Asbury University - Asburian Yearbook (Wilmore, KY)

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'WS 1 l t ll ti fe K M iv ii 212.22-fr' The Slsisriiais. 2.3-rea he Landmarks of Asbury College, By DR. JOHN PAUL, Vice-President UR figure of speech is taken from the divine order in the old dispensation: Remove not the ancient landmarks which the fathers have set. It refers to those sentiments, ideals and convictions of Asbury College. ' my To assume that we have these peculiar marks would seem like conceit and egotism to one with whom all schools look alikeg but we have to maintain that Asbury College is fl different from the average school. It owes its existence to this fact: and vain will be Qt the inheritance if it ever falls heir to a leadership in students or officers who do not recognize that its continuance on the map depends as much upon its distinguishing char- acteristics as did its origin. . But while these things are true, it will always be necessary to exercise sober dis- crimination in determining the essential features cf the schcol. just rs Socrates was thought by his weaker students to be great because he limped, and just as the Grecian princess was thought to be beau- tiful because of her deformity. there may be those who think that the amount of noise: we make, or the severity of our proclaimed views on this or that disputed question in religion or morals, or some peculiarity in our curriculum or school organizations, constitutes the Samson locks which, when shorn away, will leave us in the hands of the Philistines. It has been intimated a time or two that our standardization and A-grade rating meant conformity to the world, and would absorb our spiritual emphasis and sweep away our secret of strength. It could do it. Anything that goes into our college life, from kitchen tn library, could serve as an occasion for backsliding. A chicken bone caused the death of va bishop. But a search for things that might kill a school and a search for the fundamentals of its existence represent two distinct tasks. Anything from the scratch of a pin or the bite of an insect up to a contagion of influenza may end a man's lifeg but he cannot live without a liver, or a stomach or a heart. l am not asked to designate what sort of a menace it would take to kill Asbury College, but what in its organic life constitutes, as it were, its liver and heart. When we have answered the question, What does it stand on, we shall have answered the question, What would it stand for? Assure us that a certain feature of the school is fundamental to its existence, and he who annuls that feature might just as con- sistently put a stick of dynamite under the corner of each of its beautiful buildings. Indeed he would do less damage, provided its buildings were first vacatedg for the college is more a soul than a body. It does not consist of so many buildings and laboratories, with library, chapel and campus. You could raze them all to the ground, and if the college spirit lived there would rise above the ashes a more excellent equipment than that which perished. But if the college spirit died you could preserve the present equipment and add a million dollars worth besides, and there would either be confusion and bcdlam or desolation and death--it matters not which when we choose between the two, By the college spirit we do not mean the frivolous fellowship of a college that has ,no Christ: with its idolized coach and its exclusive fraternities and its wild partisan yells. Welmean that indescribable soul, permeated with prayer and lose, which broods in dormitory, chapel and class -room, and 'is felt even by the stranger within the gates. It gets its tone arou-nd the mercy seat of prayer. Its atmosphere is purged by the lightning flashes of a gospel that burns against sing its waters are sweetened from the fountain heads of an old-fashioned revival that reaches spring tide every semester. It gets its differentia from the only message of holiness that has ever reduced itself' to a clear doctrinal statement and claimed to bring people into the blessing. This Crand Depositum has proved to excel all other articles in the preachable aspects of Christianity as a conserver of orthodoxy. V The colleges standing clearly for justification and sanctification by faith, and insisting upon the pro- motion of the experiences represented in these doctrines, are weathering the .gale of new theology and destructive criticism without listing: with fewer tatters in their sails and fewer leaks in the hold. It is difhcult for the new theology menace to find an easy chair in an atmosphere of old-time religion set in doctrines so commensurate and so plainly understood that he who runs may read. I9 -if . f'. 4 - ' if.,- A- ' '---v-1:1 VE 7+-f'f-Z Y ---? .-.aytgs-7 Egfr 7 -' 1-.Q -fjfzf' if 5 'filf Y. gf: xxx S

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The f2Qki3?g24LLQ,, Saizsm 1 2f'Tf-312 X332 J -az. , V+ , Q N 4? U Q hi 'r fi 1, il to JOHN PAUL., D.D. Vice-President K is fn 21 ,X f C 1-'J-Aggxvgg Q fl ,AC21 5 I 'Ei Q5