510 
 
H '/,''! .'I >f' : - .:*:; 
 ;.. : ; :, V ;; ; '., . K . 
 ^J^ < I --:: 
 
 M^ 
 
 
 
 y University of California. 
 
 nir 
 
 : /'--, : i w 
 
 ' I i , : : .-: 
 

A MEMORIAL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SEMI-CENTENARY CELEBRATION 
 
 OP THE 
 
 FOUNDING 
 
 OF THE 
 
 THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE 
 
 OF CONNECTICUT. 
 
 HARTFORD, CONN.: 
 PRESS OF THE CASE, LOCKWOOD & BRAINARD COMPANY. 
 
 1884. 
 
W 
 
 3 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 At the annual meeting of the Pastoral Union of Connecti- 
 cut, in the Chapel of Hosmer Hall, Hartford, May 8, 1884, 
 Rev. Graham Taylor, Rev. John H. Goodell, and J. M. 
 Allen, Esq., were appointed a committee to publish at their 
 discretion the proceedings of the semi-centennial celebration 
 of the Theological Institute of Connecticut. 
 
 Congratulating the officers and students, the graduates and 
 friends of the Institute upon the record of its past history, 
 the substantial and invaluable attainments of the present, 
 and the still brighter prospects of growing power and useful- 
 ness in the future, the Committee present as a fitting Memo- 
 rial of the Semi-Centennial Anniversary, 
 
 I. A brief account of the gbservance of the occasion. 
 
 II. The papers, addresses, and letters prepared for the 
 celebration abridged in accordance with the design of this 
 publication. 
 
 III. An appendix containing reports of the past year's 
 work, an account of the closing exercises with the address of 
 Professor Riddle to the Graduating Class. 
 
THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 In May 1883, a committee representing the Pastoral 
 Union, Trustees, Faculty, and Alumni, was appointed to 
 make arrangements for the celebration of the semi-centennial 
 anniversary of the Institute. At an early day, all who had 
 been students of the Seminary, and the members of the Pas- 
 toral Union, received a cordial invitation to participate in the 
 memorial observance on. Wednesday, May 7, 1884:. Special 
 invitations were also extended to many residents of Hartford, 
 and notices of the services were published in the local news- 
 papers. 
 
 Returning alumni and invited guests were welcomed to 
 the generous hospitality of the homes of the many friends of 
 the Seminary in the city. 
 
 From a wider extent of territory than was ever before 
 represented on any occasion in the history of the Institute, its 
 graduates and friends gathered in numbers that did honor to 
 the commemoration, and betokened their loyalty to its past 
 and future. 
 
 Assurances of warm interest in the Institution and its 
 jubilee were received from foreign and home missionaries 
 and pastors, unable to be present. 
 
 The weather all through the anniversary days was 
 unpropitious. A cold northeast storm prevailed; but the 
 attendance at the business meeting of the Alumni Associa- 
 tion, at an early hour on Wednesday, was large. Rev. Dr. 
 A. C. Thompson was chosen president, Rev. S. B. Forbes of 
 Rockville, Conn., vice-president, with Rev. Gr. W. Winch of 
 Enfield, secretary for three years. Appropriate mention was 
 made of the death of Rev. M. S. Goodale, D.D., of Amster- 
 
6 
 
 dam, "N. Y., of the class of '36, the first that graduated from 
 the Seminary, and who was to have given a paper on Dr. 
 Nettleton on this occasion, also of Rev. Benjamin Howe, 
 class of '41, of Linebrook, Ipswich, Mass. 
 
 The Chapel of Hosmer Hall, and one of the adjoining rooms, 
 were filled at the opening of the commemorative exercises, 
 by the large audience, which, besides the guests from abroad, 
 included many friends from the city. 
 
 At ten o'clock Rev. S. B. Forbes, vice-president of the 
 Alumni Association, took the chair, and called upon Rev. 
 Dr. Laurie of Providence, to offer prayer. Rev. Lyman 
 Whiting, D.D., read the Scriptures, and after singing, Mr. 
 Rowland Swift, in behalf of the Trustees and the citizens of 
 Hartford, delivered a most felicitous and hearty address of 
 welcome. 
 
 Rev. Professor William Thompson, the venerable Dean 
 of the Faculty, then delivered the Historical Discourse, 
 reviewing, as only an eye-witness could, the life and work of 
 the Institute during the half-century of its existence, and of 
 his own life-work in its service. 
 
 Rev. Lavalette Perrin, D.D., followed with a paper on 
 Dr. Bennet Tyler, the Seminary's only "President" and first 
 Professor of Theology. 
 
 The close and vital " Relation of the Seminary to the Cause 
 of Foreign Missions," was thoroughly and interestingly devel- 
 oped by Rev. Dr. A. C. Thompson of Boston. 
 
 The hour for recess having arrived, it was necessary to omit 
 the reading of Rev. Dr. H. M. Parsons' tribute to the ever- 
 blessed memory of Rev. Asahel Nettleton, D.D., whose 
 character and work are sacredly cherished among the suc- 
 cessive generations of students as a most precious inherit- 
 ance of the past, and a bright goal of their high calling. 
 
 The intermission afforded a pleasant opportunity for the 
 social reunion and intercourse of the large company present. 
 The main hall and its adjoining rooms were thronged with 
 ladies and gentlemen, many of the latter meeting, after long 
 separation, as old friends and fellow-students. 
 
 At 1 o'clock two hundred and fifty guests were seated in 
 
the music room, and two adjoining class-rooms, where an 
 ample collation was handsomely served, after the blessing had 
 been asked by President Noah Porter of Yale College. 
 
 To the Chairman of the Prudential Committee, Mr. George 
 Kellogg, and the many ladies who so kindly assisted his efforts, 
 all were indebted for the very thoughtful and complete provi- 
 sion for their comfort and enjoyment. 
 
 The chapel was again well filled by those who reassembled 
 to enjoy the exercises of the afternoon, which were happily 
 conducted by Professor Lewellyn Pratt, in place of Rev. 
 Dr. Henry M. Field, who had accepted the invitation to pre- 
 side, but was unable to be present. 
 
 The paper presented by Rev. John H. Goodell of Windsor 
 Locks, on " The Biblical Teaching of the Seminary its Dis- 
 tinctive Feature," was listened to with marked interest as a 
 contribution of permanent value to the Institution. 
 
 From a large number of letters received by the committee 
 from the alumni and other friends, Rev. W. S. Hawkes of 
 South Hadley Falls, Mass., read carefully selected and copious 
 extracts, which were heard with evident pleasure by all, and 
 with personal interest by many. These reminiscences pre- 
 sented a varied and graphic picture of the successive periods 
 of seminary life, as seen from within, which will be treasured 
 in printed form by many more than those who heard their 
 recital. 
 
 " Several carefully prepared impromptu addresses " were 
 then announced by the chairman. 
 
 The first to respond was Rev. Dr. Gushing Eells of the 
 class of '37, who told the thrilling story of his missionary 
 life and labors in Oregon and Washington Territories during 
 the past forty-five years of service. In his allusion to his inti- 
 mate relation with the martyred Dr. Whitman, in the early 
 history of the great Northwest, he became truly " the old man 
 eloquent." Upon his retirement, the fact was related that 
 while thus engaged in missionary work amid the hardships of 
 frontier life, he and his wife had earned and given to the cause 
 of Christian education over fifteen thousand dollars. 
 
 Rev. Francis Williams of the class of '41, spoke face- 
 
8 
 
 tiously of the social life at East Windsor Hill when he was a 
 student there. 
 
 President Porter of Yale presented the salutations of that 
 sister seminary, with many bright and interesting allusions to 
 the past and present relations between the two institutions. 
 
 Rev. Graham Taylor of Hartford, referred to the indebted- 
 ness of the city pastors for the library privileges so freely 
 granted them at Hosmer Hall. He alluded to the deep obli- 
 gation felt by many of the city churches for the valuable 
 assistance rendered by the students in their Sunday-schools 
 and prayer-meetings. The appreciation of their presence and 
 services by people and pastors is very apparent each year, in 
 the many ways in which, he assured them, their absence is 
 felt. On behalf of the " Pastors' Mission/' he thanked the 
 students, especially for the noble response they had made to 
 the appeal for their aid in conducting evangelistic services in 
 the most destitute parts of the city. Nearly all of them had 
 volunteered service. The unfailing regularity with which 
 they had met their appointments, and the spirit and effi- 
 ciency with which they had done " the work of an evange- 
 list," not only in the services, but in thoroughly canvass- 
 ing whole sections of the city, and in calling as opportu- 
 nity invited from house to house, deserved a public recognition 
 as hearty as the personal appreciation it had received from 
 all directly associated with them in the work. 
 
 The varied programme of the afternoon was brought to a 
 close by the reading of a poem entitled " The Survival of the 
 Axe," prepared for the occasion by Rev. Theron Brown, 
 of the class of 1859, a Baptist clergyman of Norwood, Mass. 
 The play of its feeling, humorous and earnest, met with appre- 
 ciative response from his amused and interested auditors. 
 
 The commemorative services of the day were fittingly closed 
 with the concert of the " Hosmer Hall Choral Union," in the 
 Asylum Hill Congregational Church, in the evening, under 
 the direction of Associate-Professor "Waldo S. Pratt, with a 
 chorus numbering one hundred and seventy-five voices, 
 including almost all the seminary students, and with the 
 
assistance of soloists and orchestra from abroad, the Union 
 rendered Handel's Oratorio, " The Messiah." 
 
 The audience completely filled the spacious edifice, and 
 included the alumni and guests of the Seminary, to all whom 
 complimentary admission was tendered by the generosity of 
 the Trustees. The public indebtedness to the Seminary for 
 the eminent character of the performance was well expressed 
 in the following hearty recognition by the Hartford 
 "Courant": 
 
 " It is so long since the Messiah was given in this city that 
 the public owes a debt to the Choral Union for giving it, and 
 a double debt for giving it so well as was done last evening. 
 Some of the obligation must extend over to the Theological 
 Seminary, since it is largely through it that the performance 
 became possible. It not only furnishes a considerable share 
 of the singers, but has given place for rehearsal, furnished the 
 director, and done very much more, directly and indirectly, 
 to wards, developing and strengthening the Union. Without 
 the Seminary it would hardly have come into existence, and 
 certainly would not have had so good an opportunity for 
 development into an enthusiastic society with a high aim and 
 a better conception of the purpose of music of the highest 
 order than has yet existed here. Each of the performances 
 given since the initial one has shown a marked advance, and 
 this last was no exception to the established rule. 
 
 " When from a body chosen mainly out of those who have 
 an enthusiasm for study arid practice, such admirable results 
 can come, as were produced last evening, it evidences very 
 remarkable ability on the part of the instructor. Those who 
 have often heard the Messiah, and compare the rendering of 
 the choruses last evening with those of the Handel and Haydn 
 Society of Boston, the Sacred Harmonic Society of London, 
 and similar organizations, must confess that while, of course, 
 weak in the grand effects, there was not simply a precision, a 
 technical mastery of difficulties, but better still, an intelligence 
 of comprehension and a poetry of execution which are almost 
 never surpassed. It was not simple earnestness, but there 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 was a delicacy of shading, a studious force of contrasts, a 
 breadth- of style which showed the most careful study of the 
 piece, viewed as a great religious work. In a word, it was 
 given in a manner quite in keeping with the Institution under 
 whose auspices it was performed. These qualities were so 
 uniformly displayed that it is not necessary to select instances. 
 Of course, with a chorus of less than two hundred, with a 
 small orchestra, and an organ not of first magnitude, the 
 thrilling effects produced by numbers cannot be gained ; but 
 it may be said that the ' Hallelujah ' and the closing chorus, 
 1 Worthy is the Lamb,' were a surprise to all in their massive 
 and stirring power. But all had been equally studied, and 
 revealed in the details the supervision of a skilled director, and 
 the most painstaking practice. The impression made upon 
 the crowded audience was one of surprise, pleasure, and satis- 
 faction." 
 
 The annual devotional service, held on Thursday morn- 
 ing, was more largely attended than usual, and most appro- 
 priately conducted by Rev. H. C. Alvord. Brethren widely 
 sundered for years found the hour of spiritual fellowship most 
 delightful and refreshing. 
 
 The afternoon was d'evoted to the annual meeting of the 
 Pastoral Union, whose business proceedings, reported in the 
 Appendix, were enlivened by a thrilling address of congratu- 
 lation and sympathy, by Rev. Dr. E. B. Webb of Boston, 
 who succeeded this year to the Presidency of the Board of 
 Trustees. 
 
 The closing exercises in the evening were very largely 
 attended. Rev. Dr. A. J. F. Behrends of Brooklyn, delivered 
 the last lecture in the Carew course on " The Relation of the 
 Mind of Man to the Revelation of God." His profoundly 
 philosophical treatment of the theme was designed to demon- 
 strate the capacity of man's mind to receive, respond to, and 
 interpret the revealed thought of God. 
 
 The memorable series of services was concluded by the 
 eminently appropriate and practical address of Rev. Pro- 
 fessor Riddle to the graduating class, which is the fitting con- 
 clusion to this Memorial volume. 
 
ADDRESSES AND LETTERS. 
 
 Address of Welcome. 
 
 BY ROWLAND SWIFT, ESQ. 
 
 Mr. President, Alumni, and friends: 
 
 As one looks about him here, just now, there is something 
 in the very motion and composure of this gathered company 
 that is suggestive of the season of reunion and repast for 
 kindred hearts. I am sure that something of the old-time 
 spirit of the Pilgrims' Jubilee, grave indeed, but fervid too 
 and even exuberant, is abroad in the assembly and moving 
 upon the surface and through the depths of it. 
 
 A narrative of early colonial times tells of the reward to 
 public and united prayers, when the rains saved the shrivel- 
 ing crops : " Having these many signs of God's favor and 
 acception we thought it would be great ingratitude if, 
 secretly, we should smother up the same or content our- 
 selves with private thanksgiving for that which by private 
 prayer could not be obtained." Cotton Mather recorded the 
 information that Mr. Eliot taught his Indian converts "to set 
 apart their days for both fasting and prayer and for feasting 
 and prayer," and that they, the devout Indians, " performed 
 the duties of those days with a very laborious piety." I hope 
 we shall do as well as they, with less fatigue and possibly as 
 appropriately; but it is our turn to-day to celebrate; it is our 
 calling to rejoice and give thanks, not secretly, at the manifold 
 things of divine bestowal which we have received. 
 
 The committee have honored me with a request that I 
 should say a few words for them at this stage of your proceed- 
 ings. I wish, at the same time, that what I have to offer, so 
 very briefly as will be necessary, may be commended to your 
 
12 
 
 acceptance as the hearty greeting of a citizen of Hartford, for 
 I cannot avoid associating, in a manner, events which we 
 celebrate in this presence, with others inevitably to be recalled 
 to mind as we go on, and which are happily so much in 
 harmony with this occasion. I assume, as a fact, that this 
 memorial service to which you have been invited, commemo- 
 rates one of the accomplishments which is fairly illustrative 
 of the old-time character of our Christian citizenship its 
 loyalty, its wisdom, and its piety. 
 
 I presume you will not forget that probably before ever a 
 kernel of wheat was sown upon these hills or even a furrow 
 had been traced across the virgin intervals, our provident 
 forefathers had hewed and planted and covered in the beams of 
 their little sanctuary. The colony was still very young when 
 Hopkins, first the merchant citizen, then the chief magistrate, 
 had set apart a significant portion of his estate by will, " to 
 give some encouragement for the breeding up of hopeful 
 youths both at the grammar school and college, for the public 
 service of the country in future times," supplementing this 
 first provision by another, as he so positively set forth, " in 
 further prosecution of the aforesaid public ends, which, in the 
 simplicity of my heart, are for the upholding and promoting 
 the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in those parts of the 
 earth." 
 
 It is assuring to remind ourselves how the land was 
 possessed, and how orderly and characteristic was the progress 
 of Christian enterprise. A city that began, well back in the 
 last century, to gather its public libraries, and to multiply its 
 churches; where, from common school to college, seminaries of 
 learning have increased as rapidly as riches ; where, in due 
 time, were planted homes for the orphan, retreat for the 
 insane, asylum and training-school for the deaf and dumb, 
 reformatories for the inebriate, hospitals for the sick and 
 injured, houses of refuge for the aged and infirm, and 
 numerous other distinctively Christian enterprises, to this day 
 doing their beneficent and sacred work Hartford, at the 
 appointed time, not lacking a citizenship equal to the oppor- 
 tunity, after thoughtful observation and deliberation, of course 
 
13 
 
 adopted this consecrated school. It was like Hartford to do 
 it ; to do it in a way that should bring to record that 
 measured decision that goes with purpose and faith ; and if you 
 would see a chart of the willing mind that is accepted 
 according to what a man hath and not according to what he 
 hath not, look over, some day, the lists of saintly donors 
 enrolled upon the old subscription books. She who cast in of 
 her living has written her name there, and the well-to-do 
 men of the time have honored the page and their names and 
 their city by varying and increasing and noble gifts. 
 
 Here the renovated institution was not out of place. New 
 associations were and are felicitous, and you who, to-day, 
 return here for the first time, find yourselves here at home, 
 and we together, citizens and alumni, may reverently give 
 thanks for what we see not only within these walls, but for 
 the legacy of unnumbered names ever to be remembered with 
 Hopkins's and Wadsworth's and Watkinson's and Gallaudet's 
 and Hosmer's, because of their co-operation in those benefi- 
 cent projects which best adorn our neighboring landscapes, 
 and most significantly characterize our civilization. 
 
 With the close of our half century we would gladly have 
 welcomed full numbers to our golden festival. A timely 
 summons, as hopefully importunate as could be framed, went 
 abroad to every name upon your rolls of survivors. Many 
 are marked " not present " this morning, yet it will seem 
 so often, while you are together, as if they were very near and 
 verily of your company ! 
 
 I have been told that on the shores of the Adriatic, there 
 may be heard, at nightfall of almost any day, the sweet 
 snatches of song that are sent out by waiting mothers and 
 children who expect, through the deepening shadows, the return 
 of husband or brother. From afar out upon the waters, 
 responding strains are heard at last, and though distant and 
 but faintly to be heard, how do they reward and animate the 
 heart of loving wife and child ! They sing to and fro from 
 beach to boat as the tired but blessed fishermen are guided 
 to their rock and to their home ! 
 
 In the mountains of the Tyrol, too, they say such another call 
 
14 
 
 rises, at the cottage-doors of the shepherds, from those who love 
 them and who come out at sunset and listen, sometimes long, 
 for the answering music that shall tell them that, from the 
 pastures where they find verdure and danger, the herdsman, 
 though belated, is corning homeward with all his flock. The 
 song that flies from cot to cliff, and from cliff to cot, ceases 
 never until man and herd are brought safely to home and 
 rest. In such expressive sympathy will you find yourselves 
 with your absent brethren, when in due course you hear from 
 them by and bye. Our overtures that were sent across the 
 seas brought 'responses that thrill the heart like a heroic song. 
 They seem to say : " We have cast our net on the other side 
 of the ship. We shall find. The master said so. It is 
 filling ; we cannot leave it till we bring it safe, unbroken to 
 the land ! " 
 
 From the mountains of the west others sent answers of 
 regret, but so praiseful that their cheer comes very close 
 home. " Thank God for our ninety-and-nine. We seek those 
 that remain, that have been given to us ; when they are found 
 it will not be long we will come home ; then, friends, we 
 will have rest, and rejoice together." But I am not unmind- 
 ful how the time speeds on to-day. The fervent grip of your 
 hands with one another has already had its spell, and the 
 irrepressible interchange of news and assurance, a longer 
 charm. So the Anniversary will quickly weave its shining 
 golden thread across and through the texture of the onward 
 extending life. 
 
 God bless you, friends, and give you cheer when you must 
 go again from the restful holiday to the waiting field, but a 
 brimful, New England Thanksgiving welcome to you while 
 you stay! 
 
Historical Address. 
 
 BY PROFESSOR WILLIAM THOMPSON. 
 
 To some who favor us with their presence this morning, 
 the establishment and early fortunes of the Theological Insti- 
 tute of Connecticut are a familiar story. They were old 
 enough in 1834 to read and hear what was said, and done by 
 its advocates and opponents. They have not been indifferent 
 observers of its ongoings from one decade to another. But 
 of the men who started the enterprise, and of its singular 
 experiences, few of you retain from personal knowledge a 
 clear impression. The survey now proposed is chiefly for a 
 younger class of hearers, more or less curious to learn how 
 the Seminary fared while it remained at East Windsor Hill. 
 
 " New England Theology " is an ambiguous phrase. The 
 varieties of belief denoted by this term at different periods 
 have always been spoken of with special reference .to Congre- 
 gationalists. Before the time of Pres. Edwards, New England 
 divines held the Calvinistic views embodied substantially in 
 Willard's Lectures on the Assembly's Catechism. Whatever 
 modifications of theological belief were afterwards adopted, 
 the system remained essentially the same, and it has long 
 been customary to name as its chief expounders and advocates 
 in the last century Edwards, Bellamy, and Dwight. Its more 
 recent representatives in New England were Woods and Tyler. 
 The views held by these writers differ but little from those 
 embodied in the creeds of New England churches from the 
 earliest period in their history to a very recent day. They 
 are sometimes designated as " Old Calvinism," sometimes 
 " Old School Theology." 
 
 The tenets set fortli by a class of theologians claiming to 
 bo " consistent Calvinists," led by Drs. Eiimioiis and Hopkins, 
 
16 
 
 have been styled in some quarters " New England Theology." 
 But what these eminent divines taught as " improvements " 
 on the doctrinal system long accepted among us never gained 
 a currency sufficiently wide to justify this title. 
 
 More recently the speculations of Dr. Nathaniel "W". Taylor 
 and his associates have been known to a moderate extent by 
 the same name. They are more properly known as the " New 
 Divinity of New England," or "New Haven Divinity." In 
 the year 1822 the Theological Department of Yale College 
 was Organized in its present form, and Dr. Nathaniel W. 
 Taylor was appointed professor. The founder of his profes- 
 sorship required that as a condition of holding office the 
 incumbent sliould give his assent to the Saybrook Platform, 
 the doctrinal part of which instrument is in full accord with 
 the Assembly's Catechism. It was the accredited formula of 
 a large proportion of the Congregational churches in New 
 England. 
 
 Not long after the inauguration of Dr. Taylor it became 
 known to some of his intimate ministerial friends, of whom 
 Dr. Nettleton was one, that he held theories and speculations 
 not in agreement with the acknowledged standards of ortho- 
 doxy. In his Concio ad Clerum, preached Sept. 10, 1828, sen- 
 timents and hypotheses were avowed which awakened wide- 
 spread anxiety. Two years before this Prof. Fitch preached 
 a sermon on " Sin," which was generally considered as 
 antagonistic to evangelical doctrine. Various attempts were 
 made to prevent open controversy, but they proved futile. 
 Personal expostulation, correspondence, conferences of repre- 
 sentative men, all failed to quiet the rising agitation or 
 restrain the New Haven divines from advocating their senti- 
 ments through the press. 
 
 The tenets of Dr. Taylor which created disquietude, it is 
 believed, may be fairly stated as follows : 
 
 First. God could not have prevented all sin in a moral 
 system. 
 
 Second. Mankind came into the world with the same 
 nature in kind as that with which Adam was created, and the 
 
17 
 
 fact that his posterity uniformly sin is due to the circum- 
 stances in which they are placed. 
 
 Third. Self-love is the primary cause of all moral action. 
 The exact form of the thesis was in these words : " Of all spe- 
 cific voluntary action the happiness of the agent, in some 
 form, is the ultimate end." 
 
 Fourth. Antecedent to regeneration the selfish principle 
 is suspended in the sinner's heart, so that he ceases to sin 
 and uses the means of regeneration with motives that are 
 neither sinful nor holy. 
 
 In the leading religious quarterly of New England at that 
 time, the Christian Spectator, these dogmas were set forth with 
 great earnestness, eloquence, and skill by eminent divines, 
 who shared the prestige of our chief literary institution, and 
 of the general respect and confidence won by their eminent 
 attainments and services. To protest publicly against the 
 sentiments avowed by such writers, holding exalted positions 
 and assured of powerful support, was a step from which min- 
 isters of the gospel and intelligent laymen naturally recoiled. 
 But there seemed to be no option. Individual remonstrances 
 and entreaties had failed to prevent the wide dissemination 
 of theological sentiments believed by many to be fraught with 
 incalculable mischief. This apprehension of danger was 
 deeply felt by Jeremiah Evarts, Glov. John Cotton Smith, 
 Drs. Tyler, Nettleton, Humphrey, Griffin, Ebenezer Porter, 
 Woods, and other leading men in New England and in 
 various quarters. If any persons were competent to estimate 
 correctly the difference between the New Haven Theology 
 and what the Congregational churches and ministers of New 
 England generally and firmly believed to be the teachings of 
 the Divine Word, they were found among those who struck 
 the first note of alarm. The more thoroughly the New 
 Haven Divinity was examined, the more clearly it appeared 
 to be antagonistic to biblical views of the divine government, 
 human depravity, regeneration, and the essential difference 
 between the motives that govern renewed and unrenewed 
 men. Perhaps the time has not yet come for an impartial 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 judgment on the merits of the controversy and the spirit in 
 which it was conducted. With some confidence, however, an 
 unbiased inquirer may be referred to what was written at the 
 most exciting stage of the discussion by Drs. Dow, Nettleton, 
 Tyler, and Woods, as seldom marred by asperity or unfair- 
 ness. Such a reader would not fail of seeing that these men 
 were profoundly moved in view of doctrinal innovations 
 imperiling the purity of revivals and the spiritual vigor of 
 the churches. 
 
 No branch of the new divinity awakened more general fear 
 and regret than what was currently styled at the time " Re- 
 generation by self-love." Near the fatal close of his long 
 illness Dr. Nettleton was visited by his old ministerial friend, 
 the acknowledged leader of the new movement, with whose 
 views he had been sorely grieved. Shortly after the inter- 
 view he wrote to his distinguished visitor, concluding his 
 letter as follows : "I would cherish the hope that your own 
 religious experience is at variance with some things which 
 you have published ; particularly on the subject of self-love, 
 and the great doctrine of regeneration. It does seem to me I 
 experienced all which you make essential to regeneration, 
 while, as I now fully believe, my heart was unreconciled to 
 God. And this is the reason that leads me to fear that what 
 you have written will be the means of deceiving and destroy- 
 ing souls. I say this with the kindest feelings and with 
 eternity in view. Receive it as my dying testimony and as 
 an expression of my sincere love." 
 
 With such positive convictions respecting the views persist- 
 ently advocated in high places as " great improvements " on 
 the old theology thirty-six Connecticut Congregational minis- 
 ters met in convention at East (now South) Windsor, Sept. 
 10, 1833, " for the purpose of consultation and taking such 
 measures as may be deemed expedient for the defense and 
 promotion of evangelical principles." The sessions were held 
 in a small ancient brick school-house about half a mile north 
 of the present Congregational church. The more prominent 
 members of the body were Drs. Samuel Spring, Asahel 
 Nettleton, Nathaniel Hewitt, Daniel Dow, G. A. Calhoun, 
 
19 
 
 Joseph Harvey, and Kev. Cyrus Yale. Only three of the 
 thirty-six delegates are now living. The two days in that 
 secluded brick school-house devoted to prayerful deliberation 
 were marked by the absence of party-spirit and unmistakable 
 tokens of the divine presence. The result was the organiza- 
 tion of the Conn. Pastoral Union, and shortly after the Theo- 
 logical Institute of Connecticut. At a session of the Legis- 
 lature in the ensuing spring an act of incorporation was 
 obtained, allowing the trustees to hold property to the 
 amount of fifty thousand dollars. Upon the petition of the 
 trustees in 1859 the charter was so amended that the Insti- 
 tute could hold any real or personal estate, provided the 
 annual income thereof should not exceed twelve thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 The location of the Seminary at East Windsor was chiefly 
 due to the generous aid proffered by Mr. Erastus Ellsworth, 
 who had recently retired to that town after a prosperous 
 business career in New York. If other friends have made 
 larger donations to the Institute, no one is better entitled to 
 be called its foster-father. In its early days of weakness and 
 subsequent perils Erastus Ellsworth promptly responded to 
 every call that taxed his purse, time, patience, or capacity as 
 a man of affairs. On the 13th of May, 1834, the corner- 
 stone of the seminary edifice was laid by the venerable Dr. 
 Perkins of West Hartford, and two professors were inducted 
 into office : Dr. Bennett Tyler, Professor of Theology, and 
 Dr. Jonathan Cogswell, Professor of Sacred History. During 
 the previous winter fifteen students had received instruction 
 from Dr. Tyler. On the 14th of the following October the 
 Professor of Biblical Literature entered on his duties. The 
 regular course of instruction now began, sixteen students 
 being in attendance. Two stories of the seminary building 
 were ready for use, and about two thousand volumes, chiefly 
 given by Connecticut pastors, had been placed on the shelves 
 of the library. 
 
 In their first report to the Pastoral Union the trustees 
 advert to the " prayerful solicitude and trembling hope " with 
 which the resolution was adopted " under an imperious sense 
 
20 
 
 of duty to the Great Head of the Church and implicit reli- 
 ance upon his blessing, to proceed to the establishment of a 
 new seminary for the education of young men for the gospel 
 ministry." With limited means and under great discourage- 
 ments the guardians of the young enterprise found their first 
 year's experience fitted to " excite their gratitude and animate 
 their hopes." " The increasing confidence and favor of the 
 Christian public " was noted with special gratification. The 
 whole amount of subscriptions to May 1st, 1835, was thirty- 
 three thousand seven hundred thirty-three dollars. The 
 largest donation was that of $1,250 from Mr. David N. Lord 
 of the city of New York. A large proportion of the gifts by 
 which the current expenses of the Institute were met du ring- 
 its first years was in small sums by persons of moderate 
 means. For a time the trustees judged that when the cost of 
 buildings had been defrayed an income of $3,000 annually 
 would be sufficient, and that it would be better to obtain this 
 sum by yearly subscriptions than to aim at permanent endow- 
 ments. 
 
 Could any one expect that the establishment of a second 
 theological seminary in Connecticut would escape hostile crit- 
 icism ? In the fall of 1834 the theological Professors of Yale 
 College published a statement denying that any good reason 
 could be assigned for the new enterprise. This called out an 
 " Appeal to the Public in behalf of the Institute." The 
 trustees defended their action on the ground that the theo- 
 logical school at New Haven was under the entire control of 
 a corporation, nearly one-half of whose members are such 
 men as one political party or another happens to choose for 
 State officers. By a change in recent years the alumni choose 
 six members of the corporation. It is not apparent that this 
 measure increases the security of the Theological Department. 
 Reference w T as also made by our trustees to the feeling of 
 insecurity awakened among the churches by the disclosure of 
 the fact that three of the Professors in the New Haven Semin- 
 ary were not required to give their assent to any confession 
 of faith. % The Professor of Theology was indeed bound to 
 declare " his free assent to the Confession of Faith arid Eccle- 
 
21 
 
 siastical Discipline agreed upon by the Churches of this State 
 in the year 1708." This refers to the Saybrook Platform, 
 which in doctrine is identical with the Assembly's Catechism. 
 But, to the surprise of the public, it was now announced that 
 Dr. Taylor " had certain knowledge, from personal inter- 
 course with the founders (of his professorship), that if he had 
 embraced every minute doctrine of the Confession it would 
 have been considered a decisive disqualification for the office." 
 Consequently it was claimed that, while the Professor of The- 
 ology held and taught doctrines at variance with the creed, he 
 could not be impeached, because his assent had been given 
 only for substance of doctrine. 
 
 A still more weighty reason for their action was assigned by 
 our trustees. It was the deep and wide-spread dissatisfaction 
 produced by the publication and defense of the New Haven 
 views. These have been already stated. 
 
 A subordinate motive for organizing a new seminary was 
 the growing demand for more adequate physical exercise by 
 candidates for the sacred office. Extended investigations had 
 lately shown that an alarming percentage, fully one-half, of 
 those who deserve the character of close students, injured 
 themselves by neglect of bodily exercise. An early grave or 
 chronic weakness and disease were the penalty to be expected 
 in the case of many promising aspirants for the ministry. To 
 check this fearful loss of consecrated talent it was resolved to 
 provide ample means for manual labor in the new school of 
 the prophets. 
 
 The prejudices of many good people were roused against 
 the. Institute by the persistent accusation that it was divisive 
 in its aims and spirit, and foretokened the breaking up of 
 existing ecclesiastical relations in this state. The answer 
 was that no such purpose was entertained. It was said : 
 u While we concede to our brethren who differ from us the 
 right to think for themselves and to inculcate their own opin- 
 ions, we ask them to allow us the same privilege. To say 
 that the founders of the Seminary had a right to form and 
 publicly avow their own religious principles ; to say that they 
 had a right to consecrate a portion of their property to the 
 
9O 
 
 defense and diffusion of these principles, and to guard the 
 sacred deposit against perversion as they have done in their 
 statutes, is only to claim in their behalf a participation in the 
 privileges common to every protestant and to every citizen of 
 a free country." One individual who was active in the forma- 
 tion of the Pastoral Union and in measures immediately fol- 
 lowing did indeed favor a radical policy. No one, however, 
 seconded his proposal to withdraw fellowship from the New 
 School brethren. The intimate friends of Dr. Joseph Harvey 
 could not have been surprised by his advocacy of an extreme 
 measure. Excelled by few men in personal attractions, an able 
 preacher and polemic, he inherited a morbid, nervous organi- 
 zation, that often taxed the patience of his friends, and best 
 explains certain intellectual caprices that made him a doubtful 
 coadjutor in any undertaking. At an early day he suddenly 
 ceased to cooperate with the Pastoral Union and connected 
 himself with the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 It has been well said that " earnestness and fidelity to con- 
 victions everywhere carry a cross.'' The men who conscien- 
 tiously identified themselves with the Institute in its early 
 days were well aware of the grave difficulties surrounding the 
 enterprise. With few exceptions the press was either adverse 
 or indifferent. Without a periodical to repel calumnious mis- 
 representations the trustees and faculty for the most part suf- 
 fered in silence under the scourge of unscrupulous tongues and 
 pens. The seclusion and incongenial surroundings of the 
 Seminary, its moderate equipment in funds, books, teachers, and 
 constituency offered abundant material to unfriendly critics. 
 Their opportunity to prejudice the public mind was not lost. 
 If a candidate for the gospel ministry set his face towards 
 East Windsor, he did not fail to encounter warnings and dis- 
 suasives to which young men are keenly alive. That the 
 number of students, compared with older seminaries, contin- 
 ued to be small was not surprising. That within the first few 
 years thirty-four were in attendance was justly and devoutly 
 recognized as a special token of divine favor. So also was 
 their continuance, with so few exceptions, till the end of the 
 course, in view of the odium that lessened their chance for a 
 
23 
 
 fair start in life. An early graduate after a long interval 
 thus adverts to his experience : " Our numbers all told were 
 few, and class distinctions, however informal and loosely held, 
 narrowed still more the area of our restricted intimacies. 
 Most of us were fresh from our large college associations with 
 their varied excitements, and we found it hard to settle our- 
 selves down into the narrow grooves in which our seminary 
 life seemed to drag itself along. And the outside neighbor- 
 hood was nearly as contracted as the Seminary. The families 
 that cared for an acquaintance, though cultured and hospita- 
 ble, were still infrequent and scattered. Both from within 
 and from without a pressure was put upon us sometimes 
 annoying and always troublesome. We were young men 
 with aspirations for usefulness and ambitious of success. We 
 were desirous to know and obey the truth, but at the same 
 time did not want, if we could help it, to be put without the 
 pale of popular sympathy and support." Gradually, as one 
 small class after another came before ecclesiastical bodies for 
 license or ordination, popular prejudice subsided. Judged by 
 its average pupils it appeared that the Seminary w r as not 
 belligerent, but contented itself with teaching the same evan- 
 gelical truths that had long been the strength and inspiration 
 of New England Congregational churches. 
 
 The limited views of our first Board of trustees were illus- 
 trated in two particulars. Instead of planning at the outset 
 for a library that any competent judge would deem suitable 
 for a public institution, they seemed to regard a few thousand 
 volumes, chiefly such as could be spared from a pastor's study, 
 as sufficient. The w r ant of standard works in every depart- 
 ment was a continued source of lamentation. In 1836, 
 through the influence of Dr. John Todd, then pastor in Gro- 
 ton, Mass., one thousand dollars from the estate of Deacon 
 Stone of Townshend was appropriated to the increase of the 
 library. Not long after Mr. Abrier Kingman of Boston 
 Highlands, in gratitude that his pastor decided not to accept 
 a professorship tendered him by the trustees of the Institute, 
 made a handsome donation of carefully selected books neatly 
 bound. Besides these gifts the trustees expended less than 
 
24 
 
 fifteen hundred dollars on the library during the thirty years 
 prior to our leaving East Windsor Hill. The dreary record 
 of three thousand volumes had indeed been changed to that 
 of seven thousand before we came to Hartford. Of the fifty 
 dollars allowed the librarian as his salary for forty-five years 
 twenty-five dollars went to his assistant. Another sample of 
 the humble standard with which the trustees were at first 
 content may be seen in the annual income judged sufficient 
 when the necessary buildings and other fixed property were 
 paid for. In successive reports they expressed the opinion 
 that three thousand dollars would defray current expenses. 
 In partial justification of this estimate it should be known 
 that one professor, who had received a handsome legacy from a 
 rich brother in New York, served the institution gratuitously, 
 and the salary of the youngest professor was six hundred 
 and fifty dollars, exclusive of house rent. By some influential 
 members of the board permanent funds were looked upon with 
 distrust. Had they not in many cases been perverted ? Are 
 they not always a prize coveted by men seeking an easy 
 position, and under little restraint from the obligations of 
 creeds and the wills of deceased benefactors ? " Let us shun 
 this danger," said these good men. " We will rely on the 
 annual gifts of those whose hearts are with us. Some of our 
 own number will take short agencies, keeping the churches 
 informed of our work, and thankfully accepting the smallest 
 contributions." On a scale of three thousand dollars a year 
 the plan seemed feasible. Its chief merit lay in securing from 
 godly persons the prayers and sympathies not less helpful 
 than their donations. The first year of the experiment was 
 successful. Three hundred and twenty-eight subscribers were 
 reported. The smallest sum in the list was fourteen cents, and 
 the largest seven hundred and fifty dollars. Subscriptions were 
 solicited chiefly in this state and in the city of New York. 
 In the year 1839 a legacy of eleven thousand dollars was 
 received from the estate of Miss Rebecca Waldo, of Worces- 
 ter, Mass. This gift, by far the largest that had yet come 
 into the treasury, was hailed with peculiar joy. Wide-spread 
 commercial disasters had not long before crippled a number 
 
25 
 
 of our patrons, and the collection of three thousand dollars in 
 small sums had already become a difficult task. From that 
 time little was openly said against permanent endowments. 
 Before a second professorship was in this way provided for, 
 the moral support previously derived from Christian people 
 in the humble walks of life sensibly declined. The annual 
 subscribers numbering 328 in 1835 dropped down to seven in 
 the year 1859. 
 
 Besides the one thousand dollars appropriated to the 
 library by the trustees of Dea. Stone's estate in 1837, some 
 years later Mr. Richard Bond of Boston Highlands 
 bequeathed to the Institute seven thousand dollars, of which 
 four thousand dollars were to be appropriated for the purchase 
 of books. Besides the benefit of his professional services with- 
 out compensation the Seminary received from Dr. Cogswell one 
 thousand dollars towards the endowment of a Professorship 
 of Ecclesiastical History, also liberal aid from time to time for 
 the relief of needy students. At an early period in our 
 history two thousand dollars were bequeathed to the Institute 
 by Mr. Alva Oilman of Hartford. The joint bequest of the 
 three Misses Waldo of Worcester, Mass., amounted to four- 
 teen thousand dollars, and were set apart for the support of 
 a Professor of Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 The second professorship placed upon a stable foundation 
 was that of Christian Theology, by the bequest of Mr. Chester 
 Buckley and his wife of Wethersfield. To the late Hon. 
 Seth Terry the Institute is deeply indebted for the patience, 
 tact, and legal experience, gratuitously employed in success- 
 fully thwarting an attempt to set aside the wills of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Buckley. On becoming satisfied, after consulting the 
 best legal authorities, that the validity of the wills was 
 seriously endangered by a technical flaw, Judge Terry planned 
 a compromise securing to the Seminary and variqus benevo- 
 lent institutions a large proportion of the bequests named in 
 the wills, and to the heirs-at-law a considerable amount in 
 advance of what would have fallen to them by the terms of 
 of the instrument in debate. The last of the three endow- 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 merits furnished before the removal to Hartford came in part 
 from the estate of the Rev. Dr. Asahel Nettleton. Besides a 
 bequest for the support of the Professor of Bible Literature 
 Dr. Nettleton left five hundred dollars for the purchase of 
 periodicals, and whatever should be realized from the sales of 
 Village Hymns for the benefit of indigent students. By a 
 providential interposition the instrument bequeathing a por- 
 tion of his property to charitable objects was preserved and its 
 provisions executed. Grateful mention should be made of the 
 assistance afforded our young brethren by yearly grants from 
 the Hale Donation and the Everest Fund. From the former 
 source between two and three hundred dollars, and from the 
 latter at least fifty dollars, have been annually applied for this 
 purpose. By means of scholarships a succession of young men 
 have been helped on their way to the sacred office. Of these 
 charitable foundations six were furnished before we came to 
 Hartford and sixteen have been added since. The first in 
 the series was the gift of Mr. Abner Kingman to perpetuate 
 the memory of his respect and affection for Dr. Nehemiah 
 Adams of Boston, and the second from the same liberal 
 friend bearing the name of Eliot. The names of his bene- 
 ficiaries were communicated from time to time to Mr. King- 
 man, so that he could follow them into their home or foreign 
 
 ' O 
 
 fields. More than thirty years he had the satisfaction of 
 seeing the fruit of this one species of his manifold beneficence. 
 Our annals will faithfully transmit to coming generations 
 the names of those whose gifts or services have made 
 them prominent during the period just closed. But at least 
 a word of grateful recognition is due to those self-sacrificing 
 Christian women in Hartford and Tolland Counties, who 
 ministered with patient toil, like Dorcas of old, to the wants 
 of needy students from year to year. If unlike hers their 
 names are unrecorded, they will have their reward. 
 
 The manual labor department of the Seminary was planned 
 chiefly for the promotion of physical health, but some antici- 
 pated it would also yield pecuniary profit. Seventy acres of 
 choice alluvial land, lying between the seminary buildings 
 and Connecticut river, were purchased for tillage by students, 
 
27 
 
 and agricultural implements were furnished without charge. 
 One acre or less, as he might choose, was allowed each 
 student. The scheme included the construction of a road 
 through the center of the field to the river, where a wharf 
 was to be built to facilitate the transportation of farm pro- 
 ducts to this city. Operations began in the spring of 1834. 
 The first gush of enthusiasm resulted in the construction of 
 the road. A few, who had been accustomed to farm work in 
 early youth, managed to keep in good health and earn enough 
 to pay for a few text-books at the end of the season. As to 
 the majority of the students, however, the outcome in respect 
 both to health and profit was not altogether encouraging. 
 In 1835 the net profit of work on land was two hundred and 
 twelve dollars and seventy cents. In 1836, when the number 
 of cultivators had increased, three hundred and eighty-three 
 dollars and sixty-two cents were earned. The next year no 
 estimate of proceeds was reported. Several drawbacks, not 
 duly estimated at first, conspired to disappoint expectations 
 from the agricultural branch of manual labor. As the soil 
 became impoverished no provision was made for enriching it. 
 Not unfrequently more time was required for necessary labor 
 than fidelity to class-work would allow. As the terms of 
 study were then arranged the summer vacation included 
 one of the months when few crops can be wholly neglected 
 without loss. Fortunately, as a home market was easily found 
 for the products of the farm, no money was wasted on a 
 wharf at the river. The fate of the workshop, intended for 
 manual labor in cold and stormy weather, was even more 
 disastrous. Each student was supplied with a box of tools, 
 but with few exceptions the proper use of them was unknown 
 to the young men. With no superintendent shop-tools rapidly 
 depreciated in value, .little merchantable work was produced, 
 and the end of the experiment was 'much the same as of a 
 similar one at Andover. 
 
 By their charter the trustees were authorized to establish 
 a classical school as well as a theological seminary. Some of 
 them were in favor of organizing it as early as 1836, but the 
 majority declined taking any steps in that direction until 
 
28 
 
 their main enterprise had obtained firm footing. In 1850 
 public sentiment called with earnestness for the organization 
 of a first-class academy. It was found that a large percent- 
 age of the pupils in the best training schools of Massachusetts 
 were from Connecticut. There was evidently wanting 
 among us a school sufficiently endowed to secure the services 
 of well-qualified teachers, not dependent for support on 
 tuition fees, and pledged to a high standard of scholarship 
 irrespective of the number of pupils. This view was enter- 
 tained by many who had no partiality for the East Windsor 
 Institute. With the Pastoral Union and their associates the 
 project found /avor because it promised eventually to 
 strengthen the higher institution under their care. Not that 
 academical pupils would pass directly into the seminary, but 
 some of them after leaving college would be predisposed to 
 take their professional course in the place to which they had 
 become attached in former years. By some of us the pros- 
 pect of a good training school at our door was hailed as a 
 welcome boon. It would solve a hard problem. If our 
 children were to enjoy any better advantages than were 
 offered by the very inferior schools of the 'town, how could 
 their expenses away from home be met from an income of 
 $650 a year? In 1851 the trustees took measures for put- 
 ting into operation a classical school to bear the name of 
 East Windsor Hill Academy. They avowed their purpose 
 to provide both thorough instruction in the various branches 
 of study and in the great principles of Christian faith. The 
 direct superintendence of the academy was placed in the 
 hands of a committee, two members of which were to be from 
 the theological faculty. Mr. Paul A. Chadbourne was chosen 
 principal, with an excellent corps of assistant teachers. Fifty 
 pupils were in attendance the first year. The Assembly's 
 Catechism was recited -each w T eek, and constant care was 
 exercised to secure the objects dearest to the hearts of 
 Christian parents. To this feature of the academy grateful 
 tributes were paid in after years by the graduates. When 
 Dr. Chadbourne was called to a professorship in Williams 
 College his place could not be easily filled; but during 
 
29 
 
 the ten years of its existence the academy held to the 
 purpose and pledge of its founders. Failing to obtain the 
 funds required for the maintenance of its high standard, the 
 trustees chose to discontinue the school rather than suffer its 
 good name to be tarnished. Its graduates who entered our 
 best colleges took a high rank, and keen disappointment was 
 felt on all sides that pecuniary embarrassment had paralyzed 
 a young training school in which centered so many hopes 
 for the cause of accurate scholarship and high moral culture. 
 Although opposition to the Theological Seminary had 
 declined as its spirit, methods, and results became known to 
 the Christian public, and its pecuniary resources had at 
 length reached a respectable figure, yet at the end of twenty 
 years its guardians and friends became somewhat anxious. 
 From the first local embarrassments had not been a slight 
 obstacle to its growth. Instead of becoming less they had 
 seriously increased. Facilities of intercourse between East 
 Windsor Hill and other places had lessened. Steamboats had 
 ceased to ply between Hartford and Springfield. The daily 
 stage had been withdrawn. The railroad was on the opposite 
 side of the river. To take a train one must go eight miles to 
 Hartford or six to Warehouse Point or three to Windsor 
 with the uncertainties of a primitive ferry. To or from 
 either of these points no regular conveyance was established, 
 and to obtain a private carriage was at times attended with 
 difficulty. Dr. Eli Smith, the distinguished missionary, on a 
 visit to his native land had occasion to find his way to East 
 Windsor Hill in prosecution of a matrimonial alliance. In 
 Springfield he learned that the nearest station was at Wind- 
 sor. Stopping there at twilight he was a long time busy in 
 finding a vehicle to take him to the river, where fresh delays 
 and perils awaited the veteran traveler. On reaching his 
 destination, he remarked, that in his various explorations in 
 Palestine and Armenia he had experienced some inconven- 
 iences, but he never found it so difficult to get from one point 
 to another as from Old Windsor to East Windsor Hill. 
 Besides its isolation the seminary suffered from want of 
 
30 
 
 social and spiritual vitality and a literary atmosphere so 
 helpful to studious young men. 
 
 From 1855 to 1860 the Institution passed through a trying 
 ordeal. For reasons already adverted to in part its continued 
 existence was debated by its stanchest friends. While the 
 academy continued to flourish, such was the decline in the 
 theological department of the Institute as to threaten at least 
 its 'temporary suspension. To guard the funds in such an 
 emergency became an object of solicitude with the Trustees. 
 Under legal advice it was decided that, if one of the theo- 
 logical professors should serve temporarily as principal of 
 the school, the funds of the Institute would not be forfeited. 
 Accordingly the Professor of Biblical Literature was requested 
 to act in that capacity. This arrangement, involving no 
 addition to the Professor's salary, was an economical one, as 
 it saved to the treasury the amount otherwise required for the 
 support of a principal. The proposal was accepted and several 
 hours were daily spent in the academy without curtailing the 
 time allotted to Hebrew and Greek in the other building. To 
 instruct advanced classes fitting for college required of the 
 teacher a review of the branches quite neglected for thirty 
 years. This style of labor continued for two years. 
 
 Meanwhile the trustees of the Institute invited the cor- 
 porators of Yale College to consider an overture for uniting 
 the two seminaries. The number of students in each was 
 small and declining. The guardians of each were constrained 
 to ask what could forestall the calamity that threatened both. 
 The proposed conference took place between a committee of 
 our trustees and the Prudential Committee and afterwards 
 the Clerical Fellows of Yale College. On both sides, it 
 would seem, the conference was candid and courteous. 
 Our trustees signified to the other party " that they had 
 in charge three sacred and inalienable trusts; their funds, 
 their faith, and a school in which these funds should be 
 devoted to the inculcation of their faith." They asked there- 
 fore to be received into the united seminary in their complete 
 and unrestrained integrity. It was proposed that the united 
 school should be at New- Haven ; that the present professors 
 
31 
 
 in both seminaries should retire, leaving all the chairs to be 
 filled by a new election ; that the trustees of the Institute 
 should nominate candidates and the Corporation should have 
 power to elect, but only from among these nominees. These 
 were the chief points. To all the specifications of the over- 
 ture the New Haven gentlemen acceded, with one exception. 
 They demurred as to the mode of appointing professors, 
 and proposed as a substitute that a union be formed sub- 
 stantially upon the basis already set forth, except that, instead 
 of the trustees of the Pastoral Union nominating and the 
 Corporation of the College electing the professors, the boards 
 should constitute distinct and independent houses of convoca- 
 tion, each electing, and that a concurrent election shall be 
 necessary in each case to actual induction. While offering 
 this as a basis of prospective union the New Haven gentle- 
 men signified that a due regard to certain very obvious per- 
 sonal relations and sympathies compelled them to ask a delay 
 of definite action until such time as Providence should seem to 
 indicate. After the conferences closed two of the Clerical Fel- 
 lows of the Corporation signified that they should require some 
 restriction upon the creed of the Pastoral Union if it was to 
 be enforced in the united seminary. The attempt at union 
 thus proving futile our board of trustees in 1856 sum- 
 moned the friends of the Institute to " instant and earnest 
 and assiduous endeavor and united prayer to God" for the 
 increase of its efficiency. Only partial success, however, 
 attended the efforts thus called forth. Local hindrances to 
 the growth of the Seminary became more and more formidable 
 from year to year. In the judgment of many its continued 
 life depended upon its being transplanted to a more eligible 
 home. Prominent trustees came to their annual meetings 
 after 1857 with feelings little akin to a joyous reunion. 
 Still the majority of the board were nothing, daunted by the 
 untoward signs which were hailed with joy by those whose 
 maxim from the first had been ; " Delenda est Carthago." 
 How to effect an escape from our paralyzing environments 
 and rekindle the languishing hopes of guardians and friends 
 came to be an urgent problem. To leave East Windsor Hill 
 
32 
 
 was to incur a considerable loss of property, to inflict a deep 
 wound upon certain liberal and steadfast friends who could 
 not listen to arguments in favor of a removal from the old 
 site, and to run the risk of extinction elsewhere in circum- 
 stances of mortifying publicity. 
 
 In the early part of this transitional period of our history 
 the infirmities of age compelled Dr. Tyler to ask a release 
 from his official trusts. Before his resignation and to the 
 
 O 
 
 last day of his life his prevailing belief and hope were that 
 the Institute would see brighter days. Occasionally, indeed, 
 he yielded for a moment to a feeling of despondence and once 
 or twice read at evening prayers in the chapel the hymn ; 
 " By whom shall Jacob now arise, for Jacob's friends are few." 
 Without warning and without the slightest justification 
 anonymous charges against his doctrinal soundness were put 
 in circulation just as he was leaving a post which he had 
 honorably filled for more than twenty years. This bitter cup, 
 it is supposed, was prepared by a few members of the Pastoral 
 Union who had shared with him the burdens of an unpopular 
 undertaking. Brooding over the misfortune which seemed to 
 threaten the beloved Seminary they yielded to the suspicion 
 that the Professor of Theology was the Achan that troubled 
 the camp. At an informal trial which was forced upon the 
 Pastoral Union the charges in question were thoroughly 
 refuted and the way made clear for the venerable professor to 
 retire with dignity and grace. 
 
 In 1864 the Clerical Fellows of Yale College appointed a 
 committee, of which the late Dr. Hawes was chairman, to 
 confer with our trustees on the question of uniting the two 
 seminaries. Since the abortive attempt in the same direction 
 in 1856 such changes had taken place as awakened fresh hope 
 that the measure might be consummated. But it was des- 
 tined to a second and final defeat. The trustees of the Insti- 
 tute had now resolved to remove it to Hartford " in order to 
 open to it a wider field of usefulness and to confer upon it 
 greater privileges." This step was agreed upon in spite of 
 their disappointment in the efiort to raise a fund of two hun- 
 dred thousand dollars, deemed necessary to meet the increased 
 
33 
 
 outlay required by the proposed change. At the meeting of 
 the Pastoral Union that year (1864) statements were made by 
 ministerial brethren, from Massachusetts which favored an 
 enlargement of our constituency beyond the bounds of the 
 state of Connecticut. The brethren from a neighboring 
 state expressed a desire to cooperate with us in checking the 
 speculations of a false philosophy which had invaded the 
 denomination, and which they deemed more alarming at that 
 time than ever before. In consequence of the representations 
 and appeals made at that juncture the Union passed several 
 resolutions favoring an invitation to its membership of any 
 Congregational pastors in sympathy with our theological senti- 
 ments. Up to this time the Pastoral Union embraced few 
 ministers not living in Connecticut. At present a considerable 
 number from other states are enrolled among its members. 
 The first accession from Massachusetts rendered much assist- 
 ance in the removal to Hartford, but, subsequently less aid than 
 was expected came from that particular band of allies. By 
 more than one of their number it was confidently affirmed that, 
 if a pastor in eastern Massachusetts were elected to a professor- 
 ship in the Seminary, funds would be supplied from that 
 quarter for his salary. The election was made but no funds 
 came from " Boston and vicinity." To meet the embarrassment 
 that ensued our steadfast patron, Mr. James B. Hosmer, gave 
 fifty thousand dollars for the support of the new Massachu- 
 setts Professor. That the receipts of the treasury might 
 equal its expenditures Mr. Hosmer had been accustomed as 
 treasurer to make good the annual deficits from his own 
 resources, but in view of the circumstances this gift of fifty 
 thousand dollars revealed a magnanimity of character not less 
 worthy of record than the still larger donations reserved for a 
 later day. While the Seminary was adjusting itself to its 
 new surroundings schemes for its amalgamation with two 
 western seminaries were set on foot. At the meeting of the 
 National Council in Oberlin in 1871 an effort was made to 
 enlist the moral support of that body in carrying out this pol- 
 
34 
 
 icy. A series of resolutions was offered, one of which read 
 as follows : " That we recognize thankfully the valuable ser- 
 vice which the Theological Seminary at Hartford has done in 
 the past and that we heartily commend its system of instruc- 
 tion, but in view of the fact that two institutions of a similar 
 character are no longer needed in close proximity to each 
 other its consolidation with one of the western seminaries, 
 if such a measure be practicable, would be viewed with satis- 
 faction by our churches, and would, we believe, greatly enlarge 
 its sphere of usefulness." From another western institution 
 a proposal was made to receive us, doctrines, funds, teachers 
 and all. From still another quarter came indefinite overtures 
 of the same kind. Certainly the proposed method of dis- 
 patching a troublesome life was more adroit, if it proved no 
 more successful, than the somewhat violent one encountered 
 in its infancy. Its persistence, however, and symptoms of 
 fresh vigor in its new home were accepted at length as provi- 
 dential signs that it had a mission of fts own this side the 
 Allegheny Mountains. The sixth and last attempt to put an 
 end to the independent existence of the Institute took the 
 form of an anonymous pamphlet entitled, " Can it be done?" 
 E"o intelligent reader of the document could doubt its author- 
 ship or the plausibility of its reasoning. In point of time it 
 had the advantage of appearing while we occupied hired 
 dwelling houses on Prospect Street, not altogether adapted to 
 our use, and suggestive of a second migration. The dis- 
 tinguished writer of the missive sent it to each Congregational 
 minister in Connecticut, not, he says, " with any purpose of 
 introducing a public discussion of the subject or expecting 
 that its suggestions would be at once unanimously approved, 
 but % with the hope that in due season they would bear some 
 fruit." The chief obstacle which he foresaw in the way of 
 merging our Seminary in that at New Haven lay in the sub- 
 scription to our creed, but he fondly hoped that a rigorous 
 exactness would not be insisted upon, so that the formulary 
 could be adopted by all who recognize in a general way the 
 doctrines common to the various Protestant confessions. He 
 
35 
 
 presents the form of a compact intended to secure the rights 
 and endowments of both institutions. 
 
 MY COLLEAGUES. 
 
 At first and for several years there were but three profes- 
 sors. Dr. Tyler was a graduate of Yale College, studied his 
 profession with Rev. Asahel Hooker of Goshen, and was pastor 
 in Middlebury, Conn., till called to the presidency of Dart- 
 mouth College. On resigning that post he succeeded Dr. 
 Edward Payson as pastor at Portland, and in 1834 was chosen 
 Professor of Theology in our seminary. His literary and 
 professional attainments were about the same as those of Dr. 
 Ebenezer Porter of Andover, Dr. Humphrey, President of 
 Arnherst College, and Dr. Lyman Beecher. Our records speak 
 none too highly of his great worth and valuable services. 
 His clear, logical method in argument, "his sound judgment, 
 his love of the great doctrines of the Gospel, his eminent 
 ability to teach and defend them, his warm, devoted, and 
 uniform piety, the generosity of his heart, and the urbanity of 
 his manner, admirably qualified him for his office." It was 
 well said that " the success of the Institute in its early strug- 
 gles was in no small measure to be ascribed under God to his 
 hopeful spirit, his unwavering faith, his firmness and courage, 
 his untiring and unselfish efforts." I labored with him as a 
 son with a father from 1834 to 1858. The native kindness of 
 his disposition, his self-control and practical wisdom made him 
 a delightful companion, while he was facile princeps among 
 the guardians and teachers of the Seminary. 
 
 Dr. Jonathan Cogswell, our first Professor of Ecclesiastical 
 History, was graduated at Harvard College, preached some 
 years in Saco, Maine, and when the Institute was founded, was 
 pastor of the First Church in New Britain. A legacy from 
 his brother in New York enabled him to tender his services 
 to the trustees without cost to the Seminary. His generosity 
 and good nature checked the adverse criticisms to which his 
 professional services were sometimes liable. 
 
 From its commencement Dr. Asahel Nettleton held a semi- 
 official relation to the Institute. Owing to precarious health 
 
36 
 
 he spent the winter months in Virginia, where he had labored 
 in revivals with signal success. As an inmate of my family 
 for several months, always considerate of the feelings and 
 welfare of those about him, by the serenity of his countenance, 
 his animated and instructive conversation, and by his entire 
 deportment, so humble, gentle, and in every way magnetic, he 
 won our profound respect and ardent affection. In spite of the 
 deep sand through which the road lay from Hartford to East 
 Windsor Hill many an old friend found his way to Dr. Nettle- 
 ton's residence to renew personal friendships or to confer with 
 him relative to the kingdom of Christ. At the time when he 
 was attacked by the malady of which he died after protracted 
 sufferings, he was living with his brother -a short distance 
 from the Seminary. His familiar lectures to the students on 
 revivals so long as he was able to meet them, as well as his 
 occasional sermons in the Chapel, were highly valued. 
 Students of that day will never forget his visits at their 
 rooms for conversation on spiritual themes usually closing 
 with prayer. With the avails of Village Hymns he had 
 bought a house and farm at East Windsor Hill for the use of 
 an indigent brother with whom he planned to spend the 
 evening of life. Almost daily visits for more than a year, and 
 at least a score of nights of watching at his bedside, justify the 
 testimony now given, that neither racking pains nor nameless 
 social trials, from which a sensitive nature shrinks, extorted 
 from his lips a word of complaint. In the last fiery ordeal 
 the Christian graces, so conspicuous in the prime of his public 
 life, shone with unwonted lustre. 
 
 Dr. Nahum Gale, who succeeded Dr. Cogswell in the chair 
 of Ecclesiastical History, was much younger than either of 
 my other colleagues. He had been at the Institute as a 
 pupil, and came to his office from a thriving pastorate in 
 Ware, Mass. After two or three years Professor Gale became 
 doubtful of the continuance of the Seminary and accepted an 
 invitation to settle as pastor of the Church in Lee, Mass., 
 where he labored successfully till his death. 
 
 In 1844 Dr. Edward Hooker, then pastor in Bennington, 
 Vt., was elected Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Duty, 
 
37 
 
 and continued in office four years. He was a greatgrandson 
 of President Edwards, and a son of Rev. Asahel Hooker of 
 Goshen, with whom Dr. Tyler and other useful ministers had 
 studied theology near the beginning of the present century, 
 before the Seminary at Andover was founded. The families 
 of Drs. Tyler and Hooker formed a group exceptionally 
 amiable and refined. Dr. Hooker enjoyed the respect and 
 affectionate sympathy of his brethren and pupils in his labors 
 and repeated afflictions. He served with conscientious fidelity 
 in his appointed sphere, but his partiality for the pastoral 
 office led to his resignation at the end of four years. 
 
 Our third Professor of Church History was Rev. Dr. 
 Edward A. Lawrence. Since his recent death his talents, 
 scholarship, and character have called out warm and discrimi- 
 nating eulogies from those who knew little of his work with 
 us. Before he came to the Seminary and during the twenty 
 years after he withdrew from it he impressed all who knew 
 him with the accuracy, thoroughness, and extent of his knowl- 
 edge, the firmness of his convictions, his courtesy, fairness, 
 and candor ; his modesty, gentleness, and fidelity to every 
 trust. His uniform serenity and self-poise under sore provo- 
 cations were among the many proofs that he held frequent 
 communion with his divine Master. To his yearning spirit 
 heaven seemed more and more but another name for uninter- 
 rupted and eternal fellowship with his Lord. 
 
 " There is a sight from men concealed ; 
 That sight, the face of God revealed, 
 Shall bless the pure in heart." 
 
 Of my eight colleagues who have finished their course, 
 only one more will be named in this sketch. To the citizens 
 of Hartford Dr. Robert G. Yermilye was better known than 
 either of my associates of whom mention has been made. 
 When the Institution came to this city in 1865, he was one 
 of the two Professors constituting the faculty. That trying 
 period of our history brought into clear light the noble 
 qualities of his character. But want of time forbids more 
 than a dance at his characteristics. For Christian integrity 
 
38 
 
 and kindness, unswerving loyalty to Gospel truth with fair- 
 ness to opponents, for refined dignity on public occasions 
 and in the ordinary intercourse of life, for the rare union of 
 qualities denoted by the true friend, the Christian gentleman, 
 the able divine, the accomplished teacher and preacher, both 
 the pupils and colleagues of Dr. Termilye will cherish his 
 memory with affection and respect. 
 
 Among the founders and devoted friends of the Seminary 
 Rev. George A. Calhoun deserves to be held in grateful 
 remembrance. For more than forty years pastor in North 
 Coventry he acquired an enviable reputation both among his 
 own people and the churches of the state. His good judg- 
 ment, his intelligent apprehension of the issues involved in 
 the discussions raised by the New Haven divines, his chari- 
 table temper and prudent speech qualified him for the prom- 
 inent position long held as trustee of the Institute. To him 
 specially fell the task of collecting in small sums the funds 
 to meet current expenses before endowments were provided. 
 His tall, well-proportioned figure, the benignant seriousness 
 of his countenance, his slow movements and deliberate speech 
 invited the confidence and respect felt by all who knew him. 
 His influence, it is believed, secured an early appropriation, 
 repeated annually while he lived, by the trustees of the Hale 
 Donation in aid of our students. Very few of them were 
 able to defray current expenses from their own funds, and the 
 Hale charity was eminently opportune. The whole amount 
 received from that source and appropriated to reduce the cost 
 of board is found to be $12,310. 
 
 One of the most remarkable men connected with the early 
 history of the Institute was Nathaniel Hewitt, D.D. At 
 the time of its organization he was pastor of a church in 
 Bridgeport. Some years before that his name had become 
 familiar to the country as the "Apostle of Temperance." 
 His overwhelming assaults on the drinking usages of those 
 days made him famous in 1827, but his power as a pulpit 
 orator had already achieved signal results in Fairfield. In 
 any assembly he would impress a casual observer as an 
 uncommon man. His massive form crowned with an impe- 
 
39 
 
 rial head, his features bearing the stamp of a lofty, deter- 
 mined spirit, his voice equally suited to the son of thunder 
 and the son of consolation, were a part of his rare native 
 gifts. With the traits that command admiration and respect 
 were united others of a gentler kind that won the warmest 
 affection of intimate companions. In his better frames, even 
 when past the meridian of life, his conversational powers 
 fascinated any circle of youth or reverend seniors. As a 
 pastor in ministering to the afflicted and such as were 
 oppressed with spiritual trouble his sympathy and skill were 
 as noteworthy as the stronger features of his character on 
 public occasions. Dr. Hewitt's theological convictions were 
 entwined indissolubly with his personal religious experience. 
 Deep consciousness of sin and assurance of salvation through 
 the expiatory sufferings of Christ made it easy for him to 
 accept the distinctive teachings of the New Testament and 
 impelled him to preach and defend them most loyally. 
 No one probably had more influence than Dr. Hewitt in 
 the establishment of our Seminary, and for several years he 
 labored earnestly for its welfare. Always punctual in his 
 attendance at the anniversaries, and not an infrequent visitor 
 at other times, the family that secured him for a guest or 
 even at a dinner was deemed fortunate. 
 
 For thirty-three years the pastorate of Dr. Elisha Lord 
 Cleveland in New Haven was coincident with the life of the 
 Seminary at East Windsor. As a trustee, he was identified 
 with it for about a quarter of a century, and in the fellowship 
 of long-continued trials for conscience sake, mutual sympathy 
 bound us very closely together. It was natural that the young- 
 est teacher in the Institute and its youngest trustee should be 
 on the most intimate terms. Classmates at Andover, of the 
 same age, favored with similar home-training in early life, 
 traditionally and experimentally partial to the faith of the 
 primitive churches held by our fathers, we could not differ 
 widely respecting theological novelties that startled and dis- 
 tressed reverent students of the divine Word. Dr. Cleve- 
 land went to New Haven after graduating at Andover 
 for the purpose of gaining such additional preparation 
 
40 
 
 for the work of the ministry as the eminent teacher in 
 the theological department of Yale College might afford. 
 Soon called by the Third Church to become its pastor, he 
 took a firm stand in relation to the doctrinal controversy then 
 at its height. His church and congregation, neither rich nor 
 numerous at the time of his settlement, were deeply in debt 
 for their place of worship. The creditors, displeased with the 
 doctrinal views set forth by the young pastor, pressed their 
 claim so vigorously that he with his little flock that clung to 
 him retired to an obscure hall. A feeble band despised by 
 the world, they went forth from their house of worship wel- 
 coming the reproach and embarrassment sure to follow. 
 Fidelity to the principles he had avowed and taught seemed 
 to require that the pastor should face any trial that the Mas- 
 ter might appoint him when called to act so conspicuously as 
 the representative of a conservative theology. " He cast his 
 lot with poverty, odium, and the inevitable loss for a period 
 of public and social position in the cultivated circles of a lit- 
 erary and ecclesiastical center, in which he had been a favor- 
 ite, and which he was so well fitted to grace and enjoy." 
 At length the little baud that worshiped in a hall became 
 a large, wealthy, and intelligent congregation. Their hall 
 was exchanged first for the lecture-room kindly offered them 
 by the Center Church, then for a new church edifice, attract- 
 ive and commodious, and at last for the stately and beautiful 
 temple which now adorns a central locality in the City of 
 Elms. From a mere pittance the pastor's salary became the 
 most liberal in the city. " He was sought to officiate on high 
 public occasions." " His voice was heard more impressive 
 and effective than any other," says Dr. Bacon, " in the great 
 assembly of citizens that was convened at New Haven to 
 pledge their support to the imperiled government." "In 
 aid of his inward resources and endowments for high 
 oratory and eloquence came all that richness, pathos, and 
 melody of voice, so familiar to his congregation. There was 
 his broad, yet not disproportioned frame, his face of singular 
 beauty and strength, his deep-set eye, instinct with intelli- 
 gence, at times almost hidden under his massive, overhanging 
 
41 
 
 brow, often and not unjustly likened to Daniel Webster's ; 
 the whole so apt to be lighted up by that smile which loved 
 to play upon his lips, and which, if less than seraphic, often 
 seemed more than human." Time permits only the bare 
 mention of his executive ability, prudence, firmness, the amia- * 
 bility of his temper, the wisdom, gentleness, and benignity, 
 which shed such a radiance over his own home and made him 
 so welcome in the families of his parishioners. 
 
 Not by way of complaint, but as an instance of the limita- 
 tions under which the interior work of the Institute was car- 
 ried on, a glance is due at a single personal experience for a 
 considerable period from the year 1834. Lack of funds and 
 possibly defective views of what is implied in the phrase 
 Biblical Literature may explain the fact that one individual 
 was made responsible for all the teaching furnished the stu- 
 dents in the exegesis both of the Old Testament and the New. 
 By general consent first-rate scholarship and leisurely train- 
 ing are indispensable requisites for success in either of these 
 branches. Everybody would now say, if you would over- 
 whelm the teacher and inflict an irreparable injury on his 
 scholars, give him both. To my gray-haired pupils now 
 before me, who must have often lamented the poor quality of 
 their exegetical instruction at East Windsor Hill, I can only 
 say the fault was not wholly mine. It is also remembered 
 that the Professor of Hebrew and Greek was not at liberty to 
 give his undivided strength to the work officially assigned 
 him. At an early day a church was organized in the Semi- 
 nary, which was located two miles from any place of worship, 
 and two sermons were preached in the chapel every Sabbath. 
 The service came to each of the Professors once in three 
 weeks. Two of them had been pastors more than a score of 
 years, the third just one year. The inevitable effect of this 
 arrangement need not be described. Another little drawback 
 should be mentioned. Among the extra official duties not to 
 be evaded was the superintendence of rhetorical exercises 
 and the correction of one-third of the sermons required from 
 members of the senior class. At a later day the department 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 of Church History became vacant. With the help of text- 
 books the Professor of Biblical Literature served for a time 
 as a proxy. A little further on, when the health of the 
 theological Professor broke down, the man of all work, now 
 no longer young, was requested to take up for a time a part 
 of the burden which had fallen from Dr. Vermilye's hands. 
 Two prizes of sixty dollars each were offered about the 
 year 1858 to members of the middle and senior classes who 
 should pass the best examination in the first and second vol- 
 umes of Turrettin's Theology. No member of the faculty 
 coveted the office of examiner who must be supposed ready 
 to try his pupils on any one of twelve hundred pages of eccle- 
 siastical Latin. A majority vote of the professors added this 
 to the other multifarious duties of the Professor of Biblical 
 Literature. It was well for him that among Mr. Kingman's 
 gifts to the library was a copy of Forcellmi totius Latinitatis 
 Lexicon in four royal quarto volumes. Without this aid he 
 might have hesitated one time to examine the valedictorian of 
 his class at Yale College, who easily won the Turrettin prize. 
 From necessity the proper division of labor, if theoretically 
 acknowledged, was practically postponed to a recent period 
 in our history. .If one " thrust himself into the duties or 
 usurp the office of another," let the law of mutual subservi- 
 ency exact a fit penalty. But if the foot does not volunteer 
 to attempt the work of the hand, doing the ungracious thing 
 under an iron necessity, u he is more sinned against than sin- 
 ning." In commenting on the distribution of service enjoined 
 in the twelfth chapter of Romans, Chalmers utters a protest 
 against the modern policy of the church, a policy not unknown 
 in other organizations. "We should as much as possible," 
 he says, " humor, even as the Spirit Himself does, the consti- 
 tutional varieties of tastes and talent among in en 
 
 The tendency now is in an opposite direction and each has 
 
 many things laid upon him What makes it all the 
 
 more ruinous is, that rarely indeed is one man eminent in 
 more than one thing; and the sure way, therefore, of degrad- 
 ing him from eminence to mediocrity is to bustle and belabor 
 him with more than one thing." 
 
43 
 
 The review allotted me to-day may suitably close with a 
 reference to two or three contrasts fitted to inspire with grati- 
 tude and large expectations the guardians and friends of our 
 Seminary. The number of students connected with the 
 Institution during the thirty years prior to its removal from 
 East Windsor never ran higher than thirty- four. Sometimes 
 it fell much lower. Our present catalogue contains fifty-four 
 names. The library lias grown from three thousand to thirty- 
 eight thousand volumes. This numerical difference is fully 
 equalled by the difference in the quality of our literary treasures. 
 Less than two thousand dollars was laid out for books during 
 our first three decades. To our earnest plea for help in that 
 direction scarcely a faint response came back. At length a 
 generous patron has appeared and the days of our mourning 
 are ended. His name will be held in lasting and grateful 
 remembrance by a long succession of teachers and pupils. 
 Another mural tablet will not be wanting in our Hall when 
 he is taken hence. 
 
 In one particular a serious loss attended our removal to 
 this city. Instead of the convenient, well-lighted, and well- 
 ventilated rooms at the old home, our apartments in three 
 dwelling-houses in Prospect street, and for a time in a fourth 
 on Main street, were far from being satisfactory. Between 
 the fifteen years passed in such quarters and the last five in 
 this edifice we observe another step in our onward move- 
 ment. Representatives of any class from 1834 to 1840, who 
 may be here to-day, must remember the anniversary occasions 
 of that period. The lecture-room, used also as a chapel, 
 would accommodate besides the faculty, students ancl 
 trustees not more than fifty persons. Addresses by members 
 of the graduating class and by some eminent divine, it is pre- 
 sumed, were heard with satisfaction and profit by all present. 
 Among the friends of the Seminary in neighboring towns 
 were some excellent singers who conducted the service of 
 song at these annual gatherings, assisted by the home choir. 
 On one occasion, owing probably to the absence of outside 
 helpers, the musical part of the entertainment seemed likely 
 to be a failure. But unexpected help was at hand. A young 
 
44 
 
 man from, an obscure hill-town had found his way into the 
 chapel. He had enjoyed such advantages for the cultivation 
 of music as the village singing schools of that day afforded, 
 and seizing the opportunity to volunteer a solo when a suit- 
 able interval occured, he sung in a heavy bass voice the entire 
 hymn of Mrs. Hemans on the landing of the Pilgrims. 
 Over against that performance will be given this evening the 
 Oratorio of the Messiah ,by the Hosmer Hall Choral Union. 
 
 Financially the outlay of three thousand dollars a year has 
 grown, probably, to seven or eight times that sum, and 
 authority given at first to hold fifty thousand dollars' worth 
 of property now covers the right to hold twenty times this 
 amount. As to the method of making the column of receipts 
 tally with that of disbursements, it is surmised that between 
 our present treasurer and his predecessor it would not be easy 
 to picture a contrast. Estimated by a just standard, the title 
 of collegiate and theological institutions to public confidence 
 depends on their teachers far more than on their material 
 resources and accommodations. The advance made by our 
 Seminary in this vital matter is a plain token of " the good 
 will of Him that dwelt in the bush." This comparison of 
 then and now should embrace one more feature. The sneers 
 and unscrupulous censures, leveled at our Institute in its 
 youth and its long struggle with poverty and weakness, have 
 largely given way either to a decent silence or words of confi- 
 dence and cheer. This happy change is distinctly shown also 
 by liberal gifts, increasing sympathy and other tokens of 
 regard from our fellow-citizens, which we trust the future will 
 more and more justify. 
 
 Only in rare instances is one permitted to look back and 
 note the vicissitudes of an enterprise with which his hopes and 
 toils have been identified for half a century, from early man- 
 hood to quite beyond three score years and ten. Of the thirty- 
 six men who met in the small brick school-house at East Wind- 
 sor fifty years ago only three are now living. Of the first 
 board of trustees, twenty-four in number, not one remains. 
 Of the eight Professors who held office while we continued 
 at East Windsor Hill I am the only one left. At short inter- 
 
45 
 
 vals the names on our Historical Catalogue are marked with 
 the lethal star. 
 
 But the Seminary abides. The tree transplanted from East 
 Windsor to Prospect and from Prospect to Broad street 
 without being killed or dwarfed may be expected to outlive 
 successive generations of trustees, professors, and pupils. The 
 badge seen on the walls of an old English mansion, long occu- 
 pied by the family of Moore, is the mulberry tree, the morus, 
 and the legend is, "Morus tarde moriens, morum cito moritur." 
 The mulberry tree is slow to die ; the mulberry fruit dies soon. 
 Outside of our city and of our commonwealth friendly eyes 
 are directed to this seat of sacred learning. -If we hesitate to 
 credit the predictions of sanguine coadjutors who have 
 recently espoused our cause, yet they may well incite us to 
 whole-hearted endeavors in our allotted field. When devout, 
 scholarly interpretation of the divine Word, based on ap- 
 proved principles, shall fail to sanction any doctrine here 
 taught when theological novelties antagonistic to the faith of 
 the Christian Church for ages shall have vindicated them- 
 selves in personal purity and spiritual fruitfulness hitherto 
 unknown or rarely witnessed it will be soon enough to revise 
 our creed. Tested by the best biblical scholarship, by count- 
 less individual experiences and by their transforming, elevat- 
 ing power on domestic, social, and national life, let the doc- 
 trines which we hold and teach ever find able advocates and 
 cordial friends in the guardians and faculty of this Institution. 
 
 Our Seminary began its life as a practical protest against 
 what were deemed unscriptural sentiments. Like the speckled 
 bird of the prophet, " the birds round about were against 
 her." If others judge that the time has come to exchange 
 signals with those who deny the supreme authority of the 
 Scriptures, the expiatory nature of Christ's death, and the 
 endless punishment of those who die impenitent, let us incur 
 a fresh storm of obloquy, if need be, and welcome double the 
 distresses of past years rather than prove disloyal to the faith- 
 ful and true Witness. Should some ingenious rationalistic 
 speculator attempt to use our 'consecrated funds for purposes 
 alien to the views inculcated here for the last half century, 
 
46 
 
 let the memory of Tyler and Nettleton, of Atwater, Calhoun, 
 and Hosmer rouse their official successors to the fearless dis- 
 charge of their sacred trust. If the gratified sentiment that 
 pervades our present convocation is shared by invisible spec- 
 tators, let us hope that the enlarged cloud of witnesses at our 
 next jubilee may rejoice that the Hartford Theological Semi- 
 nary is permitted to bear a humble part in whatever service 
 may be needful at that brighter day to complete the triumph 
 of Christ our Lord. Mindful of the perils that beset all human 
 organizations we will rely on the guardianship of Him who 
 has been our helper in all the checkered history of the past. 
 " The Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers ; 
 let Him not leave us nor forsake us ; that He may incline our 
 hearts unto Him, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His 
 commandments, and His statutes, and His judgments which 
 He commanded our fathers," to Whom be glory and honor, 
 thanksgiving and praise. 
 
Bennett Tyler, D.D. 
 
 BY REV. LAVALETTE PERRIN, D. D. 
 
 -I have been requested to give a pen-picture appropriate to 
 this occasion of Rev. Bennett Tyler, DD., as he stands related 
 to the work of this Seminary, and to polemic theology in 
 New England. While I appreciate the complimentary 
 courtesy of the request, I am at a loss to find in myself any 
 special fitness for such a service, unless it be that given by 
 the opportunity while studying theology, and during the early 
 years of my ministry, to observe from an unbiased stand-point, 
 the parties to a vigorous polemic struggle which was hap- 
 pily issued in the victory of both. 
 
 If it had been required of my now sainted mother, whose 
 relations to this Institution in its early struggles were quite 
 intimate, to characterize Dr. Tyler as a man, a neighbor, a 
 minister, a preacher, and a pastor, I am sure she would have 
 done it, in the use of all proper terms of admiration and 
 eulogy, in the superlative degree. And to her estimate I 
 should heartily subscribe, first from a belief that no more 
 conscientious and competent witness could be called, and also 
 because a limited personal acquaintance gave the same 
 testimony. 
 
 This service does not require the expression of personal or 
 partisan devotion. Nor should this occasion be used for the 
 parade of fulsome eulogy. If the praise wrought so often into 
 the rhetoric of commemorative discourse, were expressed in 
 loving, helpful fellowship with living workers in their toils 
 and trials, death might sometimes defer his advent among 
 them. A larger charity, and a more sympathizing, coopera- 
 tive zeal among the living, will serve the cause of the Master 
 better than incense burned upon the tombs of the dead. We 
 
48 
 
 are indeed to cherish the memory of the just, but our regard 
 for God's servants should not begin at their graves. It is a 
 fault of our times that living, struggling worth, is often 
 lost sight of in the shadow of departed greatness, real or 
 illusive. 
 
 The chief value of commemorative discourse to the earnest 
 Christain worker, is in the aid it gives him for the study of 
 God's providential provision for the spread and defense of the 
 truth. It is both instructive and inspiring to observe how, 
 for the development and spread of His Kingdom, God raises 
 up the needed human agents at the right time. Studied in 
 this light, the biography of eminent Christian scholars and 
 workers is as profitable as it is interesting. In this light let 
 us try to set the character and work of Dr. Tyler. 
 
 The eighteenth century is remarkable for certain prepara- 
 tory movements and provisions for the wonderful develop- 
 ments of the nineteenth. This is as true in the religious as it 
 is in the political history of our country and the world. As 
 when on a summer's day which precedes some great convul- 
 sion of nature, the skilled observer discerns tokens of coming 
 agitation in the cast of the sky, the state of the atmosphere, 
 and the fleecy mists that rise here and there, so in the religious 
 aspect of the New England churches during the eighteenth 
 century, the discriminating observer sees a divine preparation 
 for that signal outcome of mental and spiritual activity, which 
 has given us two flourishing theological seminaries in the 
 State of Connecticut, and a rapid succession of new depart- 
 ures in the methods and matter of Christian teaching. 
 
 In their utter rejection of the petrified forms of godliness, 
 the churches in the middle of the last century had well-nigh 
 lost the power of godliness, which always requires some form 
 for its proper exercise and expression. The necessities of their 
 case, and their isolated condition, had fostered a hard, materi- 
 alistic tendency in modes of thought, and the theology of the 
 times had little power to stir and lift the soul. The logic of 
 the intellect had so crystalized about the technics of the day as 
 to allow no exercise for the rhetoric of the feelings. A revo- 
 lution was to be effected in the thought-systems and forms of 
 
49 
 
 the New England churches. The raw, cheerless, dead air of 
 a necessitarian philosophy was to give place to a more genial, 
 life-inspiring atmosphere. Only a thunder-storm that should 
 sweep the entire realm of religious thought, and leave echoes 
 and reverberations here and there skirting the horizon for 
 long years to come, would sift its deadly elements from the 
 moral atmosphere, and give it moisture and vitalizing energy. 
 God works in the spiritual world as truly as in the natural, 
 by laws and agents adapted to the end in view. In the line 
 of this thought is a fact worthy of our special notice just here. 
 The eighteenth century produced, in these New England 
 churches, a number of stalwart Christian thinkers, and the first 
 half of the present century was marked by the appearance of 
 just that conflict of opinion which is incidental to real progress, 
 in the apprehension of spiritual truth. Without naming 
 others, of whom there were many, we may notice six eminent 
 divines who may be said to have prepared the way for, and 
 contributed largely to, that battle of the bishops which was in 
 progress fifty years ago called by one writer the " Connecti- 
 cut Controversy," and some of the veterans in which were just 
 resting upon their laurels when I entered the ministry. Let 
 me name them in the order of their birth, and do not fail to 
 observe that five of them were natives of our little State, and 
 the sixth did his life-work in it. Jonathan Edwards was born 
 at Windsor in 1T03 ; Joseph Bellamy at New Cheshire in 1719 ; 
 Samuel Hopkins at Waterbury in 1721 ; Nathaniel Emmons 
 at East Haddam in 1745 ; Timothy Dwight at Northampton 
 in 1752 ; and Charles G. Finney at Warren in 1792. These 
 names are as household words in the discussions and Christ- 
 ian activities of the present century. Beginning with Jona- 
 than Edwards, who wrestled with the mighty problem of sin 
 and salvation while teaching savages in the wilderness, and 
 closing with Charles G. Finney, who swept the broad and 
 barren field of logical skepticism with the fire of a new 
 spiritual life, the last century gave birth to the efficient agents 
 in a grand movement forward and upward of Christian 
 thought and purpose. 
 
 7 
 
50 
 
 The progress has been slow, and some of the steps in it have 
 seemed for a time to be backward rather than forward, but 
 viewed as a whole the trend of thought and feeling has been 
 steadily in advance. From 1750 to 1850 we easily trace the 
 steps of progress toward this result, and this Institution is an 
 incidental product of the transition process. 
 
 Already had the sturdy logic of Edwards, blended with the 
 facile rhetoric of D wight, and fired with the fervor, aggres- 
 sive zeal and questioned methods of Finney, brought on an 
 irrepressible conflict of views and utterances, when I first 
 became a servant of the churches. A host of Christian cham- 
 pions were wrestling with the new thought-forms which the 
 spirit of progress demanded. To me, then, they seemed like 
 giants, and I doubt not they were honestly, as they certainly 
 were earnestly, contending for the faith once delivered to the 
 saints. The rank and file of our Connecticut ministers recog- 
 nized as worthy leaders such men as Dow of Thomson, Yale 
 of New Hartford, Cleveland of New Haven, Hewett of Bridge- 
 port, Calhoun of Coventry, Nettleton the Evangelist, and 
 Perkins of West Hartford, who did not fully agree with 
 Porter of Farmington, McEwen of New London, Goodrich of 
 New Haven, Bushnell of Hartford, Bacon of New Haven, 
 and Arms of Norwich, in the choice of terms and methods to 
 be used in their work. These valiant soldiers, with others of 
 equal worth and ability, too numerous to name in this brief 
 sketch, were in active service on the field, when, as a raw recruit, 
 I entered the ranks on duty. Noble men they were, loyal to 
 the Master, and seeking the spread of truth, but having gifts 
 differing and seeing the truth under different phases or 
 aspects, it quite naturally followed that some of the words 
 they employed were not fitly chosen, and not always fitly 
 spoken. But we trust they have all now entered those realms 
 of light and harmony, where they see as they are seen and 
 know as they are known, and these differences by which they 
 were so disturbed in the flesh have melted away in the light 
 and warmth of the Sun of Righteousness. 
 
 We have thus a background upon which to set the picture 
 of Dr. Tyler. It will doubtless seem to you that the back- 
 
51 
 
 ground is made the chief feature of the picture. There are 
 two reasons for this. First, the face itself has been already 
 drawn in his published memoir, to which, as a portrait of the 
 man himself, I cannot hope to add, and which you would not 
 wish me to repeat. And secondly, to get a right view of the 
 man we must see him as he was encircled by the earnest 
 Christian men of his day, intent upon what seemed to them 
 a momentous issue. Upon this background he rises before 
 us, the central figure of a school or phalanx, over against 
 whom, in a like aspect of leadership, was Dr. Taylor of New 
 Haven. It was my privilege as a student to sit at the feet of 
 both, and it is my pleasure fcere to express a high admiration 
 of them, as able, honest, and earnest teachers and preachers 
 of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Differing widely in mental 
 structure and furniture, each possessed a special fitness for 
 the position he occupied on the battle-field of the hour. Tak- 
 ing their observations from different stand-points, it was nat- ' 
 ural that they should emphasize different truths, and different 
 phases of the same truth. It brings out the features of Dr. 
 Tyler more minutely to mark the difference between the two. 
 In both there is reverence for the truth, and zeal in proclaim- 
 ing it. In one it is reverence for the truth as formulated by 
 the fathers. In the other it is reverence for the truth as per- 
 sonally apprehended. With Dr. Tyler there was something 
 valuable in old associations. He loved not only truth, but 
 the familiar dress which it wore. Besides, he was distrustful 
 of human speculations. With him faith had no need of phil- 
 osophy as a voucher. Not what man can comprehend, but 
 what God has revealed, was with him the ruling question. 
 Yet he would retain and use the old technical terms as the 
 signs of living ideas, not as the monuments of dead ones. 
 Nor would he allow rhetorical beauties to harden into logical 
 perplexities. To know and teach the truth as revealed in the 
 word of God was his guiding, purpose. While partial to the 
 old terms and methods, he was not blind to new aspects of 
 truth and new expressions for it. Indeed, so kindly did he 
 carry himself toward any improvement in this respect, that 
 at one time he fell under the suspicion of favoring the " new 
 
52 
 
 departure " of his day, and was under formal surveillance by 
 certain strict constructionists, as tending to a departure from 
 the faith. Nor is it difficult to see by a comparison of his 
 earliest with his latest writings, that his own views of truth 
 were modified and enlarged by his study and criticism of the 
 views of others. But his loyalty to the word of God was 
 unfeigned and steadfast. 
 
 With our canvas and its background thus prepared, if we 
 view Dr. Tyler in a comparison with others, say Drs. Tay- 
 lor, Hewett, Goodrich, Calhoun, and Porter of Farmington, 
 it will help us to get the more important features of the man. 
 While he differed from each of tkese in character as a whole, 
 he combined their leading features in well-rounded and hap- 
 pily-balanced harmony. The adventurous assurance of Tay- 
 lor ; the dictatorial push of Hewett ; the quick zeal of Good- 
 rich ; the stern conservatism of Calhoun ; and the winning 
 benevolence of Porter, make striking personal contrasts when 
 put in bold relief and distinct outline upon the same canvas. 
 But the Divine Artist so wrought the extremes of these vir- 
 tuous impulses into a golden mean of true saintliness in the 
 character of Dr. Tyler, that his face alone upon the picture 
 gives us their embodied harmony. This happy combination 
 of qualities fitted him for the special relation in which he 
 stood to this institution, and to the churches and ministers of 
 his time. 
 
 As a man he was well furnished, and of comprehensive 
 affinities for all the relations of life. The well-ordered Chris- 
 tian family was to him an earthly paradise. There, in all the 
 quiet beauty and loveliness of chastened piety, he scattered 
 benedictions and was refreshed by the responses of love and 
 devotion. Mild and loving as a husband and father, yet 
 always firm for the right at the home altar; kind, cheerful, 
 and genial as a companion, a friend, a 1 neighbor, the large- 
 hearted benevolence written upon his face found constant 
 play in the more social relations of life. 
 
 As a pastor he was impartial, sympathetic, and tender in 
 all required ministries ; as a preacher he was always instruc- 
 tive, often very earnest, and sometimes he brought a magnetic 
 
53 
 
 influence to bear upon the attentive hearer ; as a reasoner he 
 was methodical rather than incisive, and sought more to per- 
 suade than to compel men to believe ; as a teacher he was 
 winsome and helpful in developing truth rather than imperi- 
 ous and positive in stating it. In form, of medium height, 
 with broad shoulders and full chest ; a ruddy face, susceptible 
 of varied expression ; a mild eye that often kindled with feel- 
 ing, and a physique noticeable for its symmetry, Dr. Tyler 
 stood among the noble Christian workers of his day, the 
 embodiment of qualities and powers of a very high order. 
 His life-work developed in happy proportions practical theol- 
 ogy working through practical religion for the salvation of 
 men. 
 
 Dr. Tyler was born July 10, 1783, in Middlebury, Conn. 
 At the age of seventeen he entered Yale College, and was 
 graduated in 1804. He studied theology with the Eev. Asa- 
 hel Hooker of Goshen, was licensed by the Litchfield North 
 Association in 1806, and was installed pastor of the church 
 in South Britain, June, 1808. In 1822 he was elected and 
 made president of Dartmouth College. In 1828 the Second 
 Church in Portland, Me., invited him to become their pastor, 
 and he accepted the call. When this institution was founded 
 in 1834, he was persuaded to give it his services, and contin- 
 ued at the head of it until 1857, when he resigned. His work 
 was nearly done. He died May 14, 1858. The manner of 
 his death is thus recorded : " On the morning of Friday, May 
 14, 1858, he had taken his usual exercise in the garden of his 
 daughter, Mrs. Greeley, and at nine o'clock entered the house, 
 saying, i I have finished the garden, if I do not live to eat of 
 its fruit.' He was immediately seized with a neuralgic affec- 
 tion in the head and lungs, from which he suffered exceed- 
 ingly. He could not be moved home. His w T ife, children, 
 and grand-children gathered round the bed of the dying 
 patriarch, and received his parting counsels. He was asked 
 if it was a pleasant thought that he should be free from sin. 
 He replied, ' It is the pleasantest thought I have ; ' then 
 added, with characteristic self-distrust, ' But O, if I should be 
 
54 
 
 deceived ! ' He said little about his feelings : ' I am a great 
 sinner, but Christ is a great Saviour.' 'I have not the rav- 
 ishing views which some have had, but I enjoy perfect peace.' 
 ' The heart is very deceitful, but I trust I am not deceived ; 
 I have no fear.' At eight o'clock in the evening he fell asleep 
 in Jesus." 
 
Monograph on Dr. Nettleton. 
 
 ASAHEL NETTLETON was born in North Killingworth, Conn., 
 April 21, 1783, of humble parents. His father, a farmer in 
 moderate circumstances, was esteemed and respected by his 
 neighbors. Both parents were professors of religion, on the 
 Half-way Covenant plan (i. e., on their assent to the covenant 
 of the church though not admitted to the Lord's table 
 they were permitted to present their child for baptism.) 
 There had been for half a century a great religious dearth in 
 New England. But now the Spirit of the Lord was poured 
 out in a copious manner. In connection with a published 
 account of the awakening in North Killingworth, the cases 
 of two or three converts, as described by themselves, were 
 printed, and Nettleton was one of them. " It was about ten 
 months from the time when Mr. Nettleton's attention was 
 first seriously turned to the subject of religion before he 
 obtained peace in believing. "With him, what the old divines 
 termed the t law work] was deep and thorough. This pro- 
 tracted season of conviction gave him a knowledge of the 
 human heart which few possess, and which was doubtless 
 intended by God to prepare him for that preeminent success 
 which attended his labors as a minister of Christ." In the 
 year 1801 the father of Mr. Nettleton died, and as he was the 
 oldest son the care of the family devolved on him. While 
 expecting to spend his days on the farm his mind was actively 
 reflecting upon the condition of lost sinners in the world. 
 When at work in the field, he would often say to himself, " If 
 I might be the means of saving one soul, I should prefer it to 
 all the riches and honors of this world." He would frequently 
 look forward to eternity, and put to himself the question, 
 " What shall I wish I had done, thousands .and millions of 
 
56 
 
 
 
 years hence ? " Samuel J. Mills and Asaliel Nettleton were 
 born on the same day. It is a remarkable fact, that their new 
 birth occurred very nearly at the same time, that their con- 
 victions were similar, and from the commencement their con- 
 secration of the same peculiar cast. Nettleton resolved, under 
 the strong pressure of these convictions, to seek an education. 
 While laboring on the farm, he devoted leisure moments to 
 study, reciting occasionally to his pastor, in the winter teach- 
 ing school, and employing his evenings on studies preparatory 
 to the college course. Thus, in two or three years, he accom- 
 plished his |>lan, and entered the Freshman class of Yale Col- 
 lege, in 1805. At that time he was the only professor of 
 religion in his class. In the winter of 1807-8, a revival of 
 religion began in New Haven and Yale College. He was 
 most active and helpful, and especially sought for by those 
 under conviction, for his experience and wise counsels. He 
 believed, that sinners, properly speaking, never use, but always 
 abuse the means of grace that in all their efforts to escape 
 future misery and secure future happiness, they are influenced 
 by unholy motives, and that their services are mercenary and 
 sinful. In this opinion, which to him appeared to be clearly 
 taught in the Scripture, he was greatly confirmed by his own 
 religious experience. While under conviction of sin, he had 
 such discoveries of his own heart as to impress indelibly upon 
 his mind a conviction of the entire sinfulness of the religious ' 
 services of un renewed men. There was no one point in the- 
 ology on which his mind was more fully established than this ; 
 or one on which he more strenuously insisted during his life, 
 both in the pulpit, and in his conversation with awakened sin- 
 ners. He considered it a point of great practical importance, 
 and particularly useful in destroying the self-righteous hopes 
 of sinners, and in showing them their lost condition, and 
 entire dependence on the grace of God. This was a weapon 
 which he wielded with great power, and which seemed, in his 
 hands, preeminently " the sword of the Spirit." 
 
 I have quoted somewhat at length, this statement of his 
 early and established foundation in the truth, because it is the 
 key, not only to his wonderful mission during the ensuing 
 
57 
 
 twenty-five years, but the main ground upon which he became 
 so strenuous and active and successful in laying the founda- 
 tions of this School of the Prophets fifty years ago. 
 
 During the junior year in Yale College, Nettleton became 
 acquainted with Samuel J. Mills, who had come to New 
 Haven for an interview with him, having heard from a mutual 
 friend that " he intended never to be settled, but to be a 
 missionary to the heathen." They compared views and con- 
 sulted together concerning their future work in Foreign 
 Missions. They "entered into an agreement to avoid all 
 entangling alliances, and to hold themselves in readiness to 
 go to the heathen, whenever God, in his providence, should 
 prepare the way. They also formed the purpose of meeting 
 the next year at Andover, and while pursuing their theolog- 
 ical studies, to mature their plans of future action. This 
 purpose, Mr. Nettleton found himself under the painful 
 necessity of abandoning, on account of a debt which he had 
 contracted, while obtaining his education ; and which he 
 wished to discharge as soon as possible. He felt the disap- 
 pointment deeply. Soon after graduation he accepted the 
 office of butler in College, held it for a year, and devoted 
 what leisure time he could command to theological studies. 
 After that he put himself under the instructions of Rev. 
 Bezaleel Pinneo of Milford, with whom he remained until 
 licensed to preach, by New Haven West Association, May 
 28, 1811. 
 
 It is well known that in 1810, Messrs. Judson, Nott, Mills, 
 and Newell, at that time members of Andover Seminary, 
 presented themselves before the General Association of Mass. 
 in Bradford, and made known their convictions of the duty 
 and importance of personally attempting a mission to the 
 heathen, and requested the advice of the Association, and 
 that this movement led to the formation of the American 
 Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Had Mr. 
 Nettleton fulfilled his plan of going to Andover, doubtless 
 he would have been one of that company. When he heard 
 what had been done, he lamented with tears that he could 
 
 8 
 
58 
 
 not have been there. He feared that Providence thus indi- 
 cated that he should not enter the foreign field. He still, 
 however, cherished the purpose, and did not abandon wholly 
 the hope, till the failure of his health in 1822. After his 
 license to preach, on account of the above intention, he 
 declined to be a candidate for settlement in the ministry, and 
 commenced his labors in some waste places and desolate parts 
 of the Lord's vineyard. His labors were crowned with signal 
 success. Wherever he went the Spirit of God seemed to 
 accompany his preaching. His brethren in the ministry, 
 seeing these extraordinary results, advised him to delay his 
 purpose of leaving the country. Acceding to this advice, it 
 became increasingly apparent, that a great work was needed 
 in the churches at home, and that his labors as evangelist 
 were especially owned of God. Accordingly he was ordained 
 as an evangelist in the summer of 1817, by the South 
 Association of Litchfield County. 
 
 "In the year 1820, the General Association of Connecticut 
 appointed a committee to take into consideration the subject 
 of increasing ministerial labor in the several congregations of 
 their body. They invited Mr. Nettleton to meet with them, 
 and requested his opinion as to the expediency of introducing 
 and supporting an order of Evangelists. He gave it, as his 
 opinion, that it would be inexpedient to introduce and 
 support such an order. He foresaw the evils that would 
 be likely to grow out of the system, if it were made per- 
 manent, and they were the very evils which afterwards arose 
 in some parts of the country, extending their baleful influence 
 to the present time. 
 
 From 1812 to 1822 Mr. Nettleton labored in revivals in 
 different parts of this State and often in waste places, with 
 great power from on high, and with the result of the conver- 
 sion of many precious souls. An account of his work written 
 in 1817, says, "The doctrines taught are those considered as 
 the grand leading truths of the Gospel, viz. : the strict spiritu- 
 ality of the moral law the total depravity of the natural 
 heart its enmity to God the necessity of regeneration by 
 the Holy Spirit an entire dependence on the merits of Jesus 
 
59 
 
 Christ, for justification, pardon, and acceptance our obliga- 
 tions to own Him before men, and to manifest our faith in 
 Him by a holy walk and conversation the divine sovereignty 
 the electing love of God and the final perseverance of 
 the saints, as the only ground of the sinner's hope, and the 
 anchor for the Christian's soul." 
 
 Mr. Nettleton was not the originator of the measures 
 resulting in the formation of the Pastoral Union of Conn., 
 and the establishment of this Theological Institute ; but he 
 was in most hearty sympathy with the purpose of the founders, 
 and took a deep interest in the doctrines declared as the basis 
 of agreement. At the organization he was appointed Professor 
 of Pastoral Duty, but chose not to sustain any official relation 
 to the Institute that he might with the more freedom and effect 
 plead its cause. It may be well to note at this point the esteem 
 in which he was held by the churches, and some of the ablest 
 representatives of the Congregational clergy of New England. 
 When, in 1828, slanderous reports were circulated about him 
 in Virginia, where he was laboring, on account of his faithful- 
 ness and convincing power in preaching, testimonials vouch- 
 ing for his character, and attesting the copious abundance of 
 heavenly blessings upon his public ministrations, were for- 
 warded to the Rev. Dr. John H. Rice of that State, signed 
 by the late Dr. Bacon of New Haven, Pres. Day, Profs. 
 Taylor, Goodrich, and Fitch of Yale College. In the year 
 before, Dr. Lyman Beecher, then of Boston, in a letter to the 
 editor of the Christian Spectator, says: "Mr. Nettleton has 
 served God and his generation with more self-denial, and 
 wisdom, and success, than any man living. I witnessed his 
 commencement and know his progress, and the relative state 
 of things in Connecticut especially, and what (but for his 
 influence in promoting revivals, and exciting, and teaching 
 by example, others to promote them) might have been the 
 condition of the churches in those days of revolution through 
 which they have passed ? And considering how far his knowl- 
 edge and influence have extended, I regard him as beyond 
 comparison, the greatest benefactor which God has given to 
 this nation. Now that such a man as he should be traduced, 
 
60 
 
 and exposed to all manner of evil falsely, is what neither my 
 reason nor my conscience, nor my heart will endure. And 
 in anticipation of the attack which may be, and probably 
 will be made on him, though I am pressed immeasurably 
 with the warfare here, yet sure I am of this, that so long as 
 God spares my life and powers, there is one man certainly, in 
 New England (I know there are thousands) who will consider 
 that in defending him, he defends the cause in one of its most 
 vital points. While I live I am pledged to brother Nettleton 
 by affection, and gratitude, and duty, and nothing could 
 grieve or alarm me more, than to witness in New England, 
 any flinching, or any temporizing in respect to him." Thus 
 spake Lyman Beecher in Boston, when in his prime, he stood 
 up against the encroachments and speculations then practi- 
 cally taking form in this suppressed hostility to Mr. Nettle- 
 ton, and afterwards formulated into a system philosophically 
 undermining the doctrines of grace. 
 
 His views on some points of theology, that were spoken 
 without "bated breath" in the year 1834, are briefly touched 
 in some of his letters at that time. Speaking of a certain 
 class of divines he says : " They admit that there is a tendency, 
 or propensity to sin, in the very constitution of the human 
 mind," but they deny that this tendency is sinful. They also 
 admit that " every effect must have a cause, and that this 
 cause must be prior to the effect." Now I observe that the 
 objections which they allege against the views of their oppo- 
 nents, lie equally against their own. It will be no easier for 
 the sinner to repent and believe against this propensity to 
 sin, than it was while it was called a " sinful propensity." 
 Changing the name of a lion into that of a lamb, will not 
 alter its nature. We have here the new philosophy, that all 
 trees are by nature alike, neither good nor bad, until they 
 bear fruit. And then the tree is not good, but the tree is 
 good only because the fruit is good, and vice versa. " Make 
 the tree good and the fruit will be good," said our Saviour, 
 u for the tree is known by the fruit." " Make the fruit good, 
 and the fruit will be good," says the new philosophy, " for the 
 fruit is known by the fruit. Nothing is good or bad but th<j 
 
61 
 
 fruit. There can be nothing in the tree itself back of the 
 fruit, but what is common to all trees ' pura naturaliaS" 
 
 " On the whole, their views of depravity, of regeneration, and 
 of the mode of preaching to sinners, I think cannot fail of 
 doing very great mischief. This exhibition Overlooks the 
 most alarming feature of human depravity, and the very 
 essence of experimental religion. It is directly adapted to 
 prevent sinners from coming under conviction of sin, and to 
 make them think well of themselves, while in an unregener- 
 ate state. It natters others with the delusion that they may 
 give, or have given their hearts to God, while their propensity 
 to sin remains in all its strength. Entertaining this delusion 
 they cannot be converted. Every sinner under deep convic- 
 tion of sin, knows this statement to be false, so far as his own 
 experience is concerned." " Those who adopt the view I am 
 considering, exhort the sinner to do that only which leaves 
 his propensity to sin in all its strength. Hence conversions 
 are made as easy as you can turn your hand. It is only to 
 resolve and the work is done." This Seminary was founded, 
 as a protest against these views, and to teach a Bibical 
 theology. The writer of this paper can attest the truth of 
 Dr. Nettleton's statement above quoted, from practical exper- 
 ience of that, mode of preaching. The instruction was clear 
 and plain, and even when instinctively refused by a rightly- 
 trained conscience, yet made the very impression above 
 asserted. The practical address was : "Young men, you wish 
 to be Christains go read your Bibles, go and pray, go and 
 do the duty of a Christian, and my word for it, you are a 
 Christian." Some, alas, many it is to be feared, from the 
 present state of the churches, have thus entered into the 
 house of God on earth, while knowing nothing of their own 
 hearts, and still less of Christ as their sacrificial substitute 
 before God for everything. The impression then received 
 was one of satisfaction, in thinking that any time I chose, I 
 could come to that resolution, and then the Spirit of God 
 would put forth His saving influence. As Dr. Nettleton says 
 in another letter, I was taught that " every step in the pro- 
 gress of conviction and conversion, is in direct opposition to 
 
62 
 
 these sentiments." The men who advanced these new views, 
 and as they thought important improvements in theology, 
 were brethren beloved, for whom he felt a tender regard, 
 while compelled to dissent from their philosophical specula- 
 tions, on what he held as the most vital point of Scripture 
 truth. 
 
 A large part of the time during his illness, tho' enduring 
 protracted and severe sufferings, his mind was vigorous and 
 active. His resignation and patience were marvelous. The 
 Bible was the man of his counsel. It had been his study for 
 forty years. His Greek Testament and Concordance, were 
 by him daily, for critical study as the Apostle says he was 
 " expounding spiritual things by the words of the Spirit." He 
 often stayed at my father's house when I was young, and his 
 presence was like the sun for general warmth and blessing. 
 I remember one morning, as I sat gazing on his benevolent 
 face, which seemed to light up, as with some peculiar radiance, 
 he turned and smiling sweetly, called me by name, and said 
 "God commandeth all men, every where now to repent." 
 There was no entreaty, no explanation, but with the words j 
 came a look, a meaning, a power, that have not left my con- 
 science to this day. It was one of the very first indelible 
 impressions on my memory. 
 
 His happy way of impressing truth, would be most valuable 
 in this day of open scoffers and latent skepticism, or perhaps 
 one should say " mental reservation " as that is the way many 
 creeds are digested. Meeting a Universalist who wished to 
 discuss "future punishment," he kindly asked him to state his 
 views, so that he could think them over. The man accord- 
 ingly said, in his opinion, all received their punishment in 
 this life, and would be happy after death. Dr. N. asked him to 
 explain certain Scriptures, as Matt. 25th and others, referring 
 to future judgment, and suggesting to him difficulties for him 
 to solve, without calling in question any of his positions. He 
 then asked him if he believed the account of the Deluge and 
 of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, given by Moses 
 in the Scriptures. " Certainly," he replied. " It seems then," 
 said Dr. N., " that the world was very corrupt, and God deter- 
 
63 
 
 mined to destroy it by a deluge. He sent Noah to warn the 
 people. They would not believe him, and the flood came, 
 notwithstanding their unbelief, and, if your theory be true, 
 swept them all up to Heaven. And what became of Noah, 
 that faithful servant of God ? He was tossed to and fro on the 
 waters, and was doomed to trials and suffering for three hun- 
 dred and fifty years longer in this evil world ; whereas, if he 
 had been wicked enough, he might have gone up to Heaven 
 with the rest. So with the cities of the plain." After making 
 this statement, he requested the man tcf reflect on these things, 
 and bade him adieu. A Kestorationist once attacked him, 
 and quoted the words from the First Epistle of Peter, to sup- 
 port the doctrine, " By which, He also went and preached to 
 the spirits in prison." Doctor Nettleton observed to him 
 that the time was specified in the next verse, when Christ 
 preached to these spirits in prison. It was "when once the 
 long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah." It was 
 by the Spirit which dwelt in Noah, that he preached to those 
 who are now spirits in prison. u No, "said the man, "that 
 cannot be the meaning of the passage. The meaning is, that 
 Christ, after His crucifixion, went down to hell, and preached 
 to the spirits in prison." " Be it so," said Dr. Nettleton, " what 
 did He preach ? " "I do not know," he replied, " but I sup- 
 pose He preached the Gospel." " Do you think," said Dr. 
 Nettleton, "that He preached to them anything different 
 from what He preached on earth ? " " Certainly not," said 
 he. " Well," said Dr. Nettleton, " when Christ was on earth, 
 He told sinners that if they should be cast into prison they 
 should not come out thence till they had paid the uttermost 
 farthing. If He went down to hell to preach to the lost 
 spirits there, He doubtless told them ' You must remain here 
 till you have suffered all that your sins deserve.' What 
 influence then would His preaching have, towards releasing 
 them from the place of torment ? " Dr .Nettleton thus had 
 amazing power, through his intimate knowledge of the human 
 heart in its enmity against God, and his intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the Person of God, revealed through Christ in the 
 Scriptures. 
 
64 
 
 Thus led by the Spirit of God, the graces of the Spirit were 
 abundantly manifested in him. His humility was conspicu- 
 ous. A friend who knew him intimately says : " He was 
 remarkably free from the love of applause. When any one 
 spoke to him of the good he was doing he would sometimes, 
 reply, ' We have no time to talk about that,' and frequently I 
 have known him to turn pale and retire from the company, 
 and prostrate himself before God as a great and unworthy 
 sinner.'' 
 
 His meekness was rnanifest to all who knew him. He bore 
 afflictions of various kinds, the most from those who were 
 enemies of Christ, and who were exasperated by the force and 
 pungency of his preaching. For such he prayed earnestly, 
 and not a few were brought hopefully to repentance and 
 became his ardent friends. His great love for the cardinal 
 doctrines of grace led him to take the deepest interest in this 
 Seminary. Its establishment is largely owing to the seed 
 sown by this man of God, in the country congregations of 
 this State, and his intimate relations with faithful ministers 
 for many years previous to its organization. 
 
 We cannot better close this imperfect sketch of the great 
 evangelist, so honored of God in New England, and to whom 
 this Institute is so much indebted, than by quoting his advice 
 to a student of theology. Writing to a student he speaks of 
 the theme he knew the best, and " tho' dead, he yet speak- 
 eth," and his words of wisdom may profit us all. " What is 
 the best mode of dealing with anxious souls ? Much may be 
 said and written to profit, but after all we might as well ask 
 and answer the question c What is the best method of treating 
 all manner of sicknesses, and all manner of diseases among 
 the people ? ' We may talk about the best means of doing 
 good, but after all, the greatest difficulty lies in doing it with 
 a proper spirit. Speaking the truth in love. In meekness 
 instructing those that oppose themselves. With the meekness and 
 gentleness of Christ" In this spirit he lived and wrought, 
 greatly honored of God. His work ended witli his life, the 
 16th May, IStt-i. But his influence and power, wrought into 
 other lives by the Spirit of God, still are felt in the churches 
 
65 
 
 of Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, and Virginia, 
 where he helped to gather in the spiritual harvests. 
 
 In reviewing the life of this wonderful man of God, we 
 have been impressed with the importance and results of his 
 mission among the churches, in its relation to the great work 
 of Foreign Missions. Under the Spirit of God, his work here 
 for the production of a new type of Christian character seems 
 to have been as essential for sustaining missions abroad, as the 
 heroic consecration and extraordinary faith of the pioneers 
 themselves. 
 
 We have traced, in a desultory way, his aptness for the work 
 of educating and training young converts, his deep and 
 thorough knowledge of Biblical theology, his connection 
 with the beginnings of this Seminary, the proof of his wis- 
 dom and foresight, in the results seen to-day, of the specula- 
 tions then advanced, as needed by the greater enlightenment 
 of the age ; his thorough conviction, at the end of life, of 
 the truth of the principles he had maintained from the Word. 
 In all this life-work, his personal bearing and grace fitly illus- 
 trated the true spirit of the Gospel in his interest for, and 
 friendly advice, to students, his charity and urbanity with 
 opponents, his gifts and power for personal application of 
 the truth to the individual conscience, as well as his supernat- 
 ural power in the use of the Word upon public assemblies. 
 
 The battle for truth revealed, supernatural, and divine, is 
 commencing again, on virtually the same old grounds of the 
 past, but with a change in the disposition of the forces, and 
 an advance of lines upon the very citadel of God, intimating 
 the nearness of a great crisis ! The progress of illumination 
 to-day assails the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and prac- 
 tically reduces it to the judgment of the human will. A 
 half-century since the human will only claimed power to 
 regenerate itself. Now it sits in judgment on the Word of 
 God. One lesson of this illustrious life is, that we must 
 maintain the absolute authority of the objective revelation of 
 God, through his Son, in the Holy Scriptures, and to that 
 end, the plenary verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, in every 
 
66 
 
 word and letter of the original text. Especially from the testi- 
 monies seen in this life, we are bound to maintain the full 
 and efficacious office of the Holy Spirit now to reveal the defi- 
 nite provisions of the atonement of Christ, in their vicarious 
 application to sinners as essential to any integrity, in the 
 preaching of the Gospel. And unless sin is what God says it 
 is, in its infinite guilt and demerit, and deserving of what He 
 declares it deserves, in its unending purpose and final restraint, 
 we have no use for any Bible, and this man, and all the 
 ancient heroes of faith, as well as our Blessed Lord Himself, 
 have lived and died in vain ! 
 
The Biblical Teaching of the Seminary, Its distinctive 
 
 Feature. 
 
 It is not a new thing for a theological seminary to claim to 
 be Biblical in its teaching. Indeed, it is to be hoped that it 
 will be many a day before any institution of the kind will not 
 claim to be Biblical. But it requires scarcely a single glance 
 backward in history to discover that much instruction which 
 was once called Biblical would not now be accepted as such. 
 What we rejoice over on this glad occasion, is the fact that 
 this institution, in its genesis and its exodus, as well as in its 
 present land of promise, has rested, and does rest upon the 
 Word of God. The Bible here is not so much a problem as 
 a fact ; or better still, perhaps, an aggregation of facts. The 
 efforts of this Seminary are not mainly expended in discuss- 
 ing whether, on the whole, the Bible would better be accepted 
 or not ; or what eliminations the closing nineteenth century 
 demands. While affording the fullest opportunity for clear- 
 ing the atmosphere around such inquiries, it is no part of the 
 purpose of this institution to take anything like the attitude 
 of dictation regarding the divine revelation, or to sit in judg- 
 ment upon the Word of God, as if that were incomplete with- 
 out its approval. Hence the influence of the instruction here 
 is not to impress the pupil that the Bible is beclouded with a 
 mist of uncertainty, which it is his mission to explain away. 
 
 Trite as this may appear, is it not a point to be empha- 
 sized ? Is it not a self-evident proposition that, given a 
 Christian theological seminary, there is an accepted rev- 
 elation from God as the reason for the existence of that 
 institution ? And yet it is something, is it not, for the Chris- 
 tian public to be assured beyond a doubt that a theological 
 seminary holds, and impresses upon the minds of its students, 
 strong convictions that the Bible Is ? 
 
68 
 
 What is meant, then, when we point to Biblical teaching as 
 the distinctive feature of our beloved institution, may be found 
 in three questions which indicate the character of study and 
 research in each department, t viz. : "Has God spoken to 
 men ? Has he so spoken that his utterances can be known 
 with certainty ? " And last, " What has he said ? " Around 
 these three questions the entire system of instruction here may 
 be found, as the radii of a circle spring from its single center 
 and touch the circumference in every direction, however dis- 
 tant. Just here, perhaps, lies one point of its distinction. 
 The aim is not simply to give the student a seminary cast, 
 but to so direct his study of the Bible that he shall receive 
 his moulding influence from the Word of God. 
 
 In these halls it is not considered necessary to spend so 
 large a portion of the student's time over the first question of 
 this trio, or even the second ; but it is the conviction of this 
 Seminary that, without controversy, and with proof as mani- 
 fest as it is manifold, God has spoken to man, and in such a 
 way that we may know what his utterances are. Beginning 
 with such a conviction, and holding it with unflinching stead- 
 fastness, the main purpose of the teaching of this institution 
 may be said to be not so much to instruct young men in a 
 slavish knowledge of what God has said ; and so to send 
 them forth to repeat, parrot-like, what they have already 
 heard, for it is not intended that the graduate of this Sem- 
 inary shall go out into the world merely to sprinkle in con- 
 venient places the few drops he may have received from a 
 theological hydrant ; but the grand intent, and we can con- 
 ceive of no higher aim, is to teach the student how to find 
 out for himself what the Word of God is. It is not to per- 
 suade him of what has been held or said on a few controver- 
 sial points, not to take him over solitary passages which 
 have been the historic battlefields of theology ; but to so equip 
 him that he can be at home in all parts of Scripture, and at 
 every point. It is desired here, we may affirm, to send out 
 the graduates into the warfare against error, and for truth, 
 not bearing simply a single sword, but being in themselves 
 well-furnished arsenals ready for the use of the Holy Spirit. 
 
69 
 
 Such an aim as this makes the seminary preeminently a place 
 for work. It converts the class and lecture-room into a work- 
 shop. It requires the personal contact of the instructor with 
 his pupil. The student must not only be a listener, but a 
 worker ; he has not merely the opportunity to hear and know 
 what Bible scholars think and hold, but, if it is in him, he 
 can scarcely fail of becoming, in some useful degree, a Bible 
 scholar himself. This purpose is in perfect keeping with what 
 was once said to the officers and friends of this institution in 
 an inaugural address, and what every student has found true 
 doubtless, in each department, viz., that Biblical teaching 
 here, means preparing young men in the ministry to study 
 the Bible after the strictly scientific method. That is, the 
 discovery, and orderly, accurate arrangement of facts, facts 
 historical, facts ethical, and facts spiritual, with the triune 
 God as their authority. 
 
 It means such deductions, and only such as are clearly based 
 upon this scientific investigation. It means conclusions which 
 are not merely concerning the Bible, or like the Bible, or in 
 possible harmony with the Word of God, but conclusions 
 which are God's Word. 
 
 Hence it is but just to claim that Biblical teaching here 
 means a conviction that God gave his message to man in 
 human language, language in use, and subject to the modi- 
 fications and limitations of the peoples to which it was first 
 spoken. It means that the first, best, and only correct step 
 in learning what God has declared to be his will, is to defi- 
 nitely ascertain the law of the language, the history of the 
 times, and the circumstances of the manifestation in which 
 the Word was given. Then when such steps have been care- 
 fully taken, it is considered no discredit to label conclusions 
 
 so obtained, 
 
 DOCTRINES. 
 
 It is strength, not weakness, that facts thus established 
 should naturally arrange themselves in harmonious order, 
 and that Biblical teaching in this Seminary should mean a 
 system of divine truth which is at once scientific and authori- 
 tative. 
 
70 
 
 Again, it follows as a legitimate and natural result of this 
 method that Biblical teaching, in this center of Biblical study, 
 also means 
 
 CANDOR. 
 
 On the one hand, the past is not worshiped, as if no more 
 light were to " break forth from the Word of God ; " on the 
 other, the past is not discarded, as if no light had broken forth 
 already. The consecrated labors of former years and centu- 
 ries, are welcomed as making vastly more valuable the dis- 
 coveries of the present. Here are sought the true of all 
 times. The results here reached are intended to be the sum 
 of the best 'of the ages, that we may the more accurately come 
 to the knowledge of the exact Word of God. 
 
 Further, Biblical teaching carried on in this spirit of can- 
 dor means 
 
 DEVOTJTNESS. 
 
 Such a method of careful scientific study naturally leads to 
 the stimulation of the devotional nature. For the nearer we 
 get to an adequate, faithful understanding of the human side 
 of God's revelation, the more we are kindled by the divine. 
 The grammar, the lexicon, and the hard work of detail, such 
 as every scholar in these halls is expected to perform, are true 
 factors in spiritual illumination. The student who is con- 
 scious that he is able to ascertain what God has said, has an 
 inspiration in that very fact ; he feels no need of substituting 
 his wits for Scripture. Indeed, the nearer he gets to what 
 God has declared, the less his own wisdom seems adequate to 
 take its place, the less inclined will he be to ascribe either 
 value or authority to his own speculations. 
 
 Beyond this, we can rightfully claim that Biblical teaching, 
 conducted here after scientific method, with a candid temper, 
 and in a devout spirit, can scarcely become less than Biblical 
 
 AUTHORITY. 
 
 The real power of the preacher lies, in no small measure, 
 in the Word spoken with conscious authority. But whence 
 comes authority so much as from contact with the Author ? 
 It has been truly said that meeting Christ in the Divine 
 
71 
 
 Word, the student is made conscious of the authority of the 
 message he bears. This gives him power. Is the present 
 need of the pulpit, toward the filling of which this Seminary 
 is endeavoring to do its part, greater in any direction, than 
 that it shall be occupied by men who carry with their word 
 the conviction that they are speaking what God has bidden 
 them utter ? If there is any confusion in the assemblies of 
 the Lord's house, has it not often arisen because those who 
 stand before the people have shown themselves to be uncer- 
 tain of their authority ? The soul of man is something which 
 will not be bound by any authority less than that of God ; 
 so that the real power of preaching is in proportion to the 
 conviction it carries of the authority of God behind it. It is 
 when men hear a voice saying : " Thus saith the Lord, thou 
 art the man ; " when they see the finger that points to them, 
 to be the finger of God, and when they forget the man and 
 feel the presence of the Almighty, it is then, and only then 
 we may be sure, that work of eternal value will be done. 
 
 It is for this cause that we congratulate ourselves to-day. 
 The Biblical teaching here, puts the student into such close 
 contact with the very Word of God, without the intervention, 
 or discoloration of philosophical spectacles, that he must of 
 necessity feel the life in it, and be himself infused by it. 
 Thus equipped, he goes forth to his life work to give no 
 uncertain sound concerning the truth God hath sent to the 
 children of men. 
 
 We are confident that Biblical teaching, as thus imperfectly 
 outlined, is the distinctive feature of this Seminary, not only 
 because we see it to be so, but this also is the impression 
 made wherever its work is felt. In speaking of the graduates 
 of this institution, one of the honored fathers of Connecticut, 
 whose wide experience and observation give no little weight 
 to his testimony, said this of their examinations before instal- 
 ling councils : " These men seem to believe something ; they 
 know what it is, why it is, and how to defend it." Not long 
 since, also, a professor in this. Seminary, was called to occupy 
 for a Sabbath, a pulpit in a prominent New England city. 
 The day after, a deacon of the church, who was a leading 
 
72 
 
 business man, was asked how the preaching of the Hartford 
 representative impressed him. Quick as thought he replied : 
 " Well, one thing is certain, they don't have any fooling down 
 there." 
 
 There is weighty testimony, if not elegance, in that reply. 
 It shows, as does the witness from the church councils, that 
 the Gospel as found by the devout, scientific method of Bibli- 
 cal teaching in this institution, is no uncertain sound, but that 
 it is solid, authoritative, and convincing. 
 
 It is something to be noted also, in this anniversary, that 
 this Biblical teaching never was more a distinctive feature of 
 the Seminary than at present. 
 
 If it is true that these closing years of the fifty which this 
 institution has had of life and labor, have been marked by 
 disturbance in the ebb and flow of the theological tides, it is 
 still a fact that our. own alma mater has remained true, with 
 increasing loyalty, to the authority, and adequacy of the Word 
 of God as we have it. If in any quarter, the hold upon the 
 Bible has appeared to be loosening, her grasp has seemed to 
 be the firmer. Truly, she has been like that house upon 
 which the rain descended, and against which floods came and 
 winds blew, but " it fell not for it was founded upon a rock." 
 She too, in her present character, and influence, and in her 
 honorable constituency as well, is a potent example of the 
 enduring, and ennobling nature of the truth to which she 
 holds fast. 
 
 But even though it is an anniversary that we this day cele- 
 brate, our faces are not backward, but forward. Looking into 
 those years which are just before us, nearest now, but which 
 will be farthest away from those who shall observe the cen- 
 tennial year, when most of us shall have laid down our armor, 
 looking into these nearer years, who what alumni have 
 greater reason for joyful confidence than we, in the future of 
 our Seminary ? Our expectancy is not the flush of a new 
 experiment. We are not here to hoist the banner of a new 
 system, uncertain at its very .best. But we rejoice in the 
 belief that the prosperity, and the usefulness of this institu- 
 tion are assured as long as it is the business here not merely 
 
73 
 
 to furnish men with a few nuggets of gold for distribution, 
 but to equip them with such implements, and to give them 
 such knowledge of their use, as will make them independent, 
 successful miners in the galleries of God's spoken revelation. 
 Such men will not have much time or taste for a noisy proc- 
 lamation of their own " views," they will be so busy, and so 
 earnest in telling, 
 
 " The old, old story that men have loved so long." 
 
 While we see, in the Biblical teaching of this Seminary, an 
 element of its safety and its growth, it is not for us, above all 
 men, to forget the utterances of God himself on this matter : 
 " The grass wi there th, the flower fadeth, but the Word of our 
 God shall stand forever." "Heaven and earth shall pass 
 away, but my Word shall not pass away." They stand long- 
 est and surest who stand nearest to the Word. 
 
 So of the glory of this institution ; it is not worth while to 
 ask any other than that which comes from the same source. 
 
 Some of us will not soon forget a remark made by one of 
 the instructors here in the days when the classes were smaller 
 than at this date. Referring to the increase of students, he 
 said : " Young men, what we must seek in this Seminary is 
 quality not quantity." This is the true watch-word for the 
 alumni in desiring the glory of our beloved school of the 
 prophets ; it is quality rather than size. It is the glory of the 
 reflected light of the Word of God. As long as Biblical 
 teaching shall thus be the distinctive feature of this institu- 
 tion, just so long will the glory of God in the Holy Spirit 
 overshadow the character and the work of those who come 
 and go, in and out of the Hartford Theological Seminary. 
 
 10 
 
The Theological Seminary and Foreign Missions. 
 
 The origin of foreign missions in New England was con- 
 temporary with that of theological seminaries. The first 
 known instance within the present century of personal con- 
 secration to the foreign service was by an undergraduate 
 at "Williams College, the same year that Andover Sem- 
 inary was founded ; while the first class from that Semin- 
 ary graduated the same year with the organization of the 
 American Board. It will always remain a suggestive incident 
 that Mr. John Norris of Salem, being deeply impressed with 
 the claims of missions, and often uttering the sentiment, 
 " The missionary object is the greatest in the world ! " was at 
 first disposed to give only five thousand dollars toward an 
 endowment at Andover ; but on the suggestion of his wife, 
 that the two objects are the same, he made the amount ten 
 thousand dollars. Later, his widow bequeathed thirty thousand 
 to the Seminary, and an equal sum in aid of missions to the 
 heathen. 
 
 Among the fathers, founders, and early officers of the insti- 
 tution whose semi-centenary we celebrate to-day, there was 
 not wanting a regard to the interests of foreign evangelism. 
 They were men neither of narrow minds nor of shriveled 
 sympathies. Among them were those who had weighed 
 seriously the duty of going in person to the heathen ; who 
 prayed for the universal spread of the Gospel, whose contri- 
 butions to that object were not small, though they made large 
 sacrifices for the new Seminary. One of them gave a son to 
 Africa, where he has already spent thirty-five years of Christian 
 service among the Zulus. We might expect that such a spirit 
 would impart character, in some good measure, to the senti- 
 ment of successive classes of students. Recent correspond- 
 
75 
 
 ence with living alumni who have been, or are now in foreign 
 fields, bears testimony that the monthly concert of prayer was 
 maintained here with interest ; that the missionary meetings 
 of Tuesday evening were far the best ; that seldom did a stu- 
 dent absent himself; that a union of those contemplating 
 foreign work was early formed, and that love for missions was 
 sustained by the personal interest of the Professors. " I spent 
 but one year my senior year in Hartford Seminary," writes 
 a graduate, " but it is a year full of blessed memories, because 
 it brought me nearer to Christ ; gave me an intense longing to 
 know and do only his will ; to seek souls, not place ; to labor 
 anywhere and in any way that might best promote the glory 
 of Him who redeemed us with his most precious blood. 
 Willingness to labor as a foreign missionary became in Hart- 
 ford Seminary a decision to do so, if God should open the 
 way." 
 
 An alumnus who has for ten years had charge of a mission 
 theological seminary, expresses the conviction, in a letter just 
 received, that all candidates for the ministry, including 
 those for foreign service, should become familiarized with the 
 principles and leading methods of evangelistic work abroad 
 as well as at home, not that a training-school for missionaries 
 should be established, but that in the lecture-rooms of exist- 
 ing institutions there should be instruction beyond what is 
 generally given at present. This falls in with the theme 
 assigned to me the place of missions in a theological curricu- 
 lum ; and it is a happy circumstance that what I have to say 
 can be said without the least comparative reflection upon the 
 past or the present of Hartford Seminary. 
 
 As regards distinct, formal instruction on this subject, what is 
 the condition of things in training-schools for the ministry 
 throughout our land ? The question is not whether interest 
 in missions has been felt, and whether, in the department of 
 church history, more or less of instruction has been given ; 
 but the question is. What status has Evangelistic Theology, 
 as a branch by itself? ~Not till January, 1867, was permanent 
 provision made for distinct instruction in this line, at any one 
 of our professional schools. The endowment of the Hyde 
 
76 
 
 Lectureship of Foreign Missions in the Andover Seminary, 
 with a fund of five thousand dollars, less than a score of years 
 since, marked an epoch in ministerial training. Nothing 
 could be more appropriate than that the oldest seminary in our 
 country save, perhaps, that of the Moravians, at Bethlehem, 
 Pennsylvania the foster mother of so many sons who have 
 entered foreign missionary fields, should take the lead in an 
 an arrangement of this kind. True, fifty years ago the 
 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, with a 
 breadth of enterprise quite in advance of that period, insti- 
 tuted a chair at Princeton, with a social, though not exclu- 
 sive regard to this subject ; but it was filled for only a short 
 time. Seven years after the founding of the Lectureship at 
 Andover, the Union Theological Seminary of New York city 
 established a mixed professorship of " pastoral theology, 
 church polity and mission work," and the incumbent lectures 
 twice a week to the junior class, through the first term, on the 
 subject last named. That was the next instance in which this 
 department of ministerial propaedeutics found recognition in 
 a permanent organic form. 
 
 From a comparative survey of theological institutions in 
 the United States, it would seem that those of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church come abreast w T ith the most advanced in 
 distinctness of aim as relates to this department. What else 
 might be expected of a denomination in which the missionary 
 idea is, to so commendable a degree, dominant an idea which 
 enters formally into the very constitution and prescribed 
 administration of the church. The first seminary of that 
 denomination, for theological training, was established at 
 Concord, New Hampshire, in 1847 ; was twenty years after- 
 wards removed to Boston, and is now the School of Theology 
 connected with the Boston University. In its curriculum is 
 a missionary course ; but the elaborate plan has not been car- 
 ried out, though it only awaits required funds. Yet for 
 thirteen years past, a weekly lecture on some missionary 
 topic has been supplied by one of the Faculty, and special 
 courses are also occasionally delivered by gentlemen from out- 
 side. The Drew Theological Seminary at Madison, New 
 
77 
 
 Jersey, announces that it aims to give due prominence to 
 those kinds of instruction which are needed by students propos- 
 ing to go as missionaries to foreign countries, and by ministers 
 at home. They are referred to the best books on the history 
 of missions, and are required to become particularly familiar 
 with the history, the fields of labor and plans of action of their 
 own missionary society. The subject is presented to them by 
 lectures, with reference to those paragraphs of the church 
 discipline which officially set forth the method of raising and 
 appropriating funds also to the annual reports of their 
 missionary society. After explanations and sufficient time 
 for consulting the references given, each man is required to be 
 prepared to state exhaustively the whole topic or any part of 
 it, with a view to his being qualified to present the claims of 
 the society to any congregation, so as to secure its intelligent 
 and liberal support. 
 
 The inquiry here arises, Where, in the field of institutional 
 studies, a chair of missions may have place what are its 
 logical relationships ? Biblical Theology supplies the starting- 
 point; and among urgent desiderata oi the day one worthy 
 of the highest scholarship is painstaking, exhaustive exege- 
 sis, together with inferential exposition of all Scriptures relat- 
 ing to the nature and compass of the Messianic Kingdom ; to 
 the character, condition, and destiny of the unevangelized ; to 
 the universal need and universal adaptation of Christianity, 
 and to its predicted triumphs. 
 
 Thence we would pass to the department of Practical The- 
 ology, and gather into systematic form, the teachings of our 
 Lord and His Apostles, regarding the bounden aggressiveness 
 of Christianity; the proper motives for evangelizing the 
 heathen ; the need of general consecration to the work ; the 
 power and need of prayer specifically for the coming of the 
 Kingdom. The principles, forms,-and proceedings of home 
 organizations; the policies and methods of missions abroad, 
 with a multitude of topics, will engage the instructor's atten- 
 tion. In both Biblical Theology and Biblical Ethics there 
 would be left a domain too broad ever to be exhausted by their 
 respective professors. 
 
78 
 
 Then comes the obvious element which gives this subject a 
 place in church history. There is certainly required a glance 
 at primative gospel promulgation, including the causes and 
 consequences of decline in evangelistic zeal ; mediaeval mis- 
 sions ; modern Roman Catholic propagandism ; tentative 
 Protestant efforts in the seventeenth century ; the rise of 
 organized evangelism among heathen nations at the begin- 
 ning of the last century ; the signal growth thereof at the 
 close of that century and thence onward to the present time. 
 There are now more than eighty foreign missionary societies, 
 each of which has for its object \vhat was the motto of one 
 established in the Netherlands, 1797, " Peace through the blood 
 of the cross," each of which deserves notice, and some of 
 which would require years of study. Portraits of heroes and 
 heroines in the great enterprise would fill a gallery. So 
 would the portraits of eminent converts from heathenism. 
 No small space would be due to trials endured and obstacles 
 encountered ; and among the latter might come the compara- 
 tive study of false religions. Direct results are an ample and 
 animating theme. Indirect results," in benefits accruing to 
 commerce, to geography, ethnography, philology, and natural 
 science, deserve consideration ; and still more the reflex influ- 
 ence on churches at home, and the general culture of the com- 
 munity. These are topics but slightly touched upon at the 
 present time in our seminaries, and topics which any profes- 
 sor of Ecclesiastical History would be glad to have treated 
 by some able coadjutor. One attractive feature in this depart- 
 ment is that a comparatively virgin soil presents itself, and 
 there exist vast stores of undigested facts to be carefully 
 explored, as well as great problems to be solved. 
 
 It must seem plain that there is here a broad field for culti- 
 vation, and that it is one for which no adequate specific pro- 
 vision has been made. Indeed schools of the prophets gen- 
 erally, with all the advances that have taken place, seem not 
 to have kept pace with certain other institutions. There are 
 lines of higher education in the United States which, during 
 the fifty years that measure the life of this Seminary, furnish 
 suggestive lessons. Look at schools of science, of which 
 
79 
 
 West Point, Annapolis, the Sheffield, and Lawrence schools 
 were the only ones of importance half a century ago. Now 
 there are colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts to the 
 number of eighty-five, seventy-two of which have sprung into 
 existence since 1834. But it is not the increase of number so 
 much as the sums devoted to their establishment that surprise 
 and gratify us. Including grounds, buildings and productive 
 funds, those institutions have endowments amounting to 
 twent}^-four and a half millions of dollars. Among the 
 branches taught, of which we scarcely heard anything fifty 
 years ago, are physiological chemistry, agricultural chemistry, 
 molecular physics, mathematical physics, biology, dynamic 
 engineering, and so on through a long catalogue. These 
 schools of technology or applied science, have grown out of 
 the practical demands of the age, and are training men to 
 employ principles wrought out by master spirits in the uni- 
 versity, arid to put them upon making fingers of steel instead 
 of flesh, to weave and twist ; upon constructing machines that 
 shall compel mountains to disgorge their treasures ; upon de- 
 vising apparatus that annihilates distance ; and upon mani- 
 fold applications that subsidize the forces of nature, supersed- 
 ing the artisan, changing methods and times of intercommu- 
 nication, and thus revolutionizing the ways of commerce. An 
 animating record, but it is eagerness for material prosperity 
 that incites to all this. 
 
 Collegiate institutions have made noteworthy advancement. 
 Passing up this valley of the Connecticut fifty years ago, we 
 should have found Amherst College with a president, five 
 professors and four tutors ; to-day we find a president, seven- 
 teen professors and six additional instructors. New depart- 
 ments of study have been introduced, and the funds of the 
 institution have been increased by a million of dollars. In 
 1834 Yale College reported a faculty of eight professors, in- 
 cluding the president, besides ten other instructors ; Yale now 
 reports twenty -three professors, including the president, besides 
 eleven other instructors, and a corresponding increase of funds, 
 buildings, and library belonging to the academical depart- 
 ment. At Harvard, half a century ago, there were seventeen 
 
80 
 
 teachers in the undergraduate department, besides four lec- 
 turers who did no class work ; now there are fifty-four teach- 
 ers, besides twelve or fifteen more with whom students may 
 take electives. And what an array of courses at the present 
 time enough to amaze the graduate of 1834 ! eight elect- 
 ive courses in the Semitic languages, including Hebrew, 
 Aramaic. Assyrian, and Arabic ; four in the Indo-Aranian 
 languages, including Sanscrit and the old Iranian ; thirteen 
 in Greek ; twelve in Latin ; two in Greek and Latin Compar- 
 ative Philology ; nine in the English Language and Litera- 
 ture ; eight each in German and French ; four in Italian ; 
 three in Spanish ; eleven in Philosophy ; seven in Political 
 Economy ; seventeen in History ; three in Roman Law ; seven 
 in the Fine Arts ; six in Music ; ten in Mathematics ; eight 
 in Physics ; nine in Chemistry, and eighteen in Natural Phi- 
 losophy. As for funds, they are now ten times what they 
 were then. 
 
 Turn to professional education, and glance for a moment at 
 medical schools. Multiform divisions have been made in the 
 old standard departments of anatomy, surgery, materia med- 
 ica, theory, and practice. New departments have sprung up, 
 resulting from advance in the science of chemistry, and from 
 new appliances, such as the achromatic microscope, etheriza- 
 tion, and the like. It is not, perhaps, beyond the recollection 
 of aged persons, when there were only three teachers at each 
 of our leading medical schools, where there are now from one 
 score to two score professors. In regard to almost every lead- 
 ing branch fifty years ago, Dr. Holmes might well say, " I 
 call it a chair it was rather a settee of professorships." The 
 medical department of Columbia College in the city of New 
 York, has a faculty at this time numbering fourteen profess- 
 ors, besides .twelve clinical professors. The corresponding 
 department in the University of the City of New York, enu- 
 merates eighteen or twenty gentlemen on its regular staff, six 
 adjunct lecturers, and laboratory instructors. Harvard Uni- 
 versity in its medical school, and for its one hundred and 
 first annual announcement (1884), enumerates a faculty with 
 twenty-two members, eighteen other stated instructors, besides 
 
81 
 
 eight or more who give special clinical instruction, making a 
 staff of forty-six gentlemen. Will any well-informed person 
 pronounce that number needlessly great that the costly 
 laboratories, museums, libraries, and other adjuncts, are too 
 expensive in view of the reliefs contemplated for human suf- 
 fering and anxieties, and the vast sanitary benefits to the 
 community ? 
 
 In our theological seminaries sub-divisions have indeed 
 taken place, to a noticeable extent, within these fifty years. 
 Biblical philology once embraced Hebrew and Greek ; also, 
 it may be Old Testament theology and New Testament the- 
 ology, not to speak of Assyriology, which, to be sure, has no 
 frequent place as yet. The comprehensive department, earlier 
 known to us as that of dogmatic theology, may now be seen 
 partitioned into professorships of natural theology, apologetics, 
 and also of the relations of science to theology ; while the 
 department of church history has been sub-divided into the 
 history of facts and the history of doctrines. Homiletics and 
 elocution are, in some instances, provided for under separate 
 teachers, whereas sacred rhetoric formerly embraced the two. 
 Nor is this all ; to the old curriculum there has. been added a 
 department of ecclesiastical music and hymnology. 
 
 Increased division of labor, and consequent increase in the 
 staff of instructors, suggest, it may be, a liability to excessive 
 crowding, to superficiality, or confusion, if all the diver- 
 sified fields are to be traversed during a trienniurn ; and 
 hence suggest also whether certain matters which may be 
 considered rather as adjuncts cannot be made elective for a 
 limited number of students who have special aptitudes ; or 
 whether such matters should not be reserved for a year sup- 
 plementary to the three years of urgently needful studies. 
 In case a fourth year were added to the regular course of 
 every such institution, or if a more extended post-graduate 
 course were instituted, with tw r o or three professorships ade- 
 quately endowed, theological seminaries would still lag behind 
 medical schools in such appointments. The medical depart- 
 ment of the University of Pennsylvania now has a post-grad- 
 11 
 
82 
 
 uate course, with not less than a dozen departments and as 
 many different professors; the New York Post-graduate 
 School advertises a faculty numbering fourteen professors ; 
 and similar provision for advanced study exists elsewhere also. 
 "We, of course, rejoice to see the rapid advance of high edu- 
 cation in other spheres ; but is it creditable to the Church of 
 Christ that she has made no more ample provision for the 
 training of young men devoted to infinitely higher concerns ? 
 
 It would be superfluous to enlarge here on the high aims 
 and the moral earnestness demanded of the minister of the 
 Word. Eminent duties of leadership devolve upon him. By 
 his very profession he is bound to cherish breadth of view 
 and a breadth of sympathy commensurate with the living 
 race of mankind an interest so habitual that his thoughts 
 will never, for any length of time, stop short of India, China, 
 or Polynesia. Indeed, he should be a man of one idea, but 
 that idea broad as the world and the reach of eternity. If a 
 home pastor, or home missionary, he needs the inspiration of 
 this grand thought, the ultimate universal sway of Immanuel. 
 Beyond anything else will it prove a mental and moral tonic, 
 rousing from intellectual sluggishness, perfunctory content- 
 ment, and-contented poverty of thought. "Whatever may be 
 true regarding advanced thought, there certainly is need of 
 advanced discipleship. The home pastorate, be it repeated, 
 requires the expanding influence of this sovereign purpose so in 
 harmony with the sublimest enterprise of all time. What 
 was Baxter's range of thought in his unsurpassed parochial 
 activity and success in reforming irreligious Kidderminster ? 
 " There is nothing in the world," he writes, " that lies so 
 heavy upon my heart, as the thought of the miserable nations 
 of the earth. I cannot be affected so much with the calami- 
 ties of my own relations, or of the land of my nativity, as 
 with the case of the heathen, Mohammedan, ignorant nations 
 of the earth. No part of my prayer is so deeply serious, as 
 that for the infidel and ungodly world." Ministers with 
 minds thus expanded and hearts thus burdened will not aim 
 at merely the spiritual safety of parishioners, but that they 
 
83 
 
 may be saved to labor, and that vigorously, in the Master's 
 vineyard ; they will seek to train the entire church as a mis- 
 sionary band ; effective interest in the work abroad will be 
 reckoned among needful proofs of reputable membership ; the 
 multitudes of professing Christians who live in scandalous 
 apathy, or in scandalous waste of wealth, will grow less; 
 patriotism will merge itself in philanthropy, and philanthropy 
 in an unquenchable desire for the conversion of all men. Nor 
 will this be a fitful desire awakened only at great spirited 
 gatherings ; the well-equipped pastor will resolutely and 
 steadily keep heart ; will maintain faith and love in such a 
 glow as not to require outside help in kindling his own fires. 
 
 An eminent Prussian minister of education remarked : 
 " Whatever you would have appear in the life of a nation, 
 you must put into its schools." With no less truth may it be 
 said, whatever we would have in the life of the churches we 
 must put into the theological school. Not that the ideal min- 
 ister can be made to order ; nor that the seminary is immedi- 
 ately responsible for defective training in the family and the 
 Sunday-school ; yet a degree of indirect responsibility does 
 exist. Reasonably is it demanded of the professional course 
 that it have a well-directed purpose to supply, not only edu- 
 cated brain, but consecrated hearts hearts inspired with zeal 
 for advancing the great object of redemption animated by 
 the certainty of that imperial sway which Jesus Christ is yet 
 to have in this world, and which will be achieved by the 
 preaching of His own glorious Gospel. 
 
 It is submitted, therefore, that in such professional seats a 
 larger place should be given to the history, the claims, the 
 principles, the methods, the fruits of this grand enterprise. 
 It is submitted that if the College of Apostles were in con- 
 sultation on the establishment of a training-school for disciple- 
 ing all nations, evangelistic theology would be the overshad- 
 owing department, and the chair of foreign missions would 
 have no mere by-place. On* the one hundredth anniversary 
 of the death of Count Zinzendorf, the founder of Moravian 
 missions, a German writer remarked : " It seems to me to 
 belong to the many contradictions that we meet with in life, 
 
84 
 
 that theologians should leave the university with a knowledge 
 of ancient gnosticism, but with none whatever of an institu- 
 tion with which their profession will be sure to bring them 
 often in contact." True indeed, and passing strange it is, 
 that by some of the theological faculties of Germany, every- 
 thing is taught except the one thing ; and we cannot help 
 appreciating the sturdy practical sense of Gossner, a founder 
 of missions who, when the writing-desk of Hegel the philos- 
 opher was presented to the hospital, converted it into a 
 kitchen table. No oblique thrust at industry and accuracy of 
 scholarship in any existing department of study is intended. 
 Rather, we say, let there be yet other departments, and a 
 more accomplished scholarship. The broader the culture, a/id 
 the more ample the furniture, the better is the preparation 
 for simplest work and for narrow spheres. But it is claimed 
 that the universal propagation of the Gospel, as an object of 
 study and interest, should be interwoven among the fibers of 
 every student's heart ; that he should not be thought quali- 
 fied for graduation till he possesses well-defined ideas con- 
 cerning the greatness and obligations of the work ; till he has 
 mastered an outline of its progress hitherto, and of its present 
 activities ; till he knows what the best sources of information 
 are, and is at least prepared to build up for himself a sym- 
 metrical evangelistic culture. Is it suggested that whole 
 classes might sometimes go abroad ? Blessed result ! The 
 God of all the earth, and our risen Lord, who is " expecting 
 till his enemies be made his footstool," and who is wondering 
 at the self-indulgent disloyalty of his professed followers, will 
 look after such an institution, and the churches and country 
 that sustain it. Not less than with the individual, will the 
 seminary that shall thus lose its life for Christ's sake and the 
 Gospel's, save it. 
 
 But when will our denomination be fired with any such 
 intense evangelistic ardor as an open heathen world and its 
 accessible millions demand ? Lectureships and professorships 
 on missions will not, indeed, of themselves supply our own 
 country or the heathen world with the men required. Well 
 has it been said, " A drop of life is better than a sea of knowl- 
 
85 
 
 edge." Yet improved appliances can hardly fail, in some 
 measure, to expand and ennoble that curriculum through 
 which candidates for the sacred office are to pass. We would 
 fain deem it riot too bold a prediction that, without retrench- 
 ment elsewhere, there will be enlargement in this direction; 
 that by the close of the present century our theological semi- 
 naries will be supplied with such an auxiliary, or something 
 tantamount thereto. In that new and mighty baptism of 
 Christian enterprise, which we pray God may be near, it will 
 be demanded that every theological institution become a well- 
 endowed academy of spiritual strategics and energetic Chris- 
 tian warfare. 
 
 Sound theology alone will not suffice; orthodoxy in action, 
 in suffering, and sacrifice, is demanded. Calvinism made the 
 French Huguenot and the English Puritan ; it has made 
 many a powerful preacher, and many a brave missionary. 
 Holding that there are other ethical elements in the divine 
 character besides love ; that the inevitable penalty of sin, 
 unrepented of in this life, is endless punishment ; that salva- 
 tion from sin and from the abiding wrath of God is possible 
 only through the infinite merits of an expiatory sacrifice ; it 
 holds also that every living man, woman, and child in Chris- 
 tendom is bound to make utmost efforts to evangelize the 
 nations. This is simply Pauline theology an incisive Chris- 
 tology, that both broadens and intensifies the inner man. It 
 discerns no heroism in hermits on the top of pillars or in 
 caverns. Duty without compromise, is its motto. Scipio 
 affirmed there was not a man in his army who would not, at 
 the word of command, climb a tower and cast himself into 
 the sea. Is a lower grade of obedience seemly in the sacra- 
 mental host ? 
 
 Late correspondence with missionary alumni of this insti- 
 tution discloses gratifying loyalty to the aim, methods, and 
 theological attitude of their alma mater. Repeated and grate- 
 ful reference is made to the eminently Biblical training given 
 here, one result of which is a deepening love for the Sacred 
 Scriptures ; to the type of Biblical exegesis, which has enabled 
 
86 
 
 these brethren to know where and how to find that truth 
 which they are to preach. Among those brethren there is 
 but one voice in regard to the instruction that the theology 
 taught has stood them well in all their work ; that it is effect- 
 ive and commands respect ; that as experience accumulates, 
 greater confidence is felt in the teaching of this Seminary. 
 One of our honored and beloved brethren, writing from Tur- 
 key, says and others say the same substantially "As I look 
 back over sixteen years of missionary life, I am most thor- 
 oughly convinced that the distinctive doctrines which were the 
 basis of all the instructions given there are the only doctrines 
 which will suffice to arouse these nominal Christians for whom 
 we labor, from their fatal trust in outward rites, and bring 
 them up to a life i hid with Christ in God.' The fearful 
 depravity so rife among all these peoples, whether Christian 
 or Mohammedan of which the delineations of the first chap- 
 ter of the Epistle to the Romans are no exaggeration can 
 only be removed ' by the washing of regeneration and by the 
 renewing of the Holy Ghost.' The people are ' lost,' ' con- 
 demned already,' and only the plain, pertinent, presentations 
 of the truths of the Divine Word unmixed with human spec- 
 ulations, can save them." 
 
 It is a gratifying circumstance that a larger proportion of 
 students who have been connected with the Hartford Semi- 
 nary should enter upon missionary work at home or abroad, 
 than from any other of our seven similar institutions, if not a 
 larger proportion than from any similar seminary of whatever 
 denomination in the land. The first graduating class (1836) 
 furnished a missionary to the Sandwich Islands ; the second 
 furnished one for the Spokan Indians far to the Northwest; 
 and it illustrates the wonderful progress of things that, whereas 
 forty-five years ago, he found one hundred and twenty-nine 
 days were required for the journey from Westport, Mo., to 
 the place of destination in Washington Territory, only four 
 days were needed for the recent arid first return of this hale 
 brother of 74. Others of our number have or have had their 
 frontier posts ia Mexico, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, 
 India, China, Micronesia, South and Southwestern Africa. 
 
87 
 
 Some of them have had their share in the translation of God's 
 Word and the production of useful literature in various ver- 
 naculars^ and all testify to joys and successes in many a dark 
 spot of the heathen world. 
 
 Four of the goodly band rest from their labors. One lies 
 buried in the cemetery of Cedar Hill in this city ; one had 
 had his watch-tower on Mount Lebanon ; Brewster survived 
 only a month after reaching China, and Maynard had but 
 just entered upon his work on the site of ancient Thessalonica. 
 Visiting Mount Olympus and the Yale of Tempe, he con- 
 tracted a fever which took him to the Mount Zion above. 
 Did ever Grecian hero, philosopher, or poet utter words so 
 full of meaning as that young soldier of the cross in his last 
 sickness breaking forth into exclamations " What a glori- 
 ous Gospel ! What a lovely Savior ! " Visiting the grave of 
 Maynard you will pass by Thermopylae. The simple inscrip- 
 tion with which Sparta commemorated the heroic devotion of 
 Leonidas and his faithful band was : " Stranger, tell the Lace- 
 demonians that we lie here in obedience to their laws." This 
 is a decoration-day for deceased comrades. We visit tomb- 
 stones scattered among the hills of New England and broad 
 plains of the West ; one amidst the evergreen foliage of the 
 tropics ; one beside the monuments of Morrison and Bridg- 
 man, and another looking out upon the ^Egean. In each 
 hand we carry a wreath. One motto for our fallen brethren 
 is, " We lie here in obedience to our Master's command ; " 
 the other, " We are more than conquerors." 
 
The Survival of the Ax. 
 
 When the young prophets of the Gilgal baud 
 Their sacred college for Elisha planned, 
 And sought the waving woods, by Jordan's stream, 
 To gather timber, " every man a beam," 
 They little guessed a miracle would crown 
 One small mischance with swift and sure renown, 
 And make the story of their work sublime 
 In records broad as earth and long as time. 
 
 Behold Elisha and his student train ! 
 Cheerful they march, and soon the woodland gain. 
 Strong to his pious task each laborer bends ; 
 In sturdy concert every ax descends, 
 And musical thro' all the forest shades 
 Peal the sharp echoes of their ringing blades. 
 One eager workman hews with hasty blows 
 A tree whose roots the river overflows. 
 Sudden his stroke flies wild: a flash, a gleam 
 And the loose steel falls splashing in the stream. 
 Gazing with eyes perplexed he sees it sink ; 
 With helve in hand he stands upon the brink : 
 Surprise and fear his startled conscience tax 
 "Alas, my master! 'twas a borrowed ax!" 
 Then waits with mute appeal, as if to trace 
 Some hopeful counsel in the prophet's face. 
 
 Calm o'er the water, at his pupil's call, 
 Elisha looked: "My son, where did it fall?" 
 He stretched his hand; he bade the waves unclose ; 
 And the sunk iron to the surface rose. 
 The grateful youth his lost utensil won, 
 Fixed firm its handle and the work went on. 
 
 Since that strange scene nine hundred years, and more, 
 Had passed and, heard again on Jordan's shore, 
 Elisha's miracle smote high and low 
 As if Elisha's master dealt the blow, 
 
89 
 
 " Fall barren trees, and trees of worthless fruit ! 
 Fall for the fire! the ax is at your root ! " 
 And some who listened seemed to understand, 
 And cried, convicted, " 'Tis Elijah's hand ! " 
 Thro' tangled errors darting quick dismay, 
 The mighty cleaver cut its fearless way ; 
 Hewed falsehood down, slew folly at its side, 
 Struck bigotry, and unbelief, and pride, 
 Bared old abuses, laid rank envies low, 
 And battered power ungodly, blow on blow, 
 Till the dark, pathless wilderness of sin 
 Opened and let the Morning Star shine in. 
 
 It was enough. The ax immortal flew 
 From the bold hand that wielded it so true, 
 For hurled at Herod's shame, at last it found 
 A heart too willing to resent the wound, 
 And where the smiter-prophet last had stood 
 Herodias' vengeance left it drowned in blood. 
 
 Drowned, but not perished. Ere the saddening scene 
 Of cruel triumph passed, that engine keen 
 Forth on its spoilers' heads like lightning broke, 
 And Jews and Gentiles trembled at the stroke. 
 With force fresh-harnessed for the sharp assault, 
 It rose at ancient wrong in stern revolt, 
 And hoar hypocrisy drove skulking out, 
 And moss-grown ignorance, and chronic doubt, 
 And blind tradition, and inveterate caste 
 Felt its fierce impact like a whirlwind's blast. 
 In vain old darkness, strong-surrounding, set 
 Its prisoners' bondage light was stronger yet, 
 And jealous hate might murder righteous John ; 
 The truth survived and still the work went on. 
 
 O, oft in later time, when, wielded well, 
 That implement of power on Falsehood fell; 
 When her tall trees its lightnings earthward hurled, 
 And the grand strokes went sounding thro' the world, 
 And o'er the prostrate forms of things abhorred 
 Made pathway for the coining of the Lord, 
 Some paltry failure or unseen despite 
 Has turned its aim, or whirled it out of sight ! 
 'Tis but the laborer's fortune : Who can pledge 
 Thro' Error's wilderness the whetted edge, 
 12 
 
90 
 
 And always for the task his hope has planned 
 
 Be sure the instrument is well in hand ? 
 
 A human weakness or mistake may foil 
 
 Its promised force, and mar the best man's toil. 
 
 But, tho' he mourn it as a blessing past, 
 
 It will return, and serve him to the last. 
 
 Truth is a tool of trenchant virtue, old, 
 And plain of pattern, but of strength untold. 
 Forged of celestial steel, and tempered just, 
 It cuts unfailing and it cannot rust. 
 Only one thing it needs, for service' sake 
 Give it a handle of terrestrial make ; 
 And, earthly wood to heavenly metal hung, 
 You have the ax that John the Baptist swung. 
 
 That ax is never lost ; tho' sometimes, when 
 The wielders of its weight are mighty men, 
 Who at some evil root too fiercely delve, 
 It slips its fastening, and flies off the helve. 
 Wait then, exultant foe and timid friend, 
 That is its accident, and not its end, 
 And, save some sad distemper holds them dim, 
 The eyes that saw it sink will see it swim. 
 Sure as the light restores the moons that wane, 
 The sacred blade resumes its haft again ; 
 Its sounding shock the shades of death anon 
 Confess and fear and still the work goes on. 
 
 Brethren and reverend fathers ! when, aglow 
 With Christ's pure gospel, fifty years ago, 
 By old Connecticut's untainted tide, 
 You stood, in faith resistant, side by side, 
 To Innovation's overgrown demands, 
 You held that ax in no unpracticed hands. . 
 Those hands wrought nobly what your hearts had willed; 
 Those hearts took counsel, " Let us rise and build ! 
 Here, o'r the waters hallowed by the flame 
 Of Edwards' genius, power, and saintly fame, 
 A prophets' school shall stand, whose voice shall speak 
 The old instruction when the church is weak. 
 Here shall faith's fortress be, for dangerous days 
 When Israel's sons forget the ancient ways, 
 To lift the cross of Christ, and guard intent 
 The word and doctrine of His Testament." 
 
91 
 
 I see them by the old colonial stream, 
 The builders, gathering every man a beam. 
 How humble was their work ! and yet more grand 
 Than patriots' warfare for their native land; 
 And truth within their grasp had nobler sweep 
 Than conquerors' swords that Honor's harvests reap. 
 Religion's cause inspired them: 'twas their hour 
 To add new height to Zion's beacon-tower. 
 They toiled for man that mortals need not fear 
 To miss salvation's pathway, once so clear, 
 And while with brave and patient hands they mowed 
 The upstart growths that choked the heavenly road, 
 Like them who Jordan's oaks by Grilgal slew 
 They smote to save, and spoiled to make anew. 
 Error's tall wildings cleft in planks of strength, 
 And branching mischiefs laid at harmless length, 
 Experience carved from danger, hope from fear, 
 And green pretension slain to life sincere, 
 Opinions tough thro' long polemic storm, 
 And rank young fancies, pruned alike to form 
 Eccentric theories tamed in rash increase, 
 And sprouting hatreds punished into peace, 
 Warped sterns of doctrine straightened on the ground, 
 Folly's soft saplings hewed to wisdom sound, 
 Hall-truths for use transfixed in swift escape, 
 Raw notions whittled into safer shape, 
 Lopped and converted water-shoots of doubt, 
 False scions cut to bleed their poison out, 
 And high-grown learning clipped and sanctified, 
 And sundered trunks of sophistry and pride, 
 And baffled heresy, and pricked conceit, 
 And roots of bitterness crushed under feet 
 These were their trophies ; gracious Providence 
 Would ma&e faith's perils furnish faith's defence, 
 And bid her champions bear the spoils they win 
 Home to their infant walls, and build them in. 
 Such was th' eternal plan, that ruined wrong 
 Should make the towers of righteousness more strong ; 
 That holiest good should spring from evil slain, 
 And ransomed losses heighten final gain, 
 And things of blessing grow from things accurst, 
 And in one race the best replace the worst, 
 Till Adam's glory quenched in Jesus beamed, 
 And man once fallen rose to man redeemed. 
 
02 
 
 And so the work went on : those royal few 
 Each to the burden set his shoulder true. 
 And soon on massive mound and solid pier, 
 In strength firm-pinioned, growing, tier on tier, 
 Went up the walls, and stately stood, and still, 
 Faith's edifice on fair East Windsor Hill. 
 
 The prophets had their home ; but full reward * 
 
 Must wait while yet they build ed for the Lord. 
 Nor were their future trials unforeshown 
 When white-haired Perkins laid the corner-stone : 
 They saw unmoved their high adventure born 
 'Mid forests of distrust and envious scorn, 
 And knew that, win or fail, as heaven should please, 
 The "ax of Truth must strike unyielding trees. 
 Yet bated not their toil those workmen stern, 
 Nor spared the edge, to sever and discern, 
 Where fatal frauds and loose beliefs prevailed, 
 Nor missed a stroke, until their money failed. 
 
 Ah, what to pious knight or crusade king 
 Is heaven-forged weapon, if it will not swing ? 
 Thoughtful they paused. In vain the champion's might 
 With steel unsocketed in act to smite ! 
 No matter "where it fell," the blade new-drawn 
 Lay ineffectual with its handle gone, 
 And hinted duty and remembered text, 
 That needy hour, their Christian souls perplexed. 
 " Shall God on man depend, and truth no more 
 Unfurnished win its way, as when of yore 
 John and Elijah preached in camel's hair 
 From a turf pulpit, in the open air ? " 
 And then their musings took a deeper tone, 
 " The ax was borrowed, it was not our own. 
 The heir loom of eternity unpriced, 
 We had it from the wounded hands of Christ : 
 Tempered in altar-fires, at countless cost, 
 What would be said in heaven if it were lost ? " 
 
 But soon they faced their trial unappalled, 
 And timely aid serener thoughts recalled, 
 For the great Master, whom their hearts adored, 
 To their miscarried power the stock restored, 
 And stretching hands of faith, those holy men, 
 Rejoicing, felt it in their grasp again. 
 
 And ever after, if, by hap or blame 
 The truth fell sidelong, cheated of its aim, 
 
93 
 
 When Geshems and Tobiahs lurked behind, 
 And sly Sanballats plotted, sapped, and mined, 
 When friends were few, and fewer came to fill 
 The empty halls and chambers on the " Hill," 
 Surely and soon the helpless moment passed, 
 And patience found its arm of strength at last. 
 Take courage, men of God, and learn to bless 
 The same recovery in the same distress. 
 These are but casual slips : the grand career 
 Stops not for trifles happening there or here 
 To warn our wisdom that tor weak or strong 
 Eight has its accidents as well as wrong." 
 
 So the brave workmen cheered their hearts and loved 
 The more their sacred trust in peril proved, 
 As each misfortune taught them more to prize 
 The wondrous weapon lent them from the skies. 
 It was their miracle. No hard rebuff 
 Could dull a tool of such celestial stuff, 
 Nor theft nor burial hide it anywhere 
 Beyond the summons of their faithful prayer. 
 And when from their old home's abandoned wall 
 They dreamed they heard it in the river fall, 
 And faltering friends, with weak, untimely pride, 
 Passed by East Windsor on the other side, 
 So far from ended was its mission then, 
 It swam to Hartford and began again. 
 There for its tireless force the prophets found 
 Unhindered task on better vantage-ground ; 
 Their prayers were answered ; all their doubts were gone : 
 Hope gave the wordand still the work went on. 
 
 Brethren and fathers ; many a morrow's sun 
 Must rise and set before your work is done. 
 When culture, from the heights where science feeds 
 In "new departure" sends her tinkered creeds, 
 When Paul's plain text philosophy defines 
 To suit smart thinkers tired of Gospel lines, 
 When faith's strait way is broad and broader made, 
 And skeptics gladden at the easier grade, 
 And depth of grace that means a heart renewed 
 Is changed for theologic latitude ; 
 When round the house of God such plants as these 
 Grow tall, and crowd the grand primeval trees, 
 Firm at your station duty bids you stand 
 In full fidelity of heart and hand. 
 
The garden of the church is choked ; and here 
 
 In your untiring, strife to keep it clear 
 
 Against the upshoots of anointed sham, 
 
 Your tool of strength must be the ax that swam. 
 
 Still wield the ancient truth, and, in your hold, 
 
 Plied with such vigor, and with zeal as bold 
 
 As fired the spirits of the holy Twelve, 
 
 The Salem blade with the East Windsor helve 
 
 Will cut resistless till its way is won, 
 
 And the Voice over Jordan speaks " Well done ; " 
 
 And your victorious souls within the vail, 
 
 With sainted Tyler, Nettleton, and Yale, 
 
 Perkins, and Ely, Dow, Calhoun, and Dodd, 
 
 And Hyde, and Spring, and Tenney, rest in God. 
 
 Benignant Tyler ! foremost in the band 
 Whose faith this fort of orthodoxy planned, 
 The dew of his sweet influence still is shed 
 On us who heard the gracious words he said, 
 And his dear memory to new joy unfolds 
 Each thankful heart that now his image holds. 
 His was a noble presence, frank, refined, 
 To win obeisance from the manliest mind, 
 While all his balanced powers confirmed and held 
 Perpetual the respect his mien 'compelled. 
 Prophet of God, with Moses' meekness crowned ! 
 Was ever leader wiser, kinder found ? 
 And say, what cloistered doctor could exceed 
 In piety that Israelite indeed ? 
 He was a man of prayer, profoundly good, 
 And brave as Samuel by the Ark he stood ; 
 A man of peace, yet strenuous to contend 
 When speculation dared the truth to bend : 
 Strong in the Word, one aim his soul engrossed, 
 To teach the sense that honors God the most, 
 While faithful, scorning all sophistic play, 
 He led to heaven by the straightest way. 
 We have not lost him ; still affection's eye 
 Traces his lengthened pathway to the sky, 
 And follows far, where up the blue incline 
 His pure life, passing, left its shining line, 
 Till his calm face and well-known smile are seen 
 Among the haloed heads in bliss serene. 
 The same blest presence to our filial thought 
 Pervades where long and last he toiled and taught, 
 
95 
 
 Where sympathies of faith immortal meet, 
 
 And chastened sorrow, and remembrance sweet, 
 
 And greeting peace, and loyalty renewed, 
 
 And reverence, and praise, and gratitude, 
 
 And love, thro' winter's irost and summer's bloom 
 
 With tender gifts come pilgrims to his tomb. 
 
 There, 'neath the shadow of familiar walls, 
 
 With nearer voice his benediction falls, 
 
 While yet, with vaster view of things below, 
 
 He marks our warfare, hails each noble blow, 
 
 And calls from heights through holy struggles won 
 
 Be strong, my children ! Let the work go on ! " 
 
Reminiscence by Rev. H. H. Kelsey of the class of '79. 
 
 I have been asked to refer to the transitional period of the 
 Seminary's history. I suppose this topic was given to me 
 because it was my good fortune to be connected with the 
 Seminary for two or three years on each side of its transition 
 from Prospect to Broad Streets. It was my fortune, or my 
 /ate, to be present when the Seminary moved a fortune, per- 
 haps, since there was given me, a lot granted to but few mor- 
 tals to see a theological seminary u on wheels." It certainly 
 was a fate to be so situated that your conscience compelled 
 you to help lift the Seminary on wheels, especially when the 
 major part of her material movable substance consisted of 
 books. I helped moved the library twice ; in 1877, when we 
 moved 6,700 vols. from 33 to 46 Prospect St.; in 1880, when 
 we moved 12,000 vols. to Broad St. We hope the time is not 
 far distant when somebody will be obliged to move 40,000 
 vols. into a new and permanent home. 
 
 We left Prospect St., not with regrets, but with many pleas- 
 ant, tender, sacred memories. We students had a good time 
 there. We doubt if our successors in their present generous 
 and beautiful home have a better. There was a peculiar social 
 ease and freeness of life in those habitations of a departed 
 aristocracy. I think, too, that there was a little flavor of 
 social distinction in the atmosphere of the pi ace which we felt. 
 Prospect St. w r as once the court street of Hartford, and the 
 most famous house on the street was the Wadsworth mansion 
 in which we lived. It was the home of Col. Jeremiah Wads- 
 worth, known in Revolutionary history as an efficient officer 
 of the army, and a trusted friend of Washington. Whenever 
 
97 
 
 Washington was in this region the Wadsworth house was his 
 home. When Benedict Arnold was committing his act of 
 treason at West Point, Washington with Count de Rocham- 
 beau were enjoying the hospitality of Col. Wadsworth's 
 board, in the very room which was our chapel and Hebrew 
 recitation -room. The Day honse, No. 48 Prospect St., where 
 we dined and supped, was the home of Hon. Thomas Day, 
 for many years Secretary of the State. His name appeared 
 on all Fast Day and Thanksgiving proclamations, which 
 always closed with the following words : " Servile labor and 
 vain recreation, on said clay, are by law prohibited. By His 
 Excellency's command, Thomas Day, Sec'y." 
 
 These famous houses, had they been of the 15th century, 
 might have been haunted, and have been thus doubly famous. 
 For I doubt if there were in this country a better place for 
 restless spirits than the unused attics, by-ways, and labyrinths 
 of the Wadsworth house. I do not think we should have been 
 much surprised, if, when we occasionally discovered some 
 unknown room or unused passage, we had found it inhabited. 
 There was enough of the famous, the romantic, and ghostly 
 about the place to make it interesting. I think we students 
 had a better time there than the professors. JSTo rooms could 
 be much more unsuitable for lecture-rooms than were those 
 guest-chambers of the Wadsworth mansion. They were 
 small, the light was bad, and the ventilation usually there 
 wasn't any. But in spite of the infelicities we cherish the 
 memory of Prospect Street. We cherish the memory of the 
 earnest, devotional spirit and life of the students. Our life 
 was free, hearty, and sometimes full of frolic. Our religious 
 life, too, was hearty and natural. Evening prayer about the 
 tables in the dining-room ! It was family prayer. We lived 
 close to each other. Then there was the prayer-meeting on 
 Saturday evening, when we retired from the supper-table into 
 the room adjoining, and together confessed our sins to God, 
 and sometimes to each other : rehearsed our experiences, 
 named our difficulties and needs, and cried to God for help : 
 and always remembered in our prayers those of our number 
 
 13 
 
98 
 
 who had gone for .the Sunday to preach, and all who had gone 
 out from the Seminary to preach the Gospel. Such a spirit 
 of devotion and healthy earnestness I have never felt else- 
 where. This student prayer-meeting is one of the elements 
 of this Seminary's present influence ; one of the sources of 
 its spiritual success. 
 
 Were there time I should like to speak of those dining-room 
 scenes. When I was in the Seminary we had a number of 
 " characters " among us, and not infrequently " things were 
 lively." I would not have you infer that there is any want 
 of character among the students at the present time. But 
 perhaps " character," if odd or witty, was discovered more 
 then than now in the dining-room. The council was usually 
 "by itself," and individualism always found an expression. 
 Once a year a dinner was given to the Faculty and resi- 
 dent Trustees. We then showed our dignity and good 
 appetites. Good appetites, however, were never wanting, for 
 "Margaret" and "Kate" were a part of the corporation and 
 governing body of the institution, and a good dinner was one 
 of the certainties of each day's experience. Never a shadow 
 of a fear of the dyspeptic iiend on Prospect St. ! 
 
 When we moved we left behind us discomforts many, humil- 
 iations many, but pleasures many as well. In the Wads- 
 worth house we had tugged lustily at tough Hebrew roots ; 
 we had learned the use of the Greek aorist. There we had 
 been admonished and instructed by our professors in regard 
 to family government. There we laughed, there we prayed, 
 there we together sung hymns of praise. There we together 
 bowed in sorrow, as we bore thence the form of one who loved 
 this Seminary as she was herself loved by all who knew her. 
 Sacred memories, these, of sacred seasons, never to be for- 
 gotten ! 
 
 But when we moved we were more busied with our antici- 
 pations. The future was more to us then than the past. How 
 faithfully we superintended the building of this Hall the car- 
 penters will all bear witness. We were anxious to move. 
 Delays were extremely tedious. We came to this new home 
 
99 
 
 with great expectations. In nothing were we disappointed. 
 We were grateful to God for his goodness. We were grate- 
 ful to our benefactor who gave us this beautiful home, whose 
 venerable form we all reverently followed to its last resting- 
 place. We, of the transitional period, rejoiced, and do 
 rejoice greatly in the rapidly-increasing influence of this our 
 beloved Seminary. We join you all in the congratulations 
 of this happy anniversary, and we pray now as ever for the 
 prosperity and peace of our Alma Mater. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 
 
 The following selection lias been made from the many let- 
 ters presented by Rev. "W. S. Hawkes, of the Committee of 
 Correspondence, who introduced the reading of extracts from 
 them with this explanation : 
 
 " Many answers have been received to the circular which 
 was sent to the alumni for reminiscences of their seminary 
 life. The following extracts from these letters give a fail- 
 picture of successive periods in the Seminary's history as it 
 now abides in memory. It is proposed to deposit all these 
 letters in the alumni alcove of the library for future reference. 
 Through the kindness of Rev. Dr. A. C. Thompson, we have 
 also been permitted to quote from letters received by him 
 from our foreign missionary alumni." 
 
 Rev. Professor Philip Schaff, D.D. 
 
 The following letter from Prof. Schaif pleasantly prefaces 
 the reminiscences of the alumni, some of whom were his 
 pupils when he was a lecturer in the Institute : 
 
 AMERICAN BIBLE REVISION COMMITTEE, 
 
 NEW YORK, May 2. 
 My Dear Dr. Thompson : 
 
 Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to partici- 
 pate in the semi-centenary festivities of Hartford Theological 
 Seminary, which I had the honor and pleasure to serve as a 
 lecturer on " Church History " for several years, and whose 
 growing importance and prosperity I have followed with great 
 satisfaction to this day. It is now one of the very best theological 
 institutions of the country, and has a great future before it. 
 I count it a great privilege that I was permitted to secure for 
 
101 
 
 it one professor and to recommend two others, who have 
 proved efficient and faithful teachers of sound theology. 
 
 Unfortunately I am unable to attend, as I expect to sail 
 for Europe May 7th, and am just now overwhelmed with 
 examinations, preparations, and all sorts of work. But my 
 heart will be with you, and my best wishes and prayers for 
 yourself, your colleagues, and your institution, to which you 
 have devoted your life. 
 
 I am, my dear Dr. Thompson, 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 PHILIP SCHAFF. 
 
 Congratulatory Note from the President of Middlebury College. 
 
 MIDDLEBUKY, May 20, 1884. 
 My Dear Dr. Thompson: 
 
 Allow me to send you my Christian congratulations on the 
 semi-centennial which you have celebrated. 
 
 The history of the Seminary is a noble and instructive one. 
 God does not forsake his servants who persevere unto the end. 
 The Seminary has had its dark days, but now the heavens 
 are clear and bright. Your ow r n connection with it is unique. 
 Prof. Packard of Bowdoin College is the only case I know of 
 that can compare with it. To work half a century for and 
 in one institution has been, given to very few. You may well 
 say : " Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me 
 bless His holy name." 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 C. HAMLIN. 
 
 Josiah Wolcott Tuner, '36, Strongvilk, 0. 
 
 Among all the letters received scarcely one is written in a 
 firmer, clearer hand than that of the only student on the 
 ground at the laying of the corner-stone of the first Seminary 
 building at East Windsor Hill, now in his 73d year. And it 
 is cause for congratulation that we should have his full and 
 interesting reminiscences : 
 
 a It was my privilege to be present at the ceremonies of 
 laying the corner-stone of the first Seminary building ; also 
 
102 
 
 to hear the inaugural address of Dr. Tyler. I shall never 
 forget how the venerable Dr. Perkins of West Hartford was 
 led through the crowd to the consecrated spot, and there, with 
 trembling hands and voice, but with a firm faith, laid the 
 
 foundation Dr. Tyler was the only professor or teacher 
 
 present, unless it were Dr. Nettleton, and I happened to be 
 the only student then on the ground, and was probably the 
 only spectator, from out of town, now living. Soon after 
 this, however, other students came ; first Brother Ellery Tyler 
 and John Goddard ; then Goodale, Perry, Payne, Haven, and 
 Ives. For some time Dr. Tyler was our only instructor, but 
 he was a host in himself, and one whose memory will ever be 
 fondly cherished by his pupils. Not long after came our loved 
 and now venerable Professor Thompson, then young and 
 vigorous. How he put us to digging up the tough Hebrew 
 roots, himself leading the way ! .... In due order came 
 Dr. Coggswell, leading us through the realm of ecclesiastical 
 history, ever swayed by the profoundest enthusiasm for his 
 own department. In a good sense he always ' magnified his 
 office.' If last, by no means least, came Dr. Nettleton. His 
 ' familiar talks,' as he modestly persisted in calling them, were 
 among the best and most practical lectures we were privileged 
 
 to hear They have been of great service to me all 
 
 through my ministry, now of more, than forty-seven years." 
 
 Lyman Whiting, '42, Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 " Sunset was just drawing its tinted web over the hushed 
 elms, sandy roads, and the newish-, lone, stately hall, the 
 ' Seminary.' Four even brick stories two front doors, 
 orderly rows of cheerful windows, with a kindly, twilight 
 smile on them. Inside are thirty students ; and space plente- 
 ous for each. President Tyler, Professors Coggswell and 
 Thompson, the teachers. An i assistant ' just home from Ger- 
 manland, scholarlike, choice, and winning as a new Hebrew 
 Chrestomathy, was Augustus C. Thompson, A.M. He 
 taught all manner of wisdom between Aleph and the Hith- 
 pael. Some student voiced the ' morning prayer.' At even- 
 
103 
 
 ing the loved teachers, a patriarchal group, came in and 
 led us. 
 
 "Dr. Tyler's lectures, made for his Portland pulpit, kept 
 the grasp, throb, and almost pulpit wrestling in them as at 
 first. In the chapel pulpit, his ' strength and beauty,' his 
 flash and flame, were seen and felt. A master in Israel, 
 truly, he was. 
 
 " Dr. Coggswell strode through church history somewhat 
 as we fancy a Yantic Sachem roamed along the meadows of 
 the big river beside which we dwelt. The c old theology ' 
 got illumined in his free, fervid, gushing colloquies with us. 
 
 " The Melancthon of that era sat with us in Greek Testa- 
 ment Exegesis and Biblical Literature. But his garland is 
 not yet all woven. Daily Dr. Nettleton came to sit awhile 
 with the President. He was clean in person, so tidy in attire ; 
 each foot-fall a nicety ; the face so apostolic, the eye ceaseless 
 in recognitions, and a little like the fabled ancient ring, which 
 took a copy of the inside of each heart its facets were turned 
 upon. Wondrous man ; more a vision then, than ' one like 
 us.' So silent, almost speechless ! Once I heard him read, 
 inimitably, in the Scriptures." 
 
 Hiram Day, '42, Olencoe, Cook Co., III. 
 
 .... " When I was ready for my theological studies I 
 wrote Dr. Tyler inquiring if the theology of Edwards and 
 Dwight was taught in' the Theological Institute of Connecti- 
 cut. In reply Dr. Tyler inclosed to me the creed of the Insti- 
 tute ; and it was all right Dr. Tyler was to me the 
 
 model instructor in theology. Dr. Coggswell was my teacher 
 in church history ; and he taught well, and only failed to con- 
 vince any of my class that Adam could not talk until God 
 
 had taught him to do so by talking to him The course 
 
 of instruction in the theological department of the Institute 
 . . . . was plain, scriptural, and never unfair or belligerent 
 in the treatment of contrary opinions If this Semi- 
 nary hereafter shall hold the same system of doctrinal faith, 
 it shall be found for a long time to come that its mission is 
 
104 
 
 unchanged, its service not yet completed I regard it 
 
 as a great favor of Providence that I was directed to our 
 beloved alma mater in theology." 
 
 Henry Beach Blake, '44. 
 
 " My memories of Dr. Nettleton, which are quite vivid, are 
 of his sick bed. I was asked one vacation to spend a night 
 with him, which I did. He' seemed to take a fancy to me as 
 a night watcher, and sent for me often. I spent many a 
 night with him. 
 
 " ' The chamber where the good man meets his fate 
 Is privileged beyond the common walk 
 Of virtuous life ; quite in the verge of heaven.' 
 
 " He slept little ; talked a great deal. The scenes in which 
 he was an actor in the great revivals through which he had 
 passed were always very vivid, and the impressions were very 
 vivid to me. 
 
 "His expositions of Scripture were many, incisive, original. 
 One night we heard a cock crowing, and he said the selection 
 of the crowing of a cock as the sign of the fall and penitence 
 of Peter was an evidence of the Divine Wisdom of the Mas- 
 ter. He said the common opinion that cocks crow only at 
 certain times in the night, was erroneous. But the cock w r as 
 a domestic bird among all nations, and that in all ages, to the 
 end of time, and to the uttermost parts of the earth, lonely 
 watchers in the silent hours would be reminded of the inci- 
 dent in Peter's history, and led to solemn thought upon 
 unseen and eternal things. 
 
 " I have always deemed the impressions received from Dr. 
 Nettletoir, during the months and years he lay dying in that 
 hallowed chamber, as among the most valued results of my 
 theological course." 
 
 Thomas Henderson Rouse, '50, Paia, Maui, Hawaiian Islands. 
 
 " It was in the fall of '47" that I came to the old Seminary. 
 I found it a large, lonely, four-story brick building, with a 
 chapel beside it, on a quiet, elm-lined street, which was ankle 
 
105 
 
 deep with sand for miles, overlooking the valley of the Con- 
 necticut, with its thrifty farms and waving orchards. 
 
 " The place was still and lonely. At long intervals a car- 
 riage passed or a loaded cart filed in from the meadows. The 
 arrival of the evening stage, on its way to Broad Brook, was 
 the stirring event of the day. Then the students turned out 
 and the professors took their evening stroll. It was our only 
 connection with the busy world without. It brought our 
 papers, our new books, which were distributed from Mr. 
 Charlton's store, with many a graceful bow, and liquid, mean- 
 dering remarks of compliment or sympathy, from the gracious 
 old gentleman. The lightning trains sped by in the far dis- 
 tance over the Connecticut, reached only by a lazy, rope 
 ferry, tooted up by a tin horii. 
 
 " It was a good place to study. You had to study. There 
 was absolutely nothing else to do. Not a sight or sound to 
 excite or distract the mind, except the songs of the robins and 
 meadow larks. If you did not study you would die with 
 ennui. The carpenter's shop, where we planned out book- 
 cases, and the garden weedy, and full of everlasting quack- 
 grass, soon cloyed on our enterprise. I needed no outward 
 pressure to drive me to study afterwards. The habits of quiet 
 investigation formed there have stuck by me. 
 
 " At 11 o'clock the bell sounded for lectures, the door of 
 the President's mansion opened, and he moved slowly down 
 the walk, crossed the street, and, with his manuscript under 
 his arm, ascended to the lecture-room. He seemed at first 
 look the embodiment of a sound and well-rounded theology. 
 A dozen or fifteen students, often less, filed in about the same 
 time. When all were seated, a short invocation was addresse'd 
 to ' The greatest and best of Beings ' the doctor's peculiar 
 phrase, and the lecture commenced. The old doctor sat in 
 delivery. His tones at first were deep, low, and deliberate, 
 varied with a peculiar emphasis, when he closed some ponder- 
 ous sentence, as a clencher to his argument. As he proceeded 
 he waxed more earnest, as the visions of Taylorism and the 
 New-Light heresies, with their destructive innovations, rose to 
 view between the lines of his manuscript, and the pent ener- 
 
 14 
 
106 
 
 gies fired his delivery. His face flushed, the big veins in his 
 lofty forehead swelled to whipcords, his right arm became 
 impatient, and his clenched hand ploughed slowly but in- 
 tensely along the table, and every word seemed to weigh a 
 solid pound, as he drove into us the good, old, biblical theol- 
 ogy. He generally remained sitting awhile like a patriarch, 
 inviting the confidence of his pupils, who crowded around 
 with question or request. 
 
 " In Greek and Hebrew we had Dr. Thompson. In recita- 
 tion he was tender of your crude expositions, scarcely ever 
 directly disputing you, and in his correction saved all he 
 consistently could of your rendering. But the veteran pro- 
 fessor and venerable dean is still among us, the last of the 
 Seminary fathers, and I forbear. I speak of him as he was 
 thirty -six years ago, hair black and bushy, covering a grand 
 forehead and deep-set eyes. But now the granite gray crowns 
 that self-poised brain, solid and well in hand, while beneath 
 is a heart true to you and true to duty. ' In coelwn serus 
 redeat.' 
 
 " The sweet, amiable, gentle Dr. Hooker was also a mem- 
 ber of the faculty while I was there. In his pulpit prayers 
 he was most tender and touching. Poor man, he knew too 
 well how to enter into some of life's deepest trials, for he had 
 that greatest of sorrows, a wife insane. In his addresses at a 
 throne of grace there always came, in tones of touching ten- 
 derness, the petition for those ' That had diseases of the mind.' 
 From this source there came sorrow upon sorrow. There was 
 living with him at East "Windsor a daughter ; tall, beautiful, 
 accomplished, a very angel with infolded wings, of a spirit 
 SQ devoted and tender, heavenly and sad withal, that her 
 walk among us was like some superior being, the shadow of 
 whose coming and going filled us with a kind of awe. She 
 had spoken of herself as a shadow on her home, and other 
 expressions of deep despondency, when like a shock and a 
 deep shadow indeed, the news came on a dark winter morn- 
 ing, bitter cold, that she was missing. The searchers traced 
 her footsteps to the frozen river. From under the ice they 
 drew her lifeless form, carried it to the home she had graced, 
 
107 
 
 and from thence to its last resting-place. Well might that 
 father say, ' There are no sorrows like unto my sorrows.' We 
 
 t/ ' / 
 
 all felt so, in our weak faith. But he, so nearly sanctified, 
 only drew nearer to the side of God, like a child fully weaned, 
 saying, ' My Father, Thy will be done.' 
 
 u Next to the professors about the old Seminary, we often- 
 est saw that careful, shrewd, conscientious old Yankee farmer, 
 Deacon Ellsworth, lay defender of the faith. There was 
 always a sly, watchful, half suspicious, yet genial smile on his 
 honest face, as he came looking about the halls and buildings, 
 as though he loved his boys dearly, yet thought they would 
 bear watching, were not wholly lifted above the liability to 
 sins, of carelessness, at least ; and I think that was the case. 
 He frowned a little when he found the doors slamming in the 
 wind, the blinds shattering themselves against the brick walls, 
 the gates going to pieces, and the tools lost from the 
 work-shop, and other indications of a general heedlessness. 
 Precious old Seminary sentinel ! His carefulness taught us 
 care and economy, and how to combine shrewdness with thrift, 
 and, when he died, a pang came over us that we had not been 
 more careful of the sacred pence committed to his keeping. 
 ' A faithful man who can find.' Oh ! Psalmist, if you had lived 
 in these latter days, and had known Deacon Ellsworth, you 
 need not have despaired.'" 
 
 Robert Dexter Miller, '52, West Hartford, Vt. 
 
 u Dr. Bennett Tyler always appears in the foreground of 
 my recollections 
 
 " At the close of our graduating exercises .... he hap- 
 pened to meet a number of students, gathered in front of the 
 Seminary buildings, and was somehow led into giving us a 
 short sketch of his life. He said, after nineteen years of 
 earnest devotion to the interests of this new enterprise, that 
 he had never had a doubt of its having been the way of duty 
 for him to leave the large, united, prosperous church in Port- 
 land, and take and hold the place he has since occupied ; a 
 place ol comparative difficulty, discouragement, and apparent 
 
108 
 
 uncertainty. I well recall how happy the great, good man 
 seemed to be. 
 
 " Prof. Gale, our Professor in Ecclesiastical History, who of 
 us has ever felt like saying anything but good of him, so genial, 
 companionable, and helpful ? Those many practical sugges- 
 tions of his on subjects pertaining to the gospel minister's 
 office-work, given so pleasantly in off-hand lecture-room 
 talks ; who that enjoyed them has forgotten them, or failed 
 of making them largely profitable as a pastor in doing wisely 
 and effectively the duties of that high calling?" 
 
 . William Brown Lee, '53. 
 
 " I remember that one day in the early fall of 1850, 1 took 
 an old rattle-to-bang stage at the American hotel in Hartford, 
 and went to East Windsor. I was landed on the sidewalk 
 with my trunks, in front of the old Seminary buildings, 
 and came very near to getting into a muddle with the stage- 
 driver, because he would not take my trunks to my room. 
 That driver was a citizen of East Windsor, and knew, and 
 carefully maintained, and defended his accustomed rights. 
 While I was musing on the steps a huge form came rolling 
 across the street from the president's house, and soon the 
 genial Dr. Tyler grasped me by the hand and gave me a 
 warm welcome. The Rev. Dr. Thompson soon called on me, 
 and in his gentle manner and kind spirit, made me begin 
 to feel very much at home. 1 called Dr. Tyler, Paul ; and 
 Dr. Thompson, John ; appellations which my fellow-students 
 will remember cleaved to our beloved professors. 
 
 "I had purposed to stay in East Windsor only a single 
 year, and then go to Princeton: but got so in love with 
 Tyler, and Thompson, and Gale, and Lawrence, and Hooker, 
 that I abandoned the plan of going away. We cast the 
 world behind our backs, and let it wag in its own way, 
 while we gave ourselves to study and to prayer ; to dis- 
 cussions, to lectures and debates ;' to cutting and splitting 
 our own wood ; to gardening in the large and beautiful gar- 
 den back of the Seminary ; and to mechanical pursuits in 
 
109 
 
 the carpenter house ; but I never knew anyone to overwork 
 either in garden or carpenter shop. We used to go on long 
 rambles, and often on rides to Hartford. We played daily, 
 in good weather, at the game of loggerheads, by which we 
 nearly ruined the lawn, much to the discomforture of good 
 Deacon Ellsworth ; peace to his ashes. Ours was a thorough 
 country life." 
 
 Benjamin Parsons, '54, Windham, Greene County, N. Y. 
 
 . . . . " The three years I spent in study at the Theological 
 
 Institute at East Windsor Hill were agreeable to me My 
 
 ambition, spurred on by the proffer of a pecuniary prize to the 
 candidate passing the best examination in theology as taught 
 (in Latin) by Francois Turretin, led me to supplement, for two 
 years, my study of English works on theology, with diligent 
 study of the methodical and terse writings of that distin- 
 guished successor of John Calvin. The gaining of the whole 
 prize for the first, and half of it for the second year, was . 
 of trivial importance, compared with the broadening and 
 deepening and solidifying of views which resulted from that 
 study, and for which I can never be too grateful. 
 
 " Our life at the Hill was, of course, not eventful 
 
 In the meantime, however, we were not so isolated but that 
 the woes and wants of a world ' dead in trespasses and sins,' 
 
 could and did reach us, making a mighty appeal So 
 
 strong was the interest at one time, that several members of 
 the class of 1853 seemed very likely to devote themselves to 
 labor in foreign lands. I think, however, that only Rev. 
 Charles Hart well went abroad. In my own class, that of 
 1854, the missionary spirit prevailed to such an extent that 
 Caiiton went to Siam, Adams to Africa, (dying soon after his 
 arrival, and dying in the triumphs of faith,) Maccussohn to the 
 Jews of Greece, and myself to the Armenians of Asia Minor. 
 My missionary life covered a period of only six years, 
 and those were six of the- brightest and happiest of my life. 
 Among the items which contributed to make them such, 
 I found the pleasure of knowing that I was doing good, 
 
110 
 
 added to the pleasure of endeavoring to do good. Here is, I 
 think, an advantage which the foreign missionary has over 
 many a hard-working and equally faithful laborer in our 
 
 land 
 
 " I see no good reason why, from an institution so manned 
 there should ever be graduated a single specimen of the order 
 of kid-gloved sentimentalist, place-seeking adventurer, pre- 
 sumptuous, or barely half-fledged theologian." 
 
 Moses Ttiurston Runnels, '56, Sanbornton, N. H. 
 
 "A former pastor of mine in southern New Hampshire, 
 being a New Haven graduate, exclaimed to a friend, on hear- 
 ing that I was about to become a student at East Windsor : 
 ' Don't let him go there ! don't let him go there ! ! They are 
 behind the age ; and behind every age.' 
 
 " I have never heard of a course in theology in any institu- 
 tion which I would have willingly exchanged for that of 
 Dr. Tyler's. Once in a week our three professors were 
 accustomed to meet all the students of an evening and talk 
 to us in a familiar way of special topics which might prove 
 of practical advantage to us in the ministry, drawing largely 
 from their own experience. The hints thrown out at those 
 gatherings have been of incalculable benefit to me all through 
 my course, thus far. 
 
 " Dea. Erastus Ellsworth was our honored lay-father. His 
 interest in us was unbounded and genuine. He looked after 
 our physical wants and comforts. He kept the ample wood- 
 shed well stocked with 'good wood which he sold us at the 
 lowest cost price, encouraged us to work it up ourselves for 
 exercise, and furnished our rooms with Franklin stoves, by 
 whose open fires we took a world of comfort and enjoyment. 
 He was also glad to have us choose our plats in the garden 
 back of the Seminary buildings in the summer, affording us 
 every facility for bodily exercise in that line. My own carrot 
 bed used to yield me $15 each season, besides a margin for 
 flowers. Directly back of the Seminary grounds was pas- 
 ture, with a pleasant footpath extending to the Connecticut. 
 
Ill 
 
 Here was my favorite walk, and on the river's bank I had a 
 secluded spot for ' vocal gymnastics.' At the commence- 
 ment of my third year there was a general stampede of 
 students from East Windsor to other institutions, especially 
 Andover. Their excuse was that if they remained they 
 should be graduating from a ' Decaying Institution,' and this 
 would prove an incubus on their future prospects. I, for 
 one, could not so grieve the heart of that sainted man, Rev. 
 Bennett Tyler, D.D., w r ho combined with his massiveness 
 of intellect and theological erudition, the simplicity of a little 
 child." 
 
 Henry M. Bridgman, '60, Umgumbi Station, Southeast Africa. 
 
 " My poor, short-lived memory will, I fear, be of little use to 
 the well-iilled Hartford Seminary of to-day, palpitating with 
 a life rooted in the eternal, the essential truths of Revelation, 
 a life not less scholarly than spiritual. 
 
 " My short residence at East Windsor Hill was in the last 
 days of the beloved Tyler. I can never forget the drizzly 
 day we went out and sang a hymn as we laid him in his 
 tomb. My days at East Windsor Hill were pleasant days. 
 The students were equal to the twelve disciples in number. 
 At least three of them not only longed to meet the heathen 
 but did meet them Robbins, Pease, and Bridgman. Another 
 student was so fully in accord with these brothers that it was 
 thought best to send him for a time into the ' hill country,' 
 Westhampton. Then (that he might be fully equipped as a 
 good soldier) into the ' low country ' about Port Hudson. 
 And he took not only his church but his prayer-meeting with 
 him. Then, to further perfect him for his future work, we 
 allowed him to labor among the hoodlums of San Francisco. 
 After a few years we felt sure he would answer to send for- 
 ward to Honolulu, the outskirts of the heathen world. As 
 he still felt himself unfitted for the heathen (Simon Pure) we 
 sent him to Germany, thinking that a sojourn in the land of 
 lager beer and sound scholarship, with the writing of an 
 excellent book on ' The History of the Bible,' would thor- 
 
112 
 
 o uglily prepare him either to go to the heathen in person or 
 incite others, provided he could only take one more course of 
 study at Hartford Seminary. There you will now find this 
 brother, doing most excellent work, as Rev. Prof. Bissell. 
 
 " Here is my confession. I spent the last two years of my 
 theological course at Union Seminary, New York. As things 
 werel do not regret it ; but as things are at Hartford, could I 
 live life over again, and I could pass the examination for 
 entrance (which is doubtful) I would enter at Hartford. As 
 it is not given to men to live their lives over again, except in 
 vain regrets, I will tell you what I plan to do. ' In place of 
 the fathers are their children.' I have one at Amherst, and 
 propose to send him to Hartford Seminary, provided you head 
 him, at the end of his theological course, to ' the dark 
 continent.' ' : 
 
 John Otis Barrows, '63. 
 
 I got my beginning at East Windsor. It was a right 
 beginning. If any of us failed to make the progress we 
 should have made it was because South Windsor was too 
 near ' the Hill.' The only regret I have is that occasionally 
 I gave way to youthful weakness and took moonlight walks 
 to South Windsor, while Kal and Niphal, Hiphil, and Hoph- 
 al were waiting to rise up in judgment against me the next 
 morning. So long as it was dark, or even under the light of 
 a lamp, the full form, the indefinable hideousness of these 
 grim old warriors of Jewish origin failed to make a due 
 impression upon my blunted sensibilities ; but with the morn- 
 ing light there was no strength in me. An encounter was 
 out of the question. Only the kind consideration of my 
 indulgent teacher kept me alive. If we gave less attention 
 than we ought to theology, it was because of the distracting 
 influences of the political condition of the country. Civil 
 war with all its terrors came upon us. There was a student 
 among us all of whose friends and nearest relatives were in 
 the Confederate service. Yet Charles C. Painter stood firm. 
 His hands first caught the rope when a flag was raised on 
 the Seminary building. 
 
113 
 
 Edward Trumbell Hooker, '63, Charleston, South Carolina. 
 
 Dear Brothers Hallock and Hawkes : 
 
 " A wanton fancy asks if the names of all the alumni have 
 H and K in them like yours and mine. Just there I remem- 
 ber my father meeting at anniversary time two members of 
 the Pastoral Union, whose names were the same, and greet- 
 ing them with an extended hand to each as " two Hydes," 
 received the unexpected, quick rejoinder with a laugh, " Yes, 
 and the horns are generally not far off ! " That was the pattest 
 pun upon his name that Father Hooker ever suffered. But 
 there were other letters of the alphabet in those days. Two 
 graduates once came at anniversary time to our door and 
 introduced each other to the stranger who happened to open 
 it, as Mr. Knight and Mr. Day. 
 
 " I could begin with the journey in 184:4 of the new ' Profes- 
 sor of Homiletics and Ecclesiastical History,' with his family, 
 from Bennington, Vt., via Springfield, Mass., whence we took, 
 before the days of the railroad, a little stern-wheel steamboat, 
 through the wonderful Windsor Locks, to the old Bissell 
 Ferry landing under the pines at the edge of the beautiful 
 meadows, back of oiir future home. There was music and 
 social liveliness with sometimes serious intent, when the 
 sisters and the students together passed the summer evenings, 
 or boated on the smooth Connecticut, or rode to Wadsworth 
 Tower. 
 
 "Then I see, as if really there again, that ornamentally 
 partitioned garden in the rear of the Seminary, whose chief 
 products were melons for the tempted gamins of the town ; 
 the cruciform arbor above the frog-pool and terraces ; the 
 open belfry on the roof of the Seminary, frequent resort of 
 lovers of that charming landscape. I could itemize the 
 (wide) pits, where loggerheads were literally played, as I have 
 never seen elsewhere ; the veritable chopping-block, where, 
 some one having given him a long swallow-tailed coat, Bro. 
 Goodwin's classmates abridged said tails with an ax, having 
 seated him in position, vi et armis. That was Goodwin the 
 violinist ; and that is a true story. 
 
 15 
 
114 
 
 " There was Lee of fascinating social vein ; and Bacon full of 
 fun ; Knight, who criticised a labored sermon of Bacon's, read 
 with firm confidence in its greatness, with the sententious 
 ' Humph, pious words ! ' 
 
 " You mention first, of course, among historic names, Tyler. 
 He was to me the Seminary. A lad still, I remember his 
 wrapt prayers, which had no need to keep always shut the 
 trembling eyelids, that showed the uplifted eyes as in the 
 picture of John Huss. With what white-souled vehemence 
 he preached vital truth behind that desk in the little chapel, 
 there are many that can testify. He was to me a Boanerges ; 
 but a gentle one, with his small white fist (for so large a man) 
 emphasizing his clear sentences upon the open Bible. 
 
 " Josiah Tyler, now long in Africa, of whom there, his 
 father said, he had more joy than at home, reached the climax 
 of description of a certain man's soundness, when he said he 
 was orthodox, tremendous orthodox; more orthodox than father /' 
 'Language could no farther go.' The corner-stone of the 
 Theological Institute of Connecticut, which was the door- 
 stone of Jonathan Edward's father's home, in the lower town, 
 w r as the rock in the sea, on which the cross seemed to stand 
 unmoved. 
 
 " I must not, could not, forget Dea. Ellsw T orth, the modest 
 but tenacious ' Professor of Brick and Mortar,' as he styled 
 himself, who placed that stone, and saw that everything was 
 built afterwards to the delight of a thorough mechanic's heart, 
 who rejoiced in his work as done 'upon honor' as ' pro 
 Ohristo et ecclesiae? " 
 
 Albert Warren Clark, '68, Prague, Austria. 
 
 " I rejoice in the prosperity of Hartford Seminary be- 
 cause I believe she is doing honest, manly work on abiding 
 foundations. In these times we need the clear, unwavering 
 tone of an institution not troubled about theological may-les, 
 a school of the prophets not ashamed of the time-worn, battle- 
 worn banner of a crucified and risen Christ." 
 
115 
 
 Winfield Scott Hawkes, '68, South Hadley Falls, Mass. 
 
 " I was the first new student on the ground at Hartford. 
 Harmon of '67 was the only other man in the building that 
 night Oct. 5, 1865. The next morning early I heard a voice 
 ringing through the passages and vacant rooms of that spa- 
 cious old Wads worth mansion, singing 
 
 " ' I'm monarch of all I survey.' 
 
 " Whatever I am as a minister of the Lord Jesus, I owe to 
 Dr. Yermilye, more than to any one man. It but faintly 
 expresses my feeling to say that I revere and honor his mem- 
 ory. If any student left his teaching without being able to 
 state his own views definitely, whether in accord with Dr. 
 Yermilye's or not, it was solely his own fault. Dr. Yermilye 
 had no superiors in the art of putting things clearly and log- 
 ically. I noticed several classes pass through the experience 
 of earnestly antagonizing his teaching in the junior year, but 
 came through the middle year accepting it, and the senior 
 year warm and loyal admirers of the man and his system of 
 theology. In the work of the ministry I have found no occa- 
 sion to change my faith. t What I was taught at Hartford 
 stands the test of real life and work." 
 
 Isaac Curtis Meserve, '69, New Haven, Conn. 
 
 " Dr. Vermilye's class-room was the place where every- 
 thing was done with pains-taking fidelity and in reverent love 
 of truth. Discussions sometimes made the ' sparks fly ; but 
 they only served to make a halo for this kind-hearted teacher. 
 Dr. Yermilye did not ask his classes to accept his theology 
 without examination, nor did he pretend that his or any 
 system of Christian doctrine was, or could be, absolutely com- 
 plete and inflexible. He stimulated our minds to enthusiastic 
 work ; but he insisted continually, and uncompromisingly, that 
 God's Word is the final test and arbiter of all belief. It is 
 probable that all his students became as fixed as himself in 
 that axiom." 
 
116 
 
 Martin Kellogg Pasco, Brownton, Minn. 
 
 " I understand there is a good, new, first-class gymnasium 
 now. Little did I think that such a thing would grow out of 
 the little seed which I planted. You remember the old barn 
 back of the Day house. I conceived the idea of tearing out 
 the inside and putting in those few pieces of apparatus. I 
 can quote without blushing the well-known sentence, ' Quo- 
 rum pars magna fui.' Bliss, and Meserve, and Miles, and 
 Morris, and others helped and did as much as I did ; but I 
 shall modestly claim the credit of the germ. I cherish the 
 memory of the year I spent at Hartford." 
 
 Edward Sackett Hume, '75, Bombay, India. 
 
 " The three years spent at Hartford Theological Seminary 
 were altogether the pleasantest and most profitable of my 
 whole educational course. 
 
 " It would be impossible for instructors to take a deeper 
 interest in the students under their care than was taken by 
 our professors in me and my fellow-students ; not only so, but 
 we were encouraged to live on such terms of intimacy with 
 them that we could esteem them our warmest friends. I 
 regard this as one of the important features of the Hartford 
 Seminary. I sincerely hope the time may never come when 
 the professors of this institution will cease to be intimate with 
 the students. I cannot refrain from speaking of the weekly 
 conferences which gave each professor an opportunity of dis- 
 coursing to us in a familiar way on various subjects. Some of 
 these were very profitable. One of the professors used to 
 speak often on the importance of private devotions, and in 
 that connection used an expression which passed among us 
 students as a proverb, ' The morning hour, gentlemen, the 
 morning hour.' The gesture used when speaking these words 
 is, I doubt not, remembered by many. This advice came with 
 peculiar fitness from one whom we saw pass the building in 
 which we lived at an early hour in all kinds of weather, on 
 his way to his study, where many an hour, as we all knew, 
 was spent in prayer." 
 
117 
 
 Greorge Samuel Pelton, '77, Omaha, Neb. 
 
 " The Theological Institute of Connecticut is a part of my 
 life. Born within rifle's shot of the old buildings at East 
 Windsor Hill, I grew alongside of it. To me, a poor farmer's 
 boy, it was a constant inspiration. The daily passing of the 
 students, the Sunday services, the preaching by the professors, 
 the Sabbath-school all these were wrought into my daily 
 life ; and many a time I vowed in my boyish zeal that, God 
 helping me, I would become a member of the institution and 
 enjoy all the delightful benefits that my imagination pictured 
 the happy denizens of the school as enjoying. 
 
 " How well I remember Dr. Tyler's portly form and kindly 
 face ; and Dr. Lawrence, the genial Scotchman, who always 
 prayed ' that the Word of God might be like apples of gold 
 in pictures of silver ' to those who listened. How well I re- 
 member the day upon which its removal to Hartford was 
 determined ; the sadness that fell on the community ; the 
 grief of one of its firmest and truest friends, Dea. Ellsworth, 
 w r ho gave of his time, and substance, and prayers most boun- 
 tifully. Of its incalculable worth to me when a student 
 in the institution at Hartford I can never say enough. It was 
 here under wise men that my theology was straightened out 
 for all time. Dr. Thompson, Dr. Childs, Dr. Eiddle, and Dr. 
 Karr to all these I owe a debt of everlasting gratitude." 
 
 Charles Sylvester Sanders, '79, Aintab, Turkey. 
 
 " I knew the Seminary only by name before I went there ; 
 did not even know that it was an old-school Seminary. 
 I have never been anything but thankful that I went. 
 I was there in the ' ford of passage ' period and the passing 
 years do not (in my own mind and feelings) carry the Semi- 
 nary across the city. The course of instruction is in my 
 recollections a source of unmixed satisfaction. I am more 
 and more convinced that our Seminary does wisely in extend- 
 ing exegesis and history through the course instead of concen- 
 trating the study of them, the one in the earlier and the 
 other in the latter part of the curriculum. 
 
118 
 
 " The religious atmosphere of the Seminary is a thing I 
 remember with much pleasure. Last of all, I have no 
 need of changing my theological opinions ; and am as ready 
 now as ever to subscribe with no ' mental reservations ' to the 
 creed of the Seminary. I am glad that signing with ' men- 
 tal reservation ' went by its proper name dishonesty in our 
 Seminary. 
 
 " I accept the new theology heartily, as far as it consists 
 (as defined by its organs) in making Christ all in all as 
 supreme in our theology ; but it annoys me to hear this spoken 
 of as a new discovery, for it was the spirit of all the theolog- 
 ical instruction, or other instruction, that I ever received in 
 that dreadful old-school Seminary, the Theological Institute 
 of Connecticut." 
 
 From a letter to Dr. A. C. Thompson we are permitted to 
 quote the following : 
 
 " I arrived at the Seminary six weeks after the opening of 
 the course. That very night there was a conference at 
 which Prof. Riddle remarked, or rather gave us to understand, 
 that 'broad culture does not mean spread out thin;' also 
 some very pointed suggestions not to preach until we were 
 licensed. The more experience I have the. more I admire the 
 attitude of our professors on that point. * Don't grind until 
 you get something into your hopper,' even now remains fast 
 in memory. Yery soon we learned that ' if a man stuck to 
 his aorists, he would be proof against more than half the 
 heresies in existence.' We have tried to stick faithfully, not 
 only to aorists, but also to all parts of Greek grammar. 
 We were very fortunate in having an opportunity to study 
 Mr. Moody and his methods for a month. I should say also 
 very fortunate in being where we could hear so great a 
 variety of preaching as in Hartford. I do not sympathize 
 with any institution, or individual, that goes around with a 
 chip on its, or his shoulder, and spoiling for a fight. Hartford 
 Seminary is singularly free from this, at least, Hartford Sem- 
 inary, as I knew it. While private opinions were freely 
 expressed, the attitude of the Seminary strikes me as alto- 
 
119 
 
 gether a proper attitude for a seminary to take. While we 
 were, there, there was the utmost freedom in investigation, 
 but no mercy toward any one who held advanced opinions, 
 merely for the sake of differing, without being well persuaded 
 in his own mind. As I understand the spirit of the Semi- 
 nary it was well expressed in a remark of Dr. Riddle's one 
 morning in our Greek class : ' I don't care whether you agree 
 with me or not, but if you don't I'm going to be sure that 
 you have a reason for disagreeing with me, and that you know 
 why you disagree with me.' ' 
 
 William W. Sleeper, '81. 
 
 " The training now given in Hartford is so truly evange- 
 listic, so thoroughly grounded in God's Word, and yet so 
 broad in details, that none of the recent alumni, at least, 
 can venture to blame his Seminary, if he find himself engaged 
 in other than missionary work. It is my earnest conviction 
 that Hartford's new departure in the line of furnishing a prac- 
 tical musical education is an important and praiseworthy one. 
 For the missionary, the drill received there is of immense 
 advantage ; and it cannot be much less for any minister. Per- 
 haps the best idea I received from the Seminary is, that faith- 
 ful study of the Inspired Records in their original tongues can 
 best furnish the Christian minister with the weapons he will 
 need in his warfare against sin." 
 
 Paul Ansel Chadbourne, '51. 
 
 This touching evidence of tjie dying remembrance of Dr. 
 Chadbourne has been reserved as the most fitting conclusion 
 of these reminiscences : 
 
 " Dr. Chadbourne's brief connection with this Seminary 
 was long enough to awaken a deep desire for its highest pros- 
 perity, and lasting affection for its officers Dr. Tyler, Dr. 
 Gale, and your own Dr. Thompson whom he valued among 
 his most esteemed friends. 
 
 " His thoughts turned to you during the last week of his 
 life, when in those days of physical suffering and exhaustion 
 
120 
 
 lie knew that God had come to take him to Himself, and he 
 remembered* the institutions of learning in which he had 
 studied and taught. 
 
 " To the students of this institution he sent a most urgent 
 appeal, begging them to preach the Gospel of Christ in its 
 purity, its simplicity, and "its fullness. ' Tell them,' he said, 
 4 that it would be better for each one to return to his home, 
 and the doors of the Seminary to be closed forever, than for 
 them to accept and teach anything but the truth as revealed 
 in God's Word.' 
 
 " The exact words of that remarkable message it is impossi- 
 ble to repeat. It was feared by those who heard these utter- 
 ances that they were the last that could fall from his lips ; but 
 in the early hours of the morning, following a night of alarm- 
 ing prostration, the words, ' Oh, the pain and agony of Cal- 
 vary, and all for one,' were twice repeated by him ; the tones 
 of his voice indicating how fully he realized what the words sig- 
 nified ; and then, in sweetest voice of earnest persuasion, he 
 added, ' but this sacrifice was for all for every one whoso- 
 ever will may come, He will turn none empty away.' 
 
 " He spoke of himself but once, when he said, ' Can it be 
 possible that I am soon to sing the song of Moses and the 
 Lamb ! ' and lifting up his hands he prayed : ' Oh, my God, 
 give me strength to show forth Thy glory.' ' : 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE PASTORAL UNION. 
 
 The annual meeting of the Pastoral Union of Connecticut 
 was held at Hosmer Hall on Thursday, May 8th, at 2 p. M. 
 The Union, which founded and controls the Seminary, is 
 composed of ministers of Connecticut and of other States, 
 who are elected to membership one year after their nomina- 
 tion, and includes the ministers and laymen, who are annually 
 chosen by the body to constitute its Board of Trustees, to 
 whose trust the care and government of the institution are 
 committed. By these means the Seminary is held in close 
 and vital relation with the churches, to whose faith and will 
 its Trustees and Faculty must ever be subservient. 
 
 The doctrinal basis of the organization coincides with the 
 creeds long accepted by the Congregational churches of New r 
 England, which have ever been believed by the members of 
 this Union to harmonize with the teachings of the Divine 
 Word ascertained through study. Signature to these "Arti- 
 cles of Agreement " is a condition of membership in the Pas- 
 toral Union, and public assent to them is annually required 
 by every member of the Faculty and Board of Trustees. Satis- 
 factory testimonials of good standing in the membership of some 
 Christian church of one of the evangelical denominations, are 
 among the conditions demanded of each candidate for admis- 
 sion to the Seminary course. To defend revealed truth against 
 wrong interpretations of Holy Writ and rationalistic theology, 
 and to train candidates for the sacred office to be eminently 
 Biblical preachers in loving devotion to the Master, was and 
 is the governing purpose of the Pastoral Union in the found- 
 ing and maintenance of the Seminary. 
 
 16 
 
122 
 
 In addition to the routine business of the year the follow- 
 ing matters of special interest are worthy of record : 
 
 An unusually large accession was made to the membership 
 from the ministry of other States, and numerous nominations 
 were reported for next year's election. 
 
 A committee was appointed to report at the next meeting 
 a revision of the constitution and laws. 
 
 An amendment to the constitution was put upon its passage 
 providing for the change of the name of the Seminary from 
 " The Theological Institute of Connecticut " to " The Hart- 
 ford Theological Seminary." 
 
 The following resolution was unanimously passed : 
 
 WHEREAS, For several years many citizens of Hartford have freely 
 opened their homes and their houses to entertain such returning 
 alumni, and this year their kindness has been taxed to an unusual 
 degree ; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That we do hereby express our obligations to the many fam- 
 ilies of this city who have exercised an enlarged hospitality in enter- 
 taining the great number of alumni and other friends who have been 
 present at this jubilee meeting. That so large a number of beautiful 
 and hospitable homes have been so freely placed at our disposal, merits 
 and receives our special gratitude. We venture to hope that those who 
 have entertained are not without some recompense in enlarged knowl- 
 edge of our affairs, our prosperity, our history, and our hope, and a still 
 deeper interest in our institution, whose chief aim is the enrichment of 
 the Christian ministry in our own and other lands, but which also aims 
 to bless the city of its habitation and its love. 
 
 Resolved, That these resolutions be entered upon our records and be 
 read at the public meeting this evening. 
 
 Rev. A. W. Hazen presented the annual statement of 
 the Board of Trustees, which included the reports of the Fac- 
 ulty and instructors, the librarians and the examining com- 
 mittee given below, and also the following announcements : 
 
 Rev. E. B. Webb, D.D., of Boston, succeeded to the 
 Presidency of the Board of Trustees made vacant by the 
 resignation of Rev. Jeremiah Taylor, D.D. 
 
 The following resolution was unanimously passed by the 
 board : 
 
123 
 
 WHEREAS, The Rev. J. Taylor, D.D., after thirteen years of faithful ser- 
 vice, has this day resigned his office as President of the Board of 
 Trustees : 
 
 Resolved, We hereby record our cordial appreciation of the dignity 
 and untiring fidelity with which he has presided over the meetings of 
 the board, and served the Seminary in its varying emergencies. 
 
 Rev. Prof. Hartranft having resigned the office of Libra- 
 rian, a warm vote of thanks was passed for the arduous 
 and efficient services he has rendered the institution in this 
 position. Rev. Ernest C. Richardson was elected his suc- 
 cessor, and the office of Assistant Librarian, which he has 
 so acceptably filled, was abolished. 
 
 Waldo S. Pratt, A.M., Instructor in Music and Yoice Build- 
 ing, was elected Associate Professor of Ecclesiastical Music 
 and Hymnology. 
 
 The proposal of Eldridge Torrey, in which Mrs. Miriam 
 M. Thompson, Miss Martha C. Burgess, John N. Denison, 
 and Hon. William Hyde joined, to donate five thousand dol- 
 lars for the pecuniary foundation of a Lectureship on Foreign 
 Missions,, was thankfully accepted, and the professorship into 
 which the donors hoped the lectureship would grow, is to 
 be designated when established " The Professorship of Evan- 
 gelistic Theology." 
 
 The purchase of the valuable building site situated on 
 Broad street, between the Seminary property and Farming- 
 ton avenue, was announced. 
 
 Efforts have been inaugurated for the establishment of a 
 museum, together with a collection of such books, charts, 
 maps, etc., as will afford the students an opportunity to 
 become acquainted with the researches of archaeologists, and 
 investigations in the various departments of science. This is 
 felt to be an important adjunct to their course of study, in 
 order that they may be able to utilize the results of such 
 investigations, in applying and defending the truth. For the 
 furtherance of this project there have been found those who 
 are willing to help with a liberal hand. 
 
124 
 
 KEPOKT OF THE FACULTY 
 
 FOR THE YEAR ENDING MAY 8, 1884. 
 
 To the Board of Trustees of the Tlieological Institute of Connecticut: 
 BRETHREN : The year now closing with us, while marked 
 by no events of extraordinary importance, has borne witness 
 throughout to the continued favor of Almighty God. It can 
 still be said, as it w r as said one year ago, that "the number 
 of students has been larger than ever before in the history of 
 the Seminary." 
 
 When the present Senior class entered, the whole number 
 of students in the Seminary w T as twenty-eight. It is now 
 forty-eight; or, including the advanced class, fifty-four. 
 This remarkable growth, to whatever causes it may be 
 ascribed, shows no signs as yet of being other than healthy 
 and permanent. It remains to be seen what suitable response 
 the friends of the institution will make to the heavier tasks 
 and greater responsibilities which Divine Providence has thus 
 laid upon it. 
 
 The advanced class, made up, with a single exception, of 
 our own graduates, have pursued with fidelity, and for the 
 most part, with gratifying progress, their studies according to 
 the prescribed scheme. The presence among us of these 
 young men of more mature powers, of settled religious con- 
 victions, and thoroughly loyal to the higher aims of the institu- 
 tion, has no doubt been of service in developing still further 
 that harmony of feeling and marked esprit de corps which of 
 late years have especially characterized the Plartford Semi- 
 nary. The ordinary routine of recitations and other exercises 
 of the undergraduate classes has been less interrupted during 
 the present year than is often the case ; while the regularity 
 and punctuality of attendance, on the part of the great 
 majority of students, have been worthy of special commenda- 
 tion. It is believed that the results of much faithful and 
 conscientious work will not fail to appear in the written and 
 oral examinations which conclude the studies of the year. 
 
125 
 
 The health of the students, generally, during the term has 
 been excellent. No case of prolonged illness has occurred 
 where such illness was contracted here. This is due, under 
 God, largely to regular habits, the favorable location and 
 construction of the seminary building, wholesome food, and, 
 especially, to the uniform practice of systematic physical 
 exercise in the gymnasium, under the direction of a compe- 
 tent instructor. Attention is renewedly called, in this con- 
 nection, to the accompanying report of Mr. E. A. Chase, who, 
 as last year, has most satisfactorily conducted the exercises 
 in this department. His table of comparative statistics, 
 showing results in special cases, will awaken particular 
 interest. 
 
 While referring you to the report of the Librarian for a 
 more complete statement of the condition and needs of the 
 library, it may be said here that the increase of books during 
 the last twelve months, including some hundreds gained by 
 exchange, has been upwards of four thousand, making the 
 present total number somewhat over thirty-eight thousand. 
 The most notable acquisition has been the " Beck collection " 
 of works relating to Luther, which is doubtless unsurpassed 
 in this country. The most obvious and pressing needs of the 
 library at present are, first, a considerable enlargement in the 
 direction of modern books; and, second, more ample quarters 
 where these rich stores of information, now scattered here 
 and there in various rooms, may become more readily acces- 
 sible and be more conveniently used. The work of cata- 
 loguing, classifying, etc., has, with the help of students, gone 
 steadily forward. There has also been a noticeable and 
 gratifying increase in the use made of the library by mem- 
 bers of the Seminary. Until the present year the small fund 
 devoted to the purchase of books especially required by pro- 
 fessors in their several departments, and to be retained in 
 their rooms as long as needed, amounting to something less 
 than two hundred dollars yearly, has not been drawn upon. 
 It supplies a need which had come to be deeply felt. 
 
 At a meeting of the Faculty, held April 25th, the follow- 
 ing resolutions were uiuininioitsly passed : 
 
126 
 
 Resolved, That we recommend to the Trustees the appointment ot Mr. 
 Ernest C. Richardson as Librarian. 
 
 Resolved, That the office of Assistant Librarian be abolished. 
 
 Resolved, That the Librarian be required to subscribe to the creed of 
 the Seminary, and to make the usual annual affirmation. 
 
 Resolved, That we recommend that the following addition be made to 
 the article in the ." Laws of the Institute," headed "Library," page 29, 
 after the words " Prudential Committee": The Faculty shall annually 
 appoint one of their number to act as an advisory committee, who shall 
 be the final authority in all matters pertaining to the selection, 
 exchange, purchase, and classification of books and periodicals. This 
 committee shall also present an annual report to the Faculty, to be 
 incorporated in the annual report of the Faculty to the Board of Trus- 
 tees. The Librarian shall present his annual report directly to the Board 
 of Trustees. 
 
 The report of Mr. Waldo S. Pratt, instructor in Music and 
 Yoice-Building, is herewith submitted. It will be seen how 
 deservedly prominent a feature of our curriculum this depart- 
 ment has become. The statistical summary of the number of 
 hours given to individual training in voice-building, general 
 exercises in singing, the regular and special rehearsals of the 
 Choral Union, including three public performances, lectures 
 to the several classes on the elements of music and hymnody, 
 besides those given outside the Seminary, makes a record of 
 unusual diligence, and it may be added, of marked faithfulness 
 and success. Your attention is especially called to that feature 
 of the report which sets forth the difficulty of properly com- 
 bining elocutionary work with the musical. The Faculty are 
 in full accord with the sentiment there expressed, and ear- 
 nestly recommend the employment, as soon as practicable, of 
 a competent teacher of elocution who shall give a sufficient 
 portion of his time to the thorough instruction of our students 
 in this branch. 
 
 We beg leave, also, to lay before you a resolution passed 
 by the Faculty at a meeting held April 7th, to the effect that 
 it being desirable, in our judgment, that Mr. Pratt's position 
 in this institution be more distinctly defined and rendered 
 more permanent, we respectfully recommend his appointment 
 as Associate Professor of Ecclesiastical Music and Hymnology. 
 
127 
 
 This Seminary, which has the honor of being represented 
 by one of our colleagues on the committee of twenty-five des- 
 ignated by the National Council held in St. Louis in 1880 to 
 prepare a creed and catechism for the denomination, has had 
 at least the equal honor of dissenting from the final conclu- 
 sions reached by the majority of the committee, the action of 
 Dr. Karr in this respect having been approved by a unani- 
 mous vote of the Faculty. 
 
 We are about to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the 
 existence and work of this institution. It is an occasion 
 peculiarly fitted to awaken reflection and stimulate hope. If 
 there were good and sufficient reasons for the founding of 
 this Seminary in the midst of the New England churches of 
 fifty years ago, there is certainly no less reason for continu- 
 ing it and giving it the heartiest cooperation in the New Eng- 
 land of to-day. Indeed, it seems to many that, whatever 
 good it may have accomplished in the past, it has plainly, in 
 the providence of God, come to its present prominence among 
 institutions of this kind u for such a time as this." In the 
 midst of wide-spread defection it abates nothing of its loyalty 
 to the accredited historical standards of the denomination, or 
 of its fidelity in teaching the undiminished, unadulterated 
 Word of God. 
 
 May it not be confidently anticipated that those called 
 upon to support the institution will see that in the generosity 
 of its endowment, and the facilities it shall thus be enabled to 
 offer for the best and most rewarding service, it does not fall 
 short of the Providential demands now made upon it? 
 In behalf of the Faculty, 
 
 EDWIN C. BISSELL. 
 HAETFOKD, May 1, 1884. 
 
128 
 
 REPORT OF THE INSTRUCTOR IN MUSIC AND 
 VOICE-BUILDING. 
 
 Mr. Waldo S. Pratt, the Instructor in Music and Voice- 
 Building, presented a statistical summary of his work, from 
 which we take simply the several headings under which the 
 matter was grouped. These headings are, (1) Individual Train- 
 ing of the Juniors in Voice-Building, including the elements 
 of both Singing and Speaking, with Exercises ; (2) General 
 Exercises for all the Students together in Singing Tunes, 
 Chants, and Anthems, including Constant Practice in Sight- 
 Reading ; (3) Lectures to an Optional Class of Juniors upon 
 the Rudiments of Music ; (4) Lectures to all the Classes upon 
 leading Hymn-Writers and Important Topics in Hymnology ; 
 
 (5) Various Efforts for the furtherance of Practical Church 
 Music through Lectures and Rehearsals outside the Seminary ; 
 
 (6) The Management of the Hosmer Hall Choral Union, 
 whose chorus of about 180 singers is drawn from the whole 
 city of Hartford, and which, during the winter, held 31 full 
 and 39 partial rehearsals, and gave three public performances, 
 namely, Nov. 10, 1883, appropriate music at the Luther Festi- 
 val; Jan. 25, 1884, representative German and English cathedral 
 music ; and May 7, 1884, Handel's oratorio, " The Messiah." 
 The Choral Union has grown with surprising rapidity in every 
 way, until its management has become almost the largest single 
 item in Mr. Pratt's work. The success thus far attained was 
 finely shown in the rendering of " The Messiah " in Anni- 
 versary week. It is safe to say that the noble oratorio is rarely 
 given with more genuine and intelligent sentiment, and even, 
 in many passages, with greater technical perfection, than at 
 this concert The expressive and impressive powers of good 
 sacred music were abundantly illustrated. The crowded 
 audience was not only delighted, but uplifted by the enthu- 
 siastic fervor of the performers. 
 
 We take occasion here to note the principal purposes in 
 view in the musical department of the Seminary, when it 
 shall be separated, as it should be, from the elocutionary 
 
129 
 
 department. Mr. Pratt proposes (1) to give every student 
 thorough training in the elements of music, so far as they are 
 required in sight-reading and in tune criticism ; (2) to give 
 abundant practice in singing church music of every kind ; 
 (3) to lecture upon the management of music as a branch of 
 pastoral care ; (4) to lecture upon historical and practical 
 hymnology ; (5) to foster intelligent interest in church music 
 in the churches by lectures or other means ; and (6), connected 
 with all these lines of effort, to prosecute the work of the 
 Choral Union in studying and performing sacred music of the 
 most elaborate type. Mr. Pratt appears to have made a suc- 
 cessful beginning in the development of all these divisions of 
 this unique department. To give it the position of recognized 
 importance in the Theological curriculum which it so richly 
 deserves, the Board of Trustees, at their annual meeting, 
 elected Mr. Pratt Associate Professor of Ecclesiastical Music 
 and Hymnology. 
 
 REPORT OF THE INSTRUCTOR IN THE 
 GYMNASIUM. 
 
 The work at the Gymnasium consists of an exercise on the 
 chest-weights by all the students ; of the following-out by each 
 man of the particular exercises prescribed for him by Dr. 
 Sargent of the Harvard University Gymnasium ; and of such 
 further general and particular exercises as the Instructor may 
 be able to suggest. 
 
 Regular attendance at the Gymnasium is expected of the 
 students four days during the week. The average attendance 
 during the cold months has been something over 50 per cent; 
 of all the students ; largest attendance at any one time, 67 
 per cent. ; average attendance of the Junior class, 81 per cent. 
 
 All the students but two have used the Gymnasium to some 
 extent. It is perhaps worthy of notice that all the advanced 
 class, live in number, have been regular attendants. 
 
 In general it may be said that the value of the Gymnasium 
 is becoming more apparent every year, and is more and more 
 
 17 
 
130 
 
 appreciated by the students. It promotes the general good 
 health of the students, by giving a better circulation to the 
 blood, by increasing the appetite and helping the digestion, 
 and, too, promotes sleep by drawing the blood away from the 
 head into the muscles exercised. 
 
 In particular, the value of the Gymnasium is seen in the 
 deepening and expanding of the chest, and in the strengthen- 
 ing of the side and abdominal muscles, which sustain the voice. 
 To this " particular " aim the Instructor has endeavored to 
 direct special attention. 
 
 EDWARD A. CHASE. 
 
 EEPOET OF THE LIBRARIAN. 
 
 To the Board of Trustees of the Theological Institute of Con- 
 necticut : 
 
 The appended annual report of Mr. Richardson is so full, 
 as to results attained and suggestions to be followed, that I 
 will not travel over the same ground, but ask you to approve 
 and support his measures. 
 
 The same generous hand which has hitherto contributed to 
 the increase of the library, has given it another admirable 
 impulse in the past year. The need for modern books is really 
 pressing. A larger and fire-proof building is still a want. 
 And organized assistance for cataloguing and collation is also 
 in the future. All these will doubtless come. 
 
 The unprecedented growth ol the library ; its need of con- 
 stant supervision ; the fact that a thoroughly competent suc- 
 cessor has sprung up out of our own institution ; all these 
 considerations lead me to return the office which you have 
 entrusted to me for the last six years. I hereby resign the 
 post of librarian. 
 
 I must take this occasion to thank you for your cordial 
 support in all the elementary plans, according to which the 
 library has been modeled. Especially must I thank Mr. 
 Newton Case, whose profound interest and far-sighted enthu- 
 
131 
 
 siasm have led him to institute such beginnings, which it is in 
 his heart to follow out to still nobler proportions. May God 
 spare his life to see the fruit of his own planting. 
 
 From four years of associated work with Mr. Ernest C. 
 Richardson, I regard him as an exceptionally competent libra- 
 rian, and heartily recommend him as my successor. 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 C. D. HARTRANFT. 
 
 REPORT OF THE ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN. 
 
 To the Board of Trustees of the Theological Institute of Con- 
 necticut : 
 
 The library of the Theological Institute contained, May 1st, 
 38,256 bound volumes and about 10,000 pamphlets, exclusive 
 of duplicates. Of these 4,081 volumes and 3,000 pamphlets 
 were added during the past year. The sources of accession 
 were : By purchase, volumes 2,601, pamphlets 2,400 ; by 
 gift, volumes 349, pamphlets 300 ; by binding of periodicals, 
 volumes 236 ; transferred from music-room 59. 
 
 Among the more important accessions are a complete set 
 of the " Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ire- 
 land," a collection of 2,400 theological tracts of the 16th, 
 17th, and 18th centuries, and the Beck collection of " Luther- 
 ana." This latter collection, of which only a part has ar- 
 rived, is, probably, by far the best collection of works on the 
 subject in this country, and the collector implies in the preface 
 of his catalogue that it is surpassed by few even in Germany. 
 That a few numbers had been sold before our offer arrived is 
 to be regretted, but the irreplaceable loss is small. The New 
 York Nation devoted a half column editorial to the descrip- 
 tion of this collection last winter, and hoped that some 
 wealthy American would be found to secure it to this coun- 
 try. The generosity of Mr. Case in securing not only this 
 but many other things, which to let pass for the present would 
 be to lose entirely, adds to the debt of gratitude which not 
 only the friends of the Seminary, but of American scholar- 
 ship in general, already owe to him. 
 
132 
 
 Work of the Year. 
 
 As usual, all work has been done by student help. This 
 usually inefficient and always unsatisfactory help, has been 
 more efficient than it has ever been found to be before, during 
 an eight years' experience. This has been partly from the 
 practice begun three years ago of selecting men from the 
 Junior class and pledging them to a reasonable amount of 
 work during the whole course, partly to the very good mate- 
 rial for selection, and partly because the organization has been 
 so subdivided that each man has a definite, limited portion of 
 work for which he is responsible, and which he can learn 
 passably well in the limited time he devotes to it. 
 
 In the present crowded and unfinished state of things, how- 
 ever, this is the best method. Whether it will be the best 
 when circumstances admit of a more exact method and a 
 more perfect organization will be a question. 
 
 The work done includes the cataloguing of books mentioned 
 in last year's report as uncatalogued, also the entire disposal 
 of the books received this year, except a few of the latest 
 accessions, the completion of the biography catalogue with 
 the exception of the books in Room 3, the recataloguing of 
 the Richter books, a considerable progress made on the cards 
 for a shelf catalogue, improvement in the disposition and cat- 
 aloguing of bound periodicals, the exchanging of nearly 1,000 
 duplicates and the arranging of all our pamphlets, which 
 were almost entirely untouched, with the cataloguing of a 
 large portion of them. It is hoped that the next report will 
 show the work in pamphlets finished so that the exact figures 
 can be given as of the books. The above figures are only 
 approximate for pamphlets. 
 
 Use of Library. 
 
 There has been a marked increase in the use of reference 
 books in the library-room ; though the cramped quarters make 
 it very inconvenient for many to study at the same time, it 
 has nevertheless been very much used, and a class of books 
 consulted which would surprise those who are not accustomed 
 
133 
 
 to unrestricted access to books. It is due largely to the stress 
 laid by the professors upon the necessity of the verification of 
 facts and of studying from the sources ; but the increase of 
 the library makes it possible for them, in a few departments, 
 at least, to refer the students to the books needed for consul- 
 tation. The result is a considerable use by students of a class 
 of books seldom used in most other seminaries, except by 
 professors ; and a consequent training in the use of books 
 which cannot fail to be in a high degree useful. The year 
 shows a visible increase in the use of such books. 
 
 There have been, during the year, 101 users who have 
 drawn out books to the number of 1,345, an increase of 21 
 users and 364 books drawn. 
 
 Reading- Room. 
 
 This was reorganized last year. A few details have been 
 added or improved. By a readjustment of prices the cost of 
 periodicals has been slightly reduced. The transfer to the 
 reading-room of a number of things not hitherto treated as 
 periodicals, and the few additions, makes the total number 
 taken 203 instead of 177, as reported last year. Of these, at 
 least 190 are " periodicals," in the proper sense. . 
 
 Library- Room. 
 
 This has been increased by the addition of a fourth room 
 outside, and more shelving in the basement. Some additional 
 room has been gained by piling books on the tops of the cases. 
 It is safe to say that the usefulness of the library might be 
 nearly doubled if not cramped for room. 
 
 Not one-half of the library can be classified under the 
 present circumstances, although cards are being prepared and 
 arrangements made so that it can be done at once when there 
 is room. 
 
 In General. 
 
 The gift of the Misses Vermilye of Prof. Yermilye's 
 MS. sermons and theological lectures, suggests the desirabil- 
 ity of making an effort to get the MSS. of other of the Semi- 
 
134 
 
 nary professors. It is to be desired that if any such are 
 known to exist, or any MSS. of well-known preachers, their 
 deposit in the Seminary library should be secured if possible. 
 
 (2.) It is proposed also to make some effort to increase our 
 pamphlets, by persuading people to place them in this library 
 rather than destroy them. It is hoped that members of the 
 Pastoral Union will cooperate in a matter where with so little 
 trouble and cost, so considerable an advantage is gained to 
 the library. 
 
 (3.) A study of nearly 175 theological libraries in the Uni- 
 ted States and Canada strengthens what was said in the report 
 of last year, that no American theological library begins to 
 fill the place of anything more than a relatively good one. 
 
 Prof. Curtiss of Chicago, at the dedication of their new 
 library building, well says that " Next to importance to a 
 good faculty for an institution is a well-equipped library." 
 
 It is difficult to see how any institution is to rise above 
 mediocrity, so long as its professors are compelled to a medi- 
 ocrity of scholarship through lack of tools. It can certainly 
 never be true that we can " get just as good an education in 
 America as in Germany," until our resources for books are 
 greatly increased. 
 
 This library holds its place, easily, as relatively one of the 
 best theological libraries, and a very few years may put it 
 well above the line of absolute mediocrity. 
 
 There is great reason for thankfulness in the present facili- 
 ties which it offers, and as it increases in efficiency, there is 
 equal reason to hope for a corresponding increase in use- 
 ful u ess. 
 
 ERNEST C. RICHARDSON, 
 
 Assistant Librarian. 
 
135 
 
 REPORT OF THE EXAMINING COMMITTEE. 
 
 7b tf/i? Trustees and Pastoral Union of the Theological Institute of 
 Connecticut: 
 
 Of the eight members of the Examining Committee 
 appointed by your respective bodies, five reported for duty. 
 
 Forty-six of the fifty-four students named in the Catalogue 
 either appeared before them, or were represented by their 
 papers. 
 
 Eight absentees four from the Junior, three from the 
 Middle, and one from the Advanced class were accounted 
 for by the Faculty. 
 
 The Committee were in attendance upon the Oral Examin- 
 ations on Monday and Tuesday, during which time the Senior 
 class were examined in their presence by the Professors and 
 by the Committee, in Hebrew, Greek, and Church Polity, as 
 were the Middle Class in Theology and History, and the Junior 
 class in Hebrew. 
 
 Papers prepared by all the classes in the written examina- 
 tions held by each Professor during the preceding week were 
 submitted for the inspection of the committee. Specimens of 
 the work prosecuted by the Advanced class, under assignment 
 of the Professors in whose departments the members severally 
 elected to study, were also placed in our hands. From personal 
 investigation at both of these sources of information the 
 Committee draw their report of the respective departments of 
 instruction, which they beg herewith to submit. 
 
 Systematic Theology. 
 
 The oral examination of the Middle class revealed a maturity 
 of thought and a grasp of the doctrines highly commendable 
 at this stage of the course. A pleasing independence of one 
 another was manifested. The individuality of each student 
 was marked. While encouraged to dig about the foundations 
 of the accepted theology, they adopted substantially, and with 
 but slight variations, the creed of the Seminary as their own. 
 Their familiarity with the points of current discussion con- 
 
136 
 
 cerning the challenged positions of the historic faith, seems 
 rather to have anchored than swerved them from those 
 positions. They will preach Christ, the only Saviour of lost 
 men. They stated the doctrines of the Atonement and the 
 Trinity clearly and with discrimination. The evident con- 
 scientious fidelity of the instructor has been met on the part 
 of the class by honest study and intelligent conclusions, limited 
 always by the word of God. The written examination of the 
 Junior class, embracing the General Introduction and Defini- 
 tions, the Theistic Arguments, the Evidences of Christianity, 
 and the Inspiration of the Scriptures, disclosed the special 
 care and training bestowed at these fundamental points. 
 
 New Testament Exegesis. 
 
 The examinations under Prof. Riddle indicate work of the 
 highest excellence. The papers of the Junior, and Middle 
 classes, and especially the oral exhibit by the Seniors, were 
 characterized by a thoroughness and fidelity to the principles 
 of interpretation, which were as refreshing as they were re- 
 assuring. 
 
 With special satisfaction we note the training of the students 
 to manly and independent methods of investigation, and to 
 the habit of forming and defending their own conclusions by 
 intelligent acquaintance with the fundamental facts. This 
 feature of exhaustive investigation, accompanied by strict 
 loyalty to a genuine criticism, based upon original manuscript 
 authority, cannot fail to develop champions of the truth, 
 workmen needing not to be ashamed. 
 
 The enthusiasm of the Professor seems to have stimulated 
 the students to faithful work, not only along the lines pursued 
 in the class-room, but in other directions, so that many of the 
 Seniors have read the entire New Testament critically, while 
 all have thus examined the larger part of it. Foundations 
 for future acquisitions have been laid in well-formed habits 
 and methods which will bear fruit in years to come. 
 
 We rejoice to* see the invincible, grammatical bulwarks of 
 sound doctrine so thoroughly built up in the minds of the out- 
 going classes, believing that the real defense of the faith is 
 
137 
 
 more and more to be found in the ipsissima verba of the ori- 
 ginal text. 
 
 We congratulate the Trustees of this Institute upon the 
 substantial and most efficient work which is constantly being 
 done in this department. 
 
 Old Testament Languages and Literature. 
 
 Of this department your committee have only good things 
 to report. Written and oral examinations have alike borne 
 testimony to faithful effort and enthusiastic interest on the 
 part of professors and students. 
 
 The Junior class were closely examined for an hour and a 
 half on Old Testament Introduction, Hebrew Grammar, and 
 Exegesis, and they sustained themselves in a manner highly 
 creditable to Prof. Bissell, and that gave bright promise of 
 future attainment. 
 
 The papers of the Middle class covered a great deal of 
 ground, and showed a high average of attainment and remark- 
 able grasp of the questions under consideration. Especial 
 praise should be given for the thorough manner in which the 
 class have mastered the verbal forms, and for the facility 
 which they have acquired in translation. 
 
 We should, of course, look to the entire three years' work 
 of the Senior class in order to learn just what the Seminary 
 is able to do in this department. And we call special attention 
 to the following facts : The Senior class have read eleven 
 whole books and parts of five others in the class-room, Yet, 
 so interested have they become in the language, that seven 
 of the class have pursued their studies in the remaining books. 
 One member has completed the reading of the entire thirty- 
 nine books of the Old Testament ; another of thirty-one whole 
 books and parts of three others ; a third of thirty-one books 
 and parts of two more; a fourth of twenty-seven whole books 
 and parts of four, and a fifth of sixteen entire books with 
 parts of four others. Moreover, one member of the class has 
 prepared a complete vocabulary of the First Book of Samuel, 
 which, together with the Hebrew text, he has printed under 
 the direction of Prof. Bissell, and with the cooperation of 
 
 18 
 
138 
 
 Professor Brown, of Newton Theological Seminary. The 
 Professors have thus secured a valuable text-book for their own 
 use in their respective institutions which will aid and encour- 
 age beginners in the study of the Hebrew. That thoroughness 
 has also characterized the studies of this class, appeared further 
 in the satisfactory oral examination which Prof. Thompson 
 conducted with so great vigor and enthusiasm, and which 
 brought out the fact that the class had made solid attainments 
 in all the directions in which Hebrew studies are pursued in 
 our seminaries. The History of Exegesis, and the modern 
 criticism of the Old Testament literature, have also very evi- 
 dently received careful attention. These facts afford most 
 gratifying evidence that our Seminary is bearing a most cred- 
 ( itable part in the very successful efforts of American scholar- 
 ship to revive the interest in and advance the study of the 
 languages and literature of the Old-Testament Scriptures. 
 
 We may well congratulate the Seminary and its friends that 
 Prof. Thompson has been spared to see such results from his 
 life-long efforts in this department, and that his work is being 
 taken up by so able and enthusiastic a teacher as Prof. Bissell. 
 
 Practical Theology. 
 
 Besides the examination papers in this department, sermons 
 and sermon analyses were submitted to the committee. The 
 theory and practice of sermon preparation seem to have been 
 thoroughly taught and the matter of delivery not 'neglected. 
 The sermons of the Middle class are evangelical, earnest, prac- 
 tical. In Church Polity the Seniors leave the Seminary with 
 definite ideas of Congregationalism. 
 
 We commend both the breadth and thoroughness of this 
 department, and congratulate the Institution that students 
 may here learn the art of preaching and become grounded in 
 a Christian polity w T hich includes Christian doctrine. 
 
 Department of Music. 
 
 Your committee have gone carefully over the examination 
 papers covering a review of the lectures on Hymnody. We 
 
139 
 
 find that the students know hvmns, their origin, structure, 
 
 i/ O 
 
 history, faults, uses and comparative merits. 
 
 Since from the character of this department no detailed ex- 
 amination can be given, your committee have sought in other 
 ways to ascertain its worth and efficiency. 
 
 We find it more than fulfilling its promise of usefulness and 
 exerting a good influence in the Seminary and for the 
 Seminary. 
 
 Historical Theology. 
 
 From this department there were submitted : First, papers 
 prepared by the Junior class in the written examination on the 
 " History of Culture." The principles and methods of their 
 study were amply illustrated in their treatment of represent- 
 ative passages from the Old and New Testaments. The 
 archaeological allusions of each passage were first of all clas- 
 sified under their respective subjects. Then each specific refer- 
 ence, after being clearly indicated by the Hebrew or Greek 
 word in which it was contained, was fully described or explained. 
 The work in each paper was strictly conformed to the same 
 method and was of very uniform excellence. 
 
 Secondly, there were submitted written discussions in 
 Biblical Theology by the Senior class of an aeon of Old 
 Testament History, and of the Second Epistle to the Thessa- 
 lonians. The papers were marked by the clear apprehension of 
 the province, value, and relations of the historical develop- 
 ment of revelation, of the science of which they treated. The 
 discernment and delineation of the way-marks of the great 
 Scriptural truths in the passages under review were most in- 
 teresting, and the development of the various stages of their 
 progress therein indicated evince a mastery of the principles 
 of this science, whose great and growing importance is so 
 strongly emphasized in this department. 
 
 Thirdly, the most conspicuous feature of the instruction in 
 Church History developed by the oral examination was the 
 emphasis laid upon the correct method of study. The principal 
 effort seems to be directed more toward indicating the sources, 
 outlay, terminology, relations, and auxiliaries of historical study 
 
140 
 
 for the student's independent use, than to the immediate im- 
 partation of historical facts and information. The definite 
 characteristics and boundaries of each of the great periods, 
 however, are carefully denoted, and minute study of the more 
 important epochs is required. 
 
 To place the student at the fountain-heads of historical 
 knowledge, which is one of the great aims of this department, 
 every member of the class is given a branch of study to work 
 up from its first sources during the year. The value of the 
 methods pursued in this department cannot but be of perma- 
 nent value to the student and can hardly fail to be increasingly 
 appreciated as he grows in years and in ability to use the 
 equipment here provided. 
 
 The Advanced Class. 
 
 The work required of and accomplished by the Advanced 
 class calls for special mention. While the branches of study 
 pursued by them are optional, study is required. Specific 
 work is assigned, supervised, and examined by the Professor 
 in whose department the student elects to pursue an advanced 
 course of study. Four of the class attended the regular exer- 
 cises of the Junior class in New Testament Exegesis for six 
 months in order to review the application of Textual Criticism, 
 with special reference to questions of harmony. The result 
 was gratifying not only as it appeared in the work of this 
 class, but as seen in the Juniors also, who were so stimulated 
 to special study that a majority of them were prompted to 
 construct for themselves a harmony of the Four Gospels. 
 
 Two members of the Advanced class pursued special studies 
 in Exegetical Theology. One devoted himself to the Epistle 
 to the Ephesians, and presented work, in written form, which 
 was highly satisfactory as to method and results. The other 
 collated the text of the Four Gospels from the critical texts 
 and the revised version, adding to his notes on the various 
 reading, a compact " Apparatus Criticus " covering the lead- 
 ing manuscript and other authorities. The results are so exact 
 that it is the design of the Professor to incorporate them in a 
 
141 
 
 work soon to be published, which, it is hoped, will prove help- 
 ful in the critical study of the Greek Testament. 
 
 Three Advanced students read Hebrew, giving special 
 attention to grammatical forms. One of them, also, made a 
 special study of parallel passages in the books of Chronicles 
 and Kings, and prepared a harmony of these passages, thus 
 laying the foundation for valuable critical work in the future. 
 
 Two members of this class studied under the direction of 
 the Professor of Systematic Theology. The results of their 
 toil w^ere presented to the Committee in two elaborate and 
 noteworthy monographs, one upon " Evolution and Christian- 
 ity " and the other on " The Witness of Christ's Assump- 
 tions to His Divinity." 
 
 To the two students who elected Historical Study there were 
 assigned respectively the periods of Gregory X and Edward 
 YI to work up from the sources. The exhibits given of the 
 mere collation of these sources available in the library, which 
 they made for the development of their subjects, indicated an 
 expenditure of time, toil, and scholarly skill and patience of 
 which " Advanced " students only are capable. 
 
 In conclusion, there are two characteristics which all the 
 departments of our institution seem to share. 
 
 First. The students are trained to seek the original sources 
 of information on all subjects. They are taught where to 
 find and how to use these sources, and are made conversant 
 also with the history and literature of each department of 
 study. This not only gives them a very noticeable independ- 
 ence of judgment, but, in connection with the large and grow- 
 ing collection of such sources of knowledge in the library, 
 this training in the very processes of authorship, and the culti- 
 vation of the scholarly taste and spirit it necessarily involves, 
 promise rich results at no distant day. 
 
 The second characteristic is that interdependence of the 
 several departments upon each other, which seems to be culti- 
 vated by each of them without betraying evidence of the 
 interference of any. To the independence inculcated, this 
 feature of instruction adds the equally-essential elements of 
 
142 
 
 intellectual breadth and equipoise, which together go to make 
 the true scholar. Through all, too, there breathes that spiritu- 
 ality which marks the men who go hence not only as scholars, 
 but as Christian scholars. It is our belief that their Alma 
 Mater may expect to hear of these sons of hers in the church 
 and the world within the first decade of her second half 
 century. 
 
 In behalf of the Examining Committee, 
 
 GRAHAM TAYLOE, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS. 
 
 BY PROFESSOR M. B. RIDDLE, D.D. 
 
 On behalf of your instructors I am permitted to give some 
 last words of counsel. They will not be new to you, my 
 pupils. Whatever be the field of labor to which each of you 
 may go, and you are to be widely scattered, always and every- 
 where be hopeful, be faithful. Be hopeful, for Christ is Head 
 over all things; be faithful, for He bids it because He deserves 
 it. 
 
 I. Sundry theological commotions, may seem to be dis- 
 couraging, but our Master tells us of conflict, and yet asks us 
 to be hopeful. Amid the deplorable tendencies of this age, 
 I find one strong ground for hope. The increased attention 
 paid to exegetical theology, however crude some of its present 
 results may seem, ought to lead the people of God to abun- 
 dant blessing. Every great revival in the study of God's 
 Word has been followed by an advance in positive theologi- 
 cal statement as well as by a revival of religion. For these 
 two are not contrary to each other. Indeed, the evil tenden- 
 cies of the age will, I trust, drive Christian teachers and 
 preachers to the more constant use of the proper weapons in 
 defending the truth. By exegetical and historical methods 
 we must defend what we account the teaching from God ; by 
 these methods we believe we can defend it; in these methods 
 we have sought to train you. More than this, your instructors. 
 
143 
 
 one and all, believe that the truths emphasized, in our instruc- 
 tion and in our creed alike, are the very truths which give 
 abundant ground of hope in ministerial service. Our task 
 has not been to preserve intact some fossiliferous deposits of 
 theology, but to show you how to find God Jn His written 
 Word. Yet we make no antithesis between theology and 
 faith ; we do not find it necessary " to divide in order to 
 distinguish." We glory in teaching theology, the science 
 above all sciences, as the necessary intellectual basis of that 
 art above all arts, the art of Christian living. Thank God 
 for the testimony, uttered again ajid again, never more touch- 
 ingly than in the devotional meeting this morning, that our 
 students do not find their seminary years chilling to their 
 piety. By the same token, we believe that the type of 
 theology taught you here is adapted to make you hopeful in 
 your future labors. We have striven to make God upper- 
 most in your thoughts ; to bring you to a heart-recognition of 
 Christ the King as well as the Priest of the New Dispensa- 
 tion ; to emphasize your dependence on the Holy Spirit He 
 has purchased and promised. These are the divine facts 
 which make preaching a success. Be hopeful, then, because 
 you do not go on this warfare at your own charges. 
 
 Morbid views are often the result of a diseased body. 
 Your physical training here should combine with your doc- 
 trinal training to make you cheerful. The happiest men I 
 have ever known were healthy Calvinists. (It is true enough 
 that the men most uncomfortable to themselves and others 
 are often bilious or dyspeptic Calvinists.) 
 
 The last book we read together wa.s the Apocalypse. We 
 found in it, not a chronological puzzle, not an armory for pessi- 
 mists, but a majestic vision of the power and glory of the 
 Lamb that hath been slain. Conflict is abundantly foreshad- 
 owed, but the anthem that opens the great vision, that song 
 beyond any Hallelujah chorus of earth, praises our atoning 
 Lord as the Unfolder of God's providence, the Ruler over the 
 centuries, the foreordained Victor in the weary conflict. He 
 that hath overcome to open the book shall overcome on the 
 earth. The Gospel is not set to a minor key. Be strong in 
 
144 
 
 that hope which maketh not ashamed, because the love of 
 God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy 
 Ghost which was given unto us. 
 
 II. Be faithful as well as hopeful. The two injunctions 
 are inseparably. Gratitude to Christ is the immediate re- 
 sponse of a renewed heart, and gratitude to a person naturally 
 takes the form of fidelity. Not as of law, but of grace, are 
 we to fulfill our trust. This motive the Holy Spirit uses, and 
 in the ministry its application is manifold and indispensable. 
 Faithfulness to Christ will guard you against two great mis- 
 takes in your aims and methods : first, seeking to please your- 
 self; second, seeking to please others rather than your Mas- 
 ter. The two are allied, or rather are polar errors, the result 
 of selfishness. 
 
 1. And by pleasing yourself, I mean far more than a life 
 of so-called pleasure. Faithfulness to Christ demands that 
 you leave room for Providence in your plans ; that you do 
 not obstinately attempt the impossible, because you are the 
 victim of ideals, cherished more as your own than for Christ's 
 sake. A faithful man will not be forever mourning over the 
 lack of opportunities, or attributing to his surroundings the 
 failures for which he is himself responsible. Learn of your 
 age and circumstances as well as from God's Word what 
 Christ would have you do. Then do your best in that very 
 work. The admonition is given in all business circles, in all 
 places of trust, and it is all the more practical when Christ is 
 the Master to whom we are responsible. It is unfaithful, to 
 be forever scheming to get away from present work, to shirk 
 present duty, because we think our gifts fit us for something 
 else. I am hopeful of you in regard to this ; for as a class 
 you have been faithful, diligently attending to your seminary 
 work before everything else. Anything else here is unfaith- 
 fulness, as you well know. 
 
 We earnestly desire that you keep up your studies ; for you 
 it would be blame-worthy to forget your Hebrew and Greek, 
 however it may be in the case of those not trained as you 
 have been. But I warn you that scholarship which neglects 
 the immediate duty of your office is only a kind of self- 
 
145 
 
 pleasing. Scholarship for its own sake, miserly or pedantic 
 massing of knowledge that yields nothing for Christ's service, 
 or that is uttered only for display, may be as selfish as the 
 sordid heaping up of wealth, or the barbaric splendor of our 
 vulgarest millionaires. For Christ's sake be exact scholars ; 
 but sacrifice your noblest ideal of study, if Providence calls 
 you to do some hard work that interferes with it. To do 
 otherwise may seem a noble kind of selfishness, but selfishness 
 it is. When you have learned to submit, to do faithfully, pa- 
 tiently, duty that is most distasteful to you, God may permit 
 you to do the work you like. 
 
 2. On the other hand, faithfulness demands that you should 
 seek to please Christ rather than to please others. What 
 does not please others is not necessarily pleasing to Christ. 
 The matter is usually one of perspective, or subordination. 
 Yet there will come times when you find direct antagonism 
 between the two. If you do not learn to regard all your duty 
 as primarily due to Christ, you cannot get the sweet habitude 
 of fai tli fulness. Only this can glorify your whole life. Only 
 with the skill of constant practice in following Christ can you 
 stand firm in the few great emergencies when tempted to go 
 with the multitude against your conscience. 
 
 Indeed, faithfulness is true success, though it does not always 
 seem to succeed. As many of you are sons of ministers, you 
 probably know that in our calling also unfaithful men sometimes 
 get the credit belonging to others; schemers after influence carry 
 their e'nds at the expense of their proper duty; pulpit reputation 
 seems strangely incommensurate with fidelity. These things 
 test our faithfulness, and attest the imperfect sanctification of 
 the Church. But God's verdict is the final one. He succeeds 
 to whom the Master says : " Well done, good and faithful 
 servant." 
 
 Yet, my dear pupils, God can say this in this world by His 
 providence. He rules the world, and does make signal dem- 
 onstration here that faithfulness is success. Often we must 
 wait long to see it, but marked illustrations are usually at 
 hand. We have one here to-night. It is fitting that I should 
 close these remarks, and with them the public utterances of 
 
 19 
 
146 
 
 this glad semi-centenary, by pointing to that illustration in 
 unequivocal language. The present dean of the Faculty began 
 his services in the seminary fifty years ago, with a mind capable 
 of great achievements, with scholarly hope and ambitions. 
 At the end of the half century, God be thanked, he is still 
 here with us. But his early ambitions for himself have 
 not been fulfilled. With all his gifts he has been neither 
 author, nor orator, nor ecclesiastical leader. Why ? Because 
 faithfulness marked out an apparently humbler path of 
 duty for him. And to-night I can say that I know of 
 few live^ so successful ; certainly of none more faithful. 
 In a trying and unpopular position, he believed that 
 God had marked out his path for him, and he gave 
 up all that interfered with the nearest duty. Whatever 
 the seminary needed that he could give, he gave ; his time, his 
 care, his purse, his instructions in any and every department, 
 his tact, his courtesy, his prayers for the seminary and its 
 pupils all for Christ's sake. And with him side by side there 
 stood for many a year, through doubt and trial and overwork, 
 another faithful soul, well known to the older Alumni, 
 strangely taken away before him. 
 
 We hope that there is an expanding future of usefulness 
 before this institution ; but grow as it may, as the last saying 
 of this glad anniversary as well as the fit enforcement of my 
 counsel to you, my pupils, I may express my conviction that 
 there has been, under God, no more potent factor in its success 
 up to the present hour than the faithfulness of our beloved 
 Prof. Thompson, whose life says to you far better than can any 
 words of mine : Be hopeful, be faithful. 
 
V :...,,. 
 
 lii 
 
 
 
 14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, 
 or on the date to which renewed. Renewals only: 
 
 Tel. No. 642-3405 
 
 Renewals may be made 4 days priod to date due. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 IN STACKS 
 STACK 
 
 EEC. CIS. W 22 78 
 
 LD21A-60m-8,'70 
 (N8837slO)476 A-32 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
mm 1 
 
 
 I :,