Good morning and welcome everyone. This
is the glorious day that the Lord has
made and we are going to rejoice and be
glad in it. Part of our rejoicing is
that we are able to have with us today
the grandson of the one for whom the
library is named. J. Oliver Buswell Jr.
is the one for whom the library is
named. And Jamie Buswell,
internationally known and acclaimed
violinist, grandson, is here with us
today. And we are going to in our
prelude time here now, as you uh take
your seats, if you're able to be wooed
out of the shade, uh
we're going to uh ask Jamie to prepare
our time by playing for us in honor of
his grandfather and of what the Lord has
done here this day.
My grandfather always appreciated
the dignity of music and the
appropriateness of music for worship,
but he always preferred music that was
fast. So that's what I'll give him this
morning.
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
Heat. Heat. Heat.
[Music]
Heat.
[Music]
[Music]
[Laughter]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
Amen.
Again, that is J. Oliver Buswell IV,
known to those who have known him for
years as Jamie. I feel almost that is
not right to say that knowing how
wonderful it is with his mastery of his
instrument and his profession to be with
us today. We are very thankful to pass
along and see passed along that legacy
of honoring God with all the gifts that
he gives. There are so many people here
with us today who have played a
significant role in God's provision of
this place for study and honoring his
word. As we think about the renovated
and expanded J Oliver Buswell Jr.
library. I'm going to attempt to thank
some people. I cannot and will not
attempt to name everyone who has
participated, but it's important to
acknowledge those people who in
faithfulness to God have walked
alongside us in this project. Let me
mention some. We do have wonderful
members of the Buswell family here with
us today. And I especially want to honor
you. We have children, grandchildren,
and great grandchildren all with us
today. uh and we are very thankful for
that. Liz Stortz who is uh
granddaughter will be speaking to us
later as will be son John Buswell will
be speaking to us as well. Dr. Jay
Oliver Buswell III is also here with us
today and we are very thankful for the
participation of this family.
Also I am glad both to welcome and to
thank many of you who are generous
friends and alumni of the seminary. So
much of what happened here was a joint
effort. If everyone did their part as
God enabled them to be a part of
providing this place of study for God's
word, some people who helped us have
passed away and before the Lord we want
to recognize them and their model of
faithfulness. Some of them were great
leaders for our board and for the
friends of the seminary and are now
rejoicing with the Lord even as they see
what he has done in this place.
This uh time of rejoicing is being a
time also that our board of trustees
comes together. Their leadership and
their participation enable this to
occur. I also want to thank local
officials and representatives of the
city of creeps who are with us today.
Architects and designers who are
represented by St. Louis Design Alliance
and David Masten who is with us here
today. contractors and material
suppliers represented by Petker
Construction and uh Petker even as they
came today provided us with a special
plaque in commemoration of the
dedication and actually sang for us the
word of God stands forever. We are
thankful for a construction firm that
understands us and was so faithful in
this process.
The librarians of the Mobius Bridges
cluster. Now you don't know what that
means but it means that we're not not
just standing alone. We stand with many
other libraries as part of the
technology and the provision of what's
now part of this. We have uh the ability
to search and work with libraries
throughout the state of Missouri and
throughout the city as part of the
technology that is now provided. And
we're also here recognizing that there
are local church families, guests of the
PCA historical center. You all know
formally I have to do this. What I
really want to say is thank you friends.
This was such a wonderful provision that
God gave us and you all helped us and we
thank God that we can rejoice with you.
Now, I'm going to introduce some of the
people that will participate in the
service so that we don't uh have
introductions all along the way. I've
already mentioned Elizabeth Stortz who
will be speaking. Walt Turner here to my
left is chairman of our board of
trustees. Jim Pela is our librarian who
spent endless hours guiding and advising
us in this process. David Calhoun,
professor of church history, who will be
speaking to us in just a bit. And then
following the benediction of this time,
I want to invite you all to a time of
refreshment and tour. We want you to see
this place that God has provided. And we
will begin at the entryway to the J.
Oliver Buswell Library. Uh the gathering
place will be right out in this area and
then we'll move forward to uh the
library facility. As you go in, please
note the dedicatory plaque that is on
the outside that thanks friends and
alums in general. Inside, we have tried
to to list all we can think of who had a
direct role of being involved. And I
hope you'll take time to note those
names and people as well. God works
through his instruments and those
instruments in this time have been his
faithful people. As you have bulletins,
I'm going to ask that you open them now
and join me in this rejoicing by
responding in the litany for library
dedication that is there. I will read
those portions for the president. You
will see that there are portions
assigned to the congregation, to faculty
and students, and then to others as
well. Would you please respond with me?
What are these bricks and gables? This
glass and mortar. These provide a home
for recorded knowledge, both human and
divine.
>> This is a treasure indeed. And is there
more?
>> Discovery and insight, questions and
answers, probing and perplexity,
learning and prayer.
>> Who are they who daily discover and
question? Who probe, learn, and pray?
>> We seek God's truth. God's way. We teach
and we taught to guide and we guide to
change to grow to share.
>> Who are they who advise and support this
place and its students who help it be
accountable who link to its resources
who seek the results of its ministry.
>> By grace we are they who do these
things. Whether we have provided or
constructed, protect or maintain, manage
or network to, we help dedicate this
building today by our presence.
>> How did this facility come to be? And to
whom do we dedicate its use?
>> Lord has this place
and favor to the Lord our God.
>> We dedicate today the J. Oliver Buswell
Jr. Library of Covenant Theological
Seminary and the historical center of
the Presbyterian Church in America.
What a wonderful day.
Last September, the board of trustees
held its first meeting in this beautiful
building.
It was an inspiration for all of us as
our dear brother Lanny Moore shared with
us that it was 30 years ago when he
attended his first board meeting
and the board resolved at that time that
by the grace of God they would provide
and establish a library a learning
center for Covenant Seminary.
We agree with the psalmist who declares
it is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to his name, to declare
thy loving kindness in the morning and
thy faithfulness in the evening.
There is a sure and certain reality for
all of life and all of humankind,
and that is the marvelous grace of God.
It's appropriate on this glorious
occasion
that we respond with gratitude from our
hearts, thanksgiving, and praise from
our lips to God our gracious provider.
Please join with me in prayer.
Our gracious heavenly father, we bow
before you this day, our hearts
overflowing with gratitude and
thanksgiving for your love and generous
provision for Covenant Seminary.
We thank you for your providential
blessing of the Jewel of Grace fire for
ministry capital campaign.
Thank you for moving in the hearts and
minds of your people with increased
commitment and support of Covenant
Seminary.
We thank you for the expansion of the
borders of your kingdom through your
servants.
We thank you, Father, for your
faithfulness to your church in raising
up J. Oliver Buswell Jr. and the legacy
of his life and ministry through
Covenant Seminary and our graduates.
Father, we ask your continued blessing
upon this Covenant Seminary community
that we may declare your loving kindness
in the morning and your faithfulness at
night. We pray in Jesus name.
The reading of God's word comes from the
book of Proverbs and the book of
Colossians. I'll be reading from the New
Jerusalem Bible.
Is not wisdom calling? Is not
understanding? Raising her voice on the
heights overlooking the road at the
crossways.
She takes her stand by the gates at the
entrance to the city.
Except my discipline rather than silver
and knowledge of me in preference to
finest gold. For wisdom is more precious
than jewels, and nothing else is so
worthy of desire.
I wisdom share house with discretion.
I am mistress of the art of thought.
Happy is the one who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates, waiting
beside my doors.
For whoever finds me finds life and
obtains favor from the Lord, but those
who miss me injure themselves.
All who hate me love death.
Wisdom has built her house. She has
heuned her seven pillars. She has
slaughtered her animals. She has mixed
her wine. She has also set her table.
She has sent out her servant girls. She
calls from the highest places in the
town. You that are simple, turn in here.
To those without scent, she says, "Come,
eat of my bread and drink of the wine I
have mixed. Lay aside immaturity and
live and walk in the way of insight."
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy
One is insight. For by me your days will
be multiplied and years will be added to
your life.
St. Paul's epistle to the church at
Colasse chapter 2 verses 2 and three.
that their hearts may be encouraged as
they brought together in love
to all who have the rich richness of
fully assured understanding for the
knowledge of the mystery of God Christ
in whom are hidden all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. May the Lord bless
on us the reading of his sacred word.
Centuries ago in Rome, a man in prison
wrote to a young friend saying, "When
you come,
bring the cloak that I left at Trrowaz
and my scrolls,
especially the parchments."
The Apostle Paul was feeling the cold
and he wanted his heavy, warm coat,
but he especially wanted his books.
We don't know what those books were for
sure,
but we may guess that they included
copies of the Hebrew scriptures
and perhaps some early forms of the
Gospels.
Is it not understandable that the Lord's
apostle
would want to spend the brief time that
he had left reading the word of God
1500 years later in Belgium.
That scene is repeated
when Tindle
is lying in prison awaiting death for
having dared to give the English people
the Bible in their own language.
Nintendo wrote to a friend, "Send me a
warm cap
and a woolen shirt, but above all my
Hebrew Bible
covenants J. The Oliver Buell Jr.
Library has copies of the Bible in Greek
and Hebrew and translations in English
and in other languages.
In addition to copies of the Bible and
translations of the Bible, our library
has many books about the Bible.
The Bible is a book of about 1,500
pages.
In this library, we have about 15,000
books to help us understand those
1500 pages.
One day, Thomas Aquitus and a friend
were returning to the city of Paris from
a visit to the monastery at St. Dennis
with its famous library of Greek and
Carolian manuscripts.
And when they came to the top of a
little hill,
the fellow monk of Thomas Aquinas said
to him as they looked down upon the rich
city of Paris with its buildings and its
spires, "Would you not like to own all
of that?"
Thomas replied,
"What would I do with it? I would rather
have the homalies of chrostm on the
gospel of St. Matthew.
Our library has the homalies of chrostm
on Matthew
and we have nine other volumes of
chroostum sermons
which would make this library in the
view of the great Dominican teacher
worth 10 times more than the city of
Paris.
Of
course, we have more than 15,000 books.
We have over 60,000 books and items in
this library.
That means that we have 45,000
materials
about things other than the Bible. What
are all these books doing in the library
of a theological seminary?
St. Augustine wrote a little book called
on Christian doctrine
which established the pattern of
Christian culture in the west for a
thousand years.
In that book, Augustine set forth the
premise that Christian education means
one thing, knowledge of the holy
scriptures.
But Augustine said, since the Bible was
written in Greek and Hebrew, we need to
know and study those languages. And so
we need books, grammarss, and lexicons
about Greek and Hebrew.
And also because the Bible is so vast in
what it covers, we need to study and
learn many things to better understand
it. And so we study about plants and
animals and numbers and stars and we
study literature and philosophy and
history.
I'm glad that Augustine added that point
about history.
Augustine said history helps us a great
deal in the understanding of the sacred
books.
We have a marvelous collection in this
library of books on biblical history and
church history. And in addition to that,
we have in this library the historical
center of the Presbyterian Church in
America preserving the valuable records
of that church and other Presbyterian
churches.
There are over 1 million items in the
archives.
One of which the director, Wayne
Sparkman, was sharing with me a week or
so ago
was a letter written 20 years ago from
Francis Schaefer to Robert Rayburn. They
both were struggling with cancer.
Cancer that eventually took their lives.
And I was deeply moved to read these
words from Dr. Schaefer
as he wrote to Dr. Rayburn. He said, "I'm
increasingly conscious of the fact that
Edith and I have been, as it were,
carried along
on an escalator for the entirety of our
lives.
I'm left in awe and wonder with all of
this and I very much feel the escalator
is still in operation
not just in the matter of health but in
the battles that beset us on every side.
How can one put a value on a letter like
that?
Augustine went on in his book to say
that we learn by sharing what we know
and thereby benefit other people. And he
spends a great deal of time in his book
talking about the communication of the
gospel of God's word to others. And in
our library, we have many books on
teaching and on preaching and on
counseling.
We need our 60,000 books and more are
arriving every day in order to help us
to know the Bible and to know ourselves
and to know our world and to know how
better to help other people come to know
God.
We thank God today especially for this
magnificent building which houses all
these treasures. We thank God for
friends who made this building a
reality.
We thank him for the people who worked
in this library to serve God and to
serve others.
We watched
at first with amazement
and then with delight as we saw the old
library transform before our very eyes.
from a rather ugly building
into this beautiful structure.
From a dark and crowded library into
this place of space and light. This very
building
is a kind of parable of the
transformation that God is working in
our lives day by day. And part of that
transformation will happen in the
library.
A modern poet has written about
libraries
these words. Here is where people one
frequently finds lower their voices and
raise their minds.
Lower your voices please in the library.
But in the words of a far greater poet,
lift up your heads and the King of glory
will come in. Who is the King of glory?
The Lord Almighty.
He is the King of glory. To him be glory
in the church and in the library and in
Christ Jesus to all generations forever
and ever. Amen. Amen.
Let us pray.
Our God and father, we come to you in
the forgiving blood atonement of the son
Jesus Christ and through the ministering
Holy Spirit.
We come to worship and praise you at
this time.
You promised to keep on building your
church until you return with victory
over sin and death. And here today, we
celebrate another great evidence that
your promise is working out gloriously.
We look back with thanksgiving to the
wisdom and insight you gave the founders
of this school to establish it firmly on
the word to purchase this land to build
these buildings all to prepare men and
women to minister in effectiveness and
power.
You gave J. Oliver Buswell Jr. great
vision to lead and teach so many to
shape their lives for your service.
You gave him a love of books and writing
to communicate your truth to the needy
world.
Now we here see a gathering and
collection of such an array of
communication. You have given wisdom to
write, to publish, to acquire online
writings, to make these available to so
many.
This is your work. This is for your
glory.
We lift up praise to you for all this.
And yet
this library filled with so much is
without dedicated men and women to use
it.
We reach out in prayer for your Holy
Spirit to touch men and women and give
them a clear call to minister your word
to needy people in this world and then
lead them here to fill this place with
committed servants of Christ preparing
for battle.
Touch the life of each student who uses
this library that he and she may be
encouraged and strengthened as they
research your truth.
Give them a renewed vision as they read
of your hand at work building the
church.
Give them power and blessing
they spend the hours of preparation
here.
So we who have received this building
give it holy to you, oh Lord.
Fill its halls with your presence.
Use its writings by your spirit.
May it be a launching pad from which
will go a host of Christ's servants
prepared,
filled,
empowered,
commissioned for service to the king.
In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray.
Amen.
We have the library that we might study
and acquire wisdom.
But we remember from God's word that our
savior is our wisdom from God. All that
we know and would know, he provides.
He died that we might have life.
He became sin for us that we might have
the righteousness of God in him. All we
owe to him. Let's rejoice in what he has
provided as we sing together. All for
Jesus with all for Jesus. Would you
stand with me and sing?
All my
ransoms,
all my thoughts and words and
all my days and all my hours.
[Music]
Let my feet run in his ways. Let my eyes
see Jesus only. Let my lips see forth
his praise.
Worldings
gems of beauty
to
dust.
of wealth and faith and pleasure.
Only Jesus will I trust.
Since my eyes were fixed on Jesus, my
lost sight of all
[Music]
so in shame my spirit vision
looking at the crucified.
Oh, what wonder how amazing
Jesus glorious king of kings.
[Music]
Let me again remind you that as you're
able, would you join us for refreshments
in the back when we are done here? And
we'll have library tours organized from
there as well.
Remember God's very word. The flower
fades, the grass withers,
bricks crumble.
The word of the Lord stands forever. On
that word, receive his blessing. Now
unto him who is able to keep you from
falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy. To the only wise God our
savior be glory and majesty, dominion
and power both now and forever. Amen.
[Music]