“The Church is professedly the concrete exposition of the Divine word. Hence, Church history and government constitute a most important department of theological teaching and culture. There is more than a history of the acts and events of the men and the churches of past ages, and more in the system of Church government than the mere schemes of human expediency. The students in this department need opportunities of knowing how to sustain the truth by the knowledge of its power for good, and refute error by the knowledge of its power for evil. It is in the opportunities afforded by a large and well-selected library that students find thus a continual strengthening of faith in the word of our Lord respecting the Church, that the ‘gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’” — B.M. Smith, “Address On the Laying of the Corner Stone of the Library Building of Union Theological Seminary, September 1st, 1879” (1879)