On July 25, 1850, Samuel Sterling Sherman rose from his chair at the third annual commencement ceremony of Howard College in Marion. As he made his way to the lectern, he likely fumbled in his pocket for the spectacles that would enable him to read the manuscript he gripped in his hand. Those in the room — fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, Alabama pastors and other assorted friends of the college — were present to mark a significant rite of passage for the young men seated before them.
Sherman, designated the founding leader of the institution that would become Samford University, had already shepherded Howard College through many of the birth pangs that accompanied an entity with boundless aspirations and seriously bounded finances. Across the town of Marion sat Judson College for women, created only a few years earlier. Between Howard and Judson, and later with Mobile College (now University of Mobile) added to the mix, Alabama Baptists hoped to leverage their limited resources to provide for meaningful, useful education for generations of young men and women.
“Education is the most important element in modern civilization,” began President Sherman.
“It is the palladium of free governments, the only secure and unfailing hope of republican institutions. No subject presents higher claims upon the wisdom of the statesman, the powers of the legislator, the benevolence of the philanthropist, the charities of the Christian,” Sherman said.
With this affirmation of higher education in general, the Howard president made certain, before concluding his lengthy remarks, that every listener in the room understood that education without a soul was not a worthy end. “How often do we find the most profound attainments in science, in art, in literature; refinement and elegance of manners, together with all those external influences which a virtuous community and healthy public opinion are accustomed to exert, totally inadequate to the task of rendering men virtuous, or even of holding in check the violent passions of a depraved heart?” he asked.
Sherman knew the value of an education that embraced every aspect of life, including the spirit.
From Judson in 1838 to Howard in 1841 to Mobile in 1961, Alabama Baptists have collectively and consistently sought to nurture educational institutions that would maintain the highest academic standards while embracing a Christ-centeredness that has never, is not and will never be understood and accepted by the larger culture. Those of us who serve within these institutions are inspired by the challenge of remaining faithful to our founding principles and finding new ways to equip our students to be salt and light.
In the most recent survey of Samford’s 3,000 undergraduates, 23 percent responded that they “agree” or “agree strongly” that they are “likely to pursue some type of Christian ministry as a full-time vocation.” Added to these numbers are hundreds of our 1,800 graduate students who are actively preparing for traditional and nontraditional paths of ministry. I imagine that similar statistics apply at Judson College and the University of Mobile (UMobile). Our students come to us from every walk of life. Many of them are privileged to have been raised in families where financial need is not an issue, but many would find it staggeringly impossible to consider our institutions without every shred of financial aid that can be pieced together. As one who fell into the latter category during my student days at a Baptist-related university in Arkansas, I can attest to the burden that I feel to extend these opportunities to those who have the will, but not the way. For all of our institutions, the support we receive from Alabama Baptists is the cornerstone of our aid programs.
At the moment in every Samford commencement ceremony when I step to the lectern to confer degrees, as President Sherman did in the earliest days of the founding of the institution, I offer these words of congratulations and admonition: “On behalf of the authority vested in me by the board of trustees, in harmony with the recommendations of the faculty, and in accordance with the laws of the State of Alabama, I hereby confer upon you the degree that you have dearly earned, together with our prayers that you will use what you gained here in service to God and humankind, wherever you may go in this needy world.”
The world was needy 175 years ago as Alabama Baptists made their first investment in higher education; it is needy today. Judson, Samford and Mobile people are honored, as always, to proclaim Christ in word and deed while preparing students for active, useful, contemplative lives in the widest range of professions.
My colleagues and friends David Potts (president of Judson) and Mark Foley (president of UMobile) join me in expressing our heartfelt appreciation to Alabama Baptists, living and in glory, for the gifts and prayers that propel the institutions we serve.
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