Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

[Turs subject is one on which the Students have a clear right to be heard. We have therefore, without hesitation, given a place to the following communication. In justice to the Committee, and to the Scheme, we have appended Remarks by Dr King, Convener of Committee, which it appeared to us would be seasonable in the present Number, in the near prospect of the meeting of Synod. We think it right to mention, that we have had another communication, in name of the Students of a Presbytery, advocating similar views of the Scholarship Scheme to those subjoined. The paper is well written, and in good spirit ; but is in a great measure anticipated by the present article.-ED.]

TO THE EDITORS.

SIRS, Will you permit a theological student, through the medium of your pages, to make a remark or two upon the scholarship scheme of our church, so far as that affects the Divinity Hall? As no stricture has yet been publicly offered upon the scheme, it may be imagined throughout the church, that all parties acquiesce in it as quite satisfactory. With your permission, therefore, and under a due sense of the debt of gratitude owed by him as a student to the excellent ministers who have moved in this cause, the writer would respectfully submit the following considerations, which, to his own mind, appear to bear against the theological department of the scheme as at present modified. And,

1st. It seems unfit to meet the end for which it was professedly originated. That unquestionably was to "encourage and stimulate" struggling students, a class, it was said, compris ing the greater proportion of the Hall. It was a scheme, therefore, from which such had reason to look for rélief, without having other tasks exacted from them as a test of scholarship, than what the church by her presbyteries had already demanded and received as test enough to war

rant their being certified. To impose other or extra work, was just to prevent their deriving any benefit from the pecuniary proffer; for what, with the limited time and scanty health of many, the regular labour was enough of itself fully to employ them; and even supposing all students in the body had equal recess work set to them, which is far from being the case, the scheme would not infallibly benefit the hard-wrought or indigent youth, unless his learning were superior indeed; for, though such an individual is not necessarily the least learned or able of his fellows, he is precisely the person most unlikely to excel at examinations. He is often a self-educated and anxious youth, unused to exciting ordeals, and not so likely to do even his own attainments justice, on such an occasion, as one who has been early inured to the publicity and drill of a school education. Now, why should a student of this class run the risk of getting a low bursary, or perhaps none at all, while his neighbour, not, it may be, possessed of more promise or scholarship than himself, almost certainly gets a high one? If it be said that such things cannot be helped in the working of a great measure,

then it just proves how much the scheme fails to elicit and relieve genuine merit, and shows that, if such an object is contemplated, it must be by some more felicitous project. The case of a student has been instanced, who gave up his employment altogether in order to prepare for the competition. This was cited as an argument in favour of the scheme, but it is two-edged; for, if this student could afford to give up his private teaching, he was exactly the individual who had no need of the scholarship; and here the question rises, how students who have to work all day for their bread, can hope to contend with parties, like the one alluded to, who have nothing else to do but prepare? The only alternative is, either to abandon their employment, which must be very bad if it is not better than the best scholarship, or work on till they ruin their health, which will be less profit still.

2. The scheme has changed its object, or, if not, has been mainly pleaded for hitherto on misleading grounds. Whatever may be thought now about raising the standard of qualification, it will be recollected that that was not the ostensible plea for it when first broached. The announcement now made is startling. "Its direct object is to raise the standard of attainment." If this was its original design, then, it was never before articulately divulged. When first publicly mooted in the late Secession Presbytery of Glasgow, not a syllable was reported, as contained in the overture, from which such a conclusion could have been derived; but the whole reasoning rested on the hardships of students, and the impossibility of their making proper progress till these were removed; nor was it brought out otherwise than by an incident in the discussion, that the able author of the * Vide Report of Proceedings circulated among Members of Synod.

*

the

motion cherished as an individual this additional design. Even in a report issued by the committee of the late Secession Synod on scholarships, where a contemplated relation of the scheme to the standard is alluded to in a sentence, the writer is careful to say that this relation exists only "in view of this committee;" and passes on to the more interesting aspect of the measure, by expounding the "important aid," it will afford to straitened and deserving students. So lately as Dr King's last letter in your Magazine, the same view is still most largely advocated. Now, if raising the standard was primary and direct object all along, why was it not made the primary and direct argument all along? or, why insist at first and still chiefly on another object, if that were not the real, or only a secondary, one? We are forced therefore to conclude, that the helping of students, and not the elevation of the standard, was and still is the main object of the scheme. Both ends are most desirable; but it has not yet been shown how they can both be accomplished by a single measure; and it is not held by the most sanguine, that the present will do so to any efficient extent. any rate, if money is needed for both, but cannot be had in sufficient amount

At

just now, it seems but right to do that first which is most pressing. "Within the bounds of my own congregation," says. Dr King, "I could tell of one student, and a second and a third, all noble-spirited young men, who have fallen martyrs from these causes (want of aid, &c.) to excessive application. I could tell of other two who are at present in a foreign land, having left home and all the prospects of usefulness it presented, with overtasked and broken constitutions." Now, can such cases be remedied, or their recurrence prevented too soon? and if so it must be, ought not the raising of the standard, however desirable, to be postponed till this is

done? Should it be even a possible thing that one student, who is in no straits, may get ten or twenty pounds, while that is needed for another in distress, and from whom it is withheld because he possesses a few grains less of scholarship, although he may be equal in the higher elements of promise? Were the church to place all students, so far as possible, on an equal footing, and put them, if they were not so already, in a fair way for prosecuting their studies, then a synodical measure enjoining a proper scheme of study would, in a few years, without harassing any, raise the secular standard to the

desired pitch. Then two scholarships for extra merit could be appointed, which would raise the qualification mark to a still higher point. No doubt, some of these steps involve difficulties, but none such as a great church might not by wisdom sur

mount.

3. The present scheme does not promise to succeed even in raising the standard; for, besides that its demands are for mere ordinary attainments, it is clear that, unless a considerable number of students were regularly competing, the elevating stimulus supposed to belong to it would not be felt to any sensible extent upon the Hall; but this cannot be expected, if the scheme does not enjoy the confidence and excite the interest of students. Last August, only thirtythree could be found to enter the lists, while nearly one hundred stood aloof. But if there was small inducement to students last year, that is still more diminished now, when the direct object of the scheme is declared by those who are working it to be the elevation of the standard. It is not stimulus so much that straitened students need as time, and strength, and means to study; but the scheme taxes still more the two of these than they are taxed at present, and offers a very doubtful accession to the third. Students favourably circumstanced

already, it will improve; but others, with a few peculiar exceptions, it will leave as they were. Its influence, therefore, on the standard of the Hall must be insignificant.

4. The scheme inflicts injustice on those students who reside within the bounds of presbyteries, where the work is greater than in other parts of the church; and it is well known that there are cases where, if the student do work for the scholarshipcommittee after doing his regular Presbytery tasks, and working hard enough for his bread, he must be a very unusual person both in point of abilities and constitution. While, therefore, the inequality of ordinary recess labour is so great, it must be obvious that the scholarship scheme is as good as nonentity to many students.

5. Competition for money to secure barely indispensable learning, seems at best a vulgar stimulus in a divinity hall; but this is implied in the scheme. Were it only for extra merit the objection would not apply; but the scheme seems to bribe where it should appeal to honour and common sense, and where, if there were no physical obstruction, this would be found enough. If ordinary attainments are thought to be lacking, then, after putting all in a position to acquire these, it would secure the desired object as well, it may be affirmed, and as safely for conscientiousness, to propose a simply honorary competition, nor would the loss of a coveted place on the list be so likely to engender chagrin and acrimony among competitors as the loss of pecuniary help.

6. The scheme implies suspicion of the student's right to be in the Hall, and seems to involve a circuitous reflection on presbyteries. This necessarily arises from its taking cognisance of ordinary attainments, and this seems to the writer the radical vice of the scheme. Till the reverse is shown, presbyteries must be held

both competent and faithful enough to test the qualifications of candidates for the ministry, and students, as their nominees, ought to be viewed as on a level. Why, then, it may be asked, should one such receive aid in his straits, and not another? He is as much the church's candidate; he is equally certified; as many hopes are centred on him as on his more scholarly companion; and what, if he cannot parse so skilfully, must he therefore get no relief? If Presbyteries are slack, measures may be used to make them stringent; and, if these fail, the Synod may appoint others to supply their lack. But, if this is not done, it seems injurious to disparage their nominees, and this both to the student and the presbytery.

[ocr errors]

7. The mode of graduation exhibited in the scheme seems objectionable. The student is told that, if he be diligent, he will get more the second time than the first. But five pounds' worth of diligence is not easily discriminated; besides, there may be good reasons why a student should not have made a proportionable advance in a year reasons which, instead of impeaching, augment his merit. The scheme has no distinguishing faculty here, but must methodically deprive such a student of his scholarship, or give him a diminished one, or refuse him a higher; all which entails on him disgrace, and must greatly wound the feelings of any youth not conscious of neglect, The vexatious distinctions, moreover, introduced by the scheme, are not likely to end in the Hall, but may follow their victim into the pulpit, marring, and perhaps destroying, in some minds, the due estimate of his gifts. The scholarships bear no resemblance to university prizes; the latter bequeathe to those who miss them no dishonour and no loss, save of a little eclat; the former, when missed, involve certain disgrace, and the loss besides of valuable aid. conclusion, the writer, as a student,

In

most cordially desires the elevation of the standard, and would hail, as tending to this end, the institution of scholarships for attainments additional to the common minimum, the presbytery's certificate being the guarantee for that amount, and entitling to aid, if that were needed; nor, it is humbly conceived, would this be at all eleemosynary, either in principle or effect, any more than it is so at present, to receive money through a scholarship-committee for essentially the same amount and species of learning. If the foregoing remarks set better pens in motion, and better minds than his a-thinking, on the scheme which has already received such valuable attention, the writer's aim will have been fully accomplished.

[ocr errors]

A DIVINITY STUDENT,

TO THE EDITORS.

SIRS, I have read with attention and interest the letter subscribed by a divinity student.' There is neither time nor space left for me, when you are nearly ready for publication, to give a formal reply; and I do not much regret this want of opportunity, as I am glad that every objection should receive due consideration. The committee will present a report to the Synod at its next meeting, and the facts they have to state cannot fail, I think, to give great satisfaction.

The objects of the measure I have always understood to be to elevate the standard of ministerial attainment in our religious denomination, and to do so in such a way as to afford sensible relief to the most diligent and deserving of our students. The principle of competition seems the best adapted to accomplish both these ends. All the difficulties which your correspondent notices were thoroughly discussed at the outset, and the measure received its present form under the advice of some of the most distingushed teachers in this country, and after the fullest and

Your correspondent alludes to Presbyteries. We do not interfere with a single right or function which they possess. We are eager to aid them in their care of students: and they, on the other hand, may give invaluable assistance to the committee in the execution of its trust. Let there be no jealousy where there is no collision, and where the cause of our common Lord demands cordial co-operation.

In one important particular I certainly agree with your correspondent

most anxious consideration by the Synod's committee. It has been approved of by our own professors. It has been characterised as admirable and valuable by not a few of the first professors in our universities, who have examined it in all its provisions and bearings. I have communications from many of our ministers attesting the extraordinary stimulus it has given to our students; and the students themselves paid it the highest compliment, when so many as sixty of them entered into the competition of last winter. Inthat the subjects of examination, various ways, which the report of the committee will explain, the working of the measure is so conducted as to give facilities to poor students, and enable them in a great degree to rise above their disadvantages, if they have the talents and assiduity which promise usefulness to the church. Accordingly, a large proportion of the successful competitors, in the late examination, were of the humblest rank of life; and what a delight is it to these students to think that they have honourably prevailed by their sword and by their bow, without any disclosure of their necessities, or any appeal to compassion. They occupy a position as independent as that of any prizeman in all our colleges.

[ocr errors]

assigned by the different Presbyteries, and by our committee, should, so far as possible, be the same, in order that all students may be on an equal footing, and that every institution in our church may aid every other This point has received attention already; and I have no doubt that such arrangements will be adopted, in regard to it, as will obviate objections. The excellent spirit of your correspondent's letter induces me to hope that he will reconsider his strictures; and it will afford me unfeigned pleasure to find him, when we next meet, among the successful competitors for theological scholarships.-I am yours truly,

DAVID KING.

MEETINGS OF SYNOD.
ATTENDANCE OF MINISTERS AND ELDERS.

THE two sections of which the United Presbyterian Church is composed, were undoubtedly of great importance to the religious interests of the country. The circumstances in which they originated, and the success with which their history is marked, abundantly warrant this observation. From the period of their secession from the Establishment, until the recent consummation of the Union, they have always been regarded with deep interest, not only

in Scotland, but throughout the world. We trust the United Church will still retain this honourable place in public estimation. We are hopeful, and we may say confident, that she will advance in every department of piety and philanthropy, so that the great ends of ecclesiastical fellowship may be more fully answered within her pale.

There are various suggestions that might be made with a view to the increasing comfort and utility of our

« AnteriorContinuar »