History of the Christian church (Volume 5) online

of buildings, etc., and three others of over $500,000.
These figures have been largely surpassed each year
since, and are valuable chiefly for comparisons with
the past with the institutions of other Churches, and
with the growth of future years.

At this date, the leading institutions of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church were: Boston University;
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. ; Syracuse
University; Ohio Wesleyan, Delaware, O. ; DePauw
University, Greencastle, Ind. ; Northwestern Univer-
sity, Evanston, 111.; Denver University; and Dickin-
son College, Carlisle, Pa.

The educational work of this Church has been
wisely planted, with little rivalry and waste, and the
opening years of the new century have seen it greatly
strengthened. Its greatest need, compared with either
the increase in the number of its churches or its min-
istry, or the provision of other churches, is to augment
its facilities for theological instruction and training.

It has also 60 classical seminaries, 35 of which had
an attendance of 150 or more. The buildings, etc.,
of these institutions are valued at $3,121,261, and en-
dowment of $754,588; 9,320 students were in attend-
ance.

There were eight institutions for women ; their
buildings w^ere valued at $1,413,000; endowment,
$375,000; and attendance, 1,178. There were also four
Missionary Institutes and Bible-training Schools, with
buildings valued at $284,000; endowment, $26,000;
and attendance, of 453. On the foreign mission fields
there are 99 schools for higher education ; their build-



Christian Church in United States. 625

ings are valued at $628,632, and their endowment at
$30,000 ; they have 7,454 students in attendance. In
the United States, at the schools for higher education
of this Church, there were in attendance, in 1900,
38,091 students.

In 1900, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
reported twenty universities and colleges, with 3,224
students in the regular courses, and 1,585 Educational
in the preparatory departments. These statistics.
schools had buildings, etc., valued at $2,- Methodist
476,000, and an endowment of $2,601,000. churches.
The smaller institutions are doing good work, and
some of them are of historic renown. Vanderbilt
University, at Nashville, Tenn., had 200 students in
collegiate work, and 600 in professional schools. Its
buildings, etc., are valued at $750,000, and its en-
dowment is $1,200,000.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church had four
institutions, with 238 in college courses and 314 in
preparatory departments. The property of these in-
stitutions is valued at $294,000, with $30,000 endow-
ment. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
had one college, with 50-students and 130 in prepara-
tory work. Its buildings were valued at $125,000.
This seems a good record for purely colored churches.
The Methodist Protestants had two institutions doing
good work. They have 250 in college work and 174
in preparatory departments. Their buildings are
valued at $300,000, with $80,000 endowment. The
Free Methodists had one college, with 14 students and
25 in preparatory work. The building is valued at
$30,000 and the endowment $8,000. The Evangel-
ical Association had two colleges, with 87 students
40



626 History of the Christian Church.

and 147 in the preparatory departments, with $62,cx)o
in buildings, and $40,000 in endowments. The
United Brethren had eight small colleges, but well
located, with 336 students and 552 in preparatory-
work. These institutions are valued at $421,000 with
$182,000 of endowment.

More than ninety per cent of this enrollment,
property, and endowment in these schools in all
Churches in Methodism, and its allied branches, is the
increase of the last fifty years, and the far greater part
of it of the last twenty-five years.

The charitable work of the Methodist Episcopal
Church is largely under the charge of the Order of
Deaconesses instituted in 1888. There are
^work***^ ten institutions for the training of deacon-
esses. The oldest of these is at Chicago ;
others are at New York, Boston, and Cincinnati. The
Woman's Home Missionary Society has training-
schools at Washington, San Francisco, and Kansas
City. The Annual Conferences have such schools at
Brooklyn, Grand Rapids, and Des Moines. These in-
stitutions had property in 1900 worth over $350,000.
There were over 600 licensed deaconesses and 700
probationers at the cl6se of this period, and there
were 80 institutions in the United States, 13 in
Europe, and 9 in Asia, under their care. Besides the
money invested in Orphanages, Hospitals, and Homes
for the Aged, there are $800,000 invested in buildings
for Deaconess Work in the United States, and $300,-
000 in Germany, where there were over 200 deacon-
esses employed. The initiation of Deaconess Work
in this Church is due to the Germans in Europe and



Christian Church in United States. 627

America. The deaconesses wear a distinctive garb,
but are under no vows.

The Methodist Episcopal Church had Immigrant
Homes established at New York and Boston.

At the end of the century the Methodist Episcopal
Church had in the United States fifteen Orphanages,
caring for over a thousand orphans, in
buildings valued at $862,000, and with over
$300,000 endowment.

This Church had also eighteen Hospitals, with
buildings and equipments valued at over

^ -i ^f^ ^ r Hospitals.

$1,700,000, and with over $500,000 of en-
dowment.

It also had established nine Homes for the Aged,
caring for over five hundred inmates. The buildings
for this purpose were valued at $460,000,
and there is $50,000 endowment. Besides ^^^^^^l
this, one institution reports an annual in-
come of $15,000.

This is but the beginning, for almost all of it was
the bestowal of the last twenty-five years of the cen-
tury.

All these institutions, especially those for educa-
tion, received great and needed help from the Twenti-
eth-century Fund. This, under its able
and skillful secretary. Dr. Edmund M. Twentieth-
Mills, raised $20,000,000 for the work of Century

Fund.

the Methodist Episcopal Church as a Thank-
offering at the opening of the twentieth century. The
offering of the Methodist Church, South, for the same
purpose reached $ i ,500,000 ; that of British Methodism
was over $5,000,000. In all, probably, nearly or quite



628 History of the Christian Church.

$30,000,000 came to world-wide Methodism in conse-
quence of this movement, besides all the new churches
and parsonages built and repairs made. Through it
two-thirds of the indebtedness upon Methodist
Churches has been paid, and at the same time its con-
nectional benevolences have increased.

The Baptists, being congregational in their gov-
ernment, do not have as plainly-marked stages of
ecclesiastical growth as the Methodists,
Baptists ^^^ ^^^y stand by their side in numbers
and influence. They have not the same
eminence in scholarship and education as the Congre-
gationalists, but their work at Vassar and Chicago
vies with the best. The secret of their growth,
largely, is the emphasis upon individual responsi-
bility and personal work for Christ and his Church.
Two things mark the passing of the years in this
Church — the added interest in the education of the
ministry, and the lessened Calvinism in Baptist teach-
ing. The endowment of Lewisburg, now Bucknell
University, and of Madison, now Colgate University;
the added facilities at Colby University, and Brown,
as well as at Newton Theological Seminary; the
founding and endowment of the Rochester Univer-
sity and of the Rochester Theological Seminary; the
removal of the Southern Theological Seminary from
Greenville, S. C, to Louisville, Ky,, and its endow-
ment, as well as the munificent gifts that mark the
founding of Vassar College and of Chicago Univer-
sity, — show the mighty influence this Church is to
exert in Christian education in the United States.

In these years missions were established in several
European countries. In Sweden, in 1855, Dr. Oncken



Christian Church in United States. 629

began a mission which at the end of the century num-
bered 40,000 members. In 1870 a mission was estab-
lished in Spain, and in 1874 one in Italy. _^ ,

^ '^ . -r^ Missions.

In 1887 mission work was begun m Rus-
sia where, in 1900, there were reported 21,000
Baptists; in 1889, in Finland; in 1891, in Denmark;
and in 1892, in Norway. In Finland and Denmark
there were reported, in 1900, over 2,000 members
each, and over 3,000 in Norway. The most success-
ful work of the Baptist missions has been in Southern
India and in Assam and Burmah. They also have a
flourishing mission in Cuba.

I^ike all great Churches, the work done in the
Baptist Churches is, in the main, by the mass of the
ministers and the people. A few men, however, have
rendered such conspicuous service that, in any record
of the life of the Church, their names must find men-
tion.

Such a man was Martin B. Anderson (18 15-1890),
the founder of Rochester University. Dr. Anderson
was born at Bath, Maine, and educated at
Waterville College, now Colby University, Anderson.
1 836-1 840. He then spent a year at New-
ton Theological Seminary, after which he returned to
Waterville to teach. He was never ordained to the
ministry, though his life and service were most effect-
ive preaching of the gospel. At Waterville he re-
mained, teaching first Latin and Greek, and then
rhetoric, logic, and history, from 1841 to 1850, mean-
while preaching often as a supply. On one of these
occasions, in New York, he met his wife, and they
were married in August, 1848. In 1850 he left
Waterville to go to New York as editor of the Chris-



630 History of the Christian Church.

Han Recorder, which later, under Dr. Edward Bright,
became The Examiner ^ 1 853-1 894, and the leading
periodical of the Baptist Church.

In 1853, Dr. Anderson accepted a call to the infant
University of Rochester. He gave his life to the
work, except that in 1 862-1863 ^^ visited Europe.
Of that institution he was the motive power and soul
until his resignation in June, 1888. He did not long
survive, but February 26, 1890, four days after the
death of his beloved wife, he died in Florida. To-
gether their remains were brought to Rochester, and
borne to the church and to the grave. One should
have seen the stalwart form of Dr. Anderson, and
heard him in the classroom or in his chapel talks, to
appreciate his influence. He was a man of wide
reading and of comprehensive and practical thought.
For years he was the most eminent and influential
citizen of the fair city in which he lived. Rochester
University, which he loved as his child, is his endur-
ing monument.

With Dr. Anderson wrought, for many years, his
early friend, Ezekiel G. Robinson (i 815-1894), the

founder in the true sense of the Rochester
Robinson. Theological Seminar}^ The two men were

very diff"erent. Dr. Anderson was in a very
real sense a public man. Dr. Robinson was a deeper
and more logical thinker, with little of Dr. Anderson's
wealth and variety of thought or his breadth of view
and warm human vSympathies. Dr. Robinson's quest
was truth, and his life its expression as he saw it.
Other things were secondary. He was born in Massa-
chusetts, six miles from Providence, R. I. When he
was four years of age his father died, leaving him the



Christian Church in United States. 631

youngest of four children. His education, in these
circumstances, as depicted by himself, seems to have
been as desultory and ineffective as could be imagined
for any one who enjoyed such opportunities at all.
He owed his intellectual awakening to a friend, who,
having graduated from New Hampton, N. H., came
back to review his studies. He joined the Baptist
Church in 1829. With a poor preparation he entered
Brown, 1 835-1 839, where the teaching was meager,
except but one year under President Wayland and
work with Dr. Hackett. Six months' post-graduate
study did little for him, and he turned to Newton
Theological Seminary, where Dr. Hackett's and Dr.
Sears's teaching greatly benefited him. After two
years at Newton he accepted a pastorate at Norfolk,
Va., 1842. While there he was invited to serve as
one of the chaplains of the University of Virginia,
and while serving there he met the lady who became
his wife. On account of malaria he left Norfolk for
Cambridge, Mass., where his wife suffered a hemor-
rhage, which necessitated another removal. He ac-
cepted the Professorship in Hebrew in the Western
Theological Institute at Covington, Ky. After two
years, the antislavery sentiments of the president
were too much for the Board of Trustees. He and
Dr. Robinson resigned in June, 1848. For the next
five years he occupied a pastorate in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Finally, in 1853, at the solicitation of Dr. Anderson,
he came to Rochester as Professor of Theology in the
new University of Rochester. In 1868, Trevor Hall
was erected on a site removed from the university
campus. From 1859 an independent endowment was
sought to be secured. In 1863 the course of study



632 History of the Christian Church.

was extended from two to three years. It will always
be a matter of regret that the two institutions which
began life together could not have done their work on
the same campus.

In 1S65-1867, Dr. Robinson spent two years in
Europe, and richly profited by them. Of the sep-
arated institution, of course, Dr. Robinson was the
president. In 1868 his salary was made $4,000, and
good progress was made toward a satisfactory endow-
ment, $240,000 being raised. In 1872, Dr. Robinson
accepted the presidency of Brown University, where
he remained until 1889. In these years, in buildings,
in endowment, and in enlargement of the course of
study, he saw the refounding of Brown University.
He died Jime 13, 1894, and was buried at Rochester
beside five daughters who had preceded him to the
real world for immortal spirits.

Dr. Robinson left his mark upon the ministry and
the Church he served. He could not be called a con-
structive theologian, but he was a stimulating and in-
spiring teacher. Dr. Robinson had an analytical and
critical mind, and a gift of incisive speech. Both Dr.
Anderson and himself opposed the plans of the
American (Baptist) Bible Union, but only Dr. Robin-
son could say, " The scandal brought upon the de-
nomination by the Bible Union among intelligent
men, to say nothing of the useless waste of funds, is
among the painful memories among those of us who
have survived those days of noise, pretense, and
fanaticism."

Dr. Robinson gave the Yale " Lectures on Preach-
ing" in 1883. In 1865 he published the translation
of Neander's " Planting and Training of the Christian



Christian Church in United States. 633

Church." In 1888 appeared his " Principles and Prac-
tice of Morahty." After his death in 1894, his "Chris-
tian Theology " was published, and the next year his
** Christian Evidences."

A man of more power in the pulpit than Dr. Rob-
inson was Dr. John Albert Broadus (1827-1895). He
was educated at the University of Virsrinia

, . , , - - . , . Dr. Broadus.

and remained there after his graduation,
1851-1853, as Assistant Professor of Latin and Greek.
From 1 85 1 to 1859 he was pastor of the Baptist Church
at Charlottesville, Va. In that year he was called to
the Chair of New Testament Exegesis and Homiletics
at Greenville, S. C. Later, under his presidency, the
institution was removed to Louisville, Ky., where it
became the strongest Baptist Theological Institution
in the South. Dr. Broadus will be long remembered
by his valuable works on " The Preparation and De-
livery of a Sermon," 1870; his "History of Preaching,"
1877; his "Sermons and Addresses," 1886; and his
"Commentary on Matthew" of the same year. In-
fluential as a preacher and a president of the Theolog-
ical Seminary, in this work he still speaks to men.

The Baptist Educational Society was founded in
1888; the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society in
1871 ; the Woman's Home Missionary Society in 1877;
the Baptist Young People's Union in 1891 ; and the
American Baptist Historical Society in 1853.

In 1900, the Regular Baptists reported 43,959
churches, 29,890 ministers, and 4,223,236 communi-
cants. The total of Baptists, thirteen

^ statistics.

organizations, is: Churches, 50,257; min-
isters, 34,221; communicants, 4,535,462, — a gain,
1850-1900, of 35,553 churches; 24,748 ministers,



634 History of the Christian Church.

and 3,536,429 communicants among the Regular Bap-
tists, and of 38,598 churches, 27,218 ministers, and
3,720,250 communicants in the total. Regular
Baptist Sunday-schools, 25,200; teachers, 197,484;
scholars, 1,974,820. Value of church property, $88,-
146,386. Number of parsonages, 1,543. Total cur-
rent expenditures and benevolences, $13,790,000.
Total Baptists throughout the world, 5,012,880.

In 1900, the Baptist Churches reported 622 foreign

missionaries, with 1,912 churches in foreign fields, and

206,746 members. Their most flourishing

Missions. . . , , . -r-» 1 A

missions have been m Burmah, Assam,
Southern India, Germany, Scandinavia, and Russia,
They raised over $550,000 for foreign missions in
1900.

The Baptist Churches have seven well-endowed
and well-equipped theological seminaries; the Free-
will Baptists have two theological depart-

Education. ^ o x-

ments in colleges ; the Seventh-day Baptists,
one. The seven institutions above mentioned had
995 students, $1,275,238 of property, and $2,640,952
of endowment.

The Baptists reported in 1900, 105 universities and
colleges, with 27,241 students. These institutions
have $13,891,684 in property, and $13,660,842 in en-
dowment. Of this amount, Chicago University re-
ported 1,966 students, buildings valued at $3,079,384,
and $5,726,350 in endowment. There are three insti-
tutions having over one thousand students, and three
more having over five hundred.

The leading Baptist Universities are : Brown Uni-
versity, Providence, R. I.; Columbian University,
Washington, D. C; Chicago University ; Colgate Uni-



Christian Church in United States. 635

versity, Hamilton, N. Y. ; Richmond University, Rich-
mond, Va.; Rochester University; Denison Univer-
sity, Granville, O.; and Vassar College, Poughkeepsie,
N. Y. The Baptist Church also had 90 seminaries and
academies, with 11,127 students; 31 of these had an
attendance of 150 or more.

The Baptist Church, in 1900, reported
fifteen Orphanages, with $494,000 of pro- ,^^tituJion,.
perty; thirteen Homes for the Aged, etc.,
with $931,000 of property; and five Hospitals, with
$10,000 of property.

The Presbyterian Church, perhaps from its form of
government, has its strong influence in the local com-
munities. While its ministry is surpassed

, , ^ , ^, , . , , , . Presbyterians.

by that of no other Church m scholarship,
it has not so widely affected our national life as would
naturally be expected. It prides itself upon being a
theological Church. Such Churches, like the Presby-
terian and Lutheran, will always be strong in theolog-
ical seminaries, but will always carry in their train
any amount of powder prepared for sudden and unex-
pected explosions. Much of the time and effective
force in each Church has been taken up with internal
divisions and efforts to heal the breaches. All must
be thankful that in each a better era has dawned. In
local influence, in the character of its leading laymen,
in certain elements of stability and power, no Amerl A
ican Church surpasses the Presbyterian Church. '/

The great events in the history of the Presbyterian
Churches in this period were Reunion and Revision.'p
In 1857 the Associate and the Associate Reformed
Churches united to form the United Presbyterian
Church; in 1858 they were joined by the General



t



636 H [STORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

Synod Reformed Church. The Southern Presbyte-
rian Church was founded in 1861, in consequence of
the war and the attitude of the Northern Churches on
slavery. The Kentucky and Missouri Synods joined
them in 1868 and 1874, and the Associate Reformed
Presbyteries of Alabama and Kentucky, in 1867 and
1870. The Pan-Presbyterian Council was held at
Philadelphia, November 8, 1867. November 8, 1869,
at Pittsburg, Pa., occurred the healing of the schism
which, since 1837, had rent the Presbyterians into the
Old and New School Churches. This reunion was
consummated in the one General Assemby at Phila-
delphia in 1870. The Thank-offering for this reunion
in 1870 amounted to $7,607,491. This was the great-
est act of ecclesiastical reunion which has taken place
in the history of the Christian Church in the United
States.

In 1874, Professor David Swing was tried for her-
esy, and acquitted, but withdrew from the Presbyte-
rian Church. In 1889 the movement for the
RevTs^on. ^evisiou of the Westminster Confession be-
gan; with it, in 1891, was connected the
charges against Professor Charles S. Briggs, of the
Union Theological Seminary in New York. The
shibboleth of his accusers was "the inerrancy of the
Scriptures." The prosecution in 1897 was extended
to include Dr. Archibald C. McGififert, a professor in
the same institution with Dr. Briggs, for some pas-
sages in his work on the Apostolic Church. Dr.
Briggs was suspended in 1893, after proceedings drawn
out for five years; in 1898 he withdrew, and joined
the Protestant Episcopal Church. In the same year
Dr. McGififert withdrew, and joined the Congregational



Christian Church in United States. 637

Church, and so stopped the proceedings in his case.
The trustees sustained the professors, so their connec-
tion with Union Theological Seminary remained un-
changed. In their departments there are not two men
of greater learning in the United States. Ten years
later the utterances for which they were summoned
to trial would not excite an ecclesiastical ripple in the
same Church. The matter of creed revision was set-
tled in 1902, and consummated the following year,
(i) By revising certain chapters and sections in the
Confession of Westminster; (2) By the addition of
chapters on the Love of God, on Missions, and on the
Holy Spirit. Besides, there was reported a " Brief
Statement" designed to be used as an explanation
and popular statement of the confessional position of
the Church. These were all adopted by the General
Assembly in New York in 1902, without a dissenting
voice. All but the "Brief Statement" was adopted
by the Presbyteries, and becomes the law of the Pres-
byterian Church. The " Brief Statement " was also
adopted in 1903. All good Christians will rejoice in
this result and in this happy ending of a dozen years
of strife.

The Presbyterians participated in the general
movement of Church life in the United States. They y
greatly profited by the Moody and Sankey revivals, y
In 1870 was formed their Woman's Board of Foreign ^
Missions, and, five years later, that of the United
Presbyterian Church, and in 1880 that of the Cumber-
land Presbyterian Church. The Southern Presbyterians .
did not approve of this work for women. In 1878
was formed the Presbyterian Woman's Board of Home
Missions, and, ten years later, the like organization



638 History of the Christiais Church.

came into being in the United Presbyterian Church.
In 1869 the colored members withdrew from the
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and formed a sep-
arate organization with 13,000 members.

The Westminster I^eague of Young People was
\/ formed in 18 — , but most of the Churches support the
Christian Endeavor Society. Pan-Presbyterian Coun-
cils were held in 1867, at Philadelphia; in 1877, at
Edinburgh; in 1887, at Belfast; and, in 1897, at

Men who largely influenced the life of the Presby-
terian Church were James McCosh, John Hall, How-
ard Crosby, Samuel Irenseus Prime, Henry M. Field,
and Benjamin M. Palmer.

James McCosh (1811-1894) was the last represent-
ative of the Scotch philosophy of Stewart, Reid, and
Hamilton. He was born in Ayrshire,

Dr. McCosh. ^ , , , ,. , . , ^^ . . '

Scotland, and studied in the University of
Glasgow, 1 824-1 829, and in that of Edinburgh, 1829-
1834. In the latter instiution he was a pupil of Chal-
mers; 1 835-1 839, he was pastor at Arbroath, and,
1839-1852, at Brechin. In 1843 he went with the
Free Church. In 1 852-1 868 he was professor in
Queen's College, Belfast, Ireland. In the latter year
he came to America, and, from 1868 to 1888, he was
president of Princeton University, which was practi-
cally re founded in these years.

His " Method of Divine Government," 1850, and