[Image]  [Hi-Res Image]

Page 347

e. Rochester: The Baptist theological seminary in Rochester, N. Y., was established in 1850 by " The New York Baptist Union for Ministerial Education." A fund of $130,000 was raised, largely through the efforts of Rev. Pharcellus Church and John N. Wilder, and Oren Sage, while five professors, accompanied by many of their students, transferred their activity from Hamilton (now Colgate) University and Seminary to Rochester, two of the professors, Thomas J. Conant (q.v.) and John S. Maginnis, joining the faculty of the new seminary, while the others became instructors in the equally new University of Rochester, which, though also under Baptist influence, has no organic connection with the seminary. The first class graduated from the seminary numbered six, and in 1851-52 there were two professors and twenty-nine students. Among the distinguished members of its faculty have been Ezekiel G. Robinson (president, 1868-72), John H. Raymond, George W. Northrop, Howard Osgood (q.v.), Albert Henry Newman (q.v.), Benjamin O. True, and Henry E. Robins (q.v.). In 1852 a German department was added to the seminary, its curriculum being entirely distinct from that of the seminary itself, since it is designed especially for the training of German Baptists who; without full college education, may desire to enter the ministry of their denomination. Apart from the early years, when the difficulties naturally inherent in the nascent undertaking were increased by some tension with the older sister institution, Hamilton, the record of the Rochester seminary has been one of steady growth. Its aim has been to make its graduates not merely students and preachers, but men of thinking ability and practical force, and it has done much to give an aggressive, independent tone to the Baptist ministry.

In 1910 the seminary had a faculty of eleven (Augustus H. Strong, president) and a board of thirty-three trustees, eleven of whom are elected each year by the New York Baptist Union, which from the very first has maintained and controlled the institution. It had in 1910, 167 students, of whom seventy-seven were in the German Department, and its courses are open to members of all denominations. Its total assets in 1910 were estimated at $2,117,242, and its productive endowment at $1,689,095, from which sums generous provision is made for scholarships for needy students, as well as for fellowships. The library contains over 3,700 volumes, including the entire collection of the church historian J. A. W. Neander, which was presented to the seminary by Roswell S. Burrows in 1853, and the beginnings of a museum of Biblical geography and archeology have been made.

BIHLIOaRAPHY: A. H. Strong, Historical Discourse, Delivered as a Part . . . of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Rochester Theological Seminary, Rochester, N. Y., 1900; Sixtieth Annual Catalapue of the Rochester Theological Seminary, pp. 76-84, Rochester, 1909.

7. Southern: The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, now located in Louisville, Ky., was established in 1859 by the Southern Baptist Conven-

tion-a step which had been decided in May, 1857, at an educational convention of Southern Baptists at Louisville. The leading spirit in the foundation of the seminary was James P. Boyce (q.v.), who was ably assisted by John A. Broadus (q.v.), these two togetherwith Basil Manly, Jr., and William Williams, constituting the first faculty. The seminary was started at Greenville, S. C., but during the Civil War it was forced to close, its professors supporting themselves by preaching and other religious work. In the fall of 1865 the institution, badly crippled in finances, reopened its doors and maintained a precarious existence in Greenville until 1877, when in hope of endowment from states that had suffered less from the war, and in receipt of overtures from Kentucky Baptists, it was removed to Louisville. Here its tenure was equally uncertain until 1880, when a large donation from Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia, put it on a footing which assures it life and growth.

The seminary stands for the highest conservativeprogreasive scholarship in the education of the ministry, and its curriculum is designed to make its graduates practically efficient in pastorates, in the pulpit, and in all forms of denominational leadership. It was the first theological institution to adopt the elective system in its course of study, and the fiist to open its doors to men without college training, as well as among the first to include Sunday-school pedagogy in its regular curriculum. Among the prominent members of the faculty in the past may be mentioned Rev. William H. Whit. sitt (q.v.) and Rev. E. C. Dargan (q.v.; resigned) and Rev. F. H. Kerfoot (deceased). All the present faculty, nine in number, are prominent in denominational life, and include Edgar Y. Mullins (q.v.; president and professor of theology), John R. Sampey (Old-Testament interpretation), A. T. Robertson (q.v.; New-Testament interpretation), W. J. M'Glothlin (church history), W. O. Carver (comparative religion and missions), George B. Eager (Biblical introduction and pastoral theology), B. H. De Ment (q.v.; Sunday-school pedagogy), C. S. Gardner (homiletics and ecclesiology), and T. M. Hawes (elocution). The trustees, elected from three nominations made for each vacancy by the Southern Baptist Convention, number sixty-seven, and represent the southern states, the number from each state depending on the amount of money contributed to the endowment fund of the institution from the state in question. This board of trustees meets annually in connection with the meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, and an executive committee elected by the board has general charge of affairs between the annual meetings. The management of endowment funds is vested in a financial board elected annually by those who have contributed $1,000 or more toward the endowment, this election being ratified by the board of trustees. The majority of the students, who in 1910 numbered upward of 300, come principally from the southern states, though many are from the North, and some every year are from foreign lands. The great majority of the students are Baptists, but the classes of the seminary are open to members of any denomination who are properly recommended. The