Columbia Theological Seminary Bulletin, 9, number 2, October 1916

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Vol. IX OCTOBER, 1916 No. 2

BULLETIN

COLUMBIA

THEOLOGICAL

SEMINARY

COLUMBIA, S. C.

Published Quarterly by the Board of Directors of the Theological
Seminary of the Synods of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama
and Florida of the Presbyterian Church in the United States

(Entered as Second-Class Matter July 11, 1908, at the Postoffice at Columbia,
South Carolina, Under the Act of July 16, 1894)

FACULTY

THORNTON WHALING, D. D., LL. D., LITT. D.,

PRESIDENT OF THE SEMINARY,
PROFESSOR OF DIDACTIC AND POLEMIC THEOLOGY.

WILLIAM M. McPHEETERS, D. D., LL. D

PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT LITERATURE AND EXEGESIS.

HENRY ALEXANDER WHITE, Ph. D., D. D., LL. D.,

PROFESSOR OF NEW TESTAMENT LITERATURE AND EXEGESIS.

RICHARD C. REED, D. D., LL. D.,

PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND CHURCH
POLITY.

JAMES 0. REAVIS, D. D., LL. B.,

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH BIBLE AND HOMILETICS.

EDGAR D. KERR, A. M., B. D.,

INSTRUCTOR IN CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND APOLOGETICS.

GEORGE S. FULBRIGHT, A. B.,

INSTRUCTOR IN ELOCUTION.

WM. T. RIVIERE, A. M.,

INSTRUCTOR IN GREEK.

R. E. ALLEN, A. B.,

INSTRUCTOR IN SACRED MUSIC.

SMYTH LECTURERS.

W. S. Plumer Bryan, D. D., Chicago, 111., 1916-1917.

F. L. Patton, D. D., LL. D., Bermuda Island, 1917-18.

B. B. Warfield, D. D., LL. D., Princeton Theol. Sem.,
1918-19.

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Columbia s Need

No institution of the Church can possibly have higher
claim upon the beneficence of God's children and God's
trustees than Columbia Seminary has today. The great
Head of the Church has given to the Seminary this year
nearly three score choice, well-qualified and promising
students. Following the policy in operation at all the
Presbyterian Theological Seminaries, the Columbia Semi-
nary is expected to find for every student recommended
by his session and Presbytery as worthy and needing
aid $100 per year. The Columbia Seminary is without
scholarship funds and must secure this $100 per year for
worthy and needy students from churches and benevo-
lent individuals within the four Synods of South Caro-
lina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. These churches
and individuals will not allow the Seminary to say to
these worthy candidates, we are unable to find the money
for your support and are compelled to close our doors
upon you. Such a course upon the part of the Seminary
would merit and receive severe and unmeasured condem-
nation. The Seminary must lay these facts before all of
our churches and people and make the earnest appeal to
them to meet the situation in the only way in which it
can be properly met, viz. : By adequate and prompt con-
tributions to the Seminary's Student Fund, which will
enable these candidates to prosecute their studies in
preparation for the ministry. No money is asked or
given to any student who is able to pay for his own sup-
port, and no aid is given to any student whose session and
Presbytery does not testify that without aid he cannot
continue his studies. No safer investment could possibly
be made of the Lord's money than to put it into these
young men whom the Lord has given as his best gift to
his Church. This appeal is second to none which could be
made. It is Home and Foreign Missions, Education,
Publication, all combined in one, for all these causes
depend upon the ministry which maintains and carries

them into effect, it is the call of loud and imperative
and pressing need ; for these candidates are not in the
realm of future expectation, but of present possession
and need. The churches, officers and members in the four
controlling Synods will not fail to meet the situation by
gifts which will provide for the support of these candi-
dates in their own Theological Seminary.

The Opening" of Columbia Seminary

The Seminary, on September 20th, had the best open-
ing in many years, perhaps in some respects the best
opening it ever had during its entire history. The rea-
sons for this are not only the numbers, over twenty new
names enrolled, but the character and scholarly prepara-
tion of the new men and the wide range of territory from
which they come. If any proof was needed that the
Seminary has recovered and more than recovered its hold
on its constituency and supporting Synods, that proof
would be furnished in the following lists of students added
this year, viz. :

L. B. Allen, Columbia, S. C. ; Henry M. Bailey, Atlanta,
Ga. ; B. Cox Corcoran, Charleston, S. C. ; G. L. Davis,
Robinson, Ga. ; J. E. Fuller, Union, S. C. ; Iverson Gra-
ham, Clinton, S. C. ; Fred. J. Hay, Jr., Liberty Hill, S. C. ;
A. C. Ingram, Mize, Miss. ; Alfred H. Key, Comer, Ga. ;
L. K. Martin, Athens, Ga. ; D. A. Miller, Rock Hill, S. C. ;
Alfred H. Miller, Santee, Ga. ; John R. McGregor, Dillon,
S. C. ; D. M. McDonald, Carthage, N. C. ; John R. Offield,
Emmett, Tenn. ; C. G. Pepper, Hamlet, N. C. ; R. M. Phil-
lips, Sanford, N. C. ; T. H. Peeples, Columbia, S. C. ; A.
H. Swindler, Newberry, S. C. ; Clay. D. Terrell, College
Park, Ga. ; Alvis A. Waite, Savannah, Ga.

The old students have all returned, with one exception,
and he for very special reasons which he gave, could not
return this year. The enthusiasm and loyalty of both
the new and old students is the Seminary's biggest asset.

New Course at Seminary

Perhaps the Church, and even the controlling Synods,
have not had their eyes fully opened to the new and val-
uable courses added in recent years to the curriculum at
Columbia Seminary.

First, the chair of English Bible ; then a course in Sun-
day School Pedagogy and Organization, believed to be
the most extensive taught at any seminary in the Church ;
then the chair of Christian Ethics and Apologetics, includ-
ing a sound and orthodox discussion of the Christian
Social Order, then a course in Elocution, especially
directed to pulpit address in preaching, reading the
Scriptures, and hymns, and prayer.

Now there is to be added a course in Sacred Music,
designed to equip the candidates to conduct the musical
part of public worship. This course will involve two
hours a week for the three months of October, November
and December. All these courses are required of all
students and all of them are necessary to the B. D. degree.
It is believed that no seminary in the Church is offering
its students more valuable and effective preparation in
all necessary fields for the preaching of the Gospel in the
twentieth century.

Visit of the President of the United States
to Columbia Seminary

Upon the occasion of the funeral of his sister, Mrs. Anne
Wilson Howe, on September 18th, the President of the
United States, Hon. Woodrow Wilson, took advantage of
the opportunity to visit the Columbia Theological Semi-
nary. It would scarcely be possible for more ties to bind
one to any institution than unite in giving Mr. Wilson a
deep interest in this Seminary. His father was a profes-
sor here from 1870-74, his uncle, James Woodrow, a pro-
fessor here from 1861 to 1886; his sister, Josephine, mar-
ried the Rev. Dr. Kennedy, a graduate ; the President's first
wife was the daughter and granddaughter of Dr. Axsons,

both of whom were graduates ; his sister, Anne, married
George Howe, M. D., a son of George Howe, D. D., for 52
years professor in the Seminary, and in turn by this mar-
riage she became the sister-in-law of B. M. Palmer, twice
professor here, first of Church History and Polity from
1854 to 1856 and then of Theology from 1862 to 1865.
The home of both Dr. Howes was the home of Seminary
students into which they were welcomed with a beautiful
and abounding hospitality cherished by hundreds of
grateful hearts scattered throughout the South and the
nation and in distant lands. The President was inter-
ested in visiting his father's classroom, which he well
remembered, especially the venerable desks or forms
on which students transcribe notes. He was particu-
larly interested in the library in which he said that bor-
rowing his father's key he often browsed as a youth.
With the value of the library he was well acquainted
through his own memory and his father's testimony, and
looking at the loaded bookshelves he said "Princeton Sem-
inary with all of its wealth and resources has no such
library." It was explained to him that in the field of the
Puritan Theology in Great Britain it was absolutely
without a peer in the United States, and that its riches
were being made available by being catalogued by an
expert and specialist. He asked for the loan of the his-
tory of the Woodrow family, which his uncle, Dr. James
Woodrow, had presented to the Seminary. In visiting
the chapel the President said: 'This is comparatively a
humble place, but there has been much fine speaking here.
I have heard here some of the best speaking to which I
ever listened, for I used to attend the faculty conferences
held here, although not a student of the Seminary." It
is interesting to chronicle the connection of Mr. Wilson
with this venerable school of the prophets which has so
many historic names enrolled on its roster of professors
and students.

The Behavior of Candidates

The candidates of the Church are its choicest product.
They represent a class whom God the Spirit has sum-

moned to the highest form of service in God's kingdom.
Their behavior ought to correspond with their vocation,
and in the main it may be said that these young brethren
are worthy of the affection and esteem of their older and
more experienced brethren. A high ideal of behavior
and Christian deportment is maintained amongst these
candidates at the Columbia Seminary and that the Board
of Directors and faculty expect it of them is shown by
the following extracts from the Seminary Constitution,
viz. :

SECTION IV.
Admission and Duties of Students.

Article 1. Students, to be admitted, must furnish the
Faculty with satisfactory testimonials of being in full
communion with some Christian Church ; of having been
regularly educated at some college or university, or in the
absence of such testimonials, must satisfy the Faculty, by
examination, that they have made attainments necessary
for the foundation of a course of Theology .

Art. 2. These testimonials being satisfactory, they shall
be admitted to full standing in the Seminary by .subscrib-
ing the following declaration, viz. : "Deeply impressed
with a sense of the importance of improving in knowl-
edge, prudence, and piety, preparatory to the gospel min-
istry, I solemnly promise, in reliance on Divine grace,
that I will faithfully and diligently attend all the instruc-
tions of this Seminary, and that I will conscientiously and
vigilantly observe all the rules and regulations specified
in the Plan of Government, and also obey all the lawful
requisitions, and readily yield to all the wholesome admoni-
tions of the Professors of the Seminary while I continue
a member of it."

Art. 3. The students thus admitted to the Seminary
shall be divided into three classes, to be called Senior,
Middle and Junior. The Junior shall embrace those of
the first year; the Middle those of the second, and the
Senior those of the third.

Art. 4. The students of the several classes shall, unless
permission otherwise is granted by the Faculty, reside at

the Seminary during the whole of each term, and be under
the particular charge of their respective Professors.
Nor shall any student leave town, or be absent from any
regular exercise of the Seminary, without permission.
And for each absence he shall render a satisfactory excuse
to the Professor of his class or, in case of his absence, to
the President or the Senior Professor.

Art. 5. The students shall sustain good, moral and
religious characters ; manifest a due regard for the Direc-
tors, Professors, and each other; pursue the course of
studies marked out by the Faculty; observe its regula-
tions respecting the hours of study, private recitations,
public lectures, and social devotions, and obey the requisi-
tions of their several instructors.

Art. 6. The students of the Junior and Middle classes
shall write compositions on such subjects, and at such
times, as their Professors may direct, and shall submit
the same to them for criticism. The students of the Sen-
ior class shall write during the year at least two sermons,
which shall be submitted to the appropriate Professor
for private criticism and approval, and they shall alter
and transcribe them until approved by his signature.
And the students of all the classes shall, if practicable,
deliver a piece of their own composition before the stu-
dents and Professors once in each month.

Art. 7. Any student who neglects his regular studies or
is guilty of an indiscretion, or exhibits an indifference to
practical religion, or otherwise violates this Plan of Gov-
ernment, shall be faithfully admonished in private, or
before his class, as the Professor may deem expedient ; if
the student perseveres in the same course he shall be pub-
licly admonished, suspended, or dismissed from the Semi-
nary by the Faculty.

Art. 8. Every student having completed a regular
course of three years' studies in this Seminary, and
returned and replaced all the books taken from the
library, shall receive a certificate from the Faculty, speci-
fying the time he has been connected with the Seminary,
the diligence he has manifested in his studies, and the
moral and religious character he has sustained.

SECTION VII.
Devotional and Personal Piety.

Religious services shall be held in the chapel during
each term, as the Faculty may direct.

There shall be at least one weekly Conference,
appointed by the Faculty, with a design to promote the
personal piety of the students, and qualify them for prac-
tical duties of the ministry.

Every member of the Seminary shall regularly, con-
scientiously and devoutly, attend all these religious serv-
ices, and such others as the Faculty may appoint.

SECTION VIII.

Examinations.

No member of the Seminary shall be absent from the
examination of his class ; and in case of the absence of any
student, he shall be examined by the Faculty at the com-
mencement of the next term, and if his examination be
not satisfactory he shall be required to make up the defi-
ciency, otherwise he may not proceed with the class.

SECTION X.

Library.

No person shall ever borrow or return a book without
the knowledge of the Librarian or his assistant, who shall
examine the state of the book and keep a record of its
title, also of the person borrowing or returning, and of
the time when borrowed or returned. This record shall
be signed by the person borrowing or returning the book,
unless he be a Director, Professor, or Instructor, who
may obtain books by a written order. They may also
have access to the Library on all occasions, whether to
return or receive books, or to consult them in the Library-

Special Rules and Regulations.

That the Faculty be, and hereby is, directed to pay
students what money may be left of the appropriation to
each after the Seminary bills have been met, and when a
student is two weeks or more late in reaching the Semi-

10

nary, or shall be absent for two weeks or more during the
session without permission, an amount proportionate to
the time so lost shall be deducted from his appropriation.
(Minutes, 1893, page 178.)

That the annual examination papers of the students
having been first submitted by the Faculty to the Board,
the same shall then be properly distributed by the chair-
man of the Faculty to the Presbyteries concerned that
each Presbytery may be informed of the progress of such
students as may be under its care. (Minutes, 1895, page
192.)

n

The Ecclesiastical Status of Candidates

There is no important subject connected with the life
of the Church so far as the writer's knowledge goes about
which our Church Constitution is so vague and hazy as
that of ecclesiastical status of candidates. There are
quite a number of sections relating to candidates for
licensure as to their Presbyterial examinations, etc., but
there is no constitutional statement as to the method in
which candidates for licensure are to be taken under the
care of the Presbytery. Absolutely no definition is con-
tained in the Book of Church Order stating the powers
of the Presbytery over the candidate or affirming the
duties of the candidate toward the Presbytery. The
result has been that while the candidates are an unusually
choice class of young men, they have had no recognized
authority to which they were amenable. Equally vague
and hazy are the statements of the Constitution with ref-
erence to the Theological Seminary. Only two sentences
occur in the entire book which by the remotest indication
can be construed as referring to what practically today
is one of the most central of the forces in the life of the
Church. Our book needs two new chapters ; one defining
the status of the candidate and the other that of the
Seminary. And these new chapters ought to contain
careful statements regulating the relation of the Semi-
nary to the Presbytery, as well as to the Presbytery's can-
didate.

The K. L. Bryan Co.
Columbia. S. C
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