Page 218 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote and Some Stuff I Didn't (2011) H. Morris Williams

carefully discuss every phase of the movement and to warn against too
hasty action. But the vote was unanimous and the offer of Lake City was

gratefully accepted.

But this new movement not only knit our hearts and lives together in a

great, worthy and challenging endeavor, it centered around a new and
greater interest in Christian education.

Florida Baptists needed some such incentive for there was no very deep

or abiding conviction up to that time that we were under obligations to
provide a Christian college for our children, or that the future of our

denomination depended largely upon surrounding our boys and girls

with an educational environment surcharged with the Christian
atmosphere.

From this time on we would feel differently about it. We know now that

great Christian lawyers and doctors and school teachers and statesmen
come largely from the campuses of our denominational schools.

Certainly our denominational leadership has come from our Baptist

schools and seminaries.

Our people felt that God had opened the way to a solution of our

problems educationally, and believed that Columbia College was a
direct answer to prayer, and had to come to stay.

This institution, short-lived as it was, made a lasting contribution to the

denomination.

As we have said elsewhere, 133 students were enrolled within 90 days

after it was set going. Fourteen of these were students for the ministry;

and all through those 10 years of its life there were a large group of
ministerial and mission students.

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