USA > Ohio > A history of the Disciples of Christ in Ohio > Part 5
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Jas. A. Garfield
A. S. Hayden
Harvey W. Everest
C. W. Heywood
A. J. Thomson
J. M. Atwater
WESTERN RESERVE ECLECTIC INSTITUTE AND PRINCIPALS OF THE INSTITUTE
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X HIRAM COLLEGE
F. M. GREEN has written a comprehensive and correct history of Hiram College. In a work like this only a few historic facts can be pre- sented. The Eclectic Institute, out of which the college grew, was founded in 1850, and the col- lege began in 1867. The college has been served ably by men of high ideals, both educational and personal, and of powerful personalities. This has given to Hiram an individuality among Ohio colleges that is well merited for altruistic motives and for genuineness in moral standards. Her effort has been directed toward the development of sterling manhood and womanhood, together with well-trained scholarship. This twofold em- phasis upon character and upon scholarship con- stitutes her mission as a high-grade Christian college.
Hiram has granted degrees to 970 persons: 717 men, 253 women. Forty-two are deceased. Seventy per cent. of the living alumni on gradua- tion gave themselves to altruistic service : preach- ing, teaching, nursing, and social settlement and various religious vocations.
Hiram people, in the world of letters, are worthy of honorable mention. From the earlier period may be mentioned James A. Garfield and B. A. Hinsdale. A partial list of those well
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known at present includes Jessie Brown Pounds, whose hymns are sung the world around; Harold Bell Wright, author of a number of "best sellers"; Wm. Allen Knight, author of "Song of Our Syrian Guest"; and Nicholas Vachel Lind- say, coming into recognition as one of the first- rank poets of to-day.
Counting alumni and former students, Hiram has given eighty workers to the foreign-mission field.
The Christian Woman's Board of Missions has headquarters at Indianapolis, Ind. All the workers there were Hiram students. Two of the professors in the college were former professors in Hiram College. In Cleveland in a single year Hiram men filled the following responsible posi- tions : President of the Chamber of Commerce; vice-president of the same body; superintendent of schools; head of the Department of Public Welfare; city engineer; head of the Civic Em- ployment Bureau; founder and head of the Hiram House, a social settlement of nation-wide reputa- tion. Besides these, Hiram men occupied other leading positions in law, banking and other busi- ness concerns of importance. Many pastors, doctors, attorneys and other business and profes- sional men of the city received their early training in Hiram.
These facts show the value of the small col- lege in our American system of education, and the worth of Hiram College as a training-school for professional and business men.
It costs about $45,000 a year to carry on the college teaching staff, general administration and plant maintenance. The income from students, endowment fund and personal annual gifts is
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E. V. Zollars
J. M. Atwater
G. H. Laughlin
Dr. S. E. Shepherd
B. A. Hinsdale
HIRAM COLLEGE PRESIDENTS
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depended on to meet the expense. Efforts are being made to increase the endowment and attendance. F. A. Henry is president of the Board of Trustees, and M. L. Bates is president of the college Faculty.
Attendance at the college costs the average man from $300 to $400 a year, and the woman's expenditure is from $250 to $350. Many work their way with much less cash outlay.
There are about thirteen thousand volumes in the library. Hiram maintains good ath- letics in football, basket-ball, baseball and track teams, with a competent coach in charge. The students have four strong literary societies : the Delphic and the Hesperian for men, and the Olive Branch and the Alethean for women. The athletic and literary activities lend enthusiasm to the student life. Valuable religious influences are found in the work of the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. organizations. The students publish a biweekly paper, the Hiram College Advance, and the college annual known as "The Spider- web."
Hiram College was distinctly Christian in its origin. It was a child of the churches, at a time when the churches were composed of plain farmer folk and pioneer preachers. The purpose of its founders is seen in the motto on the college seal: "Let there be light." A clause in the char- ter, providing for instruction in moral science as based on the facts and precepts of the Holy Scriptures, points to the supreme source of that light as they conceived it. Hiram has, through strong teachers, developed a great company of workers for human betterment and imbued them with a spirit of servitude for men.
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Arthur C. Pierson
Coleman Bancroft
Geo. H. Colton
B. S. Dean
Miss Almeda Booth
E. B. Wakefield
Edwin L. Hall
Harlan M. Page
Geo. A. Peckham MISS ALMEDA BOOTH OF EARLY DAYS AND FACULTY OF 1900
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Hiram was peculiarly fortunate in its early teachers. A. S. Hayden, Thomas Munnell, Nor- man Dunsbee, Miss Almeda Booth, James A. Garfield, H. W. Everest, J. M. Atwater and B. A. Hinsdale were truly great teachers. They drew around them pupils of kindred mind and still further imbued them with a like spirit. That heritage has never been lost from the school. It has rather deepened with the passing years, both in the Faculty and in the student body. That spirit may be defined as a spirit of sound scholar- ship, a spirit of democracy, a spirit of self- reliance, and a spirit of service.
Hiram College has more than fulfilled the purpose of its founders. It has a real and abid- ing worth for the state no less than for the church. Its good work continues.
1837-B. A. HINSDALE-1900
B. A. Hinsdale was born in Wadsworth, O., March 31, 1837, and passed from earth in Atlan- ta, Ga., Nov. 29, 1900. He was of New England parentage. He had an irresistible desire for scholarship. At the age of sixteen he entered the school at Hiram, and for thirty years was with the school as student and professor. He was a close and accurate scholar. He became a man of extensive information. He was elected president of Hiram College in 1870. In early manhood he made a profession of faith in Christ, and became a minister of the gospel and preached at Hiram, Painesville, Cleveland, and often spoke at the great annual meetings in northern Ohio. He lectured, preached, edited, talked and wrote books. In 1882 he was made superintendent of the schools in Cleveland. In 1888 he was called
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Hugh McDiarmid
Marcia Henry, A.B.
George H. Colton
Charles T. Paul
C. O. Reynard
Vernon Stauffer
MEMBERS OF FACULTY OF HIRAM COLLEGE, 1900 AND LATER
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to the chair of the Science and Art of Teaching at Michigan University. Some of his published works are "The Genuineness and Authenticity of the Gospels," "The Jewish Christian Church," "Ecclesiastical Traditions," "Schools and Studies," "President Garfield and Education," "Garfield's Life and Works," "Civic Govern- ment of Ohio," "Life of Horace Mann." A monograph on "The Training of Teachers," which he wrote, was awarded a medal at the Paris Exposition. He was a kind of encyclopedia on the events of the early history of Ohio. He received academic honors from Williams College, Bethany College, Hiram College and Ohio State University. He was in sympathy with young men, their struggles, difficulties, aims and triumphs. There are few whose lives are so rounded out and so fruitful.
1847-E. V. ZOLLARS-1915
Ely Vaughn Zollars was born Sept. 19, 1847, and well born. His parents were healthy in body and soul, and the modest home-best of all places -taught the fundamental facts of life. And the hills of Washington County, in our own beautiful Ohio, were a good place for quiet growth, and for looking through nature up to nature's God.
He showed an early ability to learn; and, while his immediate surroundings were rural, he found good teachers and made a path to good schools. When he was fairly in his teens he was a fair scholar and well able to teach.
In 1865 he found one who met the desires of his heart, and one upon whom he always leaned, and never in vain; and they were married. For three or four years he settled on a farm. Per-
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haps at first he intended to stay. It did him no harm. There was that within him which pushed on to other work.
So, in 1871, he entered Bethany College; and in 1876 he graduated, sharing the honors of his class. Those were good days at Bethany, when Pendleton and Loos and Dolbear and Harding were in their prime, and when many of our later strong men were students. He had now begun to find his place, and had grasped a work which he never could lay down. For two years he lin- gered at Bethany, tutoring and helping in finan- cial work; and then for eight years he exercised himself, doing independent teaching in Kentucky. He did good work, but did not prosper financially. A call of Providence in 1885 took him to Spring- field, Ills., as minister of the church. And it was here, where he was doing a good work, that Hiram found him in 1888, and made him presi- dent of the college.
Hiram was a good place for Zollars to go. It had good foundations in a remarkably good his- tory, and old students clung to their memories. Results proved that the choice of Zollars for president was a good one.
The college soon began to feel the energizing influence of the new president. He taught with vigor. He visited churches, soliciting temporary endowment, and awakening a real interest in the college. He planned for new buildings, so that students might be well housed. All this took work, hard work; to many it would have been impossible work. The college has always grad- uated students of ability, but many classes were painfully small. But from the advent of Presi- dent Zollars, even to the present, the classes in
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number and ability have done honor to the college.
In 1902 a call from Texas Christian Univer- sity took him to Waco. He felt that he would find a larger field in Texas. As time has proved, ·conditions were not favorable to building up at Waco; but he did earnest work. His most marked work, and the one that will probably tell longest to his memory, was the founding of Phillips Uni- versity at Enid, Okla. From the inception almost to the day of his death he may be said to have guided the institution. Any one who knows any- thing of the building of great schools, especially when one must largely gather the material for building, will understand the seriousness of this effort. The task was herculean. But he left a well-equipped institution in good running order, and already turning out young men and women who are doing most valuable work for the world.
His was a remarkably steadfast life. He did not vary in his great purpose; his heart was set to build up the kingdom of God. The world has felt, and long will feel, the momentum of his life. I doubt if he could anywhere have found happier fellowship than he found in Hiram. When he came back to rest with his daughter in Warren, we hoped that he would come to Hiram again, and we could renew, in a measure, the fellowship of other years. That was not to be. But what a world of blessed associations we shall have to renew, and enlarge, and never complete, in the land that lies beyond !
1817-ABRAM TEACHOUT-1912
At the veterans' camp-fire in the Centennial of disciples of Christ at Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1909.
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W. S. Hayden
Duane H. Tilden
Judge F. A. Henry
Minor Lee Bates
Alanson Wilcox
Andrew Squires
Wm. G. Dietz
M. L. BATES, PRES., AND TRUSTEES OF HIRAM COLLEGE
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Charles Louis Loos spoke highly of the public teachers of the gospel, but said, "We must not forget the men of the rank and file." Abram Teachout, a veteran, aged ninety-three, then spoke in a clear, distinct voice: "I have heard for the last eighty-five years, 'Once a man and twice a child.' Now, if this is the second child- hood of man that my eyes are fixed upon here to-day, it is the most intelligent and the grandest and the best lot of children I ever saw together. You are here, my friends, to testify to your faith in the cause of the Christian warfare, in the cause of Christ. This world would be in dark- ness if Christianity were stricken out of it. I lived for nearly forty years in that kind of dark-
ness. My mind was taken up with some of the pleasures that young people have; but since I made the confession of faith and obeyed the gos- pel and came into the life of Christianity, I have enjoyed more in this life than I ever did before. So I say to you, my friends, let us do all we can for the cause of Christianity, for it is truly the light of the world, and the blessings of life are drawn from real, genuine, true and faithful Christianity. That is my testimony.
"But we must consider that I speak as a business man; I am not a preacher. We must consider that to carry on Christianity, as a part of our life and a part of our business, takes money, just as it does to pay your grocer for the food you enjoy. Now, my friends, I frequently hear it said, and I presume you do, that it is a sacrifice-they call it a sacrifice-to contribute one hundred dollars, or five hundred dollars, or a thousand dollars, to the missionary cause. It is no sacrifice, my friends, if we can do it, if we
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Arthur S. Mottinger
George A. Bellamy
J. H. Goldner
John E. Pounds
C. M. Rodefer
L. G. Batman
TRUSTEES OF HIRAM COLLEGE Continued
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have the means; it should not be considered a sacrifice; it should be considered as doing a great work for the cause of Christianity.
" 'We should live
For the good that we can do, For the wrongs we can right,
For the blessings we can bestow, For the evils we can fight,
For the needs we can relieve,
For the joy we may receive.
" 'We should live
For brave and noble deeds,
With a name and purpose high
Work the work which to heaven leads, And rest when we come to die;
Live to sweeten sorrow's cup
And to lift the fallen up.
"' 'We should live
And learn to be ourselves,
If we may scatter what we know.
Live to help the fallen to arise,
To lift them above the sadness of their way,
Give strength unto the weak,
And be a help to those that seek.'
"Finally, my friends :
" 'We should live for one another ; We should bear that sacred love,
Through life's journey, for each other, That kind the spirits feel above. It is the Saviour's requirement ; It is the gospel's great command; We should seek its fulfillment, If we would win the better land,
Where our loved ones are gone before us,
Waiting for us over the dark and troubled deep.' "
Added to this list of veteran private workers may be mentioned David Ayers, of Tedrow; Har- man Austin, of Warren; Wm. Williams, of Columbus; W. S. Dickinson, of Cincinnati; Asa Shuler, of Hamilton; Albert Allen, of Akron; Daniel Mercer, of Bowling Green; A. C. Fenner,
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TELESCOPE, HIRAM COLLEGE, PRESENTED BY LATHROP COOLEY
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of Dayton; Robert W. Nelson, of Bellaire; Daniel Kennedy, of Uhrichsville; J. B. Parker, of New Holland.
LATHROP COOLEY
Abram Teachout builded and presented to Hiram College a library and observatory build- ing. Lathrop Cooley furnished for the building a magnificent telescope, and, on presenting it, .spoke in part as follows: "I once stood in the most historic place in England, Westminster Abbey, where were deposited the ashes of the most distinguished men of the present and past generations-distinguished statesmen, orators, reformers and monarchs. The building erected here by Mr. Teachout is more than Westminster Abbey. That building contains the dust and ashes of great men. Into this building the young of the present and coming generations will enter and be introduced to the great historians of the age and past ages. Here men will meet for the first time a Newton and a Locke; will meet the grand men who have written in the English tongue, and the writings of the most celebrated authors of other nations translated into our own language.
"This instrument is erected here so that you may climb the steep of heaven and walk among the stars; that you may have a Jacob's ladder upon which thought, like angels bright and pure, may ascend and descend. The work which you are to enjoy has been done for one purpose : and that purpose is to make better. men and better women. There is great demand to-day for manly men and womanly women. The dangers of the times are many, the possibilities are great. There
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LIBRARY AND OBSERVATORY, HIRAM COLLEGE
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is something more needed than mere learning. Learning must have a tone-it must have an odor, it must be fragrant with moral principles or it is dangerous. In the development of char- acter there is something more than mathematics and multiplication tables to attain the highest end and accomplish the greatest good. There is a divine element in the human heart which longs to get nearer the divine, and when this is en- larged and beautified it makes the finest type of a human being. While you may look through into the upper deep, and discover new worlds, and reach out-as the constructor of this tele- scope said to me-it will reveal stars that Herschel never saw; you may weigh planets as in the balance, you may measure their magnitude, you may discover new comets; but, after all, the greatest and most valuable of all will be at the small end of the telescope. A human being puri- fied and adorned by the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the grandest work under the sun. The possibilities within a human being are grander than any star which burns in the upper deep. What is grander than a man! And what is grander than a man whose spirit is developed, purified and softened by the gospel of Christ?
"There are two great volumes to study : Nature and the Bible. In nature the character of the Divine is impressed everywhere. 'The undevout astronomer is mad.' But this is not the highest revelation. The second volume, the Bible, reveals God's love and mercy and in the person of a lowly Nazarene. Here is a new development of the Divine in order to make a character. These principles are vitalized in a human life by one who took on our nature and
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who said, 'I am the way, the truth and the life.' These principles of love, mercy and obedience will save the present and coming generations if received and practiced.
"I once stood by the tomb of Wesley in Lon- don, and I said, 'Here is the son of a woman meek and lowly, who, when she rocked the cradle containing John and Charles Wesley, rocked two continents.' Soon after the reign of the Com- mune I also stood by the tomb of Voltaire in Paris, and went out on the streets of Paris and saw the ruins of the finest palaces in the world -the fruit of the teachings of Voltaire. These men lived in the same age, were born about the same time. It is said by their fruits ye shall know them. One was mellowed by the gospel of Jesus Christ and the other was void of it. No other lesson ever came to me with such force as that I learned at the tomb of Voltaire in Paris and Wesley in London. And now, my young friends, I say to you what I want you to write down and remember, that a greater object than any you can see in the upper deep is at the small end of the telescope."
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XI A SERMON AND A LIFE
HIS article shows the strength of the pioneer teaching on the Reserve, and was produced by S. E. Shepherd, the first president of Hiram College :
Acts 11:26: "The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." It is evident that none were then called Christians except "the disciples." The persons who believed John's preaching and were baptized were called John's disciples : and those who believed Jesus and his apostles, and were baptized, were called his dis- ciples. All his disciples were "baptized into Christ." These, and these only, "were called Christians." If a person can be a Christian and not put on Christ, then he can be a Christian and not be baptized. The disciples were baptized "into Christ." If a person can be a Christian without being baptized, then he can be a Chris- tian without being in Christ. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and all things are become new." If any man can be a Christian and not be in Christ, then he can be a new creature and not be in Christ. Then, old things can pass away and all things can become new to a man who is not in Christ; and the statement of the apostle that "if
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-
.I'M
Y. M. C. A. AND Y. W. C. A. BUILDING AT HIRAM COLLEGE
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any man be in Christ, he is a new creature," is as true of persons out of Christ as of those who are in him.
Moreover, baptism was enjoined "for the remission of sins." Now, if any one can be a Christian and not be baptized, he can be a Chris- tian without remission of sins. If any can be Christians and not be in Christ, and not put on Christ, and not receive remission of sins, then all the well disposed among all "the Christian denominations" are Christians, and of the "one body." But in the apostles' times no unbaptized persons were included in that "one body"-the church of Christ; for Paul said that they were "all baptized into one body."
But there is one argument more. If a person can be a Christian and not be baptized, then he can be a Christian and reject the counsel of God against himself ; for it is said that "the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, not being baptized."
Summary: If a person can be a Christian and be out of Christ, and not put on Christ, and not be in the body of Christ, and not receive re- mission of sins, and reject the counsel of God against himself, then it is an easy and a useless thing to be one, and "Christian union" is any- thing but desirable.
But it is asked, "What if one thinks he has been baptized, when he has not?" There is but one answer to that question; namely, "He is mis- taken." "But what if he really thinks he has?" Then he is really mistaken. "But suppose he honestly believes it?" Then he is honestly mis- taken. Now let us ask a question. These ques- tions are founded on the belief that a real, honest
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mistake is the only cause of this person's not being baptized. Our question, then, is this: "Is a real, honest mistake equal to baptism?" If it is, then a person comes into Christ, into the one body, puts on Christ, receives remission of sins, and rejects the counsel of God against himself, and is a good Christian through a real, honest mistake. If this be so, why is not a real, honest mistake just as good as the truth?
Persons sometimes give themselves more credit for honesty, in matters of opinion and belief, than they are entitled to. When the ques- tion is raised, "What is baptism?" and a person proceeds to answer it in his own mind, with the desire that it may appear that baptism is sprink- ling, he is not honest to himself; that is, he is not just to himself. When he undertakes to hold the balance of truth, he throws the weight of his desire into one scale before he weighs the evi- dence of the case. The equipoise is thus de- stroyed. A just and impartial decision can not be made in this case. The love of truth must overcome that desire, in order to an honest decision.
The evidence is clear that baptism, as taught in the New Testament, was performed (not ad- ministered) "in water," "in the river Jordan," and "in Enon, near Salim, because there was much water there." That the baptizer and the person to be baptized, after they "came to a cer- tain water, both went down into the water" to perform the act; and that the party baptized was "buried in baptism"-all of this is utterly incon- sistent with the idea that baptism is a sprinkling. No person, with this evidence in his mind, can honestly believe that baptism is sprinkling or
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that sprinkling is baptism. It is entirely out of the number of possibilities. The laws of the human mind and the laws of evidence both forbid it. No amount of kindness, of piety, of gener- osity and benevolence can alter the case. Kind- ness, piety, generosity and benevolence are found in connection with paganism. They are not pecu- liar to "Judaism" nor to "Christianity," nor can they make paganism acceptable to God, or justify us in forming a union with such wor- shipers or admitting them into the "one body."
The very persons who reject the evidence above quoted, will believe in sprinkling babies because Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come to me, and forbid them not, for to such the kingdom of heaven belongs." They can see bap- tism, or, rather, sprinkling, when it is not men- tioned in the passage they quote, nor in the con- text. And though this has been shown to them a hundred times, they still persist in the mischievous and wicked practice of performing a rite "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," which none of these divine beings ever commanded! They refer to house- hold baptisms, in which it does not appear that there was a single baby, and where it is said they all rejoiced and believed in God, to prove that babies should be sprinkled !
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