EDUCATION IN SEMINARIES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 10, 20 August 1897, Page 4

EDUCATION IN SEMINARIES.

ARTICLE BY BISHOP McQUAID. Dr. McQuaid, Bishop of Rochester, has published in the fir^t article of the May number of the Aminran Eccl< xu/nt icul llrnvw. some very weighty opinions on the everlasting seminary question. Our readers will be glad (says the Catfio/ir Tnnr.t) to have an idea of the chief subjects with which the Bishops deals. After urging that the training- ot the clergy for their sacred duties is one that, owing to various circumstances, could not be adequately attended to in days {rone by, he rejoices to be able to say that things are changed. And he looks back on the past without regret. " 'Ihe priests of those days, btill living,'" he says, '• do not care to recall their bufferings and hardships, nor count up the number of their associates who tell by the way, victims to unwholesome food and unhealthy housing, nor think of the broken down constitutions leaving the setninaiy that soon succumbed to the exhausting labours of the ministry. They are not over grateful for the miserable pretence of instruction they received, while craving the highest and best to fit them for their Master's work." These words are too true. Thank God that some bishop has had the courage to say them. Dr. McQuaid's admission materially strengthens everyone"** efforts towards reform. The past was evil, to an untold extent. An admission of the fact may help to prevent its continuance in future. The Bishop would have the ventilation, light, and heat of the seminary not behind that which the State provides for its criminals and naughty boys. And he knows how to secure his object. " Money, ordinary intelligence, and a disposition to break away irom the old-time cons?crattd miseries and needless sufferings on the pirt of seminaries will effect all desirable changes in buildings, their furnishings and equipments. There is no justifiable reason why Church authorities in. A uerica should be hampered by the customs and usage of oldtr countries, where innovations are looked on in the light of sacrilege-. Lven in Borne of the old countries the light of impro\ement is breaking its way into the dungeon-like barracks of seminaries, and the health and convenience of their inmates are taken into account as favouring intellectual progress along with physical growth and development." He would have the young seminarist trained during his early years in a day school, attached to some pamh church. Thus he thinks he would preserve to them the home influences and avoid the lengthy seminary life '• whose monotony wears them out." And thus, too, would he secure greater parental money support; a fuller supervision by the working clergy, whose experience of life is worth many books : and. lastly, enable the failure to slip back into the world - without a note of reproach."" With repaid to examinations, he wi.shes them to be conducted by external and independent examiners, adding ■ •' We shall never have first-class study in our American theological seminaries until the standard of instruction is earned high by competent authority and the examinations are from without and independent of the local teaching body."' Tins would lutuially presuppose an unete.ptionnble body of professors. \\ hence are they to come .' The Bishop, with true American teurle-Mios. o-ays t> reply. He deals wah the diificulty. alleged to txist. ni H<-ttuiH the diocesan clergy to lead the regular and s-tudnois li, e ot a prute-^ur. Or. MoQiu <1 duo not believe there is- any difficulty, and i-p cully not nowaday-, when ;i young prie-t has to wait ten or toiiruv n years- b -tore lie c .11 hope to have a house oi his own. •• ir' he be a man of more than ord.naij intellectual ability and tie. n»ht opportunities have been ni\ui him, he may prefer the protean s cimr to the unemhim rout. ne ol parochial drudgery : ;,11 the more re dily, he slyly observes, ■• 1! his position as protev-or oe au hoiio.ii d>,i one. bun standing in the diocese, with suit ible- tv itment while hllnin the. proressoi" chair."' Audit you won't grant tlie-e londitions. luce the alternative. "Hunt up profchsora win can da .ly teach three or tour classei of most difficult nuiUer. ci h subject requiring several hours of preparation ; then try to do w ith three or font 'professors what of right shou dbe the work of eiuht or ten. The experiment will be a failure and the pupils will be en itle'l to pity ' From the chapter on " Teaching 'we quote two sentiments "The teaching that fails to develop a lo\e lor books and study, not only during a student's seminary couise. bat m his ulcer jear-, is detective, "a professor up to the maik stimulates lnquny in the minds 01 h.hearers and shows them how to use books and how- to nivo-tig. te for themselves-. . . . Careful and p.un^'ak.n- nistrucuon nfthe English language and htoiature should be,m wUa the student - first day in the seminary and end with his last . . . It see.lllabsurd, in striving to »nu a young mini an ;ill-iound education, to keep him from familiarity w ith the \ery lan-ua^e 111 which he will have to present his ideas awl knowledge- to the people tor whose souls he i.s to become re>pon-ible. He has a n lid!l' ch.ipm on reading at meals '-From th" iliiiinn-nwm n .i'iin._r. (\<l pt during- the days or a spiritual relieu. li.is been di-cud^i' Imm time immcmoiial the tontrarj has been the lule. '11 c change was not adopted without n flection, but after long expi'ii.-no Thi n ading is of small ad\antaue. Few piy attention to it un tl to .aids the end of a m >al. Tne reader is olten o\er-i,itimu<l. 1. upi from his dinner when he needs it. and then bolts ins „,.«! in his huriy to ru-h out to the pla^iMuu I. \\ ii n ih-,. IB reading at table, iojil is di-postdoi v.qndl^ und 1, -- t 1 i> spent in the. dnnni; -10011 . Some look on tins dispatch i- a 14 un •we presume to think that it is productive of man; 01 the ill, 1- m.w n to seminarists. An impo tant p.irt of ;L yo-m^ man- ti.uuiii" is learning to con ver-e. .No place is better adapted tor ihi uciu-, than around the dining- able. There lh no iuvd to hum up c,c repast, and while the cuti. secure being changed tlu^oiner-'.,tio J i 1 m flow on. The extra time-pent at table is not taken from theuct ation hour, as pleasant talk i-, itself recreation. To mak" tin unni 1Bation useful as well as pJea-ant. the talk at bruikta-t is in Latin , at dinner, in Ln«.'lish ;at snj per. in German For hygienic it as mJ for better relaxation of the mind, for the improvement ot tl> ( students as conveisationali.sti- it is deemed wise to dispense withj

reading at meals.' Naturally, the Bishop has. not escaped objections, lie has been told that the nicety and refinement introduced into his seminary will make young men 1 ffem.n He, and less prepared to endure the hard realities of mission-uy lite. He replies : "My experience has satisfied me that tnc finely cultured and trained student i.s the very one of w Inch to make n hero. It is your coarse nature that grovels in selfishness ai.d low ways. The latter never rites to tne M.blime dignity of the pric-t'nood nor to the fiarhil responsibility ot its sacred obligations, nor does he ever see his own nothingness in dealing widi the immoil.l soul redeemed by the blood ot Jesu.s Christ. An ano^.uii prn *t is always found among the coarsely nurtund, whose s-e ,v 01 what is due to others never rises above his cm miate of hiin-clt. It 1- the former who i» ready to suffer for Christ s sake, who is <joi,<u -i,<.iuni>g towaids the lowly, who appreciates the sacrifice- or t'r.e poor in i>olviit of the Churcn, who in ready to spend and to be 5,,,-; i,,i tiie.i welfare." The whole article is one for clerical puiusal. and .itieMmn to it will hasten on the day when a wider reco^nitu n w -11 be to the urgent needs for seminary reform.