LETTER OF
The GOSPEL TRUTH CHARLES G. FINNEY
1835
To the Trustees of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute
30 June 1835
[MS in the Finney Papers # 1175]
Addressed: To the Board of Trustees of the
Oberlin Collegiate Institute
Oberlin.
Endorsed: Mr Finney's Acceptance of his appointment as Professor of Theology in the Oberlin Institute.
Letter:
To the Board of Trustees of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute.
Dr. Br. I have recd. the Official notice of my appointment to the professorship
of theology in your Institution, & after much prayer & consideration
I feel prepared to say, that upon the following conditions I will
accept the Appointment.
1. That, on consulting with the faculty & making the best arrangements
I can for the instruction of my class, I have leave of absence to
labor either as Pastor or as an Evangellist among the churchs
so much of my time as in my own judgement shall be best
calculated to promote the interests of the Redeemers Kingdom.
I must insist upon this condition, for the following reasons.
1. I can not leave my people in New York without returning
and laboring with them a part of each year
2. With this condition they consent that I should go.
3. I do not think it will be either necessary or best for me
to spend all my time in teaching theology. It is a
settled truth in my mind, that unless a professor of
theology spend a considerable portion of his time, in
the active duties of the ministry he is wholly unquallified to
train young men up to the spirit of the age. Until I shall
have made the experiment, I can not tell how much
of my time it will be necessary to give up to teaching, or
to preaching, & therefore must be the judge after I shall have
made the experiment.
2. The second condition is that you procure sufficient funds to put
the Institution beyond the pressure of pecuniary embarrassments, &
provide sufficient accommodations for students &c.
3. And thirdly that the Trustees give the internal control of the
school into the hands of the Faculty & leave it to their discretion
to admit or reject those who in their judgment shall be proper subjects
for admission or rejection irrespective of color. If your Board consent
to these conditions, as I understand they are willing to do, you
may if you please record my acceptance of the appointment.
Your Brother in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Oberlin 30th June 1835. C. G. Finney