The service begins with the reading of a story and a brief update concerning inclement weather (00:00-03:34), entering into a time of prayer (03:35-05:14). An introduction was given for the speaker, Dr. Ralph Alderman Herring, who was a SEBTS trustee since the school’s beginning until recently. He was pastor of First Baptist Church in Salem, NC, but had resigned a year prior to this chapel, serving at the time of the chapel as SEBTS’s Secretary of the Extension Department (05:15-07:44). He begins his time with a word of welcome and a brief detailing of his position at the seminary (07:45-13:34). He focuses his message on the principle of circuitry from Jesus’s words in Mark 4:24, quoting Longfellow and another poet who express the same principle. He furthers the remainder of his sermon working from this principle (13:35-24:00). He postulates that success in the work of ministry depends on the acquisitiveness of our faith (24:01-25:31). He ends his time with prayer (25:32-26:18).
