Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-06-01

business and not for their own pleas
ure and amusement.
PROFESSOR JOYNES ON THEO-
LOGICAL EDUCATION.
The short speech made by Prof.
Joynes before the Convention of the
Protestant Episcopal Church, lately
held in this city, was ordered by a
special resolution to be spread rer-
5atinl on the records of the COnven-
ton. As it was the only address
which was so distinguished, the in
ference follows, of course, that it
was deemed by the delegates a doc
ument of great importance; as such
we have studied it and as such we
present it to our readers.
Pending the discussion Of the re-
port Of the committee on the Unirer-
siy Of the South, acith reference to the
support of the theological professor
ships in that institution, Prof. 4. l..
JONES, Of Vanderbilt University,
Nashville, said:
That though as almost a stranger
in the Church i'm Tennessee he had
come to this Convention only to
listen and to learn, he was yet I'M
willing to see the subject dismissed
without adding a word in behalf Of
the report of the committee. His
whole life had been spent in teach
ing in Colleges and Universities.
He was now connected with great
University in Tennessee which had
undertaken to realize, in another
branch of the Church of Christ, the
same plans that had been sketched
in the report of the committee for
the University of the South. This
fact, however, need not close his
lips on this occasion, for he was as
sured that those who had begun
this great work on the hill at Nash
vile, and by whose permission he
held his seat in the Convention,
would rejoice to see the same work
blessed and prosperous upon the
mountain at Sewanee. The cause
was the same for all, and every
branch of the Church alike needed
the power of an educated ministry
to meet and combat those encrOach-
ing influences in modern thought
and life which had been so strongly
depicted in the opening address of
the Bishop. He felt therefore that
he might extend the "God speed"
of Vanderbilt University to the
University of the South, and that as
a schOol-man who had witnessed
closely the course of theological ed
ucatiOn in its connection with secu-
lar education in his own University,
he might properly offer some
thoughts founded upon his own eX-
perienceS of the relation and mutual
influence of the two.
If this proposition had looked to
the endowment of a distinct TheO-
logical Seminary, he should vote for
it with reluctance, for everything
was to be regretted that would tend
to separate the ministry into a dis
tinct caste in society. Ministerial
education, or the exclusive aSSOcia-
ton of theological students distinct
from other branches of education,
from other classes of students, had
this influence. There was too much
of this tendency in the organization
of modern society, and it should be
resisted by all the influences of ed
ucatiOn. Society, humanity itself,
was one great whole, and the clergy
should stand in the very midst and
center of it, with the prOfOundest
sympathieS, with the widest knOwl-
edge of human nature and with the
largest possible experiences of hui
man life and interests. Such had
not been always the case; such
could not be the case under q sys-
tenn of ministerial education wholly
separate and distinct from other ed
ucatiOn. The happy feature in the
report is that it proposes to graft
ministerial education upon a Uni
versity already complete, or seeking
to be complete, in all other branches
of education, academic or profess
SiOnal. The speaker had seen this
experiment in actual operation at
the Vanderbilt University, and he
could speak emphatically of its en-
tire success and of its happy infiu-
ence in every department of the
University. There the theological
students are brought into daily con-
tact with the students of every
other department. They recite in
the same classes, they play the same
games, they debate in the same lit
erary societies, they have the same
friendships and associations as their
fellOw-Students, their professors sit
in the same faculty, the same regu-
latiOns and influences are common
to all, and thus the future ministers
grow up into full brotherhood and
community with those who are to
be the future lawyers, doctors, en-
gineers and farmers. While this
unity of educational influences was
important for all, to no class was it
so important as to the theological
students themselves, whose sympa-
thieS, like their ministry, should
belong to no class or section of HUI
man interests, but should be as uni
versal as the truth they preach.
Nowhere could such influences one
rate 50 favOrably as among the aSSo-
Citations of college life, when sypa-
thies are SO StrOug and when inn
preSsiOnS upon character are so
powerful and so lasting. As a result
of such educational conditions. and
through the influence of a ministry
thus trained, it might be hoped that
the barriers between the clergy and
society would be broken down that
our theology might be made more
human, our secular education more
spiritual and that the "contlict of
religion and science" might find its
solution in the more perfect unity
and community of the two, as SYM
boIized in the perfect union of the
divine and the human in the incar-
nate word. He would also call at
tention to the economy of this plan.
You end0w two professorships and