1915

TILLOTSON COLLEGE, AUSTIN, TEXAS

By President Isaac M. Agard, Ph.D.

TILLOTSON COLLEGE was founded with the purpose of providing an education distinctly Christian for the colored people of Texas and the great Southwest. It aims to give its students such understanding—broad, thorough and inspiring—of the life they have to live that they will live successfully and nobly. It would train heart and head and hand, developing strong and beautiful character and worthy and efficient citizenship. It believes that the teaching of Jesus is the true foundation of such character and life, and would have the spirit of the Master fill its halls and rule its work.

The Bible is taught as a text-book. Systematic courses of Bible study are required and form a part of each year's instruction from the elementary grades to the close of the collegiate course. At present this instruction is in charge of Rev. H. M. Kingsley, a graduate of Talladega College and of the Yale Divinity School and Superintendent of the church work of the American Missionary Association in the district of Texas and Oklahoma.

The College also provides training courses for religious workers. Mr. Kingsley is now giving instruction to a number of young men engaged in ministerial service, and to a large class of Sunday-school teachers from the city churches.

Closely related to the College life are its religious services, into which the students and especially those who are boarders largely enter. The Sunday-school at ten o'clock each Sunday morning enrolls all of the boarding students. One of the College professors is Superintendent, and members of the faculty are teachers.

Following the Sunday-school is the church service. This is usually conducted by the President of the College assisted by members of the faculty and frequently by visiting helpers from the city and elsewhere.

The Christian Endeavor Society conducts the Sunday night service. This is a vigorous organization of which most of the boarding students and some others are members, and in which students and teachers work earnestly together in Christian fellowship and service.

The mid-week prayer meeting on Wednesday night, led by a member of the faculty, again brings teachers and students in close religious touch and sympathy.

Two other vigorous organizations for Christian work, a Young Men's Christian Association and a Young Women's Christian Association, are well supported by the students. These hold their meetings regularly Sunday afternoons. Their work is largely with their membership and other students, and their influence is strengthening and uplifting. A special Bible class for members, directed by an earnest student of the University of Texas, is a feature of the young men's work. Another feature is a division of Boy Workers organized for the lower grades.

The spirit of the College life is strongly religious. Every school day is opened by chapel service. In the dining hall a grace precedes each meal. The evening meal is followed by a brief service of Scripture reading and prayer. Religious and moral addresses are frequently given to the student body in chapel by invited guests and visitors from Austin or other cities. A religious atmosphere is cultivated through the Institution that becomes a molding influence in the thoughts and lives of students.

The head of the department of Mechanical Industries in Tillotson Mr CK Higgins from Dartmouth College