Furman University - Bonhomie Yearbook (Greenville, SC)

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jfuvman ‘University. Ebc past. HFTY-OXK years ago it was decided l»y tile Bap | l »t hosts of South Carolina to establish Furman 9 University at Greenville. A dusty old room, a few rickety wooden benches, three instructors, and sixty students were present at the opening session. What a Faculty! But these men were the greatest of their day. They placed their ear close to nature and caught the sound of rumbling, rushing progress. They served well their own generation and won the gratitude of posterity. They dreamed and planned and acted. The dawn was bright and hopeful, but soon the shadows came. Where is that Southern school that did not feel the rude shock of the war trumpet's blast ? After a decade of growth, the school closed its doors, and two hundred and sixty young men went forth to the bitterest conflict ever waged. When the little Hag was furled by a brokenhearted ami desolate people, the first thought of the maimed heroes was to reopen the school. For years the wav was dark and failure imminent, but with sublime courage these men brought Furman safely through. The character of the melt who founded the institution is stamped forever on its work. Other colleges may become tainted with modern materialism, but this one. never! Students will continue to lie taught to walk in the footstep of the lowly Nazarene. and follow ing this pathway in the search after truth, they will come at last into the light and life of eternal day. Ebc present. It is hard to write of the Present of an institution which advances as rapidly as Furman. To day has not what tomorrow will have. Kvcry year thousands of dollars are expended in new buildings, new schools and departments arc added, and the student-body grow year by year. The first effort of the present administration was to place Furman prominently before those whose duty it is to give it their hearty support. This effort has produced fine fruit, and to-day every lisping Baptist child knows and loves Furman University. The Baptist have lieen taught that it is their college and they ure justly promt of the work which it is doing. The faculty have assimulated all that is best of the old and the new methods of instruction, and the thoroughness of the course is unexcelled. No other institution in all this Southland is better known than Furman University. The larger and older colleges of the north recognize her degrees at their face value. The records of Furman students in the northern 7

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universities are sources of pride to the friends of the Baptist university of South Carolina. The present then, is full of work, of energy, and of enthusiasm; there i pride in the past, glorious achievement in the present, and hope ami ambition for the future. Cbc future. Out of n struggling past, out of a present, as it were, pregnant with hope, l-'urman Cliiversity will come strong-armed for the future. Dangers gloomy and dark have beset Iter, hut the crisis has l»een passed, and she looks to the years to come for the crown of glory that awaits her. First, there were school days, days of trials ami difficulties and hopes and plans. Then came college-life, strong. brave, courageous, and the future will see Furman a uni versity in fact ns well ns in name. In the young days of the present century new department will be added, the student-body will grow from hundreds into thousands, and the whole world will know Furman by her works. The dreams of the fathers will be realised when the university which they founded is looked down upon by the mid-day sun of the twentieth century. And never once will it have turned aside from its purpose nnd end—the betterment of man and the glory of Cod. The solution of the problems which are vexing the minds of the thinkers of the age is Christian education, ami the day is not distant when the great hosts of students will he turned into the wall of denominational colleges. Then will Furman come into the light of her true day. 8