Nothing New Under the Sun

F. Lewis wrote the following about seminary students in the southern Presbyterian church in 1879:

"The age tends to superficiality; young men come forth with great pretensions and great expectations. Their encyclopedic attainments are calculated to startle. And yet too often this is illusory. There is the breadth, but not the depth. There is the glitter, but not the gold. They lack that sweep of pinion and that vigor of stroke that lifts the eagle toward the sun. It avails not to have much and varied knowledge in the multiplied branches of human investigation, unless there be also depth and justness of thought and keenness of vision. Truth lies beneath the surface. We must dig for her diamonds, we must dive for her pearls. Anything that antagonises the mushroom learning of the day must be beneficial. Let us lay the foundations broader and deeper with lexicon and grammar. We need to commune not only with Augustine and Calvin, with Turrettin and Hodge and Dabney, but also with Gesenius and Fuerst, with Davidson and Deutsch. Our Southern Church is already widely known for her orthodoxy and for her unswerving fidelity to the incomparable symbols of the Presbyterian faith. Let her be equally widely known for her scholarship and her ability and determination to stand on that high plane of learning on which Melanchthon and Calvin placed the Church of the Reformation. Let her do this—not for the pride of learning, or the exulting joy of superiority, but for the glory of her King; that she may bring to his altar a richer sacrifice, and offer there with vows of consecration not only the strength and service of her body, but the power and service of her mind; that she may bear her continued testi-mony to the value of an educated ministry; that she may have young men upon whose shoulders the mantles of ascending scholars may fall, to cover a double portion of their spirits; and lastly, that she may cover her front with that broad and burnished shield of learning that shall turn aside from her vitals the poi- soned darts of superficiality and ignorance."