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Danger in Modern Universities and Theological Seminaries
By J. M. BEESON, A. M., LL. D., President of Woman 9 s College, Meridian Miss.
(Answer to a letter from a graduate of Merid
ian Male College, who has spent a year in a
university taking theological course and won
over by the “Higher Critics.”)
Y
OUR letter to the Presidents of Me
ridian Colleges, setting forth your
“new theology,” received. It
showed a good, kindly Christian
spirit all the way through, yet it
gave us much pain for several rea
sons.
In the first place, it seems clear
that you have been captured by the
modern critics, who are destroying the Bible,
and filling our pulpits with the worst kind of
infidelity, not the kind of Ingersoll or Tom
Pain, but of a worse kind, because they do not
acknowledge that they are infidels, even going
in preacher’s garb and destroying the faith
of the people in the inspired Word of God, in
the blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all
sin, the atonement, etc.
Another thing that pained us was the strain
of egotism which was shown throughout your
letter. You assumed to begin with that we
oppose higher education. You are very much
mistaken; w’e are heartily in favor of it, as
we have shown by the fact that both of us
attended universities. One has three degrees
from universities. The other has two degrees
and was in his second year at Johns Hopkins,
which is longer than you have been in the uni
versity. We are, however, opposed to the mod
ern trend of invidious infidelity, which is run
ning through most of the universities of today,
and, in fact, most of the theological schools.
We also oppose many of the other features that
seem to us hurtful to character and to deep
spirituality, and, unless we can find a safe
place for our young people when they leave
us, we much prefer that they take their chance
of getting their “Higher Education” by dig
ging it out alone in libraries and in private ways,
rather than to undergo the temptations and
subtle influence from most of modern univer
sities, and colleges, too, for that matter. You
“THE BABY OF THE 21ST MISSISSIPPI”
Dr. W. L. Pritchard’s Story in Sermon at Macon, Ga., Brings Stirring War-Time Reminiscence B jAMEs n cALLAWAY nt
N his touching sermon at the First
Baptist Church, on Sunday morn
ing, Dr. Pickard related the story
of the French soldier who saved a
little Russian child whose protect
ors had been killed in battle. The
little girl proved to be of royal
blood, a little princess of Russia.
He took the child in camp, cared
I
for it, and in time, through much trouble, car
ried it in person to its Russian palace home.
There had been search for it; runners had been
sent over the vast kingdom to search for the
child. When Julian, the French soldier, re
stored the child all the bells of the city rang
for joy. The story was told to illustrate the
blessedness of seeking “the lost’’ and bringing
them to the fold of the Master, Jesus Christ.
The story of the rescue of the little princess
from its peril on the battlefield by the French
soldier recalls the story of the rescue of a child
at Fredericksburg, Va., by Buck Denman, a
soldier of the Twenty-first Mississippi. The
story is related by Major Robert Styles in his
“Four Years Under Marse Robert.”
The Story of the Baby.
Military necessity demanded the evacuation
of Fredericksburg. The enemy had the ad
vantage and were marching into the city. It was
a hard thing for Barksdale’s grand Mississippi
brigade to abandon the town. The Twenty
first Mississippi was the last regiment to leave
The Golden Age, for November 21, 1912.
seem to argue that we ought to so root and
gound and fix our young people that they can’t
be moved when they leave us, and we believe,
as a whole they are so fixed, provided they don’t
get into some other institution, whose teach
ings are diametrically opposed to our teachings.
As long as people are in school at all they are in
the formative period of their lives, and during
the formative period of life they ought to be
kept under the very best possible influence; for,
if they are impressionable, they are going to
be affected by their surroundings. If they are
not impressionable, then they do not need the
school, because they are not going to receive
its teachings.
We have never yet seen one go to these
universities or colleges who has not been af
fected by the trend of the so-called “New Learn
ing” and hurt in his spiritual experience, and
had his influence in life crippled rather than
helped. It is preferable that they enter upon
life’s duties without any university training,
if the University is of this “New Learning”
type; they will be very much more useful to
the world. One of your classmates left us a
good Christian, professing a good experience.
He came back after one year in the university,
filled with this modern trend of destructive
criticism, seeing no harm in the dance, the
theater, etc. We have been with him in two
camp meetings since then, and we have never
seen him testify even to being a Christian; he
takes no active interest in leading people to
Christ. One of the brightest young women
we ever had in Woman’s College, years ago,
went to one of these universities that teach this
so-called “New Learning,” or, as they deem
to put it “Truth.” It was not long before she
wrote back that she had become “broader.”
When she came back she had lost her experi
ence and felt out of place in a spiritual atmos
phere, went off for intellectuality and made a
shipwreck of her Christian life. We could
go on multiplying the example, but it is use
less. You may have your same religious ex
perience ; if so you have it in spite of the so
called “New Learning” or “Truth,'” and not
the city. Buck Denman, was the color-bearer.
He was a Mississippi bear hunter, a superb spec
imen of manhood, tall and strong, and was full
of pluck. He was rough in his manner, but
withal a noble, tender-hearted fellow and a
splendid soldier.
The enemy were coming up the street, flags
flying, while great shells from the siege guns
were playing upon the city and bursting over
head and dashing their hurtling fragments aft
er our retreating skirmishers. Buck wanted a
parting shot. So he screened himself behind
the corner of a house taking sight for his sure
aim and last shot. Just as his fingers trem
bled on the trigger, a little three-year-old, fair
haired baby girl toddled out of an alley, ac
companied by a Newfoundland dog, and gave
chase after a big shell rolling lazily along the
pavement, she clapping her little hands and the
dog snapping and barking at the shell.
Buck’s hand dropped suddenly from the
trigger. He dashed it across his eyes to dispel
the mist and make sure he hadn’t passed over
the river and wasn’t seeing his own baby girl
in a vision. No, there is the baby, amid the
hell of shot and shell, and here comes the ene
my. A moment and he has grounded his gun,
dashed out into the storm, swept his right arm
around the baby; gained cover again, and,
baby clasped to his breast and musket trailed
in his left hand, is trotting after the boys up to
Mary’s Heights.
And there, behind that historic stone wall,
on account of it.
How many people have your professors, who
advocate this so-called “New Learning” or
“Truth,” led to Christ this year? How many
have they led into a real consecration of heart
and life?
From the tone of your letter you seem to>
think that you have found the “Fountain of
Truth,” and that we, down here, are all in the
dark and haven’t yet found the Truth. We,,
ourselves, are drinking at the very Fountain
head of Truth. Christ is the source of Truth,,
and we are walking with Him day by day; and
we will guarantee that all you have that com
forts your soul and feeds it and blesses it, you
found before you went to the uni
versity of theological seminary. You
may have some intellectual feasts that
you have discovered there, but the
Truth that feeds the soul is not found in col
lege courses, or in the so-called “New Learn
mg.”
Some sentences that you wrote pained me
very much. You wr^te:
“I have accepted higher criticism.” “I still
believe in God and the Bibile as a religious
book. “I have not held to these arbitrarily;;
they have been given back to me after I gave
them up in the interest of Truth.” The idea,
of. giving up God, Christ, the Holy Ghost and
the Bible in the interest of Truth! What a tra
vesty on Truth! Giving up the very source of
all Truth in the search for Truth. It is the
way these modern professors have of catching
young men. They tell them to give up every
thing in the interest of Truth, including the
very Fountain-head of Truth.
Another quotation from your writings: “Os
course, I do not interpret the Bible any more
literally as at Meridian.” Os course, that is
very painful to us. The Bible is the Book of
Truth, but by the time modern destructive crit
ics get through with it there is not much left.
They interpret it as a good, religious book, a
good code of morals, a little better than the
Koran or the books of Confucius.
(Continued on Page 15.)
and in the lines hard by, all those hours andl
days of terror was that baby kept, her fierce:
nurses taking turns petting her, while the:
storm of battle raged and shrieked, and at;
night wrestling with each other for the boon
and benediction of her quiet breathing under
their blankets. Never was baby so cared for.
They scoured the country for such as would
nourish the child.
When the struggle was over and Barksdale
reoccupied the town, the Twenty-first Missis
sippi led the column. But the regimental col
ors could not be found. Buck Denman sprang to
the front, and, swinging aloft the child above
his head, her little garments fluttering like the
folds of a banner, shouted: “Forward, Twenty
first, here are our colors!” And off the regi
ment went, yelling as only Barksdale’s men
could yell. Buck Denman was the tallest man
of the regiment. As they passed down the
street the child was seated upon his shoulder,
its hand resting upon his head. The streets
were crowded with the women of Fredericks
burg welcoming their rescuers. A woman
screamed. Her voice was heard above the din
and racket. She rushed to the man on whose
shoulders rested the child. She had found
her baby girl. There were no royal bells to
peal forth joy, but the great crowd on the
streets and the Twenty-first regiment broke
forth into great shouts. The lost was found,
the child restored to her mother’s arms.
—Macon Telegraph,
