Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-25
VIEW OF DR.. THIRKIELD
Chief Text Book of the Clergyman
Should Be the Bible.
HOW MANKIND IS INFLUENCED
Demand for a Bradley Learned and
Cultured Ministry - Supreme
Work of Theological School.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Written for The Star snd the Chicago Record
Herald.
called the attention of DR.. Thlrklelo
recently inaugurated president OF Howard
University, who has under His jurisdic-
ton a theological department Tor the
training of young colored men Tor the
ministry to the curriculum OF Biddle Uni
yersity for colore5 men at Charlotte N.
c., in which nearly two-thirds or the
time of the students Is devoted TO the
study of Greek, Hebrew and the Semitic
languages. DR.. Thirkield has had. per-
haps, as much experience In educatlng
colored preachers as any man In the
United States, and is therefore entitled
to speak with authority
IT have no intimate knowledge of the
work at Biddle," he replied, out at How
ard University School Of Theology we do
not require either Greek or Hebrew. He
brew has been made entirely elective and
only graduates of colleges and candi-
dates who have been examined and passed
by the faculty as qualified are allowed to
study it. In a recent revision of our
courses of study. Furthermore. even cleo
tive Hebrew has been cut down to the
minimum. in line with other progressive
schools and the time hitherto devoted to
that language is employed in what we
consider more practical and valuable
studies for our young men.
No Medieval Cloister.
Yes" continued DR.. Thirkield, 1.-The
experience Of sixteen years in the train
ing of colored preachers has naturally
given me some clear convictions on the
subject of theological education. The
theological school should not be a me-
dieval cloister, shut in from men and
shut up to the study Of dead languages
and dogmatic theology and the history of
doctrines and philosophers, for the most
part dry and dead and unrelated to the
life that now is or that which is to come.
The theological seminary should be To-
Gated in the city. and not in Tie country,
far from the madding crowds ignoble
strife 1t should have two open doors
one opening out to the study of the word
of God and all literature and science and
history and life that may illuminate and
enforce that word and make 1t real to
man, and another door opening out to
struggling, sinful life of men all about
us. If men are to go out from the modern
theological seminary to serve the present
age, their calling to fulfill, as the old
hymn strongly puts il. then the primary
work of the seminary must be the making
of not mere theologlans and critical schol
ars. but preachers of the word. Let not
the type of scholarship and culture be
broadly learned and cultured ministry was
never so insistent as now, and there is
no profession where the broadcast and
finest culture lends itself so readily to the
tests of vitality and service.
Aim of the True Preacher.
But il the supreme work Of the the
illogical school Is to train preachers, then
all this learning and culture must be SUBJ
ordinated to the practical business of
reaching men and saving them through
the preaching of the Word Of Life The
true preacher will study all truth with
the breadth and fearlessness that a rever-
ent love for Christ, who is the Truth, in
spires; but he will hold this truth not for
tie sake of itself, but for TIE sake OF man.
He will get at the side of every truth
where 1t touches humanity. John Wesley
did that and SO did Beecher and Phillips
Brooks Culture is good and so are dog
matics and ethics and apologetics and
critical exegesis and history-all are good;
but the modern preacher must know these
not for the sake Of learning. but for the
sake of life; for what they can do through
him for man. He will study science. phi
losophy. literature. art history, archae-
ology, comparative religions, not for the
sake of knowledge, but for the sake of
power-that he may confirm, illustrate.
make real and enforce the Bible as the
Word Of Life.
1T is clear that the work of over nine
tenths of the graduates of our theological
schools will be in the pulpit The supreme
duty of the schools then is to train preach
ers and not theologians or critical schol-
ars. The old methods Of teaching and the
old-fashioned courses of study in theolog-
ical schools suppressed the native genius
and natural powers of many young
preacher. 1t is significant that some of
the most brilliant modern preachers
Moody, Spurgeon. Joseph Parker and Gun
saulus. for example-neyer went to a the-
nln md fc oxyi1a =;
biography that Phillips Brooks, in some
respects the most brilliant and effective
modern preacher, set no great store by
the courses of study he followed at the
ers was to him the supreme thing.
Yet, in spite Of all this, I would mag
Nifty the mission of the theological semi
naries. And they were never so vital and
methods of instruction have been fairly
transformed in the last de cade. notably at
Yale and Chicago. Boston and Hartford
Theological Seminary"
Hebrew for the Linguist.
what do you think of the study Of He.
brew in theological seminaries?"
well, for critical scholarship, for the
skilled exegece, for the exhaustive study
of the Bible. Hebrew is essential, but 1t is
primarily for the linguist and the special
ist
The seminary should make provision
for such study. But 1 believe with DR.
Amory H. Bradford, lately moderator OF
the Congregational National Council. and
one of the most able and trenchant
preachers in the modern church thai
compulsory attention given to Hebrew ir
our seminaries is relic Of medieval days
He even adds. L cannot think Of a single
rational argument which can be used IL
its favor
1T is my personal conviction that 10,
nine-tenths of the men who have entered
the regular work of the ministry the
time spent in mere linguistic drill in He
brew would have yielded tenfold larger
results If II had been devoted to the
mastery OF the almost perfect English
translation of the Bible. For the genera
student Hebrew should be elective. as 4
the case in several OF the leading sem
inaries, I predict that in twenty years
from now the study OF Hebrew by meI
preparing for active ministry in the pull
pit and passionate will be as uncommon
as the study OF Sanskrit now Is. II
fact. not one preacher In ten that l hav,
ever met-and I have made this sub
1ect Of special inquiry for years-ever KEEP
his Hebrew n