It is notorious that pastors are sadly deficient in the disposition and the ability to do this. They must not be too severely judged in this regard, because there has been little or no effort put forth to make them otherwise. They are a product quite as much as a cause, and are quite as much sinned against as sinning. With a well organized and strongly equipped department in our Seminary for the training of teachers of religion our young ministers would go out to their parishes inspired and equipped for this most important part of their great work. But in this School would be furnished opportunities for training expert lay teachers for our parish schools. It may not be desirable and it will not be practicable for a long while to come, if ever, to have paid teachers. But it would be possible for every Church within five hundred miles of our school to have a few well trained teachers. To show how this could be done would not be difficult, if our space permitted, but even here this suggestion may be offered. Let the school arrange its courses in periods of six weeks and let it provide fellowships yielding $25, which would meet about half the expense for travel, board, etc.; these fellowships to be offered on proper conditions to teachers in Sunday-schools who could qualify. That would mean that the number of Sunday-school teachers who would get six weeks of valuable training in their work would be limited only by the number of these modest Fellowships. Thus the Church at the same time would be preparing pastors to take their proper position at the head of the religious educational forces in their parishes and would be furnishing them with a nucleus, an ever-expanding nucleus, of well trained volunteer teachers. The Preacher, a Teacher One of the great functions of the pulpit is to indoctrinate the people, a function that has passed into innocuous desuetude. The preachers of former generations knew how to impart instruction. Their method probably would not be effective today. But the preachers today ought to acquire by some method their skill and effectiveness. We have authority for saying that they must be " apt to teach." Unquestionably, other things being the same, they would be greater preachers if they were better teachers. It ought to be part of their discipline and preparation for preaching to take a thorough training in the art of teaching. This implies a well organized curriculum, as an integral part of the Seminary curriculum, such as this School of Religious Pedagogy would provide. This the Place for the School The location of Auburn Seminary is ideal for this School. The climate in winter and summer is salubrious and charming. There are no floods, cyclones, epidemics. We have not had in many, many years a case of serious illness among our students, due to sanitary or climatic conditions. If the School were open during the summer season, and there ought to be sessions of six weeks each throughout the summer, there could be no more delightful summer resort than is afforded by all the attractions of this beautiful city and its charming lake. Within a radius of 300 miles there are many millions of people and thousands of Sunday-schools, made easily accessible to Auburn by train and trolley service. It is difficult to find a Seminary combining in its location so many desirable elements of salubriousness, beauty, convenience, attractiveness, as are found here and in so large a degree. The Environment A School of Religious Pedagogy, just as every school, must have a congenial and contributory environment in which to do its work. It must find it or create it. To do the latter is the slow and discouraging and expensive process of years. If it can find its environment ready at hand, it begins its usefulness with a large guaranty of success. Any one who will make a study of the needs of the School and of the ideals, curriculum, methods, atmosphere, esprit du corps, personnel, clientele of this Seminary will see that these are adapted to the fostering and bringing to the highest efficiency a School of this character. It is not impossible to show that the highest efficiency in a School of Religious Pedagogy can best be obtained as an integral part of a Seminary. It is still easier to show that at this Seminary is to be found the most congenial and helpful environment for the School. The Economy of it A School of Religious Pedagogy to be adequate to the needs of the hour must have an equipment far beyond two or three teachers who give instruction in a few special subjects, such as child study, and Sunday-school organization. Obviously the library of the Seminary, its chapel and other material equipment would be available for the school and would save duplication of plants at large expense. Perhaps not so obviously, but surely as really, every department of Seminary instruction and every professor could make valuable contributions to the School, absolutely necessary to its efficiency and only to be obtained otherwise at great expense. The Seminary could save the School from many expensive experiments. Experiments in such an enterprise must be made, but if made here they could be made with equipment and professors furnished without cost to the School or loss to the Seminary, and the results could be watched without the painful fear that good money is being thrown away. Some One's The School ought to begin with funds sufficient to enable it to be a full-fledged school from the start. We cannot wait in these days for schools They must be born grown. Of course, in coming years it will expand and develop, but from to grow. the very beginning it must be prepared to meet all the varying needs of the pupils for whom it is instituted and whom it invites to its walls. Further, the need of the Church and the Ministry for this School is so immediate that we cannot afford to take time for the School to come to the ability to meet them by the leisurely process of growth. They ought to be met now and all of them ought to be met now, and that by the best equipment and methods. It was the same reasoning that led Mr. Pulitzer to give a million dollars to begin a School of Journalism in Columbia University. It is the same reason that is impelling men of large means to give vast sums of money to open new departments in colleges and universities. It is to be hoped that some man of wealth who loves the Sunday-school and the children will give us money sufficient to found in this Seminary a School of Religious Pedagogy. It is a great need. As things are done in these days it cannot be met except by some one man or woman starting the School with a large and ample gift. Dr. Edward The cause of theological education has lost a valued friend and servant in the death of Rev. Edward B. Hodge, D. D., secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Education. His inbred courtesy and his warm-hearted, sympathetic, intelligent attitude toward theological students and the serious problems they have to face qualified him to an eminent degree for the position he filled as the head of our ministerial educational work for a period of thirteen years. Our Faculty and students in their relations with him always found him the kind, courteous, judicious gentleman that he was. Those of us who knew him personally regarded him as a scholar of many attainments, a faithful pastor, and a trusted friend. San Francisco Our Seminary at San Anselmo has the fraternal sympathy of Auburn Seminary in the afflictions through which it is passing. The death of its honored president, Dr. MacIntosh was soon followed by the recent San Francisco disaster, in which the Seminary suffered heavy financial loss. Since then its senior professor, Dr. Alexander, has been removed from it by death. Dr. Alexander by his large scholarship, his eminent ability as a teacher, his long service in the interests of San Francisco Seminary, was a conspicuous and honored educator on the Pacific coast. It is safe to say that by his long and able service in the cause of ministerial education he was the Nestor of our church west of the Rockies. He wrought well through a long day and in a ripe old age has been gathered to his fathers. In all these losses, San Francisco can be assured of our hearty sympathy, and of our confidence that out of them all she will come to a larger and more brilliant future. Dr. Hill Rev. Edgar P. Hill, D. D., is henceforth to be known as Professor Hill. He has resigned his pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church of Portland, Ore., to accept the Chair of Homiletics at McCormick Theological Seminary, to succeed Rev. Herrick Johnson, D.D. It is hard to think of any one more worthy to follow Dr. Johnson, for whom as one of its own distinguished alumni and one-time professor, Auburn has a high regard. Dr. Hill comes to his new duties with large equipment for them, gathered through his eminently successful career as a pastor. Auburn rejoices with McCormick in this addition to the latter's able Faculty. Directories of To the Directories of living Alumni which form such a prominent and valuable part of this Alumni number, it is hoped to add in the future a Directory according to location. Auburn men |