“The Southern Bible Institute”

“The Southern Bible Institute”

"SOUTHERN BIBLE INSTITUTE"
Lecture by Dr. John G. Young, February 23, 1950, at
Abilene Christian College (2:30 p. m.)

Brother Adams, brothers and sisters. As time goes on we have certain interests that manifest themselves, arid I think as we get older, those interests become more unselfish. Someone has said up until a certain time our ideas are, that no one shall do us any harm, that we shall look after our own interest. Then when a certain milestone is passed in our growth and development it changes and we are desirous then to make sure and doubly sure that we do no one else any harm, that we do no one any injury. I think most of us have reached that second stage. You manifest by your attendance at these Lectureships, you manifest by your attendance here, your interests in your fellow man, your desire to do other people good. I firmly believe that this type of thing, sponsored by this type of institution, does as much good, as almost anything we can imagine in stimulating good to other people. I felt honored when Brother Morris asked me to come. You have heard many appeals, you have heard many very laudible and commendatory statements of what has been done and of plans for the future.

I am going to present you one that’s a little bit different this afternoon, and I hope it will appeal to every one of you, every individual here, young and old, man and woman, boy and girl. I think it should weigh on our hearts. In Acts 8:30 are these words, “Understandest thou what thou readest? And he”—who was he? He was an Ethiopian, a man of the black race. “And he,” the man from Ethiopia, said, “How can I, except some man should guide1 me? And he besought Philip to come up and sit with him, and Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from that scripture preached unto him Jesus.” God through the Holy Spirit saw that Ethiopian of that time and by miraculous means guided Philip down there that that man might know the gospel. Several years ago as Brother Adams told you, the colored brethren came to the white brethren and said, in something like these words, “Brethren we need more edu-cation, we need more preparation for our brethren, that they might go out and preach the gospel in a more presentable manner. The colored race is becoming better and better educated, and we need help. Will you please, we entreat you, we beseech you, give us help?” The first meeting I went to down at Cleburne, Brother Otto Foster was there and many people here were there. I went down more or less lukewarm to the idea of establishing or attempting to establish a school for colored Christians. I thought that our hands were filled up. I thought that the white schools took up all the energy we had, all the stored up energy in the form of money, all of our work and it wasn’t being done too well even then. But when these colored brethren standing before us said, “Brethren, we beseech you, we entreat you, aid us that we might preach the gospel more effectively.” Since then, many, of us have been giving our time and our thought to this thing.

Why a school for colored brethren? They need it, they want it and they sincerely desire it. They told us at this meeting that the average education of colored preachers was about the fourth grade and in order to properly compete before an audience to present the gospel in a good manner, in an acceptable manner, in a way that would attract people to the gospel, they must have better preparation. They have been doing a tremendous amount oh work before. All of you are familiar with the work of the Nashville Christian Institute. Brother Keeble is to follow me, in the good works they are doing, but in this great southwest there is no place where colored people, boys and girls, could go to school under Christian influence, where they might learn to spread the gospel, where they might learn, if they did not become preachers, to become good leaders, deacons and elders, good mothers, deacons’ wives, elders’ wives, good members of the church that they might further the cause of the gospel among the colored brethren. How many colored people are there? There are various estimates. I think the recent one is about 20,000,000 in the United States. Twenty million colored people, many of them who have not had the opportunity nor the privilege to know the gospel in its truth, who have not had the opportunity of listening to the word of God preached in its sincerity and in its simplicity. Now do not misunderstand me at all, I am highly in favor of missionary work in every zone of the world, at home and abroad. We at Sears and Summit, as you at your congregation, are doing that kind of work, I hope. We are supporting missionaries in Africa, in Germany, in Italy and in Japan, in the north east and in the middle east.

There is a story about a ship that ran out of water off the coast of South America, and this ship was destitute and people were famished for water, they could get no water, they had exhausted their fresh water supply, and on the horizon there appeared another ship, and by signal they signaled to that ship, “Hurry to us, we are famishing, we are parching of thirst, we have people about to die.” And that ship on the horizon signaled back, “Let down your pails,” and they thought they misunderstood. And they signaled again, “We are famishing, if you don’t get fresh water we shall die,” and the ship on the horizon said, “Let down your pails, let down your buckets where you are,” and they let them down, and they drew up fresh water. They were at that wide, wide mouth of the Amazon where the water was entirely drinkable and free of salt. We in the south can let down our buckets and do good. It is not necessary that we go afar to do good. It is admirable that we go afar to do good, it is not necessary. We can do in our communities, in our own cities, in our counties, in our own state, in our section a tremendous amount of good by educating and helping the colored brother that he might preach the gospel and be a better Christian. Then there is a need, how to fill that need was next.

We have considered for these many months and years, about three years, methods of trying to do this. We had at first grandiose ideas that we thought to be possible, we became disappointed. We had the idea of building from the ground up an institution for Christian colored education and appealing to the brotherhood for support to the extent of perhaps half a million or a million dollars. We got discouraged about that of course, when we did not move along very fast. Last year we decided to start, and iri 1948, the fall of 1948, we began in Fort Worth, Texas, on the grounds of the Lake Como Colored Church of Christ, a small education institution for colored brethren. We bought, through aid and through help, some army barracks and cut them down and changed them until we had an institution of Negro education last year in Fort Worth, and we had about 45 students to register. That ran through last year. /Then this summer, we had the proposition presented to us ;that we might start this work on a better scale.
Those of you who are familiar with Terrell, Texas, know that in that city for many years has been a boys’ private school, the Texas Military College, a school with a campus of about 25 acres with 14 buildings upon it, an Administration Building, mess hall, dormitories, houses for faculty, gymnasium, swimming pool, tennis courts, play grounds, and other buildings that could be used for hospital or infirmary, altogether 14. This institution functioned as a going junior college until last June, when it closed down and this property was for sale. After due inquiry and due inspection, the Board of Trustees of the colored school, the Southern Bible Institute, decided after much consultation that we should purchase that campus with all the buildings. It has been estimated that to duplicate this set up in Terrell would cost approximately six hundred thousand dollars. That entire campus with 14 buildings furnished has been purchased by the Southern Bible Institute, for sixty thousand dollars. The dormitories are equipped, the classrooms are equipped, the library is equipped with books, with tables, with chairs, with visual education material; there is a laboratory of chemistry, of physics and of biology, equipped; there is a mess hall that can seat about 120 at one time and that is equipped with tables, with dishes, with silverware, with cooking utensils. [There are the other buildings for other uses, a home for the president, so we have purchased this for about ten cents on the dollar. Now in this institution we propose, beginning this next September, the start of a junior college for the education of colored brethren who desire further education along Christian lines. It is our plan that every boy and girl, man and woman, that attends this institution shall study the Bible, that we will make it possible for those who desire to become ministers to receive adequate training that they may become better ministers than they would be otherwise. Our curriculum will of course be some-what restricted, we cannot give everything that Abilene Christian College or other Christian colleges for white boys and girls have been able to give, but eventually our plan is that this shall be a well equipped, well functioning completely running junior college for the colored race. It is our plan that first we shall begin only the first year of college with either two or three years of high school. Now you ask why. This is done at the judgment of the colored brethren. They say we do not have enough colored students who have graduated from high school to limit it to a junior college! with two years. The second year we hope to add a second year of college and complete the junior college curriculum, and if as time goes on there are enough high school graduates, we will eventually perhaps eliminate that final high school year and have only a junior college, but our plan now is to do the greatest good to the greatest number of people that we can.

We are not going before any congregation asking for congregational support but we hope to interest every loyal Christian in, this large community in this work. The colored brethren are” interested. We have been told for instance that our largest enrollment will come perhaps from California. Brother Hogan has the group out there say that they have many students prepared to come to such an 'institution when that institution gets ready to function. The colored brethren in Detroit and Chicago say ^hat students will come from these environments, also, to that school. It should appeal to the brotherhood throughout the nation. There are still those who do not believe that the colored brethren should be supported. I am sorry to say that there are some who believe still that the colored brother should not be aided in his advancement. But speaking for myself and I think the Board of Trustees, we feel it as a burden upon our hearts, as a weight on our conscience that our colored brethren be aided.

You have had repeated to you, I guess, a dozen times this week a portion of the great commission, or maybe all of it, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel unto every creature.” That is a command. That is not a suggestion. We are to go and preach and if we can educate the colored brethren that they can better preach, if we can make more or less a factory where producers are produced, and then those producers can go out and make more and (more disciples, can spread the word of the kingdom throughout the land among their brethren. If we can do this one thing we will further the cause of Christ in this great southland a tremendous amount.

I believe as has also been said to you that any worthwhile challenge placed before the sons of God will be accepted if it is for God’s work. I think that Christians accept challenges. I don’t think we can make anything to:) large if it is God’s work. Those other disciples didn’t get discouraged and yet it has been mentioned to you also during the lifetime of one person the gospel during the apostolic days was preached to the then known world. It wasn’t too big then, it isn’t too big now. We should have this on our conscience. Frankly and very directly I have no qualms of conscience, I have no embarrassment, I have no hesitancy in asking for support of such an institution. If it were for myself, for our congregation where I worship, if it were for something of a selfish nature, then of course I would be hesitant, and I should be hesitant. But I have absolutely no hesitancy, no embarrassment, in asking you to support such an institution because it’s entirely unselfish, it’s done for the glory of God, for the spreading of the gospel, for the enlargement of the borders of the kingdom of the Lord. Brethren, we must do it, we can’t do otherwise. If we fail to accept such a responsibility, if we fail to accept such an opportunity, I would hate to approach my God in the day of judgment and admit that I turned it down. I think it obligatory, I think also it is an opportunity. Now we do not have published prayers, we do not have prayers that we read from books, but I am going to repeat to you one little prayer that I think will be answered every time it is prayed. Ask God “to help you to do his will more peifectly.” That is why God sent Christ to earth, that his will might be done. If this is God’s will, let the gospel he preached to the colored brethren, then we should ask God to help us to do it more perfectly.

If you will allow me I am going to place on your con-science this among many other things that have been placed upon your conscience this week, that you help us to provide for the education, the religious education, the advancement in religious knowledge of the colored brethren. This is something that cannot wait, if we are going to open a school in September time is of the essence, we must pay off this indebtedness. Many of us have given of our time, and our means in these past years steadily and unselfishly and I am going to give you an idea of the men who are helping in this work. Many of you know them. I am going to read to you the members of the Board of Trustees of the Southern Bible Institute: Brother Caw- thorn of Paris; Brother Otto Foster of Cleburne; Brother H. H. Grey, colored preacher of Dallas; Brother J. B. Mc- Ginty of Terrell; Brother D. II. Moyers of Ennis; Brother Gayle Oler of Quinlan; Brother J. H. Richards of Fort Worth; Brother J. S. Winston of Fort Worth, a colored preacher; Brother Walter Adams of Abilene; Brother R. N. Allen of Sanderson; Mike Balagia of Austin; R. B. Bond of Brownsville, Tennessee, a colored brother; Berry Brown of Wichita Falls; 0. B. Butler of Oklahoma City, a colored brother; Thomas J. Carter of Dallas; A. C. Chad- dick of Baytown; N. E. Davidson of Cpnroe; J. R. Fleming of Weatherford; R. N. Hogan of Los Angeles, a colored preacher; Ben Holland of Austin; G. P. Holt of Oklahoma City; Levi Kennedy of Chicago, a colored preacher; R. G. Meggs of Dallas; Vance Mitchell of Midland; W. I. Morris of Kaufman; W. D. Morrison of Detroit, Michigan, a colored brother; R. L. Nunley of Martin, Tennessee, a colored preacher; George Purcell of Brady; E. A. Sanders of Childress; Paul Settles of Houston, a colored brother; B. Sherrod of Lubbock; H. E. Speck of San Marcos; G. E. Steward of Detroit, Michigan, a colored brother; J. L. Watson of Thorp Springs; Walter Weathers of Houston, a colored brother. Now this group is ready to go, Again let me say we need your support. If you are. contacted in your city, if you have opportunity to give, if you desire to contribute to the support of this institution, we hope you will. Now I have one more announcement. All of you know Brother E. W. McMillan. It is our good fortune that Brother McMillan has agreed to be President of this school for the colored, the Southern Bible Institute, and will take office, take over the work on September 1, 19ri0. It is my pleasure to present to you at this time for a few words. Brother McMillan.

REMARKS BY BROTHER MCMILLAN
I count it one of the very high privileges in my life to be a small portion of the great work that is going on among the disciples of Christ today. I nay my tribute to Abilene Christian College for the large contribution it has made, and continues to make, to Christian education, including mission work. In my extensive travels the last three years, as was stated in the lecture two days ago, I have seen the far reaching influence of Christian education, in the local congregations, and on the mission fields, at home and abroad. It does not hurt the financial drive of Abilene Christian College for it to make a large place in its own program for the voices that call from other parts of the world. It but sufficiently identifies the spirit of the school for God to open larger doors to the school itself.

It is an honor to be given the privilege of service in behalf of our negro brethren, though I lack confidence in myself for these responsibilities. Having never trained to be an executive and never wanted to be one, I feel myself incapable; but I have a large, compensating, confidence that leads me to undertake the responsibilities Dr. Young mentioned. I know personally most of the Board of Directors. They are men of high honor, intelligence and sincerity. I trust them. I also have great confidence in my brethren throughout the country. I have learned that when you give them something that is honest and honorable, the most of them are willing to hear and help. It is comforting, also, to know that such men as President Morris and Dean Adams are willing consellors. But most of all, place confidence and security in God.

Allow me at this point to identify Mrs. McMillan with me in this work. She is not able to be in the audience this afternoon, but we are one in this service. We prayed together, counselled together, and our lives are dedicated together in this work, which we consider one of the most honorable services we have ever undertaken.

Brother Foster will remain the president of this school until the first of September. I jovially told him the other day that this is not the first worthy job he ever started then handed over to me, and it is not. I worked with him more than four years in Cleburne some years ago. I know' the man.
In these responsibilities there will be mistakes made; be prepared for them. You are not promised anything close to perfection; you are promised the best that I know how to give. And I promise you that, when I make a mistake, you will be welcome to come and talk with me about it. Not only that, you are requested to come and talk with me.

I read something about Abraham Lincoln sometime ago which helped me a great deal. One of President Lincoln’s chief advisors told him, with indignation, that Colonel John Doe said the President was a certain kind of a fool. 'The story said the President, in effect, replied: “The Colonel usually is right in his judgments; I shall go over and see why he thinks so.” I’ll try to be that kind of an honest man with you. If anyone just has to attach descriptive adjectives, go ahead; but better still, let’s talk it out and pray it out. I promise you the best that we can give; by your help and co-operation, and by the help of God, we shall write a chapter in the history of our negro brethren that will be blessed in memory, we hope.