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President A. C. Osborn
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Bible Study at Benedict College
Rev. A. C. Osborn, D.D., LL.D.
Pre.ident Benedict College. Columbi•• S. C.
At Clifton Conrerene•• A_gust 19. 1908
FIRST, a few words with regard to Bible work. The student
in our institution is put to studying the Bible.
Students are examined in it, and their promotion and
graduation depend upon their work and their marks in it, the
same as in any other study. There is no difference whatever.
Every year students are refused promotion
because of their low marks in
Bible study, the same as in any other
study. Every student in the school is
asked, " Did you bring a Bible?" If
not able to show this, they are reque ted
to purchase a Bible at the same time
they purchase their other books, and
no student is registered who has not a
Bible They begin their course in this
as in every other study at the beginning
of the year.
Last year we had six hundred and
-sixty-six on our roll, and we have averaged nearly that for years
past. There has never been a student leave the chool without
.a Bible, and without instruction in the Bible, as in other studies.
Since the foundation of the school (in 1871), there have been
.about seven thousand, boys and girls, men and women, that
have been in the chool, and everyone was requested to have
a Bible. The first recitation period every morning is Bible
:hour.
The Bible as a Regular Study
The school was built in 1871. There has never been a pupil
1n the school who has not been requested to take the Bible as a
regular study five days in the week during their entire course.
The classes are taught by the regular teacher so far as the qualifications
of that teacher have been adapted to the work. It is
not every teacher who makes a good Bible teacher. But with a
few exceptions the teachers are the regular teachers in the school,
.and they have their regular class in that as in any other study.
'They are examined as to the re ult of their work.
• 93
Sunday-School Work a Required Work
Our Sunday-school work is a required work, so far as boarding
students are concerned. They are all required to attend the
SUnday-school. It is superintended by Professor Lee, and for
several years the school was taught as a whole, imply as one
class without the organization of graded clas es. Three years
ago, we organized a school into separate classe , precisely as a
school would be organized in Sunday-school work, with infant
classes and adult classes, with separate teachers, and with
Professor Lee as superintendent. We endeavored to make it,
so far as possible, a model Sunday-school, with a purpose of
training and instructing the students as to organizing and
carrying on Sunday-school work in other schools; and, as far as
I have been able to decide, it is a model Sunday-school.
The teachers are not teachers in the school, but are students.
There is no teacher who i an instructor in the school, except the
superintendent. The purpose is, to train those students to
conduct classes and to take care of the administration of the
Sunday-school. They meet one evening in the week for instruction
in teaching classes, and our work has been eminently
satisfactory.
Sketch of Benedict College
MRS. BATHSHEBA A. BE EDICT, of Pawtucket, R. I.,
in 1871 gave to the American Baptist Home Mission
Society of ew York $5,000 to purchase ground in
Columbia, . C., for a school for the egroes.
On that ground was a frame building. In December, 1871,
under the name of Benedict Institute, with Rev. Timothy S.
Do.dge as principal, a school was opened with ten students, of
whom one was a boarder and nine were day students from the
city of Columbia. The first school year clo ed with thirty-nine
persons enrolled, some of whom were in the school but a few
days and nearly all of whom were men and women just out of
lavery, who wished to learn to read. A primer and the Bible
were the chief text-books.
Principal Dodge was ucceeded in 1876 by Rev. Lewis Colby.
In 1879 Rev. E. J. Goodspeed, D.D., became principal and held
this office until his death in 1881. For the next fourteen year
Rev. Charles E. Becker was principal. For twenty-three years,
from 1871 to 1894, the school, as Benedict Institute, was of the
