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2 THE PRESBYTERH
REBELLION AT A THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
It is a very curious story that comes from the Mccormick
Theological Seminary at Chicago. * We find
it in a secular paper and do not vouch for its accuracy.
It is to the effect that some of the students of the
Seminary wearied of the study of the Hebrew language
and petitioned the faculty to have the Hebrew
eliminated from the course of study. The faculty decided
that in order to a proper preparation for the pulpit
the Hebrew is necessary and declined to strike it
TK~ -i-J?^ -- ..... - -
w??.. x iic aiuucius auriDuted tlieir defeat to Professor
George L. Robinson, hanged him in effigy and
then burned the effigy.
Of course we understand that not all, and probably
only a small part, of the students are responsible for
this. Nevertheless it sets us to thinking.
In days gone by. there was revorenm ?*?r?norVi
_ _ . *??
years and experience to make a student feel that the
faculty are the better judges of what is necessary for
success in the pastorate. It is a sad day when our
youth feel that they know more than their teachers!
Even if the faculty were wrong, is it right for a
student to insult them by hanging or burning an
-effigy? "Honor thy father and thy mother" is a command
that includes the college as well as the home.
Especially is this true in its application to students
for the ministry. In the Seminary they are supposed
to gain a preparation for labor in sacred things. Alas,
what a foundation of disrespect for the ordinances of
God were those students laying! With what effect
can they, in future years urge respectful acquiescence
in the rulings of the Church when themselves have
set the example of contemning it?
But beyond all this, can we afford to drop the Hebrew
from the curriculum of our Seminaries? We trow
not. This is a day in which people are questioning
the authority of the Bible. They claim that the English
version is only a translation, and liable to contain
errors. Then our recourse is to the originals.
Xow if the young students should eliminate the study
of the original languages, how would they be able to
confute the skeptic?
Once more. There are doctrines whose nicer features
appear in the Hebrew and the Greek, which are
not presented in our version and can not be.
jJut turther: Much of the beauty of the Scriptures
is found in delicate shades of meaning which are incapable
of translation, in the brief compass of a version.
The minister needs to understand the originals
that he may see these beauties and lay them before
his hearers. For instance: In Psalm 16, we read
"Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after
another god." It is a good rendering. But the drap
cry ot the Hebrew is more beautiful. "Their sorrows
shall be multiplied that seek in marriage another
god." The imagery of the Ilible is that the Redeemer
seeks his bride; the character of heathenism is that
the votarv Cppl/C fnr VlimunK ?" J-1 1 *"
J .v^i 11I1HDV.I1 an 1UU1 illiu U111CS 111111self
thereunto in an unholy way. Such things, the
minister ought to see, in order that he may render
the Scripture attractive. Without a knowledge of the
originals, he can not do this.
A winner of men must be a lover of men.
VN OF THE SOUTH December 29, 1909.
FIDELITY OF THE MINISTRY.
In an address delivered at the summed term graduation
of the Moody Bible Institute, last August, Dr.
James M. Gray, Dean of the Institute, related an incident
in the experience of a prominent military officer
on the Western frontier. The officer said that when
he was only a lieutenant in the army he was one day
traveling on horseback in company with a brother officer.
across the Western prairies. A sound of wolves
was heard and his companion, more familiar with the
habits of those animals than he, asked how many he
thought there were in the pack. The lieutenant really
K?I: i IL.I ,1 ? - ? - --
uv.itvcu mai mere were aDout a nundred and htty, but
to avoid seeming to make an extravagant guess he
replied, "a dozen,"
As they rode on they finally reached an elevation
from which the animals could be seen, when to his
surprise he discovered that there were only two. The
Dean then proceeded to remark that there are religious
teachers of today who judge of the weight and influence
of certain university professors by the attention
that thev attract and icr? miihinlwinof tl-ioli- munko,,
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magnifying their importance beyond bounds, feel it
necessary to echo their vagaries in pulpit, editorial
chair and other places.
There are two classes of men who would have us
believe that the gospel of abounding grace for guilty
sinners is being abandoned and that another gospel is
taking its place. One class is of the prairie-wolf type,
found in squads of two or three, but vociferous to the
last degree in making their presence known. Indeed,
it is a part, if not the major part, of their professional
program ; and it would seem that thereby they would,
if possible, deceive the very elect. .
viiivio <-/i vjiinv a. uiucicm Mctuij} arc leiung us inai
the old-time gospel is being abandoned by the pulpit.
They are usually those who have some theories that
hinge on the perillous times that are coming in the
last days, and they are expecting to see their theories
verified. They tell us that the preachers are not
preaching the ruin of sin, the atonement by Christ, the
wcrk of the Holy Spirit, repentance, salvation by faith,
the new birth, and so on. The pity is that our ears
should be sensitive to the venders of "another gospel"
and dull to the voices that proclaim the "old, old
storv."
All over the land, especially in the South, the ministry
as a class is true to its great commission. Our
Southern Church is sending out from all its seminaries,
year after year, men who are grounded in
sound doctrine and who preach the preaching that the
Master has commanded.
While in many places those who preach a merely
ethical religion and reject the supernatural, are more
bold and are heard with more tolerance than formerly,
there has never been a time when there was such
a vast multitude of men who do not shun to declare
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me vvnuie counsel 01 oog. i ney are in trie foreign
field, in the home mission field, among the masses in
the cities*, in remote frontier places. They are in our
nrncnornup 1 * ?
j/iuoj/viuu3 viuuvnv3 in me CIIKI country.
These men are proclaiming the whole gospel unwaveringly.
We hear them at the meetings of our
church courts, at evangelistic meetings and in the reg