Notes on Current Literature [pp. 533-540]

NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
stant voluntary assembling of the students there for united prayer. Wetrust that this Christian element in the training of our American colleges
will never be laid aside. No matter what else they gain, if they lose
this distinction their glory is departed.
While we see much room for improvement in our theological education, and would constantly strive towards a higher ideal, yet we see no
reason to dissent from Dr. Milligan's conclusion, rendered after careful
inquiry into the means and results of our ministerial training, as a whole,.
notwithstanding any invidious or disparaging comparisons that may
have been made to its disadvantage: "The effect may be easily anticipated. In no church in the world is there a better and more
Christian or more active and zealous body of men than are the ministers of the Presbyterian Church in the United States." Let no man take
our crown.
Dr. Milligan lays great stress on three glaring defects in the Scotch
Divinity course, which, if less conspicuous, are not wholly wanting, among
ourselves. At all events, they throw light on some points much controverted here.
i. The period of theological study in Scotland is much shorter and
more broken than with us. "Five months out of twelve, for three years
in the one, and four years in the other of these (the Free and Established)
churches, is, if not too brief, at least too broken, a period of study, to enable the student to do justice to the difficult and extensive subjects which
he ought to master before he leaves Divinity Hall, and enters upon that
life of ministerial action which generally leaves him little leisure for
further study. Could the studies of winter be steadily prosecuted during
the summer months, the evil might not be so great. But that can seldom
be done. Labors of other kinds then almost invariably occupy a student's thoughts; so that the whole period of his preparation for the ministry is reduced to fifteen or twenty months, and these again divided into
sections separated by intervals so long that much of the work done in any
one of them must be forgotten before it is resumed in the section following. We have already seen that in the United States the periods of study
are much longer than with us. Instead of five months, seven or eight
are usually assigned each year to college (seminary) attendance; and
these not being quite continuous, the longest recess enjo) ed is too short
to offer much temptation to labors foreign to those with which the college
(seminary) course is occupied."
2. It turns out that in order to remedy this, according to Dr. MZ.,
provision must be made for the support of theological students and professors, somewhat after the standards and methods in vogue here. The
majority of students, it seems, require these long vacations to labor for
534
' [July".