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

y
turns from ten thousand or twenty
thousand. Every department of the
University open to the theological
every branch of secular
education is free to them. In his
own class at Vanderbilt University
twenty-five per cent. were theoloei-
cal students; the same was true of
other schools of the secular depart
ment. The investment, therefore,
besides other advantages, was the
most economical that could be made.
This is the advantage of the Uni
versity over the separate foundation
of Colleges on the one hand and
professional schools on the other.
By a more complete and perfect or
ganiZatiOn they make each depart
ment tributary to every other, and
what is thus best for each is best
and cheapest for all. But in it's in
tellectual and moral, as we'll as pc
cuniary bearings, such an arrange
ment was not only the best for the
theological students but equally
for every other class of students, and
for the University itself. The infiu-
ence is mutual and mutually COM
pensatory. The work that we, the
secular professors, do for the theo-
logical students is paid back to us
by the very presence of those stu
dents in our classes-is paid back to
the University itself, and to all
classes of its students, by the higher
tone of morality and the more dis
tinct influence of religion that is
infused into every department. If
called upon to say which owes the
greatest debt at Vanderbilt, the
theological to the literary or the
literary to the theological depart
ment, he would be at a loss to an
swer. Either would be crippled
without the other, and the mutual
obligation is equally acknowledged
by both. He might urge this meas
ure, therefore, not only upon the
friend of theological education, but
upon all the friends of the Univer-
sity, and upon all its patrons for the
value of the University itself, and
of their own sons, in whatever de-
partment. The advantages and
blessings, he felt more, would be
common to all.
There are many considerations
which lead us to designate the above
address as very remarkable one.
The first and most conspicuous of
these is the obvious one manifest on
the very surface, that in an EpiscO-
pal Convention, when the subject
was the theological education of
ministers, a large portion of the adj
dress was occupied with a COM
mandatory notice of an institution
Of learning conducted under the
auspices of another denomination,
and that with that fact before them
the delegates in convention assem-
bled unanimously voted that the
address should be spread Uer6dtina
on their minutes, compliment
which was paid to no other address
before that convention, and which
is very unusual in any convention.
We are glad to call special attention
to this, as it illustrates most cheer
ing feature observable in the relig-
ious feeling of the day, a gratifying
contrast between the first and second
halves of the nineteenth century.
The first effect of the revival of re-
ligiOus zeal in the early part of the
present century was vehement and
acrimonious controversy. During
the lethargy of the eighteenth cen
fury, in the absence of any central
vitalizing heat, men had drifted
apart from one another in opinion,
and when they woke up to the con-
viction That religion was the highest
and nearest interest of humanity,
each identified religion with the
peculiar class of opinions which he
had adopted, and each contended
for them as of the very essence of
religion. The result was the furious
sectarian controversies of the first
half of the nineteenth century; every
sect, and every party within each
sect, was COntending at a white
heat for what was peculiar in its
own system of doctrine and denOunc-
ing as heresy all the points in other
sects and parties which differed
from its own. We do not claim that
any distinctive opinions are yet
given up by any body of Christians,
but we do observe, and rejoice to
observe, that religious men and re-
ligiOus bodies are more occupied
with finding out the points in which
they agree than those in which they
differ, and, better still, that in
studying their own systems of dis
cipline and doctrine each is disposed
to investigate the defects of his own
system and to look abroad among
other systems for the means of sup
plying the defects of his own. This
healthy symptom, and more than
one thing which occurred in the re-
cent Convention of the Episcopal
Church in this place illustrates the
presence of that symptom. The
missionary sermon, for instance, of
Mr.. Gray, on Thursday night, was
occupied in scrutinizing the ineffi-
cheney Of the existing organization
for missionary purposes, and the
leading defect which he pointed out
was the too rigid manner In which
the Episcopal Church in the present
day is tied down to the parochial
system, how, by the excessive devo-
ton to that system, each parish has
a tendency to isolation, to concern
itself with its own affairs and to
withdraw from interest in matters