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2 (678) THE 1
the world where they can be opened oil the
Sabbath day for the spiritual uourishmeut of
the people. Nor are they thermos bottles to
he charged with hot air or only with "milk
for babes;" but they are living men to be
trained for a holy service to living men and
women. The work done in the seminary therefore
should be instinct with life and in close
touch with human interests. Human needs and
sorrows, human hopes and aspirations should
lie upon the hearts of instructors, and no ef
fort 011 their part should be spared to quicken
the sympathies of these students with the suffering
and struggling masses of mankind.
A WHOLESOME SPIRITUAL ATMOSPHERE.
Let me mention as the first requisite in a
theological seminary a wholesome spiritual atmosphere.
It may be thought by some that
this goes without saying among those who
have devoted themselyes to the sacred calling,
but that is not true. The student of theology
is tempted to become spiritually morbid
on the one hand, or spiritually apathetic on the
other. One needs to be encouraged in healthy
normal development, and another needs instruction
in spiritual ideals and the toning up
of his notions of the kinship of ministerial
character and conduct. If the spiritual atmosphere
of the seminary is either too fetid or
too frigid the best results in the making of
ministers can not be secured. One extreme is
perhaps as dangerous as the other. In the
active work the course of the true minister
lies between religious fanaticism on the one
side and worldliness on the other, and unless
' therefore he comes from the seminary with a
riVbust character, with clear convictions of gospel
truth, and with sound views as to the spirituality
of the church both in its purpose and
in its methods, he is almost sure to be "corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ."
MATTERS OF CURRICULUM.
This is not the time and place to discuss with
any fullness matters of curriculum. There are
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The course of study in u theological seminary
should be comprehensive in its scope and
scientific in its method. It should embrace
everything that can throw light upon the
origin and history, the significance and worth
of Christianity; it should honestly face all the
difficulties connected with the subjects of
revelation and inspiration; and it should refuse
to deal superficially with any of the great
problems of supernatural religion. A theological
school above all others should be through
in its investigation of the foundations on
which revealed truth rests, and should send
its students out to their work well established
in ineir laitii in the lioly Scriptures. Men
who do not believe the Bible, the source from
which their message comes, certainly can not
preach it to others. Preaching to be effective
must be positive and dogmatic, not negative
and apologetic, and what the character of it
shall be must depend upon the kind of instruction
the minister receives in his seminary.
The teachers in our seminaries therefore should
be scholars second to none in their own departments,
but they sbould albo be men of faith;
otherwise, the students who sit at their feet
will have no message worth delivering. Min.
isters should not be educated to disseminate
11 nKnlioP 4- 1 11 1 * *
uuucnci, uut| x tiui says, iney snouid be so
"established in the faith" (Col. 2:7), as to be
guides and helpers of those who seek a firm
footing in divine truth. If our seminaries are
to turn .out men of feeble faith they had far
better.cease to exist. Unbelievers are plentiIful
enough now without our training men to
add to their number.
*
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S <
But while the curriculum of the seminary
should be broad and thorough, it should not
be i'orgotteu that all men who are called to
preach the Gospel are not called to become
technical scholars. There are different departments
of church work for which men
should be especially prepared; and experience
r~.L it-- _ * _ ? " -" - -
?uu?s tUHl ior me aixauiiuent oi tins end, the
course oi* study in the seminary lias not always
been happily arranged. It has been too
much of a Procrustean bed upon which all
classes of students, if they desire a degree, are
compelled to lie. The law of adaptation of
means to end has not been wisely applied. In
recent years this matter has been receiving
more attention and it should continue to do so.
In addition to a comprehensive and thorough
going required course, why should not the
seminary add a large number of electives,
adapted to fitting men for the growing needs of
the church ? The complicated religious activities
of our day demand a variety of ministers,
and many think that the theological
seminary is a failure as a place for preparing
men for meeting the demands of present conditions.
It is charged that the men sent out are
not fitted to grapple with the task before them,
and that they are outstripped by others trained
in the school of experience and in minor
institutions who are laboring in organizations
ot an undenominational character. There is
enough truth in this charge to awaken the
church to the importance of equipping her
seminaries for dealing intelligently with every
species of practical church life. We can
not disguise the fact that many extra-ecclesiastical
movements owe their origin to a wide
spread feeling that the church is not meeting,
in an adequate manner, the demands of the
age in furnishing men capable of dealing with
present day practical problems. 1 do not appear
as an apologist for movements of this
kind, nor do I admit tlmt tho
VUMV k.iv ^iiuitu ia inadequately
equipped for evangelizing people
of all grades of society and for taking care
of the needy, but I do believe that there is a
weakness in her system of theological education
which, if corrected, would render unnecessary,
most if not all of the extra-ecclesiastical
movements of the day. I believe thoroughly
in the doctrine that the church is
the divinely ordained agency for the evangelization
of the world.
THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT.
Our seminaries should cultivate more and
more the missionary spirit, and instruct their
students in the vast work of modern missions.
Every student who leaves the halls of a theological
school should be a missionary. Whether
his 'life work be in a seminary, in a city
church, in the slums, on the frontier, or in the
roreign field, is a matter of secondary importance
compared with the interest he feels in
the evangelization of the world and the earnestness
with which he devotes himself to it. It
is an open question in which position he can
be of greatest use. The efficiency of every
minister will depend upon his personal piety
and equipment, but the pastor or the theological
professor can be as truly missionary in
his desire to obey the eommand of the Master
as the man who labors among the heathen.
EXPRESSION.
More attention should also be given to the
study of expression. It is strange that men
who have consecrated themselves to the Gospel
ministry should care so little to cultivate
the art of public speaking; and yet nothing is
truer than that many a good sermon fails to be
effective because of poor delivery. Our
seminaries- should make more of this matter
1
) U T H [June 26, 1912
uud more emphasis should be laid upon the inport
unce of correct composition aud impressive
delivery. The forms in which truth is clothed
and the manner in which it is presented are
matters of vital moment which inauy a minister
learns, or far more frequently discovers
that he has not learned, lone ufter t.li? <>?
7 o ?J vay
of his usefulness has past. A man charged
with a great message to the people should certainly
study the best way to deliver it. Of
what use would a magazine gun be on the field
of battle in the hands of a man who did not
know how to operate it ? How can a pious and
learned minister of the Word fulfil the functions
of his office if he be unable to clothe
the truth in living words and utter them with
a voice and emphasis which will claim the
attention of the people? I know that this
subject usually receives indifferent attention
in the seminary, but after more than thirty
years experience in preaching the Word, I am
convinced that, the nrne.ess nf irmlrinc*
might be improved if more serious study were
given to the arts of composition and delivery.
1 close with the remark that fChristiau people
everywhere feel that humanizing influences
should be thrown around the young
men in our seminaries; that they should not
be cloistered scholastics, withdrawn from the
stirring life of the day; but that they should
be men of loving hearts who when they come
forth to their work are able to sympathize
with the poor and needy and know how to
dispense the Gospel of the grace of God to
our perishing race.
SURELY I COME QUICKLY.
(Continued From Last Number.;
As a preface we quote from Gibbon?"If a
man were called to fix that period in the hit
ior\j oj tne world during which the condition
of the human race was most happy and prosperous,
he would, without hesitation name
that which elapsed from the death of Doraitian
to the accession of Commodus;" i. e. from 96
to 180 A. D. According to the best light of
history, this period began with our Lord's
utterance of our text, and its date is, of course,
to regulate the meaning of the word
"quickly."
It is generally admitted that the book of
Revelation is a prophetic history of the church
visible, or earthly kingdom of Christ, on to
its glorious end. Hence as before stated, the
drama most appropriately opens with the coming
of the King. Now, there is no doubt that
in the first century this church from a worldlv
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of a kingdom. The first requisite in a kingdom
is at least the appearance of stability. Its
scriptural symbol is a mountain. Of this the
church had none. Like its Lord it was "despised
and rejected of men." Its constituents
according to Paul were not only few, but "foolish,"
"base," "weak," "despised" and "ol
no account." Even the first chapters of Revelation
teach the same thing, and our Lord Himself
in Luke 21:31, declares that even so la(?*
as the year 70, when all the apostles, except
John, were probably dead, this kingdom
though "nigh at hand" \yas still in the future.
No, in the first century the church was simpb
_ Ll-U
a scone cui out without hands upon wine
men trample or stumble. In the eyes of men
it gave no promise of becoming a "great mountain
that would fill the whole earth."
The first century passes. According to the
world's greatest historian and most sagacious
infidel, the second opens with a period of peace
whose only precedent was the glorious "Augustan
Era." That era witnessed the Advent?
should we not expect something like it in Gabon's
period?