Newspaper Page Text
March 4, 1915
DR. PICKARD’S GREAT LETTER TO BESSIE TIFT
PAINTS BEAUTIFUL PICTURE OF THE FUTURE OF HISTORIC INSTITUTION FOR WOMEN, BUT FEELS THAT HE MUST DECLINE JOINT CHAN
CELLORSHIP OF BESSIE TIFT AND MERCER UNIVERSITY TO GIVE FULL TIME TO A “GREATER MERCER.”
DME weeks ago the papers carried the an
nouncement that Dr. W. L. Pickard, presi
dent of Mercer University, Macon, Ga., had
been elected by the Trustees of Bessie Tift
s'
College, the great school for women at Forsyth, Ga.,
to the chancellorship of that institution —a position
which. he would hold jointly with the presidency
of Mercer. The hope was entertained and expressed
by many Baptist leaders at the time that Dr. Pick
ard would accept the position, and that his joint
chancellorship of these two great educational in
stitutions would lead to a federation of all the Bap
tist schools of Georgia, preparatory and collegiate,
under one general chancellorship. While there was
a feeling that such a consolidation and general su
pervision should obtain, regardless of the person
ality of the chancellor, there had been a growing en
thusiasm that President Pickard of Mercer Univer
sity was the man of all men to carry such a com
prehensive and inspiring scheme to victory.
Th e following letter from Dr. Pickard to Hon. O.
H. B. Bloodworth, the able and vigilant president
of the Board of Trustees of Bessie Tift 'College,
brings great disappointment to the friends of Bes
sie Tift, but it carries with it such cogent reason
ing that even those who wish it different are con
strained to agree with his position.
We give Dr. Pickard's letter not only for the in
terest it will hold for our Georgia readers, who
are especially interested in his inspiring vision of
a Greater Mercer, but because the friends of Chris
tian education everywhere will enjoy a look throng:
this “open window” into the consecrated plan and
dream of one of the ablest champions of distinctly
Christian education on the American continent.
Dr. Pickard’s Magnificent Letter.
Hon. O. H. B. Bloodworth,
Forsyth, Ga.
My Dear Brother:
At a recent meeting of the Board of Trustees of
Bessie Tift College, of which you are president, the
Many advocates of tithing make much of what
was required of the jews as compared with us mod
ern Christians. They figure it out with more or
less accuracy that the laws of Moses required of
every jew that he contribute in tithes from twenty
three to over thirty per cent, of his income, or,
“increase” as the Bible has it, every year. As to
the first tithe, God’s tithe, the tithe that Abel,
Abraham and Jacob paid all are agreed. Let us see
if there was any hardship in the
SECOND TITHE.
When you have finished reading this article,
please turn to Deuteronomy 14-22-27 and read there
the institution of the Second Tithe. As a com
mentary and because it makes it plainer, I give the
same verses as they are translated in “The Com
plete Bible in Modern English.”
“You shall tithe the whole of the produce of your
grain as it comes from the field year by year, and
you shall eat of it before your Ever Living God
in the place that he chooses to fix his name, both
of your corn and wine and oil; and of the blessings
of your herd and flock s’o that you may learn to
reverence your Ever Living God at all times.
But if the journey is too long for you to be able
to carry it because the place which your Ever Liv
ing God has chosen to fix his name, is too far from
where the Ever Living God has blessed you, then
you shall convert it into money and take the money
in your hand and go to the place where your Ever
Living God has chosen for himself and expend that
money in all that your life requires; in oxen and
sheep and fruit, and flesh and in all that your life
demands, and eat these there before your Ever
Living God and enjoy yourself with your family.”
Is there anything here that sounds like “hard
ship.” Was any penny of the second tithe spent
THE FINANCIAL SIDE OF TITHING
By Thomas Kane. (Series No. 4.)
THE GOLDEN AGE
board elected me to the presidency of that college
on the condition that the Board of Trustees of Mer
cer University and the Executive Board of the Geor
gia Baptist Convention shall concur with the ac
tion of the Board of Trustees of Bessie Tift College.
Therefore, I am only conditionally elected to the
presidency of Bessie Tift College.
This condition being abnormal, I have nothing but
a conditional election either to accept or decline.
However, to save your Board, and the other boards
named, both the trouble and expense of being called
together I feel impelled by my honest conviction
to give to you this statement. Furthermore, but for
your insistence that I should delay the matter it
would have been given you very promptly after the
action of your board.
Keenly, sensibly and with profound humbleness of
spirit do I 'appreciate the trust reposed in me and
imposed upon me by the action of your board and
the recommendation of the education board which led
to your action, but, as you know, I did not believe
it the wisest thing to be done, and two weeks be
fore, had positively refused to let my name be con
sidered in that connection.
I feel impelled to decline the acceptance of this
trust and honor for the following reasons:
1. As the president of Mercer University, I am
charged with a mighty task to accomplish. This task
demands all of my time and energies. To attempt
too much would be to fail in all.
2. Bessie Tift College needs all of the time, wis
dom, energy and work of the one who shall be its
president. It would not be just either to Mercer
University or to Bessie Tift College for me to give
to either of them less than my best —my all. Paul
once said: “This one thing I do.”
3. The co-operation of Mercer University with
Bessie Tift College is assured in all essentials by
the very nature of Baptist ownership and pledge to
co-operation.
for any other purpose than for the enjoyment of
those who put it aside and saved it for these an
nual feasts? The Jews had, not one only, but three
annual feasts at Jerusalem, three seven day religi
ous and patriotic holiday seasons every year. With
the second tithe they provided the money to pay
for them, but each man paid for his own and his
family’s good time with his own money. We have
but one such season, the Christmas holidays, unless
we count our chatauquas, religious conventions,
camp meetings, etc. Do we regard the money we
lay aside during the year to spend during the Christ
mas holidays, or for the other objects mentioned
as a “hardship?” The thought is absurd, but it is
not a whit more absurd than to say it or think it
of the Second Tithe for the Jews.
Then there was that third tithe, recorded in
the next three verses for the benefit of the poor
and which they paid every third year. Computed
annually it wou' be one-third of one-tenth, or
three and one-third cents of every dollar of in
come, per annum. I doubt if there is any up-stand
ing, self-respecting man or woman, young or old,
among the readers of this paper who does not
contribute at least that amount every year in help«
ing the poor. (By the “poor” is meant not the
abjectly poor alone. “Poor” in the proper sense
means any one who is in need and to whom we
give without expectation or desire for return or
reward). If there are any such they ought to be
ashamed of themselves.
THE GOLDEN AGE needs your New or Renewal Subscription to keep
• • it going into homes all over the South in its vigorous fight for Christian • •
9 • citizenship. Only $1.50 per year. Send it to-day—to-morrow you *
might forget.
4. lam convinced that the Baptists of Georgia are
not yet ready for this united presidency.
'5. As president of Mercer University, I have been
charged both by the Board of Trustees and the Edu
cation Board with really large work in connection
with our secondary schools.
6. It is far more difficult to be president of the
University and a Woman's College than it would be
to be president of a system of colleges for either
men or women, unless they were contiguous and
co educational, with one faculty and one policy.
7. There are wider educational interests commit
ted to Georgia Baptists than those represented by
any one college for young women, and all of these
interests should find a true exponent in the presi
dent of Mercer University. This is the one educa
tional institution about which all Baptists of the
state should rally, and to which they should send
their sons.
As president of Mercer University, I greatly de
sire to be helpful, if I may be, to every Baptist edu
cational interest and school in Georgia, both in and
out of the “Mercer System.”
A few of the best years of my life, I trust, are
before me. I have a consuming desire to see the
mighty hosts of Georgia Baptists one and insepar
able, moving as a great Christian, spirit-filled pha
lanx to the mightiest victories for our Christ, our
state and the world. And I have the overwhelming
conviction that my work in this is to write a new
and worthy chapter in the history of Mercer Univer
sity. And this demands my ALL.
And last, I believe that the best, surest and quick
est way for Bessie Tift College to take her right
ful place as an educational center is for her to get
a wise president, who will lead her to certain suc
cess by giving to her all of his time and ability.
Yours sincerely, ■
W. L. PICKARD. .
SUCCESS.
Success is defined as good fortune, prosperity, a
very general conception being that the successful
man is the one who has made his “pile.”
To some extent this gives the status of the sub
ject; but there is much remaining to consider in
connection wtih it:
1. How did he make it?
2. Does he control the money; or do the dollars
dominate him?
3. Is his wealth being used in suci a manner
as to assist in the world’s advancement; or is his
attitude like that of the man who prayed, "Bless
me and my wife, my son John and his wife, us
four, and no more?”
He who has a large fortune and uses it selfishly
is an injury to humanity; but the man who utilizes
it in some great public enterprise, or in other ways
tending ,to the health, happiness and prosperity of
the human race, can rightly be designated as a ben
efactor.
A characteristic of the dollars is their elusive
quality. The eagle stamped thereon symbolizes this
fly-away tendency. Happy he who regulates their
flight under Divine guidance, disbursing God’s sil
ver and gold as a faithful steward of the Most
High.
The way to true success is indicated in the fol
lowing words from Holy Writ:
“Lay up these my words in your heart, that thou
mayest* do all that is written therein; for then
thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou
shalt have good success.—H. S. Jenison.
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