St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1909-03-31


8 o. m. Telling Bible Stories. Rev
George Hodges, D. D., Dear
of the Episcopal Theological
school, Cambridge, Mass.
TUESDAY, MAY 4.
10 a. m. Preaching to the People. Rev
George Hodges, D. D.
2 p. m. The Relation of the Minister
to the Rural Problem. Ken
yon L. Butterfeld, President
of Massachusetts Agricultu-
raj College,
8 p. M The Realism of Jesus. Rev. w.
w. Fem, D. D., Dean'of the
Harvard Divinity School,
Cambridge, Mass.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 5.
10 a. m. The Value of the Study of Non
Christian Religions, Profes-
sor George T. Knight, Crane
Theological School, Tufts
College, Mass.
Up. m. Things that Remain, Professor
Borden P. Bovine, Boston
University.
Sp. m. The Ministry and the Intel
lectual Life, Rev. W. Douglas
Mackenzie, D. D., President
of Hartford Theological
Seminary, Hartford, Conn.
THURSDAY, MAY 6.
10 a. IN. The Bible and Modern Thought
Rev. George E. Horr, D. D.,
President of Newton Theo-
logical Institution. Newton
Centre, Mass.
2 p. m. Rev. Edward Lewis Curtis, D.
D., Dean of the Yale Divinity
School, New Haven, Conn.
Free entertainment from Monday
evening to Thursday afternoon will be
furnished to all ministers who make
application to one of the following.
Baptist clergymen may apply to 0. H.
Henderson; Congreea tional to Rev. S.
G. Barnes, D. D.. Methodist Episcopal
to Rev. J. M. Frost; Protestant Episco-
pal to Rev. James A. Thompson; and
Unversalist to Rev. B. F. Butler. Morn
ing and afternoon lectures will be given
in the chapel of the North church, and
the evening addresses will be in the audi
ence room. Prof. Owen H. Gates of
Andover will have charge of the library
department. He will have books on ex-
hibition, and explain the methods by
which pastors in service may have access
freely to the seminary libraries.
Concerning the Institute mentioned
above, Rev. Owen II. Gates of Andover,
Mass, a former St. Johnsbury boy
writes the following letter:
A brief explanation Is desirable as to
the origin of the enterprise Whatever
its outcome, certainly its preliminary
stages are significant and full ofinterest.
Without taking space TO rehearse them
in detail, the facts abundantly warrant
the following statements. There is
growing feeling in our New England d.
vinity schools that their fine educational
resources are not being adequately EN-
ployed in the interests of the church,
merely by their training the few men
needed each year to recruit the ranks of
the ministry. Our professors indeed
reach larger audiences by means of their
printed messages, but even this does not
exhaust the service possible for us.
AS the scope of theological training
widens, it cannot all be compressed into
the seminary course of three years.
Moreover, changes are rapid in the con-
ditions of church work in New England.
and in the method of stating the funda-
mental truths of our faith. The divinity
school must have message appropriate
for the pastor of today, If it is TO be
trusted with the training of the pastor of
tomorrow. But the ordinary routine of
seminary work does not furnish ade-
quate means for giving that message to
the brethrenin the ministry, who deserve
the best that the church can give them
at every hand. If on the one hand there
are not lacking limitations that the
church is not quite satisfied with what
we are doing, there certainly is proof
enough that we of the semnares are
anxious to exert upon the ministry
wider and longer influence along educa-
tional lines than we do at present.
1t is evident that the ministers them
selves are conscious that their intellectual
equipment is not kept fresh and timely.
There can be no other Interpretation of
the eagerness with which $50 ministers
in New England make use of the offer OF
modern reading matter from a single
seminary library.
OF course there is much that is vague,
and poorly defined, in the uneasness
that prevails among country ministers,
and it would be idle to suppose that a
| little Alded instruction and reading will
prove a panacea; but surely the lot OF
the country pastor would be happier,
and his position stronger, if the educa.
tional advantages in the hands of the
church were in some way made more
fully available for him during the years
OF his ministry.
The country life movement so much in
he air just now affords the church a
grand opportunity for leadership. If we
think there is nothing in it, we can at
least put something in it, namely, our.
selves. II we do not assume the leader
ship which is conceded to be our privilege
aud duty, the secular forces at work will
do their work independently, and the
church will be left outside, with prestige
constantly decreasing. The New Eng
land divinity schools feel that it is their
simple plain duty to attempt somehow
to add their resources to the Other
church forces that are rising to the
situation.
One cannot think very far into the con
ditions of leadership in the social saliva
ton Of New England, without realizing
that the church must act as one unitec
force for this object. We think we ar,
serving our denominations best when ",
hold ourselves ready to work together
upon the narticnlar nrnhlem i'm hand