B. M. Sanders and Mercer Institute

By Shaler Granby Hillyer

When it was determined by the Georgia Baptist Convention to found a school in which young men desiring to become ministers of the gospel might be educated, the first necessity was to find the right man to place at the head of it. The school was to unite manual labor with study. It was thought that such a school would afford to the students an opportunity to defray at least a part of their expenses by working a portion of each day on the farm.

This scheme made it almost necessary that the principal should be not only a good scholar with adequate experience as a teacher, but also a good, practical farmer. Just such a man was found in the person of Rev. Billington M. Sanders. He had graduated at the University of South Carolina. After leaving college he was for several years a practical teacher. He then engaged in farming, and so successfully that he soon had a comfortable estate. These two essential qualities were supplemented by his being a useful Baptist minister. When, therefore, he was placed at the head of Mercer Institute, he was qualified to be at once the principal in the schoolroom, the manager on the farm, and the leader in the house of worship. So he was emphatically the right man in the right place.

I do not propose to follow Brother Sanders through the history of Mercer Institute. Suffice it to say that his administration, with the aid of competent assistants, was so successful that in less than seven years Mercer Institute was developed into Mercer University, and Brother Sanders was made its first president.

In his administration both in the Institute and in the University, his discipline was watchful and rigid; but at the same time he was as a father to the students, and I think the great majority of them so regarded him. But passing by his official labors let me rather devote this reminiscence to the moral of his life.

Brother Sanders was a man of deep and earnest piety, not only in forms of worship, but in practicalgodliness that threw the light of his example over all within the reach of his influence. The breadth of his benevolence was sufficient to embrace all the nations of the earth. I recall an incident which will illustrate this.

About forty-five years ago, Ireland was visited with a dreadful famine by a total failure of her potato crop. The case was so serious that appeals for help came across the Atlantic to the people of our country, and nobly did they respond. In the little village of Penfield the cry was heard. Under the leadership of Brother Sanders a public meeting was held in the College chapel. The question was, "What shall we do for Ireland?" Brother Sanders answered the question in an able, earnest, and effective speech. I sat in front of him. I have never forgotten his tall and manly figure as he pleaded with the audience in behalf of the starving poor in distant Ireland. I said his speech was effective. In that small community, three hundred dollars were collected and invested in grain, which in due time was sent across the sea upon its mission of love and mercy.

Another illustration of Brother Sanders' broad philanthropy, and also of his devoted zeal in the cause of our great Redeemer, has come to my knowledge within the last few days. In a recent letter from a correspondent, who is himself an earnest worker in his Master's vineyard, and whose authority is reliable, I learn that Brother Sanders for some years devoted a tenth of his income to works of benevolence. In those years he was prosperous to such a degree that he raised his contribution to twelve per cent., and for a like reason he increased it, a few years later, to fifteen per cent, of his income. And but for the weight of his large famijy we have reason to believe he would have continued to increase it as the Lord prospered him.

Of course Brother Sanders was not the only Baptist in Georgia who set apart a definite percentage of his income for benevolent purposes. The letter above referred to gives me another case which I hope to notice farther on in these reminiscences.

The moral or lesson taught by such a life as that of Brother Sanders is one which we all should study. Consider his wide benevolence, and his systematic and generous liberality. Suppose, for a moment, that we could find in Georgia five thousand Baptists whose incomes are over one thousand dollars, and who would give an average of ten per cent, to the cause of Christ. That five thousand would raise half a million of dollars. Such men as B. M. Sanders set us an example which deserves to be followed.

But Brother Sanders's benevolence was not confined to the more conspicuous objects of public charity; it was manifested in a remarkable degree along the walks of social life. He was the friend of everybody who needed help. And yet his kindness was never officious nor ostentatious. It seemed to flow naturally, as if it were a matter-of-course thing, for which he expected no return or thanks. A little incident in my own experience will illustrate this feature in his social benevolence. On one occasion I had gone from Penfield up the Georgia Railroad for some purpose not now remembered. When I left home I did not know exactly the time I would return, and therefore my family did not know when to send my buggy to meet me at the depot in Greensboro, seven miles from Penfield. Now it happened that on my excursion I met Brother Sanders, who, I learned, expected to return to Penfield before I could. So I asked him to let my wife know at what time to send for me. I was to reach Greensboro by the night train. For some reason, which I have forgotten, he failed to deliver my message till night had come. Then, rather than trouble my family, he sent his own conveyance to meet me at Greensboro. I found the carriage at the depot awaiting me.

This act of kindness was by no means singular; for I am sure he often conferred similar favors upon others as well as myself. It was such acts of unselfish kindness that made B. M. Sanders everybody's Brother in the community where he lived. If all people would follow him in his broad benevolence, the millennial day would soon illuminate this benighted world with its effulgent glory.

Having said so much about this venerable man of God, I will add a few reminiscences of his devoted companion. Mrs. Sanders was a "Georgia Baptist," and though a woman limited to a domestic sphere, she became an important factor in the great work which Georgia Baptists had undertaken at Penfield. During the period of the "Institute," while her husband was principal of the school and manager of the farm, Mrs. Sanders was presiding over the domestic comfort of the whole establishment. Every day from sixty to a hundred boys sat at her table. Though she labored, as it were, out of sight, may we not say that she was the big wheel whose unseen revolutions kept in motion all the machinery of the institution? Had she stood still, wreck and ruin might have been the consequence.

Billington McCarthy Sanders 1833-1840

• Teacher, clergyman, farmer (1789-1854); A.B. degree; married to Martha Lamar (1812) and Cynthia Holliday (1824)
• Led in the establishment of Mercer Institute in Penfield, Georgia, in January 1833, and was unanimously elected the first president of Mercer University in 1838
• Served as superintendent, teacher, steward, and farmer, as well as president (planning, teaching, clearing, fencing, cultivating, erecting buildings, soliciting financial support, administering discipline, and preaching regularly), aided by his wife and one assistant
• Developed campus from two double log cabins, a garret to each for dwelling, and a dining room and study for both teachers and students to seven buildings at the end of his tenure
• Increased the number of students from thirty-nine (seven of whom were studying for the Christian ministry) to ninety-five

Letter from BMS to Samuel Wait, October 15, 1833:

"We are always in school by sun rise, spend in study on an average more than seven hours per day—besides about two at night....I find less difficulty to get the students to labor than to study. I go with them myself—never hesitate to assist them in the most unpleasant part of it. I endeavor to have it considered honorable to volunteer in the most humiliating labor. If something is to be done more disagreeable than common I ask for volunteers. If they hesitate I volunteer myself and ask, 'Who will assist me?'"