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 A Summary of the History of 
 
 San Francisco Theological 
 
 Seminary 
 
 Reverend Edward Arthur Wither, D. D. 
 T^pbert Dollar Professor of New Testament Interpretation 
 
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Fifty Years of the San Francisco 
 Theological Seminary 
 
 By the REVEREND PROFESSOR EDWARD ARTHUR WICHER, D. D. 
 
 m i£'IFTY years of the history of the seminary! Who can estimate 
 Jl* either its ultimate or its present significance? Upon the 
 Pacific Coast, where all our institutions are new, any school 
 of learning which has attained an age of fifty years is venerable. 
 How many societies, and lodges, and chambers of commerce, and 
 gold mines, and industrial enterprises have been started, and finished, 
 within that period! Indeed how many institutions of higher learn- 
 ing have been auspiciously inaugurated, and disastrously concluded, 
 in this time! And our seminary is still alive, having endured all the 
 frosts and seasons of drought which threaten the existence of young 
 plants, and has now reached the vigorous health of the well-grown 
 tree, which rejoices in its strength, and enlarges its girth from year 
 to year, and tosses its exuberant branches in the light of the sun. 
 
 And yet, that we may frame in our subject within its due limits, 
 it must be remarked that fifty years is a very brief portion of the life 
 of a seminary such as ours. I have no doubt but that, if the world 
 lasts, our seminary will grow to be as old as the oldest of the colleges 
 of Oxford or Cambridge. Thus the fifty years it has now attained 
 is only its early youth. And one does not expect that youth will be 
 productive of large and positive achievements. One is content if it 
 be a period of normal growth into sturdy manhood. 
 
 4G3320 
 
Two 
 
 ■ 
 
 Let it be frankly stated that we do not look upon the past ac- 
 complishments of our seminary as the perfect work of adult strength, 
 but as the healthy development of youth into a new period of pro- 
 ductive power. In other words, the seminary has a right to demand 
 that it be estimated primarily not by its past achievement, but by its 
 present vitality and its promise for the future. And yet, even that 
 achievement, considered in and for itself, is not insignificant, as we 
 shall hope to show. Through all these fifty years there has gone 
 forth from the seminary into the community of the states of the 
 Pacific Coast a steady influence of strong, clear thinking upon re- 
 ligious themes, and of steadfast devotion to Christian ideals. 
 
 The history of the seminary divides itself naturally into three 
 periods; the first extending from the date of the adoption by the 
 Synod of the Pacific, in 1871, of a plan for the foundation of a 
 seminary, down to the end of 1880, during which time all the pro- 
 fessors were busy pastors, carrying on the work of heavy parishes 
 and giving of their time gratuitously to the needs of the newly 
 founded school of the prophets; the second period extending from 
 the receipt of the first endowment, that of the Stuart Chair, down to 
 the opening of the present seminary buildings in San Anselmo, in 
 1892; the third period extending from the last named date to the 
 present. Each of these periods has its own tale of vicissitudes and 
 hardships, of hopes raised only to be dashed again, of other hopes 
 brought to a glorious fruition, of steady patience in defeat, and of 
 courage that finally triumphed over all difficulties. We will pass in 
 review the chief events and personages in each of these three periods, 
 dwelling at greatest length upon the earliest. It is fitting that at this 
 time we should pay our highest honors to our faithful and heroic 
 dead, the pioneers of our church upon this western shore, the found- 
 ers of the institution within whose walls we find our shelter and 
 opportunity today. The noblest part of our inheritance is our 
 knowledge of their devotion to a hope which, in their lifetime, seemed 
 almost impossible of attainment. 
 
It was on October 3, 1871, that the Synod of the Pacific, of the P J? 
 Presbyterian Church in the United States, holding its session in the 
 First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, received the following memor- 
 ial signed by several of its members: 
 
 "Fathers and Brethren: Inasmuch as the Lord has called us 
 to the office and work of the Ministry, and committed to our charge 
 important trusts touching the interests of His Kingdom on this coast; 
 and as nothing can have a more direct bearing on the interests of that 
 Kingdom than the raising up of a qualified ministry; and as, in the 
 providence of God, the time seems to have come for entering on that 
 great work, your memorialists, under a deep sense of their own in- 
 sufficiency, and with entire confidence in the wisdom of the Synod 
 under the good hand of God upon us, would respectfully ask the 
 Synod to appoint a committee, at as early a period as possible, to 
 consider and report to the Synod, during its present session, a plan 
 for the organization of a Theological Seminary, such as the present 
 wants and future interests of this coast demand. And your memor- 
 ialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray." This memorial was signed 
 by the following ministers : W. Alexander, T. M. Cunningham, W. 
 A. Scott, H. P. Coon, A. Hemme, S. Woodbridge, Geo. Burrowes. 
 
 It came as the climax of some years of informal discussion, 
 desultory in the early stages, but gradually shaped into more definite 
 form during the weeks that preceded the meeting of Synod. If we 
 would rightly grasp the significance of this resolution we would have 
 to go back to the beginnings of the Presbyterian Church in northern 
 California. It is said that when Dr. Scott, in 1854, first sailed in at 
 the Golden Gate, and looked at the heights of land which rose around 
 him, he resolved within himself that some day he would see a school 
 for the training of a coast ministry planted somewhere upon those 
 heights. This ideal he never lost. Amid the thronging duties of 
 his unique position as the pastor of a great city church which was 
 located in a new, western community, he still held steadily to his 
 original aim, and from time to time brought it to the attention of his 
 brethren in the church. During the period of reconstruction that 
 came after the Civil War he found an associate of kindred aspiration 
 
p pfJ r in the Reverend William Alexander, D. D., who, in 1869, after a 
 
 large experience in educational work in Wisconsin, had come to the 
 pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church of San Jose. Other min- 
 isters of the church shared their view. Thus in 1 869 there was held 
 in San Jose a called meeting of the Synod to discuss the subject of 
 the founding of a seminary. Dr. Burrowes then announced his in- 
 tention of presenting his library, which was an excellent one, "to 
 such an institution, whenever it should be established." But this 
 was a community where all things had to be built from the founda- 
 tions and where the burdens lay heavily upon the shoulders of a few 
 faithful workers, and it was necessary that two years more should 
 be allowed to pass before the idea finally crystallized into action. 
 
 Dr. Alexander was at this time thirty-nine years of age, the 
 youngest of the group of founders, and none too patient with people 
 who were too slow. In consultation with Dr. Scott he drew up a 
 plan for the organization of a seminary, modeling it largely after 
 that of Princeton Seminary, which was his own, and this plan he 
 carried in his pocket to the Synod of 1871. In the meantime, at 
 the September meeting of the Presbytery of San Francisco, Dr. Scott 
 had made a presentation of the matter, whereupon the presbytery had 
 memoralized the Synod to take such immediate action as might be 
 possible. Thus these two memorials and all the influences that were 
 behind them were concentrated in the Synod of 1871. Dr. Scott 
 first presented the report of the Committee on Education, in which 
 he urged the immediate need of the establishment of a seminary. 
 Then the memorials were read. Then the memorials were referred 
 to a special committee, appointed by the moderator, and consisting 
 of one member from each of the four existing presbyteries, with Dr. 
 Scott as chairman. Momentarily, however, the scheme seemed to 
 be in peril; for Dr. Alexander, either because he was so young a man, 
 or so new a man, was not placed upon the committee. And he had 
 the plan for the organization of the seminary in his pocket! But 
 the embarrassment was shortly smoothed out by adding the names 
 of Dr. Alexander and two elders to the membership of the com- 
 mittee. The committee immediately retired from the floor of Synod, 
 Dr. Alexander laid his plan before his associates, who at once adopted 
 it, and within half an hour reported it back to the Synod for action. 
 
The reading of the account of the subsequent discussion in the ftS* 
 Synod is extremely interesting as throwing light upon the condition 
 of the church at the time. The immediate establishment of a theo- 
 logical seminary was opposed by some members on the grounds, 
 first, that there were no adequate facilities at that time in northern 
 California for the preparation of young men in arts and letters with 
 a view to the study of theology; second, that there were no students 
 for the ministry in this territory; third, that there were no buildings, 
 nor endowments, nor equipment, for the barest beginnings of a 
 theological seminary. These were indeed serious considerations 
 which should have caused prudent men to draw back. But men 
 who engage in pioneer work are never overprudent; and the pro- 
 moters of the idea of a seminary were men not to be daunted. To 
 the first objection they answered that there were already two insti- 
 tutions of college rank in northern California, the City College on 
 Union Square in San Francisco, and the University Mound College 
 just outside of the city. There were also four academies in the state 
 under the control of ministers of the Presbyterian Church. To the 
 second objection it was answered that in point of fact there were 
 already known to be six young men within the bounds of the Synod 
 who were intending to enter the ministry. And to the third objec- 
 tion it was urged that the way to raise money, equipment and build- 
 ings, was to begin to do the work of a seminary. And, as Dr. Alex- 
 ander put it, if they were to wait twenty years before beginning, 
 there would still be found men to say that the action was premature. 
 The good doctor was right. And it is well that the world is not 
 generally governed by men who are afraid to take action lest it may 
 turn out to have been premature. In the end the Synod adopted the 
 report of the committee unanimously, elected a Board of Directors, 
 and, all of it on paper, established a seminary. The men who thus 
 launched it committed themselves, without resources, to a vast under- 
 taking. But they were men of courage and vision, and such men 
 cannot finally fail. For most of the familiar history of that time 
 contained in this brief sketch, I am indebted to Dr. Alexander, who 
 was still alive and actively engaged in his professorial duties when I 
 entered the faculty in 1905. 
 
J2f* The first Board of Directors held their first meeting in a room 
 
 of the old City College, on November 7, 1871 . Dr. Scott was elected 
 President, and Mr. R. J. Trumbull, an elder of San Rafael, was 
 elected Secretary. There was no treasurer. The first act of the Board, 
 after it was constituted, was to take up a collection to buy a book in 
 which to keep the minutes. But the Board was still undaunted, and 
 went right on with everything that seemed necessary for the erection 
 of a fully organized seminary. It elected a full faculty of Professors. 
 Dr. Scott was elected to the Chair of Logic and Systematic Theology ; 
 Dr. Daniel Warren Poor, then pastor of First Church, Oakland, was 
 elected to the Chair of Church History and Church Government ; and 
 Dr. Alexander, who had now become President of the City College, 
 was elected to the Chair of Hellenistic Greek and New Testament 
 Exegesis. The election of a professor of Hebrew Language and 
 Exegesis was deferred to the second meeting of the Board, which 
 was held in December, when Dr. Burrowes was chosen. It is doubt- 
 ful whether any theological seminary that has been started in this 
 country has begun its work with a stronger or more effective faculty. 
 Each of the professors appointed was a gentleman and a scholar of 
 high rank, who had already attained recognition throughout the 
 church. 
 
 And while we are now speaking of the men who constituted the 
 first inner group of leaders of the seminary, it seems to be a fitting 
 place in which to introduce some characterization of them and their 
 work. 
 
 The greatest of our founders, and the one to whom through 
 the extended history of fifty years we owe the most, is unquestion- 
 ably the Reverend William Anderson Scott, D. D., who was the first 
 to think of and plan for the seminary, the first President of the Board 
 of Directors, the first professor elected, the first President of the 
 Faculty, the first trustee, the first to occupy an endowed chair. Our 
 subsequent history will scarcely be comprehensible unless we linger 
 for a little time over the records of his life, and endeavor to enter 
 into something of the significance of this high-souled personality. 
 
He was a typical son of the south, born at Bedford County, 
 Tennessee, on January 31, 1813. Like so many of the other illus- 
 trious makers of our seminary history, he had behind him the gen- 
 erations of a Scotch-Irish conscience. When fifteen years of age he 
 became a communicant member of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church. A few months later in the same year he was received under 
 the care of the Hopewell Presbytery. When seventeen he was li- 
 censed to preach. And at the same age he became a chaplain in the 
 Black Hawk War, and later wrote out the treaty of peace which was 
 signed by Black Hawk and brought the war to a close. One of the 
 most daring stories of adventure of which I have ever heard was his 
 voyage in a canoe down six hundred miles of the Mississippi River, 
 between camps of hostile savages, who held both banks, without 
 opportunity of cooking food, and with no escort other than that of 
 a single Indian boy. Such was the temper of this young man who 
 began his ministry as an evangelist in the wilds of the state of Ten- 
 nessee. His was a faith that from the very beginning glowed with 
 the enthusiasm of love. At twenty years of age he was graduated 
 from Cumberland College, Kentucky, and one year later, in 1834, 
 he completed his theological studies at Princeton Theological Sem- 
 inary. On May 17, 1835, he was ordained by the presbytery of 
 Louisiana, and during the three following years engaged in Home 
 Mission work. Then he became the pastor of the Hermitage Church 
 on the estate of General Andrew Jackson, near Nashville, where in 
 the days of retirement of the great general and president he enjoyed 
 his intimate confidence. During the years 1 840-3 he was pastor of 
 the church at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and from 1843 to 1854 pastor 
 of the First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans. 
 
 With the excitement of the gold rush in 1849, the admission of 
 the State of California into the Union in 1850, and the rise of the 
 City of San Francisco into a place of commanding importance, there 
 was a manifest need of one of the strongest leaders of the church in 
 this strategic position to give coherence and power to the Christian 
 forces that were emerging in the community and to introduce the 
 leaven of spiritual beauty into a life where materialism and the 
 dreams of gold threatened to exclude every high aspiration. Dr. 
 
p £f g e ht Scott was called to carry this heavy responsibility. He became the 
 
 pastor of Calvary Church, which was organized on July 24, 1 854, 
 with sixty-three members, and which under his ministry speedily 
 grew to be a great church. It was located at the very center of the 
 wild, turbulent life of the new city, on Bush Street, between Mont- 
 gomery and Sansome Streets. Here for seven years, during the 
 most formative period of the growth of the city, Dr. Scott's rich voice 
 rang out as a clarion call in rebuke of sin and in confession of God. 
 
 When the Civil War came and rent the nation into two con- 
 flicting camps, bringing dissension into the most intimate relations of 
 human life, Dr. Scott, as a native of the south, sympathized with the 
 southern side in the struggle. And thus he found himself opposed 
 by some of the very men with whom he had wrought in previous 
 years. The Civil War is long past now, and north and south have 
 fought upon the same side since then. Americans can now forget, 
 and they ought to forget, the enmities of those old days. North and 
 south together can now listen while a patriot speaks. The words 
 which I am about to quote are Dr. Scott's, written on the margin of 
 one of his books, when his thought had been kindled by the thought 
 of the author whom he was reading: "First let me live for my God; 
 next, for my country; then, for my famliy; and, last of all, for my 
 weak, unworthy self." 
 
 With the period of his brief British ministry and his subsequent 
 New York ministry we are not here concerned. Suffice to say that 
 Dr. Scott never got away from his affection for California and that 
 he returned to San Francisco in 1870 to found St. John's Church, of 
 which he continued to be pastor until his death in 1885. 
 
 We must content ourselves with merely chronicling some of his 
 noteworthy successes achieved in other fields, which were of aston- 
 ishing variety. For three years, in New Orleans, he was editor of 
 "The Presbyterian," and, in San Francisco, he founded and for four 
 years edited "The Pacific Expositor." He was the author of eleven 
 published books, which had a wide circulation throughout the 
 country. He took a leading part in the founding of both the City 
 College and the University Mound College, which gave at least a 
 
flavor of higher learning to the rather unruly life of the first genera- JJ5£ 
 tion of San Francisco. In days when travel really meant strenuous 
 labor he visited the countries of Europe on one tour, and upon 
 another the lands of Egypt, Arabia and Palestine. He was the friend 
 of Agassiz, and made suggestions for the advancement of scientific 
 knowledge. He was a great ecclesiastical leader, and when the Gen- 
 eral Assembly met in his former home in New Orleans, in 1858, he 
 was elected Moderator. 
 
 This mere recital of facts would be incomplete without some 
 further characterization of the personality of the man. I believe that 
 the secret of his life was laid bare in that one swift note upon the 
 margin of his book, to which I have already referred. In personal 
 appearance he was tall of stature and dignified in his bearing. With 
 his dignity there was blended gentleness and geniality. We are told 
 that he was a very approachable man. He used to call his students 
 his "boys," and this too in days when most professors were afraid of 
 such unbending. When he preached his eyes glowed and his face 
 shone with his joy in the truth of Jesus. Such is the description of 
 the chief founder of the seminary as I have gained it from the papers 
 of his former pupils and parishioners and from the conversation of 
 a few of them. He labored, and we have entered into his labors. 
 
 There were dark days that followed the launching of the sem- 
 inary, days of deferred hope that made sick the hearts of some of its 
 friends. But Dr. Scott never lost faith in the venture. He believed 
 that some day this seminary would be great, and he died in this 
 confidence. 
 
 Next in importance among the founders we must reckon Dr. 
 Alexander, who was Dr. Scott's junior by eighteen years, and who 
 possessed an enthusiasm and initiative which were invaluable quali- 
 ties in the days of small things. At first he combined the presidency 
 of the City College with the Chair of New Testament Exegesis, ob- 
 taining his support from the former position. He loved the sem- 
 inary, and although through long years there were no funds available 
 for his remuneration, he still held steadfastly to his place of service. 
 In the Presbyterian Encyclopedia which was published in 1888 it is 
 
fgf said of him: "He is justly regarded as one of the ablest men in the 
 
 Presbyterian Church, and for accurate and profound scholarship oc- 
 cupies the highest rank upon the Pacific Coast." This is doubtless 
 a fair summary of contemporary opinion. Dr. Alexander died in 
 1906, having served the seminary continuously for thirty-five years. 
 And during most of this time he was a soldier campaigning at his 
 own charges. 
 
 Dr. Daniel Warren Poor was the third gentleman to be elected 
 to the first faculty. He was born, as the son of a missionary, in 
 Tillipally, Ceylon, in 1818, was graduated from Amherst College in 
 1837, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1840. For the 
 first six years of his ministry he was a Congregationalist, for forty- 
 four years a Presbyterian. Of these years he spent twenty as pastor 
 of the High Street Church of Newark, New Jersey, during which time 
 he had an important part in the promotion of the German Churches 
 of the Newark Presbytery, and the organization of the Bloomfield 
 Theological Seminary. He became one of the editors of the English 
 edition of Lange's Commentary. In 1 869 he was called to the First 
 Church of Oakland and in 1871 was elected Professor of Church 
 History in the seminary. He too supported himself in the professor's 
 chair by doing the work of a pastor. His connection with the sem- 
 inary terminated in 1876, when he was called to be Corresponding 
 Secretary of the Board of Education, and removed to Philadelphia. 
 
 The fourth member of the original group of professors was the 
 Reverend George Burrowes, D. D., who was born near Trenton, 
 New Jersey, in 1811, was graduated from Princeton College in 1 832, 
 and from Princeton Seminary in 1835. After a pastorate in Mary- 
 land, and a professorship in Lafayette College, and another pastorate 
 in Pennsylvania, he was sent out by the Board of Education of the 
 Old School branch of the Church to inaugurate some educational 
 work in California. With the co-operation of Dr. Scott he organized 
 the City College, which occupied a site at the southeast corner of 
 Stockton and Geary Streets. The early progress of the new college 
 was remarkable, but at the end of six years of labor the health of Dr. 
 Burrowes broke under the strain, and he had to return to the east to 
 
recuperate. He remained in the east three years, and while there 9SSm 
 temporarily resumed a professorship in Lafayette College. When, 
 in 1 869, he came back to San Francisco, he found that the University 
 Mound College had in the interval of these years risen to strength. 
 Dr. Burrowes was offered the presidency of this new college, which 
 he accepted. Then in 1871 he became professor of Hebrew 
 Language and Literature in the seminary. Dr. Burrowes was a man 
 of the finest culture, a scholar and a Christian gentleman. His col- 
 lection of Greek and Latin literature is still one of the glories of our 
 seminary library. He published three volumes and was a frequent 
 contributor of prose and poetry to periodical literature. He had the 
 precision of the scientist combined with the reverence of the mystic. 
 Altogether, as he ripened and mellowed, he was one of the rarest 
 and most beautiful characters which have blessed the ministry of the 
 coast. 
 
 What makes a great theological seminary? Certainly it is not 
 in the first instance endowments, or buildings, or equipment. It is 
 men — the men who teach and the men who learn. Estimated in the 
 terms of the power of its faculty, San Francisco Theological Seminary 
 was born great. 
 
 But except for its professors it was poor in everything. Its 
 classes met in two rooms of the City College, provided by Dr. 
 Alexander, and in rooms in the old St. John's Church, on Post Street, 
 near Mason, which had been fitted up by Dr. Scott. It had no 
 money. Its library was the library of Dr. Burrowes, which, in ac- 
 cordance with his promise, he now donated to the institution. Sub- 
 sequently the library of Dr. Scott also was given. 
 
 Thus the seminary was launched; and it continued to operate 
 without much change for the first five years. As there was no 
 financial basis for the work one of the earliest efforts was to secure 
 funds. Twice was a financial agent appointed to do this work, but 
 the commercial depression of 1873 made these attempts largely 
 nugatory. 
 
 The first break in the original faculty came in 1876 with the 
 removal of Dr. Poor. Then the Reverend James Eells, D. D., pastor 
 
Twetve oi the First Church of Oakland, was called to be his successor. But 
 
 Dr. Eells made as the condition of his acceptance such a redistribu- 
 tion of the chairs as would permit him to teach the subjects of Apolo- 
 getics and Pastoral Theology. Dr. Alexander was then transferred 
 to the Chair of Church History, and Dr. Burrowes was given the 
 double department of Old and New Testaments. Such was the 
 situation at the beginning of the sixth year of the history of the 
 seminary. 
 
 As Dr. Eells now comes before us for the first time, and as he 
 was an important factor in the early development of our seminary, 
 we should pause for a moment over his name. We could not per- 
 haps characterize him more accurately than in the words of his col- 
 league, Dr. Alexander, spoken on the occasion of the twenty-fifth 
 anniversary of the seminary, when he said: "Dr. Eells was a model 
 professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral Theology. His bearing 
 and his influence upon the students were very fine > and his character 
 and standing in the church at large made him a valuable accession to 
 any seminary." He adds: "He never lost interest in this seminary." 
 
 In the long roll of the men of light and leading with which the 
 church on the Pacific Coast has been gifted the name of Dr. Eells 
 holds one of the highest places. He was a great preacher, full of 
 grace and strength. In 1877 he attained the highest honor of our 
 church in being made the Moderator of the General Assembly. Un- 
 happily for our seminary, after a three years* tenure of his chair Dr. 
 Eells resigned to accept a similar chair in Lane Theological Seminary. 
 To anticipate somewhat, we are told that even at the time of his 
 death in 1 886 he was planning to return to the coast to engage in a 
 financial campaign in behalf of our seminary. First and last he has 
 left upon the pages of the records of his generation the impression 
 of a man of singular attractiveness, combining in his personality a 
 fearless devotion to duty with the grace of winsomeness. 
 
 In the meanwhile, from various quarters, the institution had 
 received by the close of 1876 funds amounting to the sum of 
 $20,000. The first $5,000 came from the First Church of Oakland 
 and the balance chiefly as the result of representations made in the 
 
east by Dr. Eells. The trustees had begun their work with the clear flS*m 
 understanding that under no circumstances would they go into debt, 
 with all its hampering inconveniences. For the adoption of this 
 sound policy the seminary body was especially indebted to Dr. Scott. 
 
 But the need of a settled habitation where class-rooms, library 
 and living quarters could all he brought together had now become 
 increasingly manifest, and in 1877 the Trustees purchased a lot at 
 121 Haight Street, and erected a building there. This building was 
 afterwards sold to the Foreign Mission Board for use as a Japanese 
 Mission; and when the Japanese center shifted to another part of 
 the city, it was sold by the Foreign Mission Board to the Young 
 Men's Hebrew Association, by which it is used today. The special 
 address upon the occasion of the opening of the new building was 
 given by the Honorable Henry Huntley Haight, ex-governor of the 
 State of California, a ruling elder and a member of the Board of 
 Directors, who was a splendid example of the Christian layman. The 
 year after the building was opened he passed to his eternal reward. 
 
 The limits of our space do not permit us to dwell upon personal 
 details of any of the other devoted men who first made the seminary 
 possible, and then made it great. In any case there is an unwritten 
 law that concerning the living we cannot speak so freely as concern- 
 ing the dead. 
 
 After the departure of Dr. Eells the Reverend John Hemphill, 
 then the young pastor of Calvary Church, was appointed to take his 
 place, which place he continued to fill until his removal to Philadel- 
 phia in 1882. At a later period Dr. Hemphill again give his services 
 gratuitously to one of the seminary chairs, and for this generosity has 
 earned an honorable place in our memory. 
 
 The first endowment was given by Mr. R. L. Stuart, of New 
 York, in 1880, and, in the following year, increased to the sum of 
 $50,000, which was used for the foundation of the Chair of Syste- 
 matic Theology. Dr. Scott, as was his due, was elected the first 
 incumbent. But he did not take the total income to himself, as he 
 would have been justified in doing, but divided it with his colleagues, 
 so that henceforth each of them received some three or four hundred 
 dollars a year for his services. 
 
F^neen At the seminary Commencement in April, 1881, there was 
 
 started a custom which has continued ever since of having a repre- 
 sentative of the Alumni Association make an address. The first to 
 give this address was the Reverend James Curry, D. D., who is still 
 with us to cheer us. I cannot do better at this time than quote from 
 his own summary of his address, in which he reviewed the progress 
 of the first decade. "A lot and suitable building had been secured 
 for the work of the Seminary, one chair had been endowed, and 
 property in all valued at $106,000 had been secured, from which an 
 annual income of $3,000 was obtained. A library of 4,100 volumes, 
 valued at $10,000, had been secured, while twenty-four students had 
 graduated and six others had entered the ministry without graduat- 
 ing. These thirty had gone to preach the gospel not only on the 
 Pacific Coast, but also in the eastern states, the islands of the sea, 
 and in Europe." 
 
 For the second and third periods of our history we can touch 
 only the high places. 
 
 The chief characteristic of the second period, which extends 
 from 1881 to 1892, was the steady accession of new friends who 
 brought with them to the upbuilding of the institution new capacities 
 and new endowments. During this period some of the early pro- 
 fessors laid down their labors, and new professors took them up. 
 
 The first death in the faculty was that of Dr. Scott, who passed 
 from earth on January 14, 1885, believing to the end in the necessity 
 and worth of the seminary and its rising influence. Dr. Scott came 
 close to a time of great expansion, but he did not live to see it. In 
 1885 the Ladd Chair of Practical Theology was endowed by Mr. 
 William S. Ladd, of Portland, Oregon, one of the pioneers of his 
 state, a man of immense force of leadership, and a Presbyterian elder. 
 In 1 886, in order to meet the conditions of the gift of Mr. Ladd, the 
 California Chair of Church History was endowed by a concerted 
 movement among the churches of this state. Up to this time there 
 had been no installation of professors because there had been no 
 chairs with endowments into which to install them. But henceforth 
 
professors were regularly installed in office. Owing to the shortness lytetn 
 of our time we can do little more than name the new professors who 
 served the seminary during this period. 
 
 The first incumbent of the Ladd Chair was the Reverend Aaron 
 Ladner Lindsley, D. D., L. L. D., who had been beloved pastor of 
 the First Presbyterian Church of Portland for eighteen years. Dr. 
 Lindsley was a great founder of churches, and it was largely due to 
 his farsightedness and energetic leadership that during his pastorate 
 in Portland the presbytery of fourteen ministers to which he had 
 come had developed into a Synod of fifty-two ministers. He was a 
 founder of Alaskan missions, for which he paid out of his own salary. 
 Indeed, he touched the whole life of the northwest at many points. 
 He entered upon his duties in the seminary in 1886 and, while on a 
 visit to his old home in Portland, died in the summer of 1 89 1 . 
 
 The Reverend Thomas Fraser, D. D., was born in Scotland and 
 graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary. He came to Cal- 
 ifornia in 1859 and did valiant duty in the Home Mission field of 
 California for twenty-eight years, when he was elected to the Chair 
 of Systematic Theology in the seminary. He served the seminary 
 for five years and then retired from the professorship to do evan- 
 gelistic work. Dr. Fraser has the distinction of having founded 
 more Presbyterian churches, or, for that matter, more Protestant 
 churches, than any other man in the history of this coast. As far as 
 the records show, he established one hundred and twelve new 
 churches. 
 
 The Reverend Robert Mackenzie, D. D., L. L. D., became a pro- 
 fessor in the seminary in 1889, upon the foundation of the Mont- 
 gomery Chair, of which we shall speak later. He was one of the 
 most famous of the preachers and ecclesiastical leaders of the whole 
 history of the coast. He had a rare gift of persuasive eloquence and 
 a wide influence in the city of San Francisco among men who were 
 not generally identified with churches. In the First Presbyterian 
 Church, of which he was pastor, he gathered about him a great con- 
 gregation. Among those who were attracted to his ministry was 
 Mr. Alexander Montgomery, who subsequently became the chief 
 
sifuen benefactor of the seminary. Upon Mr. Montgomery's nomination 
 
 Dr. Mackenzie was elected the first incumbent of the Montgomery 
 Chair of Apologetics and Missions. Dr. Mackenzie removed to 
 New York in 1901 to become the pastor of Rutgers Church. He 
 returned to the seminary as president in 1 909, but after a few months 
 of occupancy of the office resigned to accept the secretaryship of the 
 Board of Colleges. 
 
 The Reverend Thomas Franklin Day, D. D., was elected in 1891 
 as assistant and successor to Dr. Burrowes in the Chair of Greek and 
 Hebrew Exegesis. Previous to his election he had been a missionary 
 in Utah, where for ten years he was a leader in the struggle against 
 Mormonism. With the separation of the chairs of Greek and 
 Hebrew Exegesis in 1896, Dr. Day chose the Old Testament depart- 
 ment as his particular field, and in this he continued until 1911, 
 when he retired from the active work of teaching. Dr. Day is still 
 with us, so that concerning him, as well as others whose names we 
 mention, we cannot speak as freely as we otherwise might. But in 
 view of his long service to our seminary, in fair days and dark, it is 
 fitting that we should here pay a modest tribute to his worth. He 
 has left behind him a tradition of the fearless pursuit of truth, and of 
 pure enthusiasm for high ideals. 
 
 The Reverend Henry Colin Minton, D. D., L. L. D., succeeded 
 Dr. Fraser in the Chair of Systematic Theology in 1892, and im- 
 mediately became recognized as one of the most brilliant professors 
 of the entire church. He was honored by his brethren by being 
 elected to almost every office that lay within the gift of the Church. 
 In 1901 he became the Moderator of the General Assembly. Shortly 
 after this event he resigned from his chair to accept the pastorate of 
 First Church of Trenton, New Jersey. He was another of the giants 
 who have attained their full stature in the service of this seminary. 
 He too is spending the evening of his days in the circle of old friends 
 around the Bay of San Francisco. 
 
 Mr. Charles Gurdon Buck is the one lay member of our faculty. 
 While he has not held a chair, he has held an endowed instructorship 
 in Vocal Culture and Sacred Music. As he was elected in 1890 he 
 
is now rounding out a period of thirty-one years of consecutive sSSmum 
 service of our seminary. His has been the task of teaching our 
 young men to speak out, fearless and undismayed, so that even the 
 deaf may hear their voices. The importance of this training for the 
 work of preaching is so great and so obvious that I do not need to 
 touch up this point further. 
 
 It had always been recognized by the members of the seminary 
 body that the location and building on Haight Street could be only a 
 temporary home. And now the question of a permanent location 
 thrust itself upon the attention of the Board of Directors. Various 
 possible locations in the city and elsewhere were discussed, and 
 finally the judgment of the Directors was determined by the offer of 
 Mr. Arthur W. Foster, of San Rafael, of the site upon which the 
 seminary now stands. This was in 1 89 1 . 
 
 In the meantime, partly through the influence of Dr. Mackenzie, 
 and partly through that of Mr. Foster, the attention of Mr. Mont- 
 gomery was directed to the seminary as a place where a Christian 
 capitalist, who desired to get the largest possible returns on his in- 
 vestment, might with advantage employ a large amount of money. 
 Mr. Montgomery soon afterwards became our benefactor to the sum 
 of $250,000, of which part was expended upon the buildings now 
 standing on the top of the mound, part for the endowment of the 
 Montgomery Chair of Apologetics and Missions, another part for 
 the endowment of the Gray Chair of Hebrew Exegesis and Old 
 Testament Literature, and the remainder upon houses for the pro- 
 fessors and other needs. Later he gave money for the erection of 
 the Montgomery Memorial Chapel at the foot of the hill, where his 
 earthly remains lie buried. It was Mr. Montgomery's desire, in 
 bestowing his gifts, to leave behind him a foundation which would 
 endure to the glory of God and the uplift of men as long as the 
 State of California should continue in being. And who can say that 
 he chose amiss? In these beautiful buildings which rise on their 
 own eminence in the midst of the great hills he has left an instru- 
 ment for the propagation of his faith and the multiplying of his con- 
 victions unto the end of the world. 
 
Eighteen Of Mr. Foster, who was so closely associated with both Dr. 
 
 Scott and Mr. Montgomery, we cannot now speak particularly. He 
 is still with us, in the fullness of his vigor. Suffice to say that he 
 was first the parishioner and friend, and afterwards the son-in-law of 
 Dr. Scott, sharing his vision of this place; and he was the intimate 
 confident of Mr. Montgomery. And thus the succession has con- 
 tinued. 
 
 Another name of distinction in this period was that of the 
 Reverend Arthur Crosby, D. D., of San Rafael, who was active in 
 the raising of endowment in the east. Altogether he raised some 
 $44,000, of which $30,000 was set apart by the Directors in 1890 
 for the endowment of the Severin Instructorship in Sacred Music 
 and Vocal Culture. 
 
 Thus closes the second decade, and the second period, of our 
 history. 
 
 The third period covers almost the whole of the past three de- 
 cades, and it must be briefly told. It begins with the dedication of 
 the new seminary buildings in San Anselmo, on September 21,1 892, 
 and reaches down to the present time. 
 
 The first part of this period was largely taken up with the prob- 
 lems of readjustment which were projected by the comparatively large 
 increase in the resources of the seminary. It is small wonder that 
 some mistakes were made. For the whole task was new, and, in this 
 western world, without precedents which might offer guidance. 
 What were the relations of professors one to another, and to the 
 church at large? Should a professor be permitted to be a pastor 
 also? What were the functions of faculty? Could the work of the 
 institution best be conducted with, or without, a president? What 
 were the relations of the seminary to the Synod of California? And 
 to the General Assembly? Most of these questions have been thor- 
 oughly answered by this time, but they demanded a good deal of 
 discussion before there was anything like unanimity in the answers. 
 
 The members of the seminary being once settled in their new 
 buildings there was a quiet and almost unvarying routine for the 
 following ten years. The number of students in attendance was 
 generally about twenty-five. 
 
We have already referred to the death of Dr. Lindsley, which /&t«n 
 occurred in 1 89 1 . The following year the Board of Directors chose 
 as his successor in the Ladd Chair the Reverend Warren Hall Landon, 
 
 D. D., who is now the President of the Seminary. Dr. Landon has 
 thus given to the institution twenty-nine years of service, eighteen 
 as professor, and eleven as president. His has been a constantly 
 irenical influence, smoothing the rough places of the new road and 
 bringing its discords into harmony. 
 
 Another new professor who entered the seminary during this 
 period was the Reverend John Henry Kerr, D. D., who in 1895 was 
 called to the Chair of Greek Exegesis and New Testament Literature, 
 and who rendered service of the finest quality for the space of seven 
 years, when he was called to New York to become secretary of the 
 American Tract Society. Dr. Kerr's incumbency was during a time 
 of reaction in financial matters, when some of the investments of 
 seminary funds became non-productive, and the financial depression 
 of 1 900 held the country in its grip. All the chairs of the seminary 
 suffered in some degree, but Dr. Kerr's chair lost its entire support. 
 During the last year of his work in San Anselmo he supported him- 
 self by acting as pastor of Trinity Church, San Francisco. 
 
 In many respects the year 1 902 marks the lowest ebb of depres- 
 sion in our history. Professors Mackenzie, Minton and Kerr were 
 all gone. Professors Alexander and Day received only half of their 
 normal salaries. A large part of the endowments ceased to yield 
 any income. The students who should have constituted the senior 
 class of 1903, being fearful that there would be no adequate instruc- 
 tion, left the institution to take their final year in Princeton Seminary. 
 One sole student was left in the class of this year, the Reverend Alvin 
 
 E. Magary, Ph.D., D. D., now of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His subse- 
 quent career of distinction shows that his loyalty to a desperate cause 
 was no error. But in this hour of disheartenment it was time for 
 things to begin to amend. 
 
 Dr. Mackenzie in going east still retained his incumbency of 
 the Montgomery Chair, whereby he was able to make over the in- 
 come of this chair to relieve the necessities elsewhere, his work being 
 
P Twenty distributed among the other professors. At this time Mr. Charles 
 
 A. Laton was appointed Business Manager of the Seminary, a posi- 
 tion which he is still filling with great efficiency. And therefore it 
 is impossible for us to say much concerning him. But we may state 
 that he, together with our splendid Finance Committee, has been 
 able, little by little, to withdraw the funds from many of the non- 
 productive investments and turn them into others which sustain our 
 work. The services of Mr. Laton have been of the highest value 
 to us. 
 
 One of the most signal of these services was the establishment 
 of the General Fund, which takes care of the maintenance of our 
 buildings and of all charges which lie outside of any of the specified 
 endowments. We must now revert for a moment to an earlier gift 
 to which we have made no reference as yet, the bequest of Mr. J. D. 
 Thompson of a lot and business building on California Street, which 
 was sold by Mr. Laton in 1904 for more than $145,000. The 
 amount of this sale was henceforth set aside as a General Fund and 
 has since been used to cover unforeseen and unusual expenses of 
 the most varied kind. 
 
 We must now return to the emergency of the depleted faculty. 
 Evidently unless the seminary were to close its doors, as some of its 
 friends actually proposed, there were needed new professors. In 
 August, 1902, the Reverend Hugh Watts Gilchrist, D. D., pastor of 
 Westminster Church, Seattle, was elected Instructor in New Testa- 
 ment Greek, and at once entered upon his duties. He remained with 
 the seminary only three years, when other work claimed him, but 
 these years tided the seminary over the most serious difficulties it 
 had encountered since the earliest days of struggle. In October, 
 1903, the Reverend John S. Mcintosh, D. D., was elected to the 
 Stuart Chair, and at once took office. Dr. Mcintosh was a courtly 
 gentleman and a distinguished scholar. Earlier in his ministry he 
 had been the pastor of the May Street Church of Belfast, and after- 
 wards of the Second Church of Philadelphia. Despite his years he 
 threw himself into all the interests of the church upon the coast with 
 the enthusiasm and vigor of a young soldier engaging in his first 
 campaign. He travelled incessantly up and down the coast, preach- 
 
ing and lecturing, visiting synods and colleges, holding interviews /w«/ y ,«, 
 with young men whom he was seeking to influence to enter the min- 
 istry, and with older men whom he was seeking to persuade to ex- 
 tend financial aid. He made friends wherever he went. And for 
 long afterwards the seminary reaped the harvest he had sown. One 
 year after he had joined the faculty he was elected President of the 
 Seminary, which was then a new office and something in the nature 
 of an experiment. Would not the appointment of a President secure 
 a more definite assignment of responsibility for needed action, and 
 a more unified policy of administration? It is sufficient for us to 
 say here that Dr. Mcintosh's presidency was of such a character that 
 no one ever again had the temerity to question whether such an ap- 
 pointment could be otherwise than advantageous. Unhappily for 
 us Dr. Mcintosh died in January, 1906, after he had been with our 
 seminary only three and a half years. But his untiring labors helped 
 mightily to save a dangerous day. 
 
 The third member of faculty drawn in by the emergency of 
 1 903 was the Reverend Charles Gordon Paterson, a recent graduate 
 of the seminary, and a Home Missionary. He entered the faculty 
 as assistant to Dr. Alexander, whose health was failing; and after 
 Dr. Alexander's death in 1 906 he was elected to the California Chair 
 of Church History. Dr. Paterson was strong and true and tender. 
 He made his influence felt in college circles far beyond the limits of 
 his chair. There has never been a leader of student life in this state 
 who has made a deeper impression upon a greater number of young 
 men, or has earned from them a stronger affection. His might have 
 been called a pastoral professorate. He himself always thought that 
 his true place in the ministry was in the pastorate, and thus when a 
 call came to him in 1 9 1 4 to become associate pastor with Dr. Charles 
 R. Gordon, in St. Stephen's Church, Winnipeg, he did not hesitate 
 about his acceptance. Five years after his departure from us he laid 
 aside all earthly work for a place in the service of the land of light. 
 He too wrought bravely in the dark days. 
 
 It was in 1905 that I, then a very young man to be chosen to 
 such a place, entered the faculty of the seminary as professor of New 
 Testament Interpretation, so that for our recent history I speak as a 
 
Twtnty-two participant. It has been my high privilege to know intimately many 
 of the men whom I have named to-night. 
 
 At the time of my arrival the seminary was already emerging 
 from some of the shadows of the previous five years. But the year 
 1906 was another dark year for us. Dr. Mcintosh died in January, 
 the San Francisco earthquake and fire came in April, Dr. Alexander 
 died in June. For a little time we scarcely knew where we were. 
 Nevertheless, without delay, we called a new professor to the work 
 laid down by Dr. Mcintosh. I can remember that in the pressing 
 emergency I was made a member of the committee to interview Dr. 
 Moore, then a pastor in Omaha, to ascertain whether we might pre- 
 sent his name for the vacant chair. Dr. Moore was a brave man, 
 and he came. He was also a far-sighted man who knew that in the 
 position which this seminary occupies it would take more than 
 another earthquake to send it beneath the ground. 
 
 Again the authorities of the seminary, rising with characteristic 
 buoyancy to meet the new disaster, restored the damaged buildings, 
 and reached out for new opportunities of service. The things which 
 could be shaken had been removed, in order that the things which 
 could not be shaken might come to their full greatness. 
 
 The presidency of Dr. Landon began in 1910, and this date 
 marks the beginning of a new constructive era in our history. We 
 had discovered by this time that we needed a new charter, and that 
 for many reasons. Under the old charter we possessed no power to 
 confer degrees or to bestow academic honors. We could not, strictly 
 speaking, elect a president, because the constitution of the seminary 
 knew no such office. The functions of faculty were not clearly de- 
 fined, and our seminary was in an anomalous position among the 
 seminaries of the church in being under the double control of the 
 Synod of California and the General Assembly. The Assembly had 
 earlier passed a resolution requesting all the seminaries to place 
 themselves directly under its authority, and thus ours was the last to 
 come into line. The proposed new plan of the seminary was un- 
 animously adopted by the Synod of California at its meeting in 
 Santa Rosa in 1913, and was shortly afterwards enacted into law by 
 
• , • 
 
 the legislature of the State of California. Henceforth the seminary %?«*./*», 
 was upon the main line, with orders to go full steam ahead. In pass- 
 ing we should note some of the changes of name which were made 
 by the new charter. The word "the" was dropped from the cor- 
 porate title, which now reads "San Francisco Theological Seminary." 
 The "Board of Directors" was now called the "Board of Trustees," 
 and the former "Trustees" now became the "Finance Committee." 
 
 Let us now turn our attention for a moment to the conditions 
 of today. It is a day of new friends, new resources and new op- 
 portunities. 
 
 Prominent among our new friends is Mr. Robert Dollar, the 
 President of our Board of Trustees, and a leader in every good work 
 upon the Pacific Coast. Of him too we cannot speak too freely, 
 because he is one of the very active forces in the life of the present. 
 Happily we do not need to speak, for all men know something of his 
 works. He has endowed two chairs, the Robert Dollar Chair of New 
 Testament Interpretation, and the Margaret Dollar Chair of Christian 
 Sociology. He has also been the constant benefactor of our library 
 for several years. Mr. Dollar, like Mr. Montgomery, has felt that 
 in the seminary there is an opportunity for the sound investment of 
 money. 
 
 Our faculty too contains new men who, when they came to 
 us, were already of tried and proven worth in other fields. In 1903 
 the Reverend William Henry Oxtoby, D. D., was called from the 
 historic Tabernacle Church of Philadelphia to the Gray Chair of 
 Hebrew Exegesis and Old Testament Literature. In 1915 the Rev- 
 erend Remsen DuBois Bird, D. D., was called from the faculty of 
 Princeton Theological Seminary to the California Chair of Church 
 History. In 1920 the Reverend Lynn Townsend White, D. D., was 
 called from the pulpit of First Church, San Rafael, to be the first in- 
 cumbent of the newly founded Margaret Dollar Chair of Christian 
 Sociology, with which also he combines the Librarianship. And in 
 the same year the Reverend Edwin Forrest Hallenbeck, D. D., was 
 
rZintyfour called from the First Church of San Diego to the Ladd Chair of Prac- 
 tical Theology. These names, together with those which have been 
 previously mentioned, complete the list of our permanent faculty 
 of today. 
 
 For longer or shorter periods the seminary has also had the 
 benefits of the services of other able men, notably the Reverend 
 William Martin, M. A., who from 1910 to 1914 occupied the Mont- 
 gomery Chair, and who subsequently held the pastorate of the Yoko- 
 hama Union Church, in which he died in 1920; and the Reverend 
 Hugh Henry Bell, D. D., who occupied the Ladd Chair from 1916 
 to 1919 and is now the esteemed pastor of First Church of Fresno. 
 
 Among the new departures of recent years has been the ad- 
 mission of women to the seminary on equal terms with men. There 
 was manifest need of such an action, because women are now being 
 called to ever enlarging spheres of service both as foreign mission- 
 aries and as parish workers in the homeland. So far the results of 
 this provision have been wholly good. 
 
 The list of foreign missionaries sent forth from the company of 
 our graduates has been remarkable. There are men of our seminary 
 engaged in evangelistic or educational work in every foreign mission 
 field of our church. 
 
 And when we turn back to America we find that our graduates 
 have wrought in every region of the Pacific Coast from the farthest 
 point northward in Alaska to the most southerly outposts of Cal- 
 ifornia; and they are scattered eastward over the continent. They 
 have ministered to miners, fishermen and cowboys, to Indians and 
 Eskimos. They have preached in beautiful churches in great cities, 
 and in tents thrown down in the midst of the sagebrush of the desert. 
 There are Chinese, Japanese and Korean students who preach the 
 gospel to their compatriots in every one of the important communi- 
 ties of Orientals upon the coast. 
 
 And among the things that cheer us most today is the fact that 
 the children and grandchildren of our founders are our friends. The 
 succession still holds true to type. 
 
< » > 
 
 And what of the future? Here voice and pen fail us. It is so P f&ntyfive 
 easy to prophesy; and also so dangerous. Nevertheless we can, and 
 should, project our vision into the future, that we may the more 
 steadily consider the things towards which we move. 
 
 Just as surely as the Pacific Ocean shall be the scene of gigantic 
 efforts and adjustments in the international life of the next fifty 
 years, so surely does our seminary occupy a place of strategic im- 
 portance in the religious movements of the coming age. In the set- 
 tlement of the problems of the relations between the Orient and the 
 Occident only Christianity can speak the final word. It is ours to 
 train the men who shall make the lasting peace. 
 
 We face the future unafraid because we are loyal, with a pas- 
 sionate devotion, to the heritage of faith and truth which we have 
 received from the fathers of this institution. We look upon this in- 
 heritance as a precious trust, not to be dispelled and impaired through 
 our ignorance or misuse, but as something to be further enriched 
 and ennobled through our experience. The God of Doctors Scott, 
 Alexander, Poor and Burrowes is our God. San Francisco Theolog- 
 ical Seminary will never go away from Jesus Christ. It will welcome 
 all new light, from whatever source it may arise, in accordance with 
 our historic Presbyterian position; but it is very certain that such 
 light can only reveal Jesus in a fuller beauty than we have seen 
 before. 
 
 In humble thanksgiving to God for His wonderful guidance 
 through the . half-century of the past, in trustful dependence upon 
 His leading in the present hour, with an unfeigned eagerness to 
 serve all our brethren who will accept of service from our hands, 
 with no hate but the hate of hate, and no scorn but the scorn of 
 scorn, with a great charity for all mankind, we face the long future 
 that stretches out before us, and move forward unafraid. 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OP CALIFORNIA LIBRARY