordained to the ministry of
the Gospel in the Presbyterian Church in the United States by the
Presbytery of Montgomery in 1879. During the nine years follow-
ing his ordination he served as Stated Supply of Liberty Church,
Bedford City, Va., as City Missionary in Lynchburg, Va., as
pastor of Rocky Mount Church. Rocky Mount, Va., and as pastor
of Royal Oak Church, Marion, Va. In 1888 he accepted a call to
the professorship of Biblical Literature and Exegesis in Columbia
Theological Seminary, Columbia, S. C, which position he occupied
until his honorable retirement, by reason of failing health, as Pro-
fessor Emeritus in 193 3.

In 1878 he united in marriage with Miss Emma Gold Morrison,
the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Brown Morrison, M. D.,
of Rockbridge Baths, Va. After a long and happy life together Mrs.
McPheeters preceded him in death by three years. To them were
born four children, all of whom survive: Samuel Brown, Joseph
Charles, Thomas Shanks and Mary Gold, now Mrs. Frank W.
Jarnagin.

His life closed with a long, and at times very painful, illness of
about a year. Through all the period of physical suffering and
weakness, his mental vigor and spiritual grace endured, increasing in
power unto the end. One visiting him in his last days would prob-
ably find by his side on the bed on which he lay some of the beloved
companions of his years the Hebrew, Greek and English Bibles
and standard books and periodicals on subjects in the field of his
life study. He was fully conscious of his condition and declining
physical strength, and, like his Master, steadfastly and triumphantly
set his face toward the last great conflict, in the spirit saying to the
Father, "Not my will but Thine be done." Knowing that his trans-

[5]

lation was near, he arranged and wrote out the entire program for
his funeral, selecting the ministers who would officiate at the service,
the passages of Scripture to be read, the hymns to be sung and the
honorary and active pallbearers. He then passed in quietness and
peace to be with God on August 14, 1935, being 81 years, 4 months
and 6 days of age. His body was laid to rest in Elmwood Ceme-
tery, Charlotte, N. C.

His Contribution to the Church

Any discriminating appraisal of the moulding and productive
forces which have entered into the making of the history of the
Presbyterian Church in the United States during the past half cen-
tury, and have been most dominant in determining the exalted and
noble character of its testimony and service, must include the influ-
ence of certain great personalities, among whom I confidently enroll
the name of William Marcellus McPheeters.

In presenting that phase of the life and service of Dr. McPheeters
assigned to me, I will review especially those ideals and activities
which more or less uniquely characterized his ministry and consti-
tuted its supreme emphases, and wherein lay, in my judgment, his
greatest contribution to the Church. I shall exhibit these under
four heads: his influence as a teacher, as a minister, as a scholar and
as a presbyter.

In the providence of God, the privilege was given to Dr. Mc-
Pheeters for forty-five years to take the sons of the church, who
were called of God to become its teachers and leaders, and to train
them for their high and sacred mission. This he did in an emi-
nently worthy and efficient manner. He was a teacher par excel-
lence, but I am not now wishing to direct attention to his pedagogi-
cal ability and technique, as superior as these were, but to certain
ideals and virtues which, as a teacher, he exemplified in high degree
and inculcated in his classroom, which, flowing up and out, like the
life of a tree, strong and vibrant, and fruiting in his own personality
cast their seeds into the life-soil of his pupils where they germinated
and brought forth an enlarged harvest to the enrichment of their
own lives, and through them the life of the church, as they went
forth to the exercise of their ministry.

The greatest and most permanent influence of Dr. McPheeters
as a teacher lay, I think, within those concepts of truth which he
held dominant in his own life, and which he ever urged upon his
pupils for guidance in their thinking and teaching. These were:
the supreme value of truth, the vital importance of the knowledge

[6]

of truth, the high romance of the love of truth, and the moral obli-
gation imposed by truth. To him truth was a pearl of great price,
the excellency of which is transcendent, and for the possession of
which no cost of time or effort is too great a price to pay. God has
graciously endowed man with the capacity to think His thoughts
after Him, to know the truth and "to enjoy that blessed liberty and
security which is full and triumphant deliverance from all enslaving
fetters of error and falsehood forged by the father of lies." The
altar of truth is an altar for worship, for a man made in the image
of God, and it is a sacrilege too great and too unworthy for any
man, to say nothing of a candidate for the Gospel ministry, "to turn
from this holy temple to offer oblations of any kind upon the pol-
luted shrine of ignorance and falsehood." Hence the acquisition
of truth is the first and great quest. All things must be proved,
therefore, all conclusions must be preceded by the most thorough
and accurate investigation, be based only upon competent evidence,
and be expressed in clear and exact word. Pride, prejudice and
private opinion, rationalistic speculation and utilitarian expediency
can have no standing in this court of inquiry. The spirit of philoso-
phy is the true spirit of the minister of God one who loves truth,
and he is altogether unworthy of his high calling who is controlled
by any other motive. Then having found the truth, one's greatest
duty and sublimest privilege is to hold it fast even though he thereby
suffer ridicule, reviling and persecution. Shame and disgrace be
upon him who is guilty of trimming, compromising, concealing or
neglecting truth. Nothing less than this can be dignified as the
love of truth and be worthy of any serious-minded exponent and
teacher of truth.

Associated in the philosophy and religion of Dr. McPheeters with
the virtue of the love and pursuit of truth was the virtue of hard
work. To him fidelity to duty was a summum bonum, and this
involved the expenditure of every effort needful to attain the goal.
He himself was one of the most conscientiously, systematically and
persistently hard-working men I have ever known, and this ideal
and obligation he inculcated in his classroom by both precept and
example. If any sin in the catalogue of sins in the life of a minis-
terial student was more heinous than all the rest in the sight of Dr.
McPheeters surely it was that of indifference and laziness. Inade-
quate preparation for any worthy task was a matter for shame to
him. He could not conceive how any candidate for the position of
a prophet of God, a messenger of glad tidings of life and salvation
to perishing immortal souls, could trifle with opportunities and
squander time; he could not conceive how any one under a sacred
call to prepare himself for a work for the doing of which the very

[7]

angels might well be envious, could in faithlessness fail to make the
most diligent use of every God-given power and every precious mo-
ment of time; he could not conceive how any beneficiary of the of-
ferings of God's people for his support and education, could be so
indifferent and ungrateful as to be devoid of zeal in preparation for
a proper discharge of his high commission. He had, therefore, just
about as much respect for a slacker Seminary pupil as the patriot
soldier, giving his life on the battle field for his country, has for a
citizen slacker.

Such an emotion for truth, loyalty to truth and such faithfulness
and diligence, exemplified daily by the honored teacher, sent his
pupils forth from the classroom with the glowing torch in their
hands, impelled by a like emotion and loyalty and inspired to be-
come workmen who need not to be ashamed. And surely the South-
ern Presbyterian Church has been greatly strengthened, enriched
and blessed by the love and loyalty to truth and the ministry of
hard work which have characterized that large and influential num-
ber of its ministers who sat at the feet of Dr. McPheeters and
there learned these things.

Dr. McPheeters adorned the profession of the Gospel ministry,
as a holy calling, in like manner and in such degree, as have char-
acterized the large majority of our ministers. In this respect he
had many colleagues and equals. I do not speak now of that splen-
did contribution to the church which he made in common w T ith many
others, but of those features of his ministry which w T ere outstanding,
and in which he excelled.

The first of these features which I shall mention, is his advocacy
and defense of the doctrine of the unity of the church. He firmly
believed that the church visible, as well as invisible, is one body in
Christ, and all believers are members in particular of this one body ;
that the church is an organism and not an organ. In this respect
Presbyterianism is differentiated from Congregationalism, which
makes of each particular congregation a whole, from Episcopacy,
which establishes a system of coordinate monarchies, and from Prel-
acy, which realizes unity in one human head. According to the
Presbyterian principle what affects one part of the church affects
the whole, and because it does, the humblest church member possesses
sacred and inalienable rights with respect to the actions and doc-
trinal decisions of the body as a whole or any part thereof. It fol-
lows, therefore, that the acts and decisions of any part of the church
are, and should be regarded and treated as, of important and vital
concern to every member within the church, and that Presbyterian
Government should declare and grant the right of complaint by any
member of the church, anywhere residing, against any act or decision

[8]

of any court of the church, whether or not the complainant is subject
to the jurisdiction of that court. Not only so, but it likewise im-
poses upon every member of the church at large a solemn, moral
responsibility for maintaining, in both faith and practice, the purity
and integrity of the entire church, by the exercise of this right of
complaint.

Dr. McPheeters revered this principle as not only fundamental
in the Presbyterian system, but also vital in the life of the church.
He believed it and taught it, and, with honesty of conviction and
obedience to conscience, he acted upon it, though his actions were
misunderstood and censured by some, and his pleadings were un-
heeded by others.

Another principle of our standards to which Dr. McPheeters
valiantly adhered and bore a distinguished witness is the nature of
ordination promises and the character and force of the obligation
imposed thereby. These promises, he correctly held, are moral and
religious, and are of the essence of a solemn covenant between the
man himself and other men and between the man himself and God.
As a covenant between men, the procedure is profoundly sacred and
cannot be violated with impunity, and as a covenant between man
and God, the promises assume the nature of holy vows and solemn
oaths. In both aspects of the nature of the promises a most sacred
obligation is imposed, the failure to observe which involves grave
consequences and great guilt.

The spiritual commonwealth of the church is built on faith and
confidence, and "the sacredness of a promise is the foundation of
unity, harmony and peace" and the guarantee of cooperative activity.
A man must be a man of his word, else he is a deceiver and a liar.
Veracity is the keystone of any social order, and in the words of
Dr. McPheeters, "covenant-breaking means the breaking up of the
very foundations of organized life among men and the violation of
a promise is covenant-breaking. Happy, fruitful concerted activity
is at an end, and we go armed either with weapons, or with wits
that are ceaselessly on the alert for our self-preservation." The
sanctions of both truth and justice bind to the full performance of
every covenant promise.

If it be so with covenant-breaking between man and man, how
vastly stronger is the obligation and how much more heinous is the
offense, when the promise is between man and God as a holy vow,
a sacred oath, as it is in the case of an officer, minister, elder or
deacon, of the Presbyterian Church. In this event the violation
surely is nothing less than moral perjury, irreverence and treason to
truth, whose "peculiar guilt consists in taking the name of the Lord
our God in vain" and in lying to the God of all truth.

[9]

To this teaching of Christian ethics and of the standards of the
Presbyterian Church Dr. McPheeters gave entire assent, and to the
doctrine he bore a faithful and heroic witness. With an honest con-
viction of right and duty and constrained by a profound sense of
responsibility, he, very reluctantly I am persuaded, but nevertheless,
conscientiously and masterfully championed, by both voice and pen,
the cause of the integrity and purity of the church, of divine truth
as expressed in the standards of the church, and of the honor of the
Lord as involved in the covenant promises of officers of the church.
This he did, knowing full well the unpopularity of his cause and
the possible effects upon his own popularity. For his actions he
was regarded by some as a meddler and criticized by others as a
heresy-hunter. But in spirit and purpose he was not either merely.
His efforts and his zeal were for truth's sake, and so he was unde-
terred by criticism, censure and rebuff. He was of the spirit of
which martyrs are made, and he fought the good fight and finished
his course, not, it may be, as a victor, but as an ambassador and
commissioned witness for the King.

There have ever been periods in the history of the church in
which, because of apostasy in faith or conduct or both, it was needful
that God should raise up, qualify and send forth some messenger
prophet to admonish, reprove and rebuke in His name. In the days
of old there appeared an Amos and a Jeremiah, speaking fearlessly
the message of the Lord ; then a John the Baptist, preaching the
Kingdom and crying repent, repent; then a Peter and a John, de-
claring boldly the sins of religious leaders and people; then a Luther
and a Calvin, nailing protesting theses against cathedral doors and
proclaiming the majesty of our sovereign God; then a Wesley and
a Whitefield, denouncing a free-thinking, pleasure-seeking religious
formalism ; then a Thornwell and a Palmer, thundering against an
unholy union and the desecration of the crown rights of our Lord ;
and now a McPheeters, crying aloud against treason to truth and
covenant-breaking. Were his efforts untimely and ill-advised? Did
his love and passion for the church and its heavenly truth make him
see guilt and danger where none existed? Did he magnify the in-
significant and unimportant in the religious life of the church of
his day? On the contrary, he was a discriminating, conscientious
observer and interpreter of phenomena in the life of the church,
and as a party to the covenant promises between himself and other
men and between himself and them and God, he felt profoundly
his personal responsibility in face of the situation as he saw it, and
moved by the sacredness of his ordination vow to be "zealous and
faithful in maintaining the truth of the Gospel and the purity and
peace of the church" he did what he did.

[10]

As in many another period of ecclesiastical history, the prophet-
crusader seemed to fail, so it may appear to some that Dr. Mc-
Pheeters was a voice crying in the wilderness with only the echo
of his own voice as a result, but I am persuaded that such an esti-
mate of his ministry is far, very far, from the truth. The visible
triumph of a faithful ministry is no test of its success. There are
times when the Holy Spirit Himself seems to work in vain. But
the promise is sure, and "he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing
precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing
his sheaves with him." There is always a "remnant according to
the election of grace." But even now, I am sure, there is many a
wavering and weakening will that was strengthened, many a drowsy
and slumbering conscience that was quickened, many an emotion of
lost first love and loyalty that was stimulated by the life and work
of Dr. McPheeters. And furthermore, I am confident that the fu-
ture of the church and Kingdom of God will justify the true wis-
dom of his witness and prove the high value of his service, as, under
the immortal and virile inspiration of this man of God, they advance
to the conflict against sin and error.

Christianity has had many foes the skeptic, the agnostic, the
atheist, the infidel, and all have done their direst for its destruction ;
but the most dangerous enemy to any cause is the enemy within the
ranks, the deceiver, the hypocrite, the traitor. The Christian re-
ligion has suffered much from such enemies. One of the most
formidable attacks ever made upon it sprang out of its institutions
of higher learning in Continental Europe, the British Isles and
America and was led by the most astute and ripest scholarship of
the 19th and 20th centuries. The onslaught was upon the very cita-
dels of the faith, the Holy Scriptures the canon, the date and au-
thorship of the writings, divine inspiration, the integrity of the text
and the interpretation of the message. Many of the old defenses
seemed, for the time, threatened with demolition, as many an intel-
lectual Goliath appeared to defy the orthodox hosts of the Lord ;
naturalism was on the ascendency and supernaturalism appeared to
be on the decline, with the faith of many growing weaker and weaker.
The situation called for a valiant and aggressive conservative scholar-
ship a scholarship fully equal in ability, breadth and profundity
with that of the enemy and capable of meeting him at any point
within his own chosen field of attack.

In the providence of God, just at this emergency in America, the
Board of Directors of Columbia Theological Seminary called Dr.
McPheeters to the chair of Biblical Literature and Exegesis in that
institution. He accepted the call and brought to the position a rich
cultural and religious heritage, a native ability of excelling quality,

["]

a zeal for learning, a rare capacity for hard work and a sublime
devotion to historic, evangelical Christianity. Conscious of the
strength and danger of the rationalistic and radical forces which
were arraigned against the high causes to which he gave his trust
and loyalty, and with a keen and watchful enthusiasm for the faith
"once delivered to the saints," he devoted himself to the pursuit of
scholarship and to the defense and propagation of the faith. His
fields of activity w T ere the classroom, courts of the church, lectureship
foundations and writing. In all these he made a most valuable con-
tribution to the cause of Christ. His scholarship was characterized
by a thoroughness of investigation, accuracy of observation, clearness
of insight and honesty of judgment, and his performances were
signalized by a strong style, stimulating logic, discriminating reason-
ing and pungent power. With the scalpel of his own virile intellect,
and with a brilliancy and an awful earnestness, he exposed every
proposition that came before him for consideration, laying bare its
truth or falsehood. The church was greatly honored and blessed by
his consecrated scholarship and efforts, offensively for the main-
tenance of the truth and defensively against every destructive and
subversive attack upon it. He always threw r the giant strength of
his personality and learning on the side of historic Christianity, and
it as interpreted in the standards of the Presbyterian and reformed
churches. There he took his heroic stand, and there he stood until
the day of his death, like the great general of the Southern Con-
federacy, a stone wall.

The teaching, debates and writings of Dr. McPheeters won for
him a national and international reputation. He easily took his
merited place, primus inter pares, in the rank of the great conserva-
tive American scholars and defenders of the supernaturally revealed
religion, together with William Henry Green, Robert Dick Wilson
and A. T. Robertson, and was worthily accorded recognition as
the ablest and most widely known and influential teacher and scholar
in the department of Biblical introduction in the Presbyterian Church
in the United States.

Many of our illustrious scholars, teachers and preachers become
so engrossed in the work of their specific fields that they either lose
interest in, or neglect the administrative and practical affairs of the
Kingdom. This was not the case w T ith Dr. McPheeters. While
the life of the student and teacher w T as most alluring to him, yet he
was not the hermit scholar, the cloistered teacher, or the cribbed
writer and publisher. On the contrary he was ever mindful of the
fact that the disciples of our Lord and Master had received a sacred
commission from Him to go into all the world and evangelize the
nations, teaching them all things whatsoever He had said, and that

[12]

for the execution of his commission He had established a spiritual
commonwealth comprehending legislative, administrative and judi-
cial functions to the faithful performance of which every member
of the commonwealth is solemnly bound. He, therefore, gave to
the Church's program and work a proper share of his time and
talents. He was faithful in attendance upon the meetings of church
courts, and was a willing and efficient laborer in any part of the
Kingdom to which he was assigned. In the Presbytery, Synod and
General Assembly he rendered valuable and conspicuous service as
a member, a committeeman or a Moderator. In the field of practi-
cal Christianity he was a conservative-progressive, cautious in dis-
carding the old, but open-minded in regard to the advantages and
superiorities of the new. He was at one time a leader and at an-
other time a follower.

Among the greatest services of this practical nature which he
rendered was, doubtless, that in the development of church educa-
tion in the Synod of South Carolina. He was one of the two or
three leaders in that Synod who visioned the need and executed a
program for a system of colleges owned and controlled by the church.
To him belongs a large share of the honor attached to the establish-
ment as church institutions, of the Presbyterian College for men
and Chicora College for women, on whose Boards of Trustees he
served as a member and as vice-president for many years. His love,
loyalty and service to Columbia Seminary are well known and rec-
ognized. He devotedly stood faithful to the institution under all
circumstances. In the days of adversity and in the days of more
hopeful prosperity he was its friend. He had a strong conviction
as to the future growth and development of these Southeastern
States, which constitute the peculiar constituency of the Seminary,
and of the real and vital need for a strong evangelical Theological
Seminary within their bounds. He was, therefore, one of the most
earnest and ablest advocates of this need, and hence of the advisa-
bility and duty of maintaining the Seminary within this territory.
Accordingly to this end he labored most energetically, and vigorously
opposed every proposition or effort, to remove Columbia Seminary
from the bounds of these states. He was happy when, in the provi-
dence of God, a way appeared to be opened for the realization of
his hopes by the permanent establishment of the Seminary in Atlanta,
the thriving, prosperous metropolis and Presbyterian center of this
territory and when he was given the high privilege of going over
with his beloved institution to dwell upon this goodly campus amidst
the beautiful buildings of this magnificent plant.

Dr. McPheeters died as he lived, heroic and unafraid, assured of
the reality of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

[13]

We mourn the great loss of one of the church's most fearless, faith-
ful and consecrated leaders, profoundest thinkers, ripest scholars and
greatest teachers, but in our sorrow we recall for comfort the beau-
tiful Hebrew legend about Israel's great leader of old as we apply
it to our own departed teacher, minister, scholar, presbyter and
friend : When Moses went up into Mount Nebo and returned not to
the people, the anxious children of Israel climbed the mountain to
seek and to find him. They found him not, but, in one of the clefts
they beheld his heart, which he had left behind, and the people wept
and were consoled. May I not say in reference to Dr. McPheeters
that, though we have him with us no longer in the flesh, as we
reverently roam the sacred hills and halls of Columbia Seminary
and visit the holy precincts of the Synod of South Carolina and the
Presbyterian Church in the United States, if we were endowed with
the spiritual vision to see, we would find in some hallowed cleft his
heart, and behold pouring forth from it his spirit of sublime devo-
tion and loyalty to truth and the God of truth, of singular conse-
cration to duty and the performance of duty, and of service a whole
burnt offering resplendent in works that honor God and bless His
church, and all as a glorious heritage and benediction which are
with us never to die. His name we honor and his memory we
cherish with mingled feelings of profound gratitude and admiration.

"That life is great which answers life's great end."

Perhaps we could not close this review of his life and contribution
to the church more fittingly than with the chant of trust and triumph
which he selected to be sung at the grave, in which his body was
laid to rest until the day of resurrection, when it shall be raised in
glory and the mortal shall put on immortality.

"The strife is o'er, the battle done,
The victory of life is won,
The song of triumph has begun

Alleluia.

"The powers of death have done their worst,
But Christ their legions hath dispersed,
Let shouts of holy joy outburst

Alleluia.

"Lord, by the stripes which wounded Thee,
From death's dread sting Thy servants free,
That we may live and sing to Thee

Alleluia."

[14]

Dr. McPheeters The Educator

By Rev. James McDowell Richards, D. D.

It is by no means an easy thing to define the meaning of the term,
education. The process of education is not simple in itself, nor are
the aims of all education the same. Hence it is not strange that
different men have given varying descriptions of the process and
diverse statements of its purpose. In the last analysis, however, we
can hardly do better than to go back to the simple root meaning of
the word from which our term has been derived, and to see educa-
tion as simply a leading out the guiding or drawing of an individual
into the way which leads to greater fullness of life, whether that
life be physical or mental or spiritual.

It is in something of this sense that I would speak tonight of Dr.
McPheeters as an educator, for he was one who gave his life to
the task of leading others out into new effort and new growth. For
this reason I shall not endeavor to speak of him to any large degree
in the technical terms of scholarship, though the results of his work
as a scholar are sufficiently important to merit our most careful
consideration. While not forgetting the things which he taught,
however, let us remember primarily the way in which he taught
them and the larger ends to which the work of his study and his
classroom were but a means.

The general details of Dr. McPheeters' work as a teacher and
scholar are familiar to the most of you even had they not been pre-
viously reviewed here tonight. Called in the prime of his young
manhood to the Professorship of Biblical Literature in this institu-
tion, he later became Professor of Old Testament Literature and
Exegesis here and gave forty-five years of active service to the work
of the classroom. He was then for two additional years connected
with the Seminary as Professor-Emeritus. He was ardent in re-
search work and was constantly busy with his pen, producing arti-
cles on a variety of subjects related to his field for periodicals both
of his own and of other churches, and he served both as a founder
and an editor of the Religious Outlook and Bible Student. His
scholarship earned for him a recognition extending far beyond the
confines of his own classroom and the boundaries of his own Church,
for he was a contributor to The International Standard Bible Ency-
clopedia and to Hasting's Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels,
and in 1911 he was invited to deliver the lectures upon the Stone
Foundation at Princeton Theological Seminary. Although he was

[15]

not permitted to earn out his purpose through the completion of a
magnum opus in which the principal results of his life work in the
field of interpretation would have been embodied, he has left ex-
tensive literary remains and his collected writings, which have been

served for the Seminary Library in three bound volumes, cc :
tute a real monument to his learning.

Although his own work, and consequently his immediate interest,
lay in the field of theological education, the vision and activities of
this man as an educator were by no means limited to his own par-
ticular segment of the educational world. For him all education
worthy of the name was Christian Education, and he paraphrased
Huxley's definition of the educational v xss to make it read: "All
Education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of God,
under which name 1 include not merely things and their forces, but
men and their ways: and the fashioning of the affections and of the
will into an earnest and loving desire to move in harmony v
those laws." Hence he was keenly interested in and concerned
for the entire educational program of our church, and to its develop-
ment he gave largely of his time and strength. His philosophy of
Christian Education was well expressed by his "Open Letter to the
Board and Faculty of a Presbyterian College" which appeared in
the Christian Observer of June 26, 1929. and which was reprinted
in pamphlet form that year by The Presbyterian Educational Ass -
ciation of the South. Although this discussion of the function to be
performed by the Christian institution and the Christian teacher is
brief in compass. Dr. Henry H. Sweets. Executive Secretary of
Christian Education for the Presbyterian Church, U. S.. has well
said of it that it is one of the finest statements on the subject in ex-
istence. Its statesmanlike treatment of a great and difficult theme
is indicative of the ability and insight of its author, and it pres
a viewpoint which is well worth the study of our church or of any
church today.

Dr. McPheeters' unique contribution to the field of Biblical Schol-
arship lay in the field of Hermeneutics. and here he went far, not
only toward showing that a real Science of Interpretation is possible.
but toward establishing the basis for that science. His thought on
this subject, which was the outgrowth of a lifetime of study, forms
a consistent and striking addition to the world's greatest scholarship
in that field. This thought is carefully and effectively set forth in
the syllabus of his lectures, but is of such a nature that it cannot be
adequately summarized here. Briefly, however, we may be content
to say that his emphasis was upon a careful, complete, and objective
examination of the context of which any particular writing under
consideration might be a part, and he himself pointed to the heart

[16]

of his system in his statement that "The context that i
original context and the entire context determined and will

_nificance and force of the symbols which together con-
stitute a given writing." It followed that the real task of the in-
terpreter or the exegete was to reconstruct the original con:': I
"completeness and precision" and with such respect for the object
nature of that original context as to assure a high degr-:
cation and control." In the case of every particular v. - | ng there
is a Grammatical, a Literary, an Historical, a Logical, and a i
chological Context, and the scientific :nust prepare himself

for an interpretation of each one of these elements in the larger or
complete context. This method of interpretation was ab
illustrated and supported in his teaching not only by examples from
secular history and by reference to the v _reat interpr^-

of the Scripture, but especially by a study of the example set by
Lord Himself, for He, in his interpretation of the Olc T
Writings, is and always will be the supreme model of the exe_
With the sure insight : *he real educator. Dr. McPhe .ted

the most of his time in the classroom to the inculca- : the great

principles and hypotheses on which his work was based, leaving it
for the individual student to learn by actual experiment how these
principles might best be applied to the interpretation of individual
Scripture pas-- _

Important as was the contrib.v - this man to the thought of

his own department and to the educational phil :' our chui

however, his greatest contribution was no: in what he consciously
taught in the classroom, but in what he actually and unmistakably

Students could, and sometimes did, fail entirely to appre.
the value of what the instruction which he gave ; they could not fail
to recognize the genuine Christian character of the man and
conNi^tency existing between his thought and his conduct. Irt
case, the old adage was reversed and those who really came to know
him for what he wa^ were compelled * What you are speaks

so loud that I cannot help listening to what ;. is He was an

educator indeed, in the fact that his personality did draw out much
that was finest in bis students, and that by his example he did lead
these men out into a fuller and more harmonious developmen* :
their intellectual and moral and spiritual li

There were certain facts in connection with the life of Dr. Mc-
Pheeters which could not fail to make their impression upon one
who sat in his classroom or walked and talked with him on the
campus. He had the instincts of a scholar in that he was a true
lover of books. His study, and the time he spent in his study v

[17]

sufficient evidences of that fact, yet books to him were not an end
in themselves.

As a student, he was remarkable in the range of his interests and
in the fact that he counted no sphere of human learning as alien to
his own task. Poetry and fiction, science and philosophy, psychology
and history all of these were fields in which he delighted to read
and even to the end of his life he was constantly making the ac-
quaintance of new authors and beginning with eagerness the mastery
of new subjects. Broad as were his interests, however, he avoided
that danger of superficiality which is apt to be so characteristic of
the modern reader, and sought always to impress upon his students
his own conviction that it was better to master one good book than
to form only a slight acquaintance with half a dozen.

Painstaking and thorough to the highest degree in his own work,
one of the great aims sought in his classroom work was the develop-
ment of an equally conscientious attitude in his pupils. Many were
the individuals and many the classes which during the years were
driven virtually to the point of open rebellion by what seemed to
them at the moment his almost unreasonable requirement of scien-
tific and literal accuracy, yet most of those who sat under him will
bear witness to the fact today that they received from him an im-
pulse to thoroughness and to scholarly habits which can never be
entirely lost. Especially was this true of his attitude toward the
Bible, for, to him, the Word of God was too sacred to be hastily
or carelessly treated, and he had no patience with the student who
was not willing to take the necessary pains in order that he might
arrive at the real meaning of a passage. The man who had passed
through his classroom might still go out to be guilty of shabby
exegesis, or of wresting a verse entirely out of its context in order
to make it fit his subject, but he could never again do so without
a conscience made uneasy by the words and the example of his teacher.

A man of deep convictions and of passionate loyalty to the Scrip-
tures and to the standards of his church, Dr. McPheeters left the
impression of his sincerity, his courage, and his faithfulness to duty
firmly fixed upon those who sat under his teaching. At the same
time they failed utterly to find grounds of encouragement for an
uninformed dogmatism or for bitterness in his attitude toward those
who differed from him. His own spirit is clearly shown in statements
of the open letter to which I have already referred, declaring that
the Christian position cannot be commended "by a heated and harsh
denunciation of the persons and views that today are aligned in
opposition to these Biblical conceptions," and his attitude toward
many of the men with whose positions he differed most uncompro-
misingly as to essentials was yet one of charity and, so far as possible,

[18]

of respect. Loyal to revealed truth as all too few have been in
our day, he engaged sometimes in controversy, not because he found
pleasure in so doing, but because of a stern and unrelenting sense
of duty. He held fast always to the form of sound doctrine, but
he did so truly in love, and in this also he was an example to his
students.

I have said that, to Dr. McPheeters, books were not an end in
themselves. Loving his books with the devotion of a born student,
there were yet two affections which took precedence in his life over
them. The first of these was his love for his fellowmen, and espe-
cially for his brethren of the household of faith, which was deep and
true in a degree that only those who knew him well could fully un-
derstand. I remember talking once with Dr. McPheeters about
the question which was then before me as to whether my own life
should be spent in the teaching ministry or in the pastorate, and
how, as he urged the necessity for Christian scholarship, he earnestly
said, "Some one has to make the sacrifice of leaving the pastorate
in order to teach." The words seemed strange to a young student
who had not yet entered upon the experiences of the pastorate and
did not know what these could mean to the pastor ; they do not
seem strange to him now. Dr. McPheeters loved books for them-
selves, but he loved people more, and only because he saw the use
of books as a way to win men was he willing to sacrifice the trials
and the joys of pastoral service and to spend his life in the cloistered,
but for him none the less strenuous, labors of the academic world.
It was only because of this fact that he could be the great and ef-
fective teacher of ministers that he became, for the successful pastor
must be one whose heart is aflame with love for his people, and
seminary students cannot learn that passion from teachers who do
not themselves possess the pastor heart.

The Supreme loyalty and the Supreme love of the life of this
man, however, was neither for books nor for men, but for his Lord.
To him books and the mastery of books were important because of
the use to which they might be put in the advancement of the Gospel,
and in the winning of men to faith in and love for his Lord. It was
because of this latt,er love that he opposed error so unceasingly ; it
was because of this love that he labored so long and so earnestly
over his studies; it was supremely because of this love that he loved
his fellowmen so well. In him devotion to Christ was so truly the
ruling passion of life that one may well apply to him the words
which F. W. H. Mvers used as expressing the spirit of the apostle
Paul:

[19]

''Christ, I am Christ's, and let the name suffice you;
Aye, for me, too, He greatly hath sufficed:
Lo, with no winning words I would entice you;
I have no honor, and no friend, but Christ.

"Yea, through life, death, through sorrow and through sinning,
Christ shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed:
Christ is the end, for He was the beginning;

Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ."

In this spirit lay the real greatness of the man whose memory we
honor tonight. Distinguished as he was both by natural gifts and
by scholarly achievement, he will be remembered as a really great
educator chiefly because his learning was consecrated to a great cause,
and because he possessed in singular degree the ability to awaken
in generations of his students a like loyalty to his Lord.

[20]

Dr. McPheetersA Man of God

By Rev. John McSween, D. D.

No student who ever sat at the feet of Dr. McPheeters could
feel more unworthy of paying a worthy tribute to his memory than
I do on this occasion. But no one whose life has ever felt the power
which emanated from his life could appreciate more the honor or
speak more feelingly and sincerely out of a deep sense of indebted-
ness to him than I.

One of the outstanding memories of my early childhood is of the
good Doctor who came from the Seminary at Columbia to preach
to a small group of loyal Presbyterians in a community where at
first there was no church building of that faith. Into the home he
brought that gentle air of high culture and gracious but simple
charm of manner so characteristic of him, but above all a piety
which impressed without obtruding. For forty years I enjoyed his
friendship and through these years have admired his scholarship,
marvelled at his capacity, honored him as a great teacher and looked
up to him as a Presbyter. But it is as a man who walked with God
that Dr. McPheeters will always stand out in my mind and heart
and make me grateful all my life that it was my privilege to have
the honor of his friendship. No testimony to the truth of the Chris-
tion religion I have ever heard, no apologetic in defense of the doc-
trine of Christ I ever read, helped me lay hold of the truth more
really than the intimate fellowship I enjoyed with this man of God,
whose memory we honor at this time. May I be permitted to speak
simply, and out of my heart, of some of those characteristics of him
as a man of God which were apparent to me and which made the
deepest impression on my life.

I. HE WAS A MAN OF FAITH

Like Abraham of old, "He believed God." Although he was a
profound scholar and versed in the arts of scholarship, his simple,
abiding, child-like faith had an appealing quality on the one hand
and on the other led one to feel that his feet were solidly planted
upon a Rock which all the storms of agnostic scholarship could not
shake.

His faith in the Bible as the Word of God was no mere item in
a creed to him ; it was a light from God's own Throne that il-
lumined his every step.

[21]

His trust in the atoning merit of the Saviour, Jesus Christ, was
not only a theological concept to which he gave full mental assent ;
it was an overwhelming experience which brought a constant thrill
to his soul.

His belief in the supreme sovereignty of God in the affairs of the
universe was not only to him the only reasonable system of thought;
it was a glorious reality which brought to him the deepest satisfac-
tion for time and for eternity.

II. HE WAS A MAX OF HONESTY

One of the convictions which grew on me as a student under him
was the high type of intellectual honesty which characterized his
thinking. On several occasions I went to him with problems which
brought concern to a young theological student. If he had not
thought through the particular problem he would not attempt to
speak concerning it but would ask for time to study it. When later
he had spoken I had the feeling that he had brought to bear all his
fine powers of thought, aided by every instrument he knew, in ar-
riving at the conclusion he reached. He was honest in his thinking
with himself and with others. This has been a wonderfully steady-
ing influence in my intellectual life. Not only was one stimulated
to be intellectually honest by contact with him, but one felt that
any proposition to which Dr. McPheeters gave whole-hearted assent
could be relied upon. If one could not answer, by the processes of
his own thinking, the destructive theories of the radical Higher
Critics one knew that Dr. McPheeters had weighed all the claims
and honestly had faced and rejected the heterodox for the orthodox
position.

Because of the intellectual limitations of many of us who sat in
his classes, the comprehensive and deep scholarship of the man was
often "wasted as fragrance on the desert air." But the humblest
of us could not fail to realize the fact that in his presence we stood
in the light of knowledge which had been arrived at by no royal road.

The very fact that Dr. McPheeters accepted and championed the
conservative viewpoint in the theological controversies of the past
and present enabled many of us to hold on to "the faith once deliv-
ered to the saints" until we could think through and establish our
own positions.

This same scrupulous honesty which characterized his spiritual
and intellectual life impressed itself on those who knew him, as I
did, in the discharge of duties laid upon him by his church in the
direction of the affairs of her institutions. Whatever obligation he
assumed, whether of duty or of finance, he regarded as a sacred

[22]

trust and showed a religious sensitiveness toward such which should
always characterize a true man of God in these matters.

III. HE WAS A MAN OF COURAGE

Although one of the gentlest of men in his personal life, living
always the more or less secluded life of a scholar who loved his
books and the tools of his study, Dr. McPheeters was a man of real
courage, a courage born of deep conviction and love of truth. Hence
this courteous and gentle man, and humble man of God, became a
militant Christian when he felt that the essentials of the faith were
assailed.

Knowing him as I did I believe that controversy was uncongenial
to his deepest nature but he felt that a part of his call of God was
to defend the faith and when the hour of conflict struck he threw
every power of his magnificent mind and great heart into the strife.
Even if one did not always agree with his policy or as to the essential
nature of the matter which he felt called upon to attack or defend,
the courage and tenacity of the frail fighter commanded our admira-
tion and challenged our respect. The fight he made was always for
principle and there could be for him no compromise in such matters.

He was a man of courage because he was a man of God and had
the sense of Divine power granted unto those who stand up for the
right as God gives them to see the right. In a day of loosening
convictions and compromising spirit on the part of a large section
of the Church of God he fought the fight of a courageous and brave
soldier of the Cross.

IV. HE WAS A MAN OF MEEKNESS

Human nature is full of paradoxes. Someone has said, "The
bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring." And this was
true of our beloved preceptor and friend. He was a man, strong
and brave on the field of battle for the truth. Yet in his personal
and intimate relationships he was an humble child of God, meek and
mild.

Conscious of the powers with which God had endowed him, and
surrendering every power to the Saviour he loved and served, he
was yet conscious of his sinfulness in God's sight and kept always
warm in his heart a deep gratitude to a Saviour who died to save
sinners.

Often in the heat of conflict, yet he maintained always a spirit
of fairness and respect for those he opposed and eliminated bitterness
from his strife.

[23]

Honored and respected in every circle in which he moved he
thought always of the cause and the church rather than of himself.

Great as a theologian, scholar, Presbyter, defender of the faith,
yet he was also a man who "walked with kings, nor lost the com-
mon touch." He was truly a man "whose heaven-erected face the
smiles of love adorned" and we shall always warmly cherish the
memory of one who truly "loved mercy, did justly and walked hum-
bly with his God."

[24]

The William Marcellus McPheeters
Memorial Scholarship

Through the generosity of Mr. Thomas Shanks McPheeters, of
Charlotte, N. C, and Mr. T. S. McPheeters, of St. Louis, Mo., a
son and a nephew respectively of the man in whose memory this
bulletin is issued, there had, even before his death, been established
at Columbia Theological Seminary a fund which is to be known
hereafter as the William Marcellus McPheeters Memorial Scholar-
ship Fund. Thus through the training of generations of students
yet to come the name of this servant of God will be honored in
that way which he himself would have chosen and in connection
with that work to which he gave his life.

It is the hope of the Seminary Faculty as it was also the dream
of Dr. McPheeters that eventually a sufficient amount may be
added to this endowment from other sources to make possible an
income which will provide an annual fellowship for graduate theo-
logical study, and which will become a means of continual contribu-
tion to the productive scholarship of the Church.

[25]

Scripture Passages

Selected by Dr. McPheeters for Use at His Own Funeral

Psalms 90:1-2.
Psalms 48:14.
Psalms 103:8-18.
Exodus 34:5-7.
Isaiah 40:10-11.
Isaiah 40:25-31.
Isaiah 42:16.

John 3:16.

Matthew 11:28-30.

John 11:21-25.

John 14:1-6.

II Corinthians 4:16, 5:3.

I Corinthians 15:35-38.

I Thessalonians 4:13-18.

Revelations 7:9-17.

[26]

Ruralist Press, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.