The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1909-1931, December 29, 1909, Page 2, Image 2

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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,, -j , ?- ? ww ...v.?v.|v.y * * fc viivu uuuiuvid auu 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 i.U. ...i -i - e ^ 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