USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > History of Andover theological seminary, 1933 > Part 16
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who do not decisively reject Christ during the earthly life."
With respect to the complaints against the remaining four professors, the Visitors announced that Reverend William T. Eustis, the secretary of the Board, had declined to act with his associates upon the ground that he was not present on the day when these professors appeared and made their state- ments in their defence, and that none of the charges against these professors were sustained by the other members of the Board. As afterwards developed, the president of the Board, President Julius Seelye of Amherst College, voted to dis- miss the charges against all the professors, whereas Mr. Joshua Newell Marshall voted to condemn all. Since Dr. Eustis declined to vote except in the case of Professor Smyth, the charges against the other professors were not sustained, although the complainants against them were the same as that against Professor Smyth, and all were equally responsible for the utterances complained of.
Professor Smyth appealed from the decision to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, maintaining both that the action of the Visitors was unwarranted as a matter of law, and that the decision was tainted with partiality because Dr. Eustis had so prejudged the case as to disqualify him from acting judicially. The Trustees made their own investigation and found the charges ill-founded. They therefore supported Smyth by legal counsel. They were interested in the question that was involved, whether the Visitors were exceeding their powers. The case was argued before the Court in the fall of 1890, and a year later the Court rendered its decision. The Court unanimously affirmed the constitutionality and the original jurisdiction of the Board of Visitors, which had been questioned by Smyth, but a majority of the Court-Chief Justice Field dissenting-set aside the verdict of the Visitors that Smyth should be removed from his professorship, on the ground that the Trustees had not been allowed on their appli- cation to be heard in the case. This did not end the matter, for a new hearing was held by the Visitors in 1892, at which the Trustees were represented by a committee. Smyth was charged by his opponents with pantheism, Universalism, and
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disreputable morality, because he kept his chair of instruc- tion. The Board of Visitors, whose composition had mean- while changed, disposed of the matter by a resolution to the effect that in view of the lapse of time, the inconsistency in the former decision, and other special circumstances, the Visitors could better fulfil their responsibilities by other methods, and "that without thereby expressing any opinion upon the merits of the case, the complaint against Professor Smyth should be dismissed."
The conclusion of the case brought relief to the members of the Faculty, who with a continual handicap had carried on their teaching without a break. It was especially a relief to Professor Smyth, who had borne the brunt of the attack. He had shown a patience and courage that endeared him to his friends and won the respect of his enemies. The members of the Faculty had stood by one another during the storm. Professor Harris was stalwart in his defence of the new theology and quick to appreciate its social implications. Pro- fessor Tucker was equally at home in systematic and practical theology, and on the platform as well as in the pages of the Andover Review he won friends for the modern point of view in religion. Professor Hincks mingled biblical criticism with a deep spirituality which was a part of his religious nature and which was reinforced by his vacation communings in his cabin high up on the northern slope of the White Mountains. Professor Churchill, the fifth member of the editorial board of the Review, while not an aggressive disputant, was a be- liever in Christian freedom, and on that ground he supported his colleagues.
The net consequence of the controversy was to strengthen the hands of liberals who were struggling for theological freedom, as men of previous generations had fought for lib- erty of conscience. Union Seminary in New York during the same period strove for the principle of biblical interpretation according to the canons of criticism. Together Andover and Union stood in the forefront of the battle that was to divide denominations from within and to threaten to break them wide open, the battle between the two principles of a fixed
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body of doctrine once delivered to the saints and a growing understanding of the mind of God on the basis of reason and experience. Of the Andover Review Frederic Palmer said : "It has stimulated thought, deepened piety, enlarged the visible horizon of the kingdom of heaven, set a wonderful example of Christian courtesy in polemics, and saved the Con- gregational body from destruction at the hands of the intel- lectual deadness and narrow ecclesiasticism of its own High Church party. Its influence is now established. The new theology ... is preached from many a pulpit and editorial chair where it is not at all recognized as Andover theology, but is unconsciously supposed to be Theology itself, the only normal and proper thing. What greater success can any scheme of thought desire than to lose its distinctive name and supersede itself ?"
The Seminary itself did not emerge from the conflict un- scathed. The wounds of theological wars are slow to heal. The spirit of the school had been generous in its freedom to the professors in spite of the ancient standards. In 1868 a student wrote that the Faculty would let a man have liberty to think, and there was no objection to the progress of scien- tific investigation. "Andover does not watch with quaking the approach of modern science ; for its faith is not grounded in the letter, but in the spirit of revelation, and it holds no theory which it is not willing to be submitted to the test of enlightened reason." And the Trustees did not hamper the freedom of the classroom. But the Seminary continued to bear the scars of the acute controversy of the decade. At- tendance declined, for students did not wish to be involved in the issues, and to be a graduate of Andover during those years was to incur the suspicion of heterodoxy. But the Faculty faced the future with resolution and courage.
An indication of the new outlook of the Seminary was the attention given to social questions. Professor Tucker supplied the impetus, arranging a plan for the Andover House in Boston, so that several residents could have practical experi- ence there for a period of at least six months in connection with the work of Berkeley Temple. Because of his interest
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in the subject Robert A. Woods, who had been a member of the Advanced Class in 1890 and afterward had resided for a time at Toynbee Hall in London, became head of Andover House, and lectured on social questions at the Seminary. The Porter Rhetorical Society discussed social problems at its meetings. The alumni gave a day at the Anniversaries in 1896 to the discussion of labor and other social issues, with special reference to the duty of ministers and churches, led by distin- guished speakers.
It was a period when conferences were popular. Faculty and students met for a fortnightly conference under the direction of a joint committee of professors and students to discuss freely matters of practical importance connected with the institutions and problems of modern life. One of the professors presided and summed up the discussion. Among the topics discussed were the observance of Sun- day, religious education in the public schools, the attitude of the ministers to temperance reform, the reorganization of Congregational churches, and methods of teaching churches and Sunday schools the results of the higher criticism. Once a month the Faculty and graduate students met for a paper by a student and the discussion of it.
A pastoral conference on Catechetics by those who were especially interested in the subject brought together repre- sentative men from everywhere in 1900. They attempted to evaluate the catechetical method of instruction in religion, and during the day discussed the church and the home, the church in the city, parochialization as a substitute for evan- gelization, Roman Catholic methods of child care, and the practical use of the catechism.
Back in 1877 the members of the Faculty had enjoyed a local club, which included their wives and persons of culture in the community. They called themselves "The Owls." Meetings were held fortnightly at the houses of the profes- sors or of the principal of the Academy, when papers on learned subjects were read and discussed, and individual readings were reported. The meetings were of a confidential nature; the members were to be "at once, condignly, igno-
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miniously, unanimously, and irrecoverably expelled without further accusation, arraignment, trial, or conviction, and without benefit of clergy" if they divulged remarks that were made in the inner circle. It was optional with the ladies whether or not they should participate actively in the exer- cises. Most of the subjects discussed were classical, theologi- cal, historical, or descriptive ; now and then an original poem was read or a prominent book reviewed. The club served as mild recreation and an intellectual stimulus to the professional people of Andover, and its list of members reads like an in- tellectual register. But it lasted for only a short time.
The Faculty swung into line with other divinity schools by suggesting to the Trustees in 1896 the desirability of granting the degree of Bachelor of Divinity to students who had had the college training and who completed the full course at Andover. The Trustees agreed and applied for authority to the Massachusetts Legislature, which granted the privilege. The degree was conferred on several graduates of former years, including Dr. Cole of Wheaton and Professor Ropes of Harvard.
There were special occasions when Faculty and students assembled to do special honor to a man or an organization, and invited speakers from outside the Seminary. In 1897 came the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of Me- lanchthon, the German reformer and theologian. The stu- dents sang German and Latin hymns, and listened to an address on the man and his character. Six years later a more elaborate celebration marked the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Jonathan Edwards. Dr. William R. Richards of the Brick Church in New York City preached a commemo- rative sermon. Alumni and other ministers and professors from Harvard and Boston University gathered with the students to listen to addresses from Professors Smyth and Platner of Andover and Professor Woodbridge of Columbia, and a poem from Dr. Samuel V. Cole of Wheaton Seminary. Dr. James Orr of the University of Glasgow came with a con- gratulatory message from the United Free Church College, and addressed the gathering on the Influence of Edwards.
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A reception and collation in Bartlet Chapel added spice to the exercises.
Another special occasion was a memorial service for Pro- fessor Smyth, who died in 1904 and was buried in the Chapel Cemetery. Seminary exercises were omitted on the day when the town of Andover celebrated its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary ; on the day when Admiral Dewey came to Boston after his victory at Manila; and again when the American Missionary Association held its jubilee meeting in Boston.
Among the improvements of the period were the installa- tion of electric lights in Bartlet Chapel and the Library, made possible by the generosity of a friend, and the introduction of the practice of wearing academic costume at Commence- ment time.
The Faculty and the Trustees cooperated to enrich the mental and spiritual life of the students. Among the preachers who addressed the students were Gordon, Cuthbert Hall, Harris, Cadman, Speer, Eaton of Beloit, Harry P. Dewey, and Joseph Neesima. Special lecturers included George Adam Smith and Cheyne from Great Britain, Bowne and Cuthbert Hall from America. For periods of a year or two Alexander Mackenzie, W. H. Hocking, and W. W. Rockwell were ap- pointed to lecture on pastoral theology, the history of religions, and the history of the Christian Church.
In the natural course of events changes occurred in the Faculty. Professor Park, so long emeritus, and Professor Churchill died. Friends of Churchill fitted up a memorial room in his honor, which was designed as a center of student life. Reverend William H. Ryder succeeded Woodruff in 1888, remaining thirty years in the New Testament chair. He had been soldier, teacher and pastor, and he brought to Andover not only experience but scholarly qualities coupled with an inspiring personality. He was modest and considerate of those who differed from him, open-minded in his attitude and frank in his speech. The Smyth trial was hardly over before Ryder was accused of heresy on the doctrines of the Trinity and the Person of Christ. The Trustees investigated and exonerated him. The Visitors were not so easily satisfied,
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but at length peace was made. The Trustees took the ground that the Creed was to be interpreted liberally for substance of doctrine, and the Visitors did not make official objection. Ryder had such a strong Christian faith and was so charming a gentleman that it was difficult to hold an unfriendly opinion against him.
Reverend Theodore C. Pease, a graduate of Harvard and thirteen years a pastor, was elected to succeed Professor Tucker in the chair of sacred rhetoric, when Tucker went to the presidency of Dartmouth in 1893. Sadness and disappoint- ment came with his death when he had but commenced his service, but his memory was preserved in his sermons, poems, and printed inaugural. In 1896 thirty-three students asked for a special course of instruction in foreign missions, pref- erably from Dr. C. C. Torrey, a request which the Trustees granted. Torrey had been an Andover Fellow, had studied abroad, and at the time was an instructor in Semitic languages in the Seminary. Later he was the Taylor professor of biblical history for a year and then went to Yale, as Moore went to Harvard. The two men were close friends and during their summer vacations enjoyed roughing it together in and about their log cabin on the slope of Mount Adams in northern New Hampshire.
Dr. Owen A. Gates came to the Old Testament department of instruction, served for years as secretary of the Faculty, and succeeded Ropes as librarian. William R. Arnold was inducted into the professorship of the Hebrew language and literature in 1903, and remained until Seminary exercises were suspended in 1926. Dr. Charles O. Day became pro- fessor of practical theology in 1901, and was made president of the Faculty. He had the difficult task of holding the school together in a period of decline, and gallantly stayed at his post when he might have gone to college presidencies else- where. He was active in denominational affairs, trying to keep the Seminary in contact with the churches. He was cherished by his colleagues and was popular among the boys of the Academy, so that they gave him the rare honor of stopping at his house for a speech after they had won an
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athletic victory. It was Professor Day who in 1902 announced the beginnings of the conferences with Harvard over the project of removal to Cambridge. Professor John W. Platner came from the Harvard Divinity School to teach history in 1901. He made his largest contribution to the Seminary after the transfer to Cambridge.
Thus the Seminary prepared itself to enter upon the twen- tieth century, proud of its long past and hoping for an assured future.
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CHAPTER IX LIBERTY AND UNION
A® GAIN it is Commencement Week on Andover Hill. No longer do the Anniversaries come in late midsummer, when harvest is ripening to its fruitage, but in June when the year feels the strength of its youth and faces the demands of its maturity confident in its virile powers. At such a time it is well that young men should leave the shelter of the training school and venture forth to try their strength and skill. And what more beautiful setting for Commence- ment than an elm-shaded campus in a New England village, redolent with historic memories and steeped in an atmosphere that has been laden with the breath of culture for more than one hundred years.
The Commencement program in 1905 brought the bacca- laureate sermon, the public examinations, and the annual meeting of the Society of Inquiry, with an ordination service as an extra on Monday evening. The alumni held their busi- ness session on Wednesday. The alumni of a school have the advantage over either Faculty or Trustees of viewing a situ- ation against the background of their undergraduate experi- ences and in the perspective of years of active ministry. They are inclined to indulge in criticism, though they mean it to be constructive. At Andover they were no exception. At their meeting they discussed the attitude of educated men towards the ministry, and resolved that the executive committee of the Alumni Association should send a communication to all the members, urging them and the churches to see that young men through the influence of pulpit and prayer meeting may become sensitive to a spiritual call. The men sat down together at supper in Bartlet Chapel, and afterward came the formal exhibition of two collections recently installed in the
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Museum. One was the Palestine Collection, obtained through the activity of Professor John Phelps Taylor and bearing his name, the other the missionary collection, which was a me- morial to Dr. Daniel T. Fiske, a president of the Trustees for a term of years. Appropriate addresses were made and the rooms were opened for inspection. Thursday brought the exercises of the graduating class, followed by the alumni dinner, with nearly one hundred persons sharing in the fel- lowship and enjoying the postprandial toasts.
The year had brought changes in the Faculty. Professor Smyth had passed on, and Professor Platner had become Brown professor of ecclesiastical history, specializing for the year on the history of doctrine ; Reverend William W. Rock- well was teaching in the same department. Professor Arnold had fitted into the Old Testament department, and had the assistance of Dr. Gates. President Day, Professor Hincks, now senior professor, and Professor Ryder continued their several responsibilities. New names were among the lecturers of the year. Dr. William H. Hocking of Harvard presented the religious aspects of modern philosophy and a second course on the history of religions. Dr. Robert A. Hume of India in the Hyde lectures discussed missions from the mod- ern point of view, and showed their relation to psychology and sociology. Professor John B. Clark of Columbia delivered the Southworth lectures on the modern economic problems of agriculture, industry, and government monopoly. Nor was the old concern for musical instruction permitted to lapse. Courses in the theory and practice of church music and prac- tical instruction in singing stimulated an appreciation in the students of the part that music properly plays in worship.
Those who had the best interests of the Seminary at heart were disturbed over the small number of students, and it was felt that a larger use should be made of the facilities of the Seminary. It was this in part that had prompted the Easter Theological School, which had been held in the spring of 1903 and again the next year. Forty-two home missionary pastors in Massachusetts and other parts of New England listened to lectures from the Faculty and joined in discussing
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the subjects presented, and enjoyed the fellowship of the ten days' session. For recreation they walked about the town and country and took trolley rides in the vicinity. They en- joyed the baseball games of the Academy students on the new athletic field and admired the new gymnasium, used by both Academy and Seminary students. They strolled through the Museum and looked over the most recent displays. In the evenings they listened to addresses on social and practical matters, sang with Mr. Burdett and prayed with Dr. Emrich. Then they went home to put into practice the new ideas which had been given to them.
The question that was uppermost in the minds of the alumni and friends of the Seminary as the Commencement of 1906 approached was the future of the school. Since the new cen- tury opened the conviction had been growing that something more was necessary than to hope for the rejuvenation of the old school. The controversy of twenty years earlier had weak- ened the Seminary seriously. The new temper of the age which was finding in life rather than in theology the best ex- pression of religion, was impatient with outworn creeds and doubtful of the value of institutions that were based on such creeds. Particularly were college men shy about connecting themselves with a school that had a reputation for theological difficulties and still required its Faculty to give lip service to ancient symbols. Recovery from the theological depression had been discouragingly slow. It began to seem as if the school might not live much longer unless something radical was attempted.
The alumni were divided in their opinions as to what should be done. The more conservatively minded thought that new life might be injected into the old school with new men on the Faculty, that more students might be secured now that the buildings had been modernized, and that more money would make possible greater expansion. They saw the value of the quiet surroundings of the Seminary for the studious, and believed that with improving means of communication the school was near enough to the urban centers. It was sug- gested that perhaps the Seminary might widen the scope of
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its helpfulness by doing more for foreigners in Massachusetts. Four years before a meeting of alumni in Boston had voted unanimously that the Seminary should be kept in Andover, had expressed confidence in the Faculty, had pledged their efforts to secure money and good will for the institution, and had appointed a committee to present their resolutions to the Trustees.
The Trustees were alive to the situation. They saw that Andover had suffered in competition with seminaries that had their location in a city or had university connections. They knew the pull of urban life for modern youth. In spite of the unfriendly relations of long ago between Andover and Harvard, the authorities had been in consultation with the University looking towards a possible affiliation. They recognized the changes that had taken place in Congregational thought, and they had no fear that the liberal atmosphere of the Harvard Divinity School would weaken the confidence of Andover men in their evangelical faith. President Eliot and the Harvard Corporation met the Andover Trustees halfway, and prepared a plan of agreement with which the Trustees as a whole were in accord. The Trustees passed a vote to the effect that "the period has arrived when the pros- perity of the Theological Seminary will be promoted by its removal from Andover if satisfactory arrangements can be made for its establishment elsewhere." A special committee appointed to present a plan for removal reported, however, that no feasible plan appeared. The attitude of the Alumni was known to be unfriendly.
Now in 1906 the matter of the removal came to the front again. In April the Trustees had voted unanimously that the time had come when it was best to make the affiliation with Harvard, as soon as the legality of the action could be deter- mined and the necessary arrangements could be made. It was important that the Andover professors should be related officially to the Faculty of the Harvard Divinity School, and that a new building should be erected. The Alumni Associa- tion of Andover appointed a committee of conference to obtain the opinions of the graduates of the school. Commencement
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ANDOVER HALL IN CAMBRIDGE
passed before any adjustment was made, but the negotiations continued. It had been felt for some time in the Seminary that a board of trustees which should be separate and different from the governing body of the Academy was very desirable, especially if the Seminary was to be removed from the vicinity of the Academy. The permission of the Massachusetts Legis- lature was necessary, and pending such permission the nego- tiators marked time.
In 1907 the Trustees petitioned the Legislature for an act constituting the persons who were then members of the cor- poration of the Trustees of Phillips Academy a separate cor- poration under the name of the Trustees of Andover Theo- logical Seminary, with authority to receive the property theretofore held by the Trustees of Phillips Academy for the benefit of the Theological Institution. In April, 1907, the Legislature accordingly incorporated the persons then consti- tuting the Trustees of Phillips Academy as the Trustees of Andover Theological Seminary, to be governed by all the provisions and regulations as to organization, membership, etc., by which the Trustees of Phillips Academy were gov- erned, and to hold all the property then held by the Academy Trustees for the benefit of the Seminary "subject to all trusts and conditions upon which the property had been held by the Trustees of Phillips Academy." Upon the establishment of the new corporation the Trustees of Phillips Academy trans- ferred to it the land and buildings occupied by the Seminary, together with all invested funds held for the benefit of the Seminary. Most of those who were trustees of Phillips Academy when the act of 1907 was passed and who under the act became the first trustees of Andover Theological Seminary resigned and their places were taken by men who were primarily interested in the Seminary, thus recognizing the fact that the Academy and the Seminary had grown apart and that one governing body was no longer suitable.
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