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THE LIFE
OF
CHARLES HODGE D.D. LLD.
PROFESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
PRINCETON N. J.
BY HIS SON
A. A. HODGE
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
743-745 BROADWAY
COPYRIGHT 1880
BT CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
GRANT, FAIEES & EODGERS,
ELBCTBOTYPBKS AND PRINTERS,
PHILADELPHIA.
PREFACE.
THE family of the late Dr. Charles Hodge have been assured,
by those in whose judgment they have the most reason to con-
fide, that a memoir of his life should be prepared. This was ren-
dered probable by the fact that, although his life had been a quiet
one, varied by few external events of general interest, yet it had
been one of very remarkable literary activity, and of protracted
and extended influence, involving an intimate association with
many of the most interesting characters and events of the cen-
tury J The totality of the phenomenon, including personality and
achievement, was unquestionably very remarkable. It matters not
whether the effect is to be attributed in the largest measure to
natural, gracious, or providential endowments, the study of the
causes combining to produce such an effect must be instructive.
Behind every cause, whatever its nature, is the beneficent effi-
ciency of God, and to him will be all the praise.
The subscriber undertook the work because he could secure the
agency of none of those who would be more competent. That
he is a son is an advantage, in so far as the relation secures
special opportunities of information, and the strongest motives to
diligence. It need, on the other hand, occasion no embarrass-
ment, as he does not purpose to intrude upon others his opinions
of, or his affection for his Father, but simply to gather and present
materials through which his Father and his work may speak for
themselves, and the opinions of the most competent among his con-
temporaries may be impartially reflected.
At the repeated and earnest solicitation of his children^ my Father
jotted down during the last year of his life some reminiscences of
iii
j v PREFACE.
his childhood and youth, and of his early friends. These I have re-
corded in the first and second chapters of this Memoir, preserving
his order and language in the first person, but interpolating addi-
tional matter of the same kind, culled from the reminiscences of
"my Father's only brother, the late Dr. Hugh L. Hodge, of Philadel-
phiaVidictated to his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Harriet Woolsey Hodge,
during the winters of '70 and '71. I have preferred rather to fuse the
new material with that of my Father, than to keep them mechanically
distinct, and have marked the words of my uncle as his only in a few
instances, when the propriety of doing so will be evident.
The other sources from which these memorials are drawn are : A
diary kept during his residence in Germany, from March, 1827, to
May, 1828 : meager notices of events and dates, preserved in con-
nection with his daily record of the weather : his published writings
and his extant manuscripts : his own letters, preserved by his
mother, brother, and friends : the letters of his correspondents :
estimates of his character and services, published during his life and
since his decease, and especially the printed records of his Semi-
centennial Celebration, April 24th, 1872.
The state of his letters and papers is accurately represented by
what he said in response to an application from a daughter of one
of his oldest friends: "Through my long life I have never destroyed
and never preserved letters." With much care many interesting
relics have been recovered from the mass, while doubtless much just
as valuable remains undiscovered.
I am particularly indebted to my Father's pupils in Ireland and
Scotland Prof. Robert Watts, D. D., of Belfast, and Mr. Charles A.
Salmond, of Arbroath, and to Rev. Professor Benjamin B. Warfield,
and the Rev. Drs. Henry A. Boardman and Wm. M. Paxton, of
America.
PRINCETON, N. J., August 19, 1880. A. A. HODGE.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY,
WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE REMINISCENCES OF HIS BROTHER.
Ancestry, Childhood, Mother, Brother, Teachers and Companions . . 1-19
CHAPTER II.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED.
FROM HIS ENTERING THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, SEPTEMBER,
l8l2, TO HIS GRADUATION, SEPTEMBER, 1815.
Profession of religion Revival Class-mates and Teachers .... 2038
CHAPTER III.
FROM HIS GRADUATION FROM THE COLLEGE, SEPTEMBER, 1815, TO
HIS GRADUATION FROM THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,
SEPTEMBER, 1 8 19.
Study in Philadelphia Journeys to Silver Lake and Virginia Seminary life
* and friends and letters to Mother and Brother 39-67
CHAPTER IV.
FROM HIS GRADUATION FROM THE SEMINARY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1819,
TO HIS ELECTION AS PROFESSOR, MAY 24, l822.
Correspondence with Dr. Alexander, and with his Mother and Brother Visit
to New Haven, Boston and Andover His licensure, teaching in the
Seminary, and preaching at Lambertville and Ewing 68-91
V
v j TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
FROM HIS ELECTION AS PROFESSOR, MAY, 1 822, TO HIS DEPARTURE
FOR EUROPE, OCTOBER, 1826.
His election as Professor Marriage Birth and baptism of children Studies
and commencement of the Biblical Repertory Resolution to go to Eu-
rope 9 2 - I0 3
CHAPTER VI.
FROM HIS DEPARTURE FOR EUROPE, OCTOBER, 1826, TO HIS RETURN
TO PRINCETON, SEPTEMBER, 1828.
Letters to his wife, mother, and Dr. Alexander, relating to his voyage and
residence in Paris His journal, kept during his residence in Halle and
Berlin Letters from Drs. Alexander and Miller His own letters relating
to his visit to Switzerland, and return home via Paris, London, and
Liverpool 104-201
CHAPTER VII.
FROM HIS RETURN TO HOME AND WORK IN PRINCETON, SEPTEMBER,
1828, TO HIS TRANSFERENCE TO THE CHAIR OF SYSTEM-
ATIC THEOLOGY, MAY, 1840.
Work as a professor and preacher Correspondence with German friends
Children, family relations, and recreations Correspondence with brother
Death of mother Politics - Lameness His department of instruction
reinforced by Mr. Hubbard and Professor J. A. Alexander Gathering of
professors and friends in study The Biblical Repertory and Princeton
Review Its history, and estimate of its character and influence The
qualifications and success of Dr. Hodge as an editor and reviewer His
associates and principal contributors His Commentary on Romans
His Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church of the United
States 202-284
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DISRUPTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (1834-1838).
The historical conditions out of which the conflict sprang The several parties
in the church The true position of the *' Princeton," or conservative
'* party" Dr. Hodge's own statement of the principles on which he and
his associates acted The thorough agreement of all the Princeton men
as to principles and measures Misconceptions corrected Dr. Hodge's
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Vll
relation to the "Act and Testimony" His letters to his brother and to
Dr. Boardman 285 320
CHAPTER IX.
FROM THE CHANGE OF HIS PROFESSORSHIP, MAY, 1840, TO THE DEATH
OF DR. ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER, OCTOBER, 1851.
His transfer to the chair of Systematic Theology His method and success in
teaching The "Way of Life" Letters from Dr. A. Alexander, Bishop
Johns, Ludwig, and Otto Von Gerlach His articles in the Princeton
Review Slavery Sustentation Romish Baptism His letters to his
brother, and from Drs. Biggs and Johns Friendship and correspondence
with Dr. William Cunningham Death of Professor Albert B. Dod
Marriage and departure of his children Death of his wife Disturbed
health Death of his senior colleagues 321 383
CHAPTER X.
FROM THE DEATH OF DR. ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER, 1851, TO THE
COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR, l86l.
A member of the Boards of the Church Trustee of the College of New Jer-
seyMethods of Teaching Second marriage Correspondence with his
brother, politics Dancing and card-playing The baptism of the infants
of non-professors Commentaries Articles in the Princeton Review (I.)
On the General Assemblies The relation of the Board of Missions to the
Presbyteries The constitutionality of our Boards Commissions The
adoption of the Confession of Faith Religious education, and the reli-
gious amendment of the Constitution of the United States (II.) Free
Agency, Inspiration, &c. (III.) Presbyterian Liturgies (IV.) "The
Princeton Review and Cousin's Philosophy ' (V.) Review of Bishop
Mcllvaine on the Church (VI.) His articles on the Church and Elder
question Correspondence with Dr. William Cunningham and Bishop
Johns The death of Drs. James W. and Joseph A. Alexander Letter
of Dr. R. L. Dabney Election of his son, C. W. Hodge, as Professor of
N. T. Literature, &c. His great debate with Dr. Thornwell in the Gen.
eral Assembly of 1861 384 448
CHAPTER XI.
FROM l86l, AND THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR, TO 1872,
AND THE CELEBRATION OF DR. HODGE'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL.
His appearance and health His occupations and recreation The composi-
tion of his " Systematic Theology ''The Sabbath afternoon Conferences
The Civil War : correspondence with his brother The assassination
v jjf TABLE OF CONTENTS.
of Lincoln : correspondence with his brother" Letter to Dr. Robert
Watts on the "Witness of the Spirit" The relation of the Church to
political questions, and the merits of the actual decisions by the General
' Assembly (O. S.) of questions growing out of the War The case of the
Rev. S. B. McPheeters, D. D. The re-union of the Old and New School
Presbyterians The National Presbyterian Convention, Philadelphia,
Nov., 1867 449-508
CHAPTER XII.
HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL.
APRIL 24, IS/2
CHAPTER XIII.
HIS LAST YEARS.
FROM 1872 TO HIS DEATH, JUNE 19, 1878.
His appearance and habit of mind The object of general love, in his family,
the Seminary, and among his students The death of his brother, Dr. H.
L. Hodge, of Philadelphia Dr. William Goodell's biographical sketch
of him The visit of the General Assembly of 1872 to Washington The
Evangelical Alliance, New York, 1873 Historical sermon, delivered at
the re-opening of the Chapel of the Theological Seminary in Princeton,
September 27th, 1874 Latest correspondence and interviews with his
friend, Bishop Johns The appointment of his assistant and successor
His eightieth birth-day His writings during these last years . 531-577
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LAST DAYS ....... 578-587
CHAPTER XV.
DR. HODGE CONSIDERED AS A TEACHER, PREACHER, THEOLOGIAN,
AND CHRISTIAN MAN, BY THE REV. DRS. BENJAMIN B. WARFIELD,
WILLIAM M. PAXTON, AND HENRY A. BOARDMAN. GENERAL ES-
TIMATE OF DR. HODGE'S SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, BY PROF. c. p.
KRAUTH, D. D ............... 588-616
THE LIFE
OF
CHARLES HODGE, D.D.
CHAPTER I.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY,
WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE REMINISCENCES OF HIS BROTHER.
ANCESTRY CHILDHOOD MOTHER BROTHER TEACHERS AND
COMPANIONS.
DURING the last years of the seventeenth and the first
of the eighteenth centuries, William Hodge, and
Margaret, his wife, lived in the north of Ireland. They
were the parents of four boys and two girls, of whom two
died in early childhood, and one surviving to maturity left
no record. The father died January 4th, 1723, and the
mother October I5th, 1730.
Soon after the death of their mother, the three remaining
children, William, Andrew and Hugh, emigrated to America
and settled in Philadelphia, where they became successful
merchants and men of influence in the community. William
had but one child, Mary, who in August, 1757, married Mr.
William West, from whom are descended the Wests, Con-
ynghams and Fraziers of Philadelphia, and the Stewarts of
Baltimore. Hugh, the youngest of the three brothers, had
but one child, a son bearing his own name, who graduated
in the College of New Jersey, in Princeton, in 1773, and
took his master's degree in course. Soon afterwards he
1 i
/ * * r ****** -9 O "'*
*\ : :-* S /*: v ** ..iJfyKgb/OGXAPffY. [1745-
sailed for Europe, but the ship he sailed in was never heard
of after leaving port.
' His mother, Mrs. Hannah Hodge, known for many years
in the family as Aunt Hannah, was recognized in all the
city as a mother in Israel. She was born in Philadelphia,
January, 172 1, the daughter of John Harkum, of "English
descent. Her mother, whose maiden name was Doz, was
the child of a Protestant who fled from France on account
of the revocation of the Edict of Nantz, 1685, and afterwards
with other French Protestants, was principally instrumental
in founding the First Presbyterian Church, then standing
on Market Street above Second, of which the Rev. Jedidiah
Andrews was pastor. Although Hannah joined the church
in 1736 or 7 she thought her true conversion occurred un-
der the preaching of Whitefield, when her life became emi-
nently consecrated to religious interests. When in 1743
the Second Presbyterian was formed out of the converts of
Whitefield, she was one of one hundred and sixty communi-
cants originally enrolled. In 1745, she married Mr. Hugh
Hodge, who was a deacon in the Second Church from its
foundation to the time of his death. They had a dry-goods
store on the north side of Market Street above Second.
Their house was the resort of clergymen and the centre of
religious meetings. After her husband's death Mrs. Hodge,
although left independent, retained the business in order
that she might not curtail her charities. Dr. Ashbel Green,
her pastor, afterwards President of Princeton College, en-
tertained a sincere reverence for her, and concludes his
memoir of her, printed in the Panoplist, vol. 2d, for the year
ending June, 1807, with a glowing eulogium of his friend.
"Solid sense, sterling integrity, sincere piety united with
great humility, the love of truth and the abhorrence of hy-
pocrisy were her chief characteristics. These gave her an
influence among her Christian associates perhaps superior
to that of any other individual." Her house was the home
of several old and infirm ladies, supported in great measure
1 739-] HIS GRANDFATHER, ANDREW HODGE. 3
by her bounty; and here* also originated the weekly meet-
ing for prayer and religious instruction observed still in the
Second Church, and in most of the other Presbyterian
Churches of the city. The house in which she lived was,
by the will of her husband, left upon her decease to the
Trustees of the College of New Jersey, for the education of
candidates for the ministry. This endowment has con-
tinued to fulfil the pious design of its founders up to the
present time, yielding an income varying from eight to
fifteen hundred dollars annually; thus constituting with a
few others the foundations of a system of endowments
which has since attained magnificent proportions.
Aunt Hannah died December i/th, 1805, when I was
eight years old. I was present at her funeral, and was stand-
ing with my cousin, John Bayard, rather older than myself,
near the open coffin. We began to cry. We thought that
was the right thing to do. But his mother came up, and
giving us a little shake, said in an authoritative whisper,
"Stop." The discovery that we were making ourselves
ridiculous, instantly dried the fountain of tears. By such
filaments the present generation is connected with the
past.
Andrew Hodge, the second in order of age of the three
immigrant brothers, born in Ireland, March 28th, 1711, was
my grandfather. He soon became a successful
and acquired considerable property. His wharf, and store,
and city residence in which he spent his life, were on Water
Street, to the south of what is now termed Delaware
Avenue. His country seat was on Mead lane, now Mont-
gomery Avenue, and he possessed one of the only six car-
riages then in the city. He was active and influential in all
the affairs of the Church and of the community, one of the
* " The crowd being often so great as to fill, not only the parlor and kitchen,
but even the back garden, close up against Christ Church ground, and much to
the offence of our Episcopal brethren, who called them ' Those conventicles held
by Mrs. Hodge.' "
4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1745-
founders of and a liberal contributor to the Second Church,
and a member of its board of Trustees to the day of his
de'ath. In 1739 he married Miss Jane M'Culloch. Her
brother Hugh was an elder in the Second Church, and a
man of great goodness and influence, though remarkable
for the great tenacity with which he held on to his own
opinions. He never would consent to the assertion that the
earth moves ; maintaining that it was contrary alike to his
own observation and to Bible authority, as Joshua com-
manded not the earth, but the sun to stand still. His char-
acter is said to have been imbibed by our family, " O ! there
is Uncle M'Culloch " having become quite a saying among
the descendants of his sister.
The religious excitement which attended the preaching
of Whitefield in this country about the middle of the last
century, gave rise to two parties in the Presbyterian Church.
Those who approved of the revival were called New Lights,
and those who stood aloof or opposed to it, were called Old
Lights. The pastor of the First Church, then the only Pres-
byterian Church in Philadelphia, together with a majority
of the congregation were Old Lights, while a minority were
on the other side. These latter were, at their own request,
set off and organized into the Second Church, of which the
celebrated Gilbert Tennent was the first pastor. Of this
Andrew Hodge, Senior, was a Trustee, and his son-in-law,
Col. John Bayard, and his brother-in-law, Mr. Hugh M'Cul-
loch, were ruling elders. The Church edifice was erected
on the corner of Third and Arch Streets. It was an oblong
building. The shorter side on the east faced Third Street ;
the longer side was on Arch Street. The steeple was on the
west end, and the pulpit was on the north side. Subse-
quently the steeple was taken down and the tower included
in the auditorium, and the pews were turned round to face
the pulpit, which was placed at the west end. The Church
in after years was removed to Seventh Street, near Arch,
where it remained during the pastorates of Rev. Drs. Cuyler
1767.] DESCENDANTS OF ANDRE W HOD GE. 5
and Shields. The shifting of the population necessitating
another removal, a lot was purchased at the corner of
Twenty-first and Walnut, on which has been erected one of
the most beautiful church-buildings in the city. My grand-
father's pew in the original edifice on Third and Arch Streets
was the front one in the middle aisle to the left hand of the
preacher. The same pew, i. e., the same in relative position,
has remained in the family ever since. It is now held by
the great-grandson of the original occupant, Dr. H. Lenox
Hodge, who is also a ruling elder in his ancestral Church.
These family details are of interest to those whom they
concern. I wish, however, that those who come after me
should know that their ancestors and kindred were Presby-
terians and patriots.
Andrew Hodge and Jane M'Culloch were the parents of
fifteen children, eight of whom died in infancy or early life.
Their eldest child, Margaret, married John Rubenheim Bay-
ard, of Bohemia Manor, Maryland, afterwards a Colonel
in the Revolutionary army. After the war he settled in
Philadelphia, but during the latter part of his life resided in
New Brunswick, New Jersey. His sons were James A.,
who married the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Rodgers, New
York ; Andrew, a merchant, and president of the Commer-
cial Bank, Philadelphia; Samuel, clerk of the Supreme Court
of the United States, and a resident of Princeton, New
Jersey ; John M., who resided on the Millstone river, near
to a village of the same name ; and Nicholas, a physician,
who settled in Savannah, Georgia. His daughters were Jane,
who married Chief Justice Kirkpatrick, of New Brunswick,
N. J. ; Maria, who married Samuel Boyd, Esq., of New
York; and Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, of Washing-
ton, D. C.
Agnes, the second child of Andrew Hodge, sr., married
James Ashton, a twin-brother of her brother-in-law, Col.
John R. Bayard, who was a surgeon in the revolutionary
army, and was accidentally killed in Charleston, South Car-
6 A UTOBIO GRAPHY. [1772.
olina. Their children were John Hodge Bayard, who lived
in Cumberland and died unmarried ; Jane, whom I remem-
ber as a portly lady, dressed in the simple habit of a Qua-
keress, which the stricter Methodists of that period adopted ;
and Jarnes Ashton Bayard, jr., born July 28, 1767. He
practiced law in Wilmington, Delaware, and in 1787 repre-
sented his district in the National House of Representatives.
In 1804 he was chosen United States Senator, as successor
to his father-in law, Governor Bassett, which position he re-
tained until he was selected by President Madison as a
Commissioner, together with Gallatin, Clay, and others, to
negotiate a peace with Great Britain. His son, Richard-H.
/ Bayard, was United States Senator from 1836 to 1839, an< ^
again from 1841 to 1845. His second son, the third James
Ashton Bayard in the direct line, was United States Senator
for many years. And again the office has been continued
in the third generation, in the person of the present Senator,
Thomas F. Bayard.
A third daughter of Andrew Hodge, sr., married a gentle-
man from the West Indies, by the name of Philips. She
left an only child, a daughter, who died unmarried.
A fourth daughter, Mary, married Major Hodgdon, a
commissary in the revolutionary army. She lived to a
great age, and left many children.
The sons of Andrew Hodge, sr., were John, a physician,
who died at twenty-three years of age, and William, a mer-
chant, who residing abroad was called by acquaintances on
the Continent, " the handsome American." After the revo-
lution he was employed in the secret service of his govern-
ment, and falling under suspicion, was for a time confined in
the Bastile, where he was well treated. He died when only
thirty years old. Of James, the youngest son of Andrew,
sr., it is only known that he died unmarried. Andrew, jr.,
graduated in Princeton College in the class of 1772, and
married Ann Ledyard, half-sister of the traveler and author.
He was a Captain in the Pennsylvania line during the revo-
1 79 o.] HIS FATHER AND MOTHER. 7
lution, and was present at the battle of Princeton, and used
to boast that he had captured a cannon in " Stockton's
woods." He lived to a great age, and left many children. I
heard the old gentleman say that at the battle of Princeton
a company from Delaware, formed a little in advance of his
own, broke and ran at the first fire of the British. Its Cap-
tain, who was rather corpulent, came puffing by crying,
" Run, Captain Hodge, run, Captain Hodge, we shall all be
killed." The only answer I could get to the question " Did
Captain Hodge run?" was a little laugh. He fell back, how-
ever, upon his treasure trove, " the cannon in Stockton's
woods."
Hugh, the eighth child and fourth son of Andrew Hodge,
sr., was my father. He was born in Philadelphia, August
2O > X 755> graduated in the College of New Jersey in 1773,
and studied medicine under the eminent doctor Cadwalader.
He was appointed Surgeon, February 7, 1776, in the third
battalion of troops raised in the Province of Pennsylvania,
in the service of the United Colonies. He was captured by
the British, and held as a prisoner at Fort Washington, N.
Y., but through the intervention of General Washington
was liberated on parole. After engaging in mercantile pur-
suits with his brother Andrew, he returned to the practice
of medicine, and soon secured an influential connection.
The tradition of his fine person and attractive manners
lingered among the latest survivors of his generation. He
was a prominent actor in the terrible scenes occasioned by
the memorable epidemics of yellow fever in 1793, and after-
wards in 1795. And through the exposure incident to his
labors on these occasions his constitution was impaired, and
he died after protracted sufferings July 14, 1798, at the early
age of forty-three. His pastor, Dr. Ashbel Green, said of
him, in his eulogium, that " as a husband, father, brother,
friend and citizen, none surpassed him."
His wife, my mother, was Mary Blanchard, of Boston.
Her mother's name was Hunt, probably of English origin.
8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1790.
Her father, Joseph Blanchard, was a descendant of the
French Huguenots. She was born in Boston in 1765, and
passed her earliest years amidst the excitements preparatory
to< the rebellion of the Colonies against the authority of
Great Britain. Of course her opportunities for education
were comparatively few, but such as they were she employed
them well, and early manifested a great taste for reading,
often retiring from the fire-side circle to a cold room, in the
depth of a Boston winter, and there enveloped in a blanket,
read and committed to memory passages from Pope and
Dryden, which she could repeat in after life. The physician
of her family was the celebrated Dr. Joseph Warren, after-
wards Major-General Warren, who fell at Bunker Hill, one
of the first of his country's martyrs. Her recollections of
him were always very vivid, as she often sat on his lap
listening to his enthusiastic discourse upon the exciting con-
troversies of the day. She was the youngest of several
children. The descendants of some of her brothers remain
in Boston to the present time, while those of others are in
the extreme south-west. Her brother Samuel married a
niece of the Hon. Timothy Pickering, a Colonel in the revo-
lutionary army, and afterward was Secretary of War, under
Washington. Her favorite nephew, Francis Blanchard, was
father of the first wife of the distinguished Mr. Winthrop, of
Boston. Her parents died when she was young, and her
brothers and sisters, being for the most part married, she
came to Philadelphia to reside with her brother, John Blan-
chard, about 1785, at twenty years of age, and was intro-
duced to our family through letters to Maj. Hodgdon.
After a courtship, protracted by the failure of his mercan-
tile enterprises, she was married to my father in 1790, by
Rev. Dr. Green] and went to housekeeping in the dwelling-
house on the west of the store-house, on Water street below
Race, belonging to the estate of his father, Andrew Hodge,
sr., then recently deceased. On December ipth, their first
child was born, a daughter, whom they named Elizabeth.
JET. o.] HIS BIRTH. 9
She was a healthy and promising child, until in August,
1793, she was suddenly carried off by yellow fever. Their
second child was Mary, born September 1st, 1792, and their
third child was a little boy named Hugh, born August 24,
1794. When her little boy was about a year old, after many
years of absence, my mother revisited her home in Boston,
leaving her little ones in Philadelphia. Very shortly the
little Mary sickened with measles, of which fact, of course,
the mother was instantly informed. She immediately left
Boston in the mail stage, and after traveling three days and
three nights she arrived home to find that Mary was dead,
and Hugh also was dying of the same disease. .Thus was
she left again childless. Their fourth child, Hugh Lenox
Hodge, was born June 27, 1796, the year after the death of
his little namesake brother. The family at tkis time, because
of the supposed insalubrity of Water street, removed to a
house on the south side of Arch street above Fourth, the
third door from Christ Church burying-ground. Here at
midnight, in the last moments of the 27th or the first mo-
ments of the 28th of December, 1797, I, the fifth and last
child, was born. Aunt Hannah used to inquire for " that
strange named child, Charles," as it was a new name in the
family. \ My father died the I4th of July the next year,
leaving my mother a widow in very limited circumstances,
with two infants respectively two years and six months of
age.
It is no marvel that mothers are sacred in. the eyes of
their children. The debt they owe them is beyond
all estimate. To our mother, my brother and myself,
under God, owe absolutely everything. To us she de-
voted her life. For us she prayed, labored and suffered.
My grandfather's property yielded her for some years a
comfortable income. But as it consisted principally of the
Water (Arch) Street wharf, with its docks, and the ware-
house and dwellings by which, on three sides, it was sur-
rounded, its proceeds depended on the state of commerce.
r !0 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1832.
As the non-intercourse act and embargo which preceded
the war of 1812, and the war itself, led to the suspension of
commercial business, our mother's income was almost
entirely cut off. This was at the time we were preparing
for college. Instead of putting her children off her hands,
and leaving them to provide for themselves, by sacrificing
all she had, [by the most self-denying economy, and by
keeping boarders, she succeeded in securing for them the
benefits of a collegiate and professional education, at her
expense, and without loss of time. She lived long enough
to see both her sons settled in life and heads of families.
It is a tradition in the family that in her youth she was
distinguished for personal beauty. A gentleman from Bos-
ton, after age and illness had produced their inevitable
effects, exclaimed, " Can that be the beautiful Mary Blanch-
ard, of Boston ?" In the eyes of her children she continued
beautiful to the end. Her large blue eyes never lost their
light of intelligence and love.
Although thus devoted to the support and education of
her children, she was always active in promoting the wel-
fare of others. Her son Hugh has recorded his recollec-
tion of trudging by her side through the snow many
squares to assist, with other ladies, in the distribution of
soup and groceries to the destitute, either as donations, or
at wholesale prices. <She was one of the founders, and to
the time of her death, an active promoter and Directress of
the " Female Association for the Relief of Widows and
Single Women of reduced circumstances," which still con-
tinues, after eighty years, one of the most useful, as it was
one of the earliest of the many benevolent institutions of
Philadelphia.
Having been an invalid for several years, early in April,
1832, she took a slight cold, which did not seem to be of
any importance for two or three days. But this was unex-
pectedly followed by pulmonary congestion and slight
delirium, so that she expired on the fourteenth of that
yT. 9.] HIS BROTHER HUGH. 1 1
month ; too soon, alas, for me to see her alive, though I
left Princeton in response to the first note of alarm. [Her
funeral services were conducted by her aged pastor, Dr.
Ashbel Green, who had married her, baptized her children,
and delivered an eulogium over the grave of her husband.
My brother was far more than a brother to me. Although
only eighteen months my senior, he assumed from the first
the office of guardian. He always went first in the dark.
I never slept out of his arms until I was eleven or twelve
years old. I have now (1877) distinctly before my mind
the room in which that crisis in my life occurred. I well
recollect how quickly, after blowing out the candle, I
jumped into bed, and threw the cover over my head. Hav-
ing lived through that night, I afterwards got on very well.
No professor in Princeton was ever able to bring up and
educate a family of children on his salary. My brother,
without waiting to be asked, always helped me through.
iHe seemed to regard me as himself, and my children as
his own. Although he rose to eminence as a practitioner
and professor of medicine, he was revered principally for
his goodness. His life-long friend, Dr. Caspar Morris, said
in a published letter, that he " regarded Dr. Hugh L.
Hodge as the best man he had ever known." He left five
sons ; three of whom are ministers in the Presbyterian
Church, one is a minister in the Episcopal Church, and the
fifth is a Presbyterian Ruling Elder. ; This is due, I firmly
believe, to their father's prayers, and to the influence of
their excellent mother, a daughter of the late Mr. John
Aspinwall, of New York.
The first school to which I went was taught by an old
lady in Arch street. It was attended by a room full of
little boys and girls. I afterwards went to a school in
Fifth street, opposite Independence Square, taught by
Andrew Brown, a worthy elder of the Second Presbyterian
Church. His specialties were writing and arithmetic. He
was an adept in making quill-pens, and an expert in the use
12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. ' ; [1809.
of them. His flourishes were wonderful. He must also
have been a good teacher of arithmetic. At least I knew
more of arithmetic then than I do now. Within a few
months a thin folio copy-book, having my name in it, and
dated 1807, was found among some old papers. This book
is filled with solutions of questions in Barter, Profit and
Loss, many of which would puzzle me to solve now.
My next school was taught by an Irish gentleman named
Taylor. He was a Swedenborgian. He lived in perpetual
sunshine, always happy and always amiable. He took little
interest in drilling his pupils in reading, writing and arith-
metic. His favorite method of teaching was to get half a
dozen boys around him before a large wall map of England,
France, Italy, or some other country, pointing out its rivers,
mountains, cities, and its ancient ruins ; descanting on the
elements of its population ; the manners and customs of its
people; its productions; its great men; mixing up geogra-
phy, antiquities, history and statistics. He would linger
around the battle-fields, describe the conflicts, taking part
vehemently with one side against the other. He was an
enthusiast, and infected his pupils with his spirit. He used
to flatter them ; dubbing them with the names and ranks
of his heroes. My associates in this school have, as far as
I know, all passed away. There were two Ralstons, two
McCalls, two Reeds, James Hopkinson, John Brinton, and
others [with whom the elder brother Hugh says, " Charles,
as his manner was, through his whole life, contracted inti-
mate friendships."] These now are all gone.
During my early boyhood in Philadelphia, my brother
and myself went to a drawing-school kept in a room over
Woodward's Book-store, on the corner of Chestnut and
Third streets. Its master was an Englishman named Cox.
He was a character. He lived in the southern part of the
city by himself, in a house filled from garret to cellar with
books and odds and ends of all things curious. While
under his instruction I executed a landscape in water colors,
/ET. 1 1 .] EARL Y RELIGION. I 3
which now hangs in, my study, and which is considered to
possess considerable merit. How the merit got there is the
mystery. Those who know anything of the history of my
one work of art, are aware that when painting in India ink,
the teacher looked over my shoulder, and said, " Charles, I
think I could spit paint better than that." They therefore
find it hard to believe that the merit of my landscape is due
to native talent on my part, and not to the intervention of
my teacher.
Our early training was religious. Our mother was a
Christian. She took us regularly to church, and carefully
drilled us in the Westminster Catechism, which we recited
on stated occasions to Dr. Ashbel Green, our pastor.
There has never been anything remarkable in my religious
experience, unless it be that it began very early. I think
that in my childhood I came nearer to conforming to the
apostle's injunction: "Pray without ceasing," than in any
other period of my life. As far back as I can remember, I
had the habit of thanking God for everything I received,
and asking him for everything I wanted. If I lost a book,
or any of my playthings, I prayed that I might find it. I
prayed walking along the streets, in school and out of
school, whether playing or studying. I did not do this in
obedience to any prescribed rule. It seemed natural. I
thought of God as an everywhere-present Being, full of
kindness and love, who would not be offended if children
talked to him. I knew he cared for sparrows. I was as cheer-
ful and happy as the birds, and acted as they did. There
was little more in my prayers and praises than in the wor-
ship rendered by the fowls of the air. This mild form of
natural religion did not amount to much. It, however, saved
me from profanity. I cannot recollect that I ever uttered
a profane word, except once. It was when I was thirteen
or fourteen years old. I was walking with my brother, and
struck my foot against a stone, and said: "D n it."
My brother was shocked, and exclaimed: " Why, Charles!!"
14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1810.
I cannot tell why I said it. I was not hurt, neither was I
angry. It seemed to me to be an effect without a cause. I
felt like a very, very small Paul, when he said : " It was not
I who did it, but something dwelling in me." I am thank-
ful that no similar experience ever occurred to me.
In the early part of the year 1810 my brother and myself
were sent to the classical Academy in Somerville, New Jer-
sey. The village was on high ground, very healthy, and
on the line of the " Swift and Sure Mail Coach Line " be-
tween Philadelphia and New York, near the confluence of
the Millstone and Raritan rivers, and between ten and twelve
miles west of New Brunswick. The reason for my mother's
preference for that school was not its celebrity, but its
situation, only a few miles from the residence of Mr. John
M. Bayard, who, although only our first cousin, was old
enough to exercise parental care over us. For the first six
months we boarded in the family of Mr., afterwards Judge,
Vandevere. His oldest daughter was then an infant a few
months old. I was sometimes allowed to carry her about
on a pillow. After leaving Somerville, I did not see her
until after an interval of fifty years. She was then a tall,
thin lady, the widow of the Hon. Wm. Dayton, U. S. Sena-
tor and Minister to France. I could hardly believe my eyes.
I had another experience of the same kind. During my
school days at Somerville, the reigning belle of that region
was Miss Martina Ellmendorf. We boys used to collect
around the church-door to see her in and out of her carriage.
She subsequently married the Hon. Dr. Condict of Morris-
town. Some forty years after leaving Somerville I dined
at Dr. Condict's, and said to him that as I had known his
wife when a young lady, I should be very glad to be pre-
sented to her. He replied that she was very much of an
invalid, and never left her room, but that after dinner he
would introduce me. Her room was on the ground-floor;
and when the door was opened, a tall, emaciated, mild and
courteous lady, evidently not long for this world, rose be-
;ET. 13.] A T SOMER VILLE. \ 5
fore me. I could not help thinking that if identity could
be preserved in spite of so entire a change of all that was
outward, it might well be preserved between that aged
believer (as she then was) and what she would be when she
rose resplendent in the image of her Saviour.
During the remaining eighteen months of my stay in
Somerville, I lived in the family of Doctor, better known
as General, Stryker. The beautiful country about Somer-
ville, on the Raritan and Millstone rivers, was in a great
measure occupied by wealthy and refined Dutch families
the Ellmendorfs, Van Vacters, Van Esses, the Frelinghuy-
sens, and many others. Mr. John Frelinghuysen lived on
the Raritan, a few miles up the river ; his younger brother,
Frederick, lived in the village of Millstone : he was the
father of the present U. S. Senator, the Hon. F. T. Freling-
huysen. A third brother, the Hon. Theodore Frelinghuy-
sen, so long the ornament of New Jersey, and General
Stryker had married sisters. This led to his frequently
visiting the family in which I lived. I thus became ac-
quainted with him in my boyhood, an acquaintance which,
in after life, ripened, on my part, into a revering friendship.
I was one of those who were allowed to stand around his
coffin, and gaze on his saintly countenance in the repose of
death. His pronounced evangelical sentiments militated
against his political success. The late Governor Seward
was on intimate terms with Archbishop Hughes of New
York, and called on him with the request that he would
use his influence with the Romanists to induce them to
vote the Whig ticket, when Clay and Frelinghuysen were
candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President
respectively. The Archbishop shook his. head, and said :
" We could stand 'Mr. Clay; but we cannot stand Freling-
huysen." This was told me by a distinguished gentleman
from New York. My informant was satisfied of the truth
of the anecdote.
Mr. Clay was also a praying man. The late Rev. Dr.
1 6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1810.
Edgar of Nashville, Tenn., told me that when traveling
through Kentucky, he spent a night with Mr. Clay at the
house of a mutual friend. It was a cholera season. During
the night Mr. Clay was taken alarmingly ill. Dr. Edgar
was one of his attendants. In course of conversation Mr
Clay, after expressing his faith, said that he never had in-
troduced a measure into Congress, without first kneeling
down and invoking the guidance and blessing of God.
I began the study of Latin when I went to Somerville.
During the first year the academy was taught by the Rev.
Mr. Boyer, afterwards pastor of the Presbyterian Church in
Columbia, Penna. When he went away, the school was
under the care of the Rev. Mr. Vredenburgh, pastor of the
Dutch Church in the village. On one occasion the pulpit
was filled by the Rev. Dr. Livingston, long the patriarch
of the Reformed Dutch Church in America. He was a
patrician as well as a patriarch : tall and elegant in person,
careful in his dress, a model of courtesy in manners, hair
perfectly white and reaching down to his shoulders. I
could not believe that Abraham was more venerable in his
appearance. The only thing I recollect of his sermon is
that he exhorted the people to commit to memory the fif-
teenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. The
exhortation took effect; for a few days after I heard Dr.
Stryker call upon his daughters to repeat that chapter, the
doctor himself prompting and helping them through.
One summer Dr. Livingston invited Dr. Archibald
Alexander to take a seat with him in his carriage for a few
days' tour through New Jersey, to attend Bible Society
meetings. Dr. Alexander told me that Dr. Livingston
addressed every one he had the opportunity to speak to,
on the subject of religion. Even the hostler, who came
out to water the horses, was sure to receive some word of
admonition or counsel. This was a gift which Dr. Alex-
ander appreciated, but did not possess. During the entire
six weeks' journey I made with him through Virginia in
&T. 14.] REMOVAL TO PRINCETON. 17
1816, 1 never, except once, heard him make such a personal
address to any one. The exception did not amount to
much. The stage had stopped for a few moments at
Charlestown in the valley, and the driver, standing by the
pump, called out to a companion, whom he saw going to-
wards an open church, " Take care, don't go there, you
may get converted." Dr. Alexander said to him, " Do you
think that would hurt him ?" Yet, Dr. Alexander, in the
opinion of all who knew him, was second to no one in. piety
and zeal.
The only one of my school-mates at Somerville with
whom I was associated in after life was the Rev. Peter
Studdiford. During his whole ministerial life, he was pastor
of the Presbyterian Church in Lambertville, New Jersey.
That church rose under his care from a mere handful, to
being one of the largest in the Synod. Dr. ' Studdiford,
was distinguished for learning, wisdom and goodness in the
most comprehensive sense of that word.
In the early part of the year 1812 my brother and myself
removed to Princeton. In order to make a home for us our
mother had removed from Philadelphia and rented a small
frame house in Witherspoon streetjj which runs directly
north, starting in front of the College. The house is still
standing, next door to the old session-house, since the
parochial school.
In order to aid in meeting her expenses mother received
into her family as boarders several boys preparing for Col-
lege, all of whom were either relations or connections. j Our
cousin, Alexander Hodgdon, of Philadelphia, Nicholas Bay-
ard, son of our cousin, Dr. Nicholas Bayard, of Savannah,
Georgia, and two young Master Wards, step-sons of Dr.
Nicholas Bayard through his second marriage. These
young men were the half-brothers of Jane and Margaret
Bayard, the former of whom married the Rev, Dr. Leighton
Wilson, and spent seventeen years as a missionary with her
distinguished husband in western Africa. After that pro-
2
1 8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1812.
tracted service she returned to this country in as perfect
health as any of her contemporaries who had remained at
home. A year or two after her return she said to me that
she still hankered after Africa. Her sister Margaret mar-
ried the Rev. Dr. Eckart, and went with him as a mission-
ary to Ceylon, and remained there ten years, until her
broken health compelled their return. There was no physi-
cian resident at their station, and as cholera ofter prevailed
among the natives, Dr. Eckart told me he always kept on
hand a bottle containing a mixture of calomel and opium,
and when called to a sufferer, uniformly administered a tea-
spoonful of the combined powder. If rejected, he repeated
the dose. If retained, a cure almost always followed.
My brother entered the College in May, 1812, sopho-
more half-advanced. I entered the Academy, then taught
by the Rev. Mr. Fyler, who was afterwards the head of a
prosperous classical school in Trenton. The Princeton
Academy then stood between the church and the house of
the President of the College, [it was during the same season
that Princeton Theological Seminary was founded, and Dr.
Archibald Alexander was inaugurated its first Professor.'
That important service was performed in the old Presbyter-
ian church, which occupied the site of the present First
Church, August 12, 1812. I can well remember, then a
boy of fourteen, lying at length on the rail of the gallery
listening to the doctor's inaugural address and watching the
ceremony of investiture.
One day, during the same summer, the school- room door
being opened, Dr. Alexander walked in. He found me
stammering over a verse in the Greek Testament. The
process seemed to amuse the old gentleman (just forty
old to a boy). He asked me what marec was derived from.
I could not tell him. Mr. Fyler apologized for me by say-
ing I had been studying Greek only a month or six weeks.
This occurrence was the first thread of the cord which bound
me to Dr. Alexander a cord never brokeif. He never
^ET. 14.] FRIENDSHIP OF DR. ALEXANDER. \ g
failed to notice me when I crossed his path. Frequently he
would take me with him in his gig, when he went out into
the country to preach. On one occasion he took me to
Flemington, a court town fifteen or sixteen miles north
of Princeton. I was astonished at the knowledge he dis-
played of the country through which we passed. He knew
the character of the soil in every neighborhood; the charac-
ter of the people, whether of Dutch or English origin; the
name of all the streams, where they rose and where they
emptied. We were hospitably entertained, from Saturday
to Monday, in the house of Mr. Samuel S. Southard, then
a rising young lawyer, afterwards United States Senator
and Secretary of the Navy. In my young days, he and the
Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen were the two most popular
men in New Jersey. Mr. Southard was a handsome man,
and very cordial in his manners. He had the happy tact
of making every man he met feel that he was glad to see
him, and really enjoyed his society. As he liked every-
body, everybody liked him.
Some years afterward (in 1825) during a meeting of the
Trustees of the College of New Jersey, Chief Justice Kirk-
patrick was staying with me, and Mr. Southard, then Sec-
retary of the Navy, called to see him, and gave him a glow-
ing account of the rapidity with which he had fitted out
the frigate Brandy wine to take Gen. Lafayette back to
Europe. When he had finished the Chief Justice turned
towards him and said, " Now, Mr. Southard, if any man
should ask you which end of a ship goes first, could you
tell him?" This was hardly fair in the old judge; as it is
not expected that a Secretary of the Navy should be an ex-
pert in naval architecture.
CHAPTER II.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED.
FROM HIS ENTERING THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, SEPTEMBER,
1 8 1 2, TO HIS GRADUATION, SEPTEMBER, 1815.
PROFESSION OF RELIGION REVIVAL CLASSMATES AND FRIENDS.
THE College of New Jersey was founded in the middle
of the last century by Presbyterian ministers and laymen,
and in large part by those belonging to the New Light
party, the especial friends of revivals and earnest, evangeli-
cal piety. Their object, as expressed in the public declara-
tions of all the parties concerned in its foundation, includ-
ing Governor Belcher himself, was to promote the cultiva-
tion of religion, and of a liberal education in common,
and especially to provide an educated ministry for the
colonies. It was founded in 1747, in Elizabeth, New
Jersey; removed in 1748 to Newark; and in 1756 per-
manently established at Princeton, in buildings then
recently erected for its use. For many years the instruc-
tion was in the hands of the President, always one of the
most eminent ministers of the Presbyterian Church on the
continent, assisted by two, or, at most, three tutors, who
were young men, changing every few years. For the first
fifty years there were never more than two professors at a
time, in addition to the above, and often only one, and
sometimes not one.
From the first it had been the design of the Trustees to
provide for the instruction of a Theological class. For this
2Q
JET. I4-] ENTERS COLLEGE. 2 1
purpose the Rev. John Blair, of Fagg's Manor, Pa., held
the position of Professor of Theology, from 1767 to 1769,
and the Rev. Henry Kollock, D. D., afterwards the elo-
quent preacher at Savannah, Georgia, held the position
from 1803 to 1806. In the intervals this function devolved
on the President at the time in office. After the resigna-
tion of Professor Kollock, an effort was made to raise a per-
manent endowment for the support of the Vice-President,
who was also to be Professor of Theology. But in order
to secure the location in Princeton of the first Theological
Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, then in contempla-
tion, the Trustees agreed that the College should withdraw
from the work of theological instruction as a preparation
for the ministerial profession. The Presidents, up to the
accession of Dr. Green, had been Jonathan Dickinson,
Aaron Burr, Jonathan Edwards, Samuel Davies, Samuel
Finley, John Witherspoon, and Samuel Stanhope Smith.
I entered the Sophomore Class, September, 1812, a date
which marks a crisis in the history of Princeton. The
Theological Seminary had just been founded, and Dr. Alex-
ander, the first Professor, inaugurated August 1 2th, and Dr.
Ashbel Green, the pastor and friend of my parents, now
(September 29th,) entered upon the office of President of
the College. The faculty that year consisted of Rev. Dr.
Ashbel Green, President ; the Rev. Dr. Slack, Vice Presi-
dent and Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and
Chemistry ; Rev. Philip Lindsley, Senior Tutor, and Mr. J.
Flavel Clark, afterwards pastor of the Presbyterian Church,
Flemington, New Jersey, Junior Tutor.
I was examined for admission by Mr. John Bergen, one
of the retiring tutors. In 1842 I went to Philadelphia to
attend a meeting of the General Assembly. As I got out
of the cars, there was a tall gentleman walking on the plat-
form, who stopped when he saw me, and looking down on
me, said, " I ought to know you. My name is Bergen."
" A former tutor in Princeton College ?" I asked. " Yes,"
2 2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1812.
he replied. " Then you examined me for admission into
College, Sophomore, 1812." " Well, I have never seen you
since. What is your name ?" " Hodge." " Where do you
live ?" "Princeton." "You don't tell me you are the Rev.
Dr. Hodge, of Princeton?" "Yes, I am." Turning on his
heel, he exclaimed, " O ! Pshaw ! I thought he was an old
man." The poor man felt that he had been defrauded.
In 1 86 1 Dr. Bergen and myself were again members of
the General Assembly. In that year the celebrated Spring
resolutions were passed. These resolutions called upon all
Presbyterians, ministers and churches subject to the Gen-
eral Assembly, to support the General Government in the
civil war which had then commenced. The Northern and
Southern Presbyterians then constituted one body. It was
evidently proper to exhort the churches in the non-seceding
states to support the government, for that was an acknow-
ledged moral duty. But to address the same injunction to
Southern Presbyterians, was to assume that their allegiance
was primarily due to the General Government and not to
their respective States ; and that was to assume that the
United States constituted a nation and not a confederacy ;
and that assumed a given interpretation of the constitution.
As that was a political question, a large minority of the
Assembly, as loyal as the majority, deemed that no Church-
court had a right to decide it. Dr. Spring's resolutions,
when first introduced, were promptly laid on the table by a
decisive vote. But the next morning, there was such a
burst of indignation from the secular press of Philadelphia,
and 'such a shower of threatening telegrams fell upon the
members, that the resolutions were taken up and ultimately
passed. During the discussion, Dr. Bergen was in great
trouble. He came to me repeatedly, and asked, "What
shall I do ? I am opposed to these resolutions, but if I vote
against them, I can never go home." I told him I was
very sorry, but I could not help him. It was easy for me
to act, as I had nothing to fear from giving a negative vote.
JET. 15.] DR. GREEN. 23
When his name was called in taking the final vote, he rose
and said, " Mr. Moderator, I want to say no, but I must
say yes." That saved him. This was all the personal
intercourse I ever had with Dr. Bergen. I am, therefore,
surprised at the glow of kindly feeling of which I am con-
scious whenever I hear his name mentioned.
Dr. Green conducted the instruction in the Biblical De-
partment, in Belles-Lettres, Moral Philosophy and Logic.
We regularly had lessons in the Bible. On one occasion,
while reciting on the Acts of the Apostles, Dr. Green asked
me: " Was St. Paul ever at Malta?" I replied: "Yes, sir,
he touched there on his voyage to Rome." " Pretty hard
touch," whispered Johns (Rt. Rev. John Johns, Bishop of
Virginia), who as usual was sitting next to me. Of course,
the Apostle's shipwreck on that island flashed on my
memory; and of course I laughed, and of course I was
reproved. That was the kind of trouble Johns was always
getting me into. We were also required to commit the
Shorter Catechism to memory in Latin. The Episcopal
students were allowed to study their own catechism. As
that is shorter than the Westminster, many Presbyterians
passed themselves off for the time being as Episcopalians.
The doctor, to be even with them, required all who took
the Episcopal Catechism, to prepare also for examination
the Thirty-nine Articles. We attended worship every Sab-
bath morning in the Chapel. Dr. Green also lectured every
Thursday evening in one of the College recitation rooms.
These lectures were very instructive, and were attended by
a crowded audience.
In the department of Belles-Lettres, we studied Blair's
Lectures; in Moral Philosophy, Witherspoon's Lectures;
and in Logic, Andrew's Logic a little book about as large
as an Almanac, which we got through in four recitations.
I am ashamed to say that this is the only book on Logic I
ever read. Some years ago a very intelligent Catholic
priest came to Princeton (to the village, not to the Semi-
24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1813.
nary), to spend a few months in retirement and study. His
faith in the fundamental doctrines of Romanism having been
shaken, to avoid trouble, he came first to America, and then
to Princeton, to seclude himself while engaged in investi-
gating and settling the questions involved. I think I never
saw such concentration and power as he exhibited for two
or three months in examining the controversy between Pro-
testants and Romanists. He never revealed his conclusion.
I asked him many questions as to the method of instruc-
tion observed in Maynooth, where he had been educated.
I asked particularly what was the effect of the study of the
so-called " Moral Theology," designed to prepare a priest
for the duties of a confessor. He answered : " Entirely to
destroy the moral sense." That was precisely the answer
I expected, which is no disparagement of moral philosophy
as a science, but only of the methods at Maynooth. So it
is no disparagement to logic as a science or an art, to say,
that the excessive study how to reason often impairs the
ability to reason. The best way to make a man a good
carpenter is not to confine his attention to his tools, but to
set him to work. So, as has often been said, the best way
to make a logician is to set him to study Euclid, or, as any
old student of Princeton Seminary would say, set him to
study Turrettin.
Our instructor in Greek was Rev. Philip Lindsley. He
graduated at the College of New Jersey in 1804, in the class
with the Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, the Hon. Joseph
R. Ingersoll, and the Hon. Samuel L. Southard. Mr. South-
ard continued his intimate friend through life. During our
first term Mr. Lindsley was senior tutor. In the spring of
1813 he was elected Professor of Languages ; afterwards he
was chosen Vice-President ; and on the resignation of Dr.
Green, in 1822, he was elected President of the College.
This office he declined on impulse. He disliked some of
the Trustees very much; and when his election was an-
nounced to him, having them in his mind, he promptly
JET. 15.] PROFESSOR LINDSLEY. 25
declined. I called to see him the next morning, and found
him walking up and down his study a good deal perturbed.
He exclaimed : " If Sam Southard (one of the Trustees) had
been here, I would now be President of Princeton College."
He was also offered the Presidency of Dickinson College,
Pennsylvania, of Transylvania University, Kentucky, and of
several other educational institutions, and finally accepted
that of the University of Tennessee, at Nashville, where he
spent most of the remaining active part of his life. His
works have been collected and published in two handsome
8vo. volumes under the editorship of the Rev. Dr. Halsey
of Chicago.
Prof. Lindsley was very popular with the students. He
was rather above the medium size, erect and imposing in his
carriage. He used to walk up and down the lecture-room,
while hearing our recitations, with his book closed in his
hands. He was very fond of paradox. He told our class
that we would find that one of the best preparations for
death was a thorough knowledge of the Greek grammar.
This was his way of telling us that we ought to do our duty.
It was a favorite idea of his that civilization reached its
highest stage before the deluge ; that the arts and sciences
have never since reached the development which they
attained among the antediluvians. He was a very frequent
attendant on the debating society held years ago every
Friday evening, in the Seminary, under the presidency of
professors. He was sure to take the wrong side ; Popery
against Protestantism ; heresy against orthodoxy. He was
very kind to me. I had a crooked tongue, and had been
studying Greek only six months before entering the Sopho-
more class, while some of my class-mates had been teaching
Greek two years before coming to College. But the profes-
sor did all he could for me, pushing me up as high as his
conscience would permit. He and old Dr. Slack succeeded
at last in getting me up very near the top. On several
occasions in after life, I experienced his kindness. The last
26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1813.
time I saw him was during the sessions of the General
Assembly in Buffalo, in 1854. I have always cherished his
memory with affectionate regard.
. When I entered College the faculty consisted of the
President, one professor and two tutors. Now it has a
corps of twenty-eight or thirty instructors. The depart-
ments then filled by one professor, are now distributed
among eight.
Dr. Green says, in his autobiography,* that when he
entered on his duties as president, "The several members of
the faculty before the expiration of the vacation met in my
study, and at my instance we agreed to set apart a day of
special prayer, in view of the duties before us. We prayed
once together, and then the several members spent the day
in private prayer." This was the spirit in which his admin-
istration was begun and continued to the end. The reli-
gious culture of the students was always uppermost in his
mind. He preached regularly in the chapel on Sunday
morning, introduced the regular study of the Bible, and
lectured every Tuesday evening. When Dr. Miller came
to Princeton, in the summer of 1813, he, with Dr. Alex-
ander and Dr. Green, preached in succession in the chapel
to the students of the College and Seminary, the latter at
that time being very few in number. Dr. Alexander soon
began to preach regularly every Sunday evening, at first in
the junior recitation room, the southern half of the base-
ment of the Old Library building, (now Treasurer's Office),
which is still standing. That room is to this day sacred in
the eyes of the old students of the College. It was then,
and for forty years afterwards, the birth-place of many souls.
We were thus brought under the influence of a man, who,
as an 'experimental' preacher was unequalled and unap-
proached. It was said of him, that while most other minis-
ters preached about religion, he preached religion. He
* The Life of Rev. Ashbel Green, D. D., written by himself and prepared for
the press by Rev. Joseph Jones, D. D.
^ET. 15.] DR. ALEXANDER'S PREACHING. 2?
recognized the fact that the religious and moral elements of
our nature are universal and indestructible ; and that these
elements, in Christian countries at least, are so developed
that every man knows that there is a God on whom he is
dependent, and to whom he is responsible ; that he is a
sinner and deserves to be punished ; and that punishment
is inevitable. He is therefore, all his life, through fear of
death, subject to bondage. (Heb. 2 : 15). No matter how
reckless and hardened the wicked may become, they can
never free themselves from their fetters ; and, at times, the
horror of great darkness falls upon them, and they wish
they had never been born. Dr. Alexander revealed such
men to themselves ; showed them how vain it was to
struggle against the laws of nature ; that conscience was
their master, and could neither be silenced nor sophisticated;
that all their efforts to make themselves infidels were abor-
tive ; that no devotion to the world, that no degradation in
vice can obliterate the conviction that those who commit
sin are doomed to the second death ; that however calm
may be the surface, there is always the rumbling of an
earthquake underneath "a fearful looking for of judgment,
and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.""
There was a noted man at this time in Princeton, who said,
" He was sure Dr. Alexander must have been very wicked
in his youth, or he could not know so well how wicked
men felt."
In like manner he would detail the experience of those
under the conviction of sin ; show how such convictions
often came to nothing ; what was essential, and what inci-
dental and variable in such experiences. He would take
the serious inquirer by the hand, and tell him all about
himself, leading him along from point to point, until the
inquirer was left behind, and could do nothing but sit and
weep. He knew that he was a sinner, that he needed sal-
vation, that he could not save himself, but when told to
come to Christ, he knew not what to do. Often, going to
28 A UTOBIO GRAPHY. [1813.
his room, he would fall on his knees and call on his Saviour,
and ask, "Is this coming?" or "Is this coming?" He
never could understand what it was until it was done, [it
was easy to tell him that faith is simply letting go all other
confidences and falling trustfully into the Saviour's arms,
but no one knows what seeing is until he sees, or what
believing is until he believes.;
So also more advanced Christians, whether doubting,
tempted, desponding or rejoicing, were all subject to the
same self-revealing process, all edified and strengthened.
Those were memorable days.
[His brother, Dr. Hugh L. Hodge, says: " In the spring
of 1813, the boys, our cousins, who had become our
mother's boarders a year before, having either left town, or
removed their lodgings to the college building, Mrs. Dr.
Bache, of Philadelphia, and her children, became inmates
in our family. Dr. William Bache, then deceased, was
a grandson of the celebrated Benjamin Franklin. Mrs.
Bache, his widow, was the sister of Dr. Caspar Wistar,
Professor of Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania,
and President of the American Philosophical Society. His
house had become the centre of the literary and scientific
society of Philadelphia. He was in the habit of receiving
his friends to a frugal entertainment every Saturday even-
ing. To these re-unions, the most distinguished foreign
visitors in the city brought introductions, and the most in-
tellectual of the professional residents gathered. And they
have been continued, with their essential characteristics
unchanged to the present time, in the re-unions of what has
ever since been known as the Wistar Club. Mrs. Bache, a
very superior and high-toned woman, had, previous to her
marriage, kept house for her brother for several years, dur-
ing which time, she with her friend Miss Eddy, afterwards,
Mrs. Dr. Hosack of New York, had the great pleasure
and advantage of attending these remarkable Saturday
evening meetings. Her children, who now entered our
ALT:. 1 6.] HIS BROTHER HUGH'S GRADUATION. 29
family, were Catharine, the youngest, a girl then of seven
or eight, Benjamin Franklin, since the head of the Phar-
maceutical Department of the United States Navy, Brook-
lyn, N. Y., and Sarah, the eldest, then a girl of fourteen
years of age, well-grown, in blooming health, handsome,
full of imagination, and exceedingly enthusiastic, uncon-
scious of self and absorbed in whatever claimed her atten-
tion; a most agreeable companion. It was no wonder,
therefore, that she soon won the love of my brother
Charles, young as he was, an experience which nine years
afterwards, in 1822, resulted in their marriage."] ^
My brother Hugh graduated from College in the fall of
1814, one of the four to whom the first honor was assigned.
The commencement of that year was marked by an event
of great interest. It occurred towards the close of the war
of 1812 with the British, and soon after the brilliant victo-
ries of Lundy's Lane and Chippewa. Major-General Win-
field Scott, the hero of those battles, then Colonel, and
Brigadier-General Scott, having been severely wounded in
one of his shoulders, was making slow journeys from the
Lakes to his home, in Virginia. He arrived in Princeton
after the exercises began, and, though weak and emaciated,
he accepted an invitation to enter the Church and take a seat
on the stage with the President and Trustees of the College.
He was received with every possible demonstration of en-
thusiasm. The degrees having been conferred, Bloomfield
Mcllvaine, brother of Charles Pettit Mcllvaine, afterwards
the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Ohio, delivered the
valedictory. After having delivered the valedictory he had
prepared to the President, Trustees, class-mates, and un-
der-graduates, he suddenly turned to General Scott, and
with astonishing facility of extemporaneous conception and
expression, he delivered an eloquent and moving eulo-
gium. The General afterwards confessed that he " would
not have been more taken by surprise if he had been
suddenly attacked by a whole regiment of Britishers."
3O AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1815.
He attempted to rise more than once, and finally was
forced, by his emotions and physical weakness, to remain
quiescent. He afterwards confessed to my brother that " few
attentions had ever given him so much, and so lasting plea-
sure."
[On January I3th, 1815, Charles Hodge and his friend,
Kensey John Van Dyke, of the class below him, made a
public confession of their faith in Christ by joining the
Presbyterian Church of Princeton, of which the Rev. Wm.
C. Schenck was the pastor. The venerable Dr. John Mac-
lean, who survives his friends, says he well remembers the
Saturday when he was startled in the street by Edward
Allen rushing to him with the abrupt announcement that
" Hodge had enlisted " for the war with Britain had not
yet closed, and a sergeant with a drummer was in the vil-
lage endeavoring to enlist recruits. " Is it possible," he
exclaimed, " that Hodge has enlisted?" " Yes, he has en-
listed under the banner of King Jesus ! " Dr. Maclean
thinks that Lthis public stand taken by these young men,
among the youngest in the College, contributed much to
bring to a crisis * that wonderful revival of religion which
signalized the first half of 1815, one of the most memorable
in the whole history of the town.]
It came not with observation. There was only a gradual
change in the spirit of the College, and state of mind of the
students a change from indifference to earnestness, from ne-
glect or perfunctory performance of religious duties, to fre-
quent crowded and solemn attendance on all meetings for
prayer and instruction. Personal religion the salvation of
the soul became the absorbing subject of attention^ " The di-
vine influence," said Dr. Green, in his report to the Trustees,
" seemed to descend like the silent dew of heaven, and in
about four weeks there were very few individuals in the
College edifice who were not deeply impressed with a sense
* The same is asserted by Dr. Green in " Report to the Trustees on the Revi-
val"
JET. 17.] HIS PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 31
of the importance of spiritual and eternal things. There
was scarcely a room ; perhaps not one ; which was not a
place of earnest, secret devotion."
Hymns, then, as always, were very efficacious. Luther's
hymns, at the time of the Reformation, were to the German
nation what the trumpet and the bugle are to the army.
" Ein' feste Burg " is still the battle-song of the German
soldier. There are some hymns which did good service in
my young days, which have since lost favor. " Tis a point
I long to know," " Come, humble sinner, in whose breast,"
are now regarded as too hypothetical. " I can but perish
if I go." There is no if in the case. However this may
be in logic, it should be remembered that there is a faith
which saves, which cannot recognize, much less avow it-
self. Many get to heaven who can only say, " Lord, help
my unbelief; " for that is a cry of faith.
HIS MOTHER TO HIS BROTHER HUGH.
PRINCETON, Jan. 23, 1815.
My Dear Hugh : The last fortnight has been productive of events
that have excited much interest, rumors of which no doubt reached
you ; but as rumors are seldom correct, I feel desirous of giving you
a plain statement. An attention to religious duties, you know, has
ever been a leading feature in the character of Charles, which has
gradually strengthened with his years. The services of the Sunday
previous to the fast determined him to make a public profession 1 of
them on the approaching sacrament, to which he was urged by his
friend Biggs, and joined by Van Dyke. On Wednesday evening,
C , D , J and B supped at Folet's (tavern) and gam-
bled to a late hour. The faculty had information of it, and were
waiting their return. Folet, alarmed for his own interest, at three in
the morning, refused them more lights, and sent to give notice to
those who were already acquainted with the circumstances. The
consequence was they were all dismissed on Friday. J called to
take leave of us, humbled to the dust with the sense of his miscon-
duct, and his heart overflowing with gratitude to Dr. Green for the
admonitions and kindness with which the sentence had been given.
On Saturday J came again and requested to see me. He caught
my hand on entering, and exclaimed that this was the happiest day
32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1815.
of his life. " What, sir, are you reinstated ?" " Oh, no, madam, that
is of little moment indeed at present. Religion has complete posses-
sion of my mind. After a night of agony, under the deepest convic-
tions of my guilt, the morning brought some ray of comfort. I sent
for Biggs. He spake peace to my soul. I have been to Dr. Green,
who received me with the tenderness of a parent, pointed out my
path, and encourages me to persevere by the assurance of future fa-
vor. To your dear Charles I am indebted for these impressions. In
our walks last summer religion was often the theme, and though I
felt nothing at the time, yet now they return forcibly upon the mind.
I am permitted to stay some days longer, and have been in College
conversing with my friends, I think, with some effect."
The next day the sacrament was administered. Though it is said
two or three students ridiculed those that had joined the Church, this
is very doubtful. But on Monday a great change took place in Col-
lege. A general seriousness was observed in the Refectory. The
rooms of Biggs, Baker and others were filled with students soliciting
information on the subject of religion, and getting books. In the
evening, while the Whig Society held their meeting, twenty Clios
met in Allen's room to pray. On Tuesday the call for instruction
was so general that Dr. Green proposed to give a lecture to those
who chose to attend. The Senior lecture-room was full, and there
have been prayer-meetings every evening.' Blatchford and others of
the divinity students spend a great deal of time in College, and the
youths apply to either or all the professors indiscriminately. Johns,
Mcllvaine, Armstrong, Newbold, Smith, Rodgers, Ogden, Stewart,
Clarke, Henry of Albany, are among those most seriously im-
pressed, Lyttleton and Benjamin among those more lightly touched.
No doubt there is much sympathy in the business, and as they in-
stinctively followed each other last winter in_jmischief, they are led
in the same manner this season to good. LBut it is very probable
that after the effervescence subsides, there will be a good number
who will experience a radical change.
[You may suppose it has been a period of considerable agitation
with me. The important step Charles has taken occasions much so-
licitude. He was so young, I could have wished it had been deferred
at least to the end of his College course. But you know his impor-
tunity, and when duty and feeling urged him forward, I could not
throw a straw in the way. He has raised expectations which I fer-
vently hope may be realized^ On Thursday he spoke his speech on
Conscience, and did himself justice '.* Mr. Davis and Henry, two
* This is the only instance to be found in her correspondence when she makes
any such admission. She had a high conception of Charles' talents, but a very
yET. 17.] HIS PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 33
divinity students of superior attainments and polished manners, pay
him flattering attention. They no doubt count upon him as one of
their number. (This revival, as it is called, will no doubt reach the
city with much exaggeration./ I write, therefore, to give you a plain
statement of facts, that you may answer explicitly if applied to for
information. As I should be extremely sorry that any one should
suppose the step Charles has taken was in consequence of a sudden
impulse of feeling, you will be enabled to rectify any such error.
Your affectionate mother,
M. HODGE.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, February, 1815.
My Dear Brother : I would indeed be most inexcusable should I
permit an opportunity, so direct and so long known as that which our
dear John offers, to pass unimproved. I hardly know how to part
from him, even for a week. I expect to meet with few in this world
who will love me as ardently and constantly as he does. He, Biggs
and Van Dyke, are the three in College to whom I feel most strongly
attached, and from whom I shall hope not soon to be separated. I
think it probable we shall all choose the same profession. Of this I
am not certain. John, as you have probably heard already, is one
of those who have so lately experienced the most desirable of
changes. When gay and thoughtless, though also affectionate and
kind, I loved him. How then shall I feel towards him when we
hope to be enlisted under the same banner, to have the same end in
life and the same hope in death. The step which your brother has
taken, accompanied by dear Kinsey, you are already acquainted
with. And why not my dearest brother too? iDh! that you, that
Atkinson, that all, were here to see what has been done ! for I can-
not but think that all who see the present state of the College must
also feel that this is indeed the harvest, the accepted time, the day
of salvation? Oh ! my brother ! though it is only your little Toby
who is writing to you, yet he loves you ; he knows how many inesti-
mable qualities you possess, and shudders at the thought of your
dissatisfied estimate of his diligence, ambition, or power of concentrated and sus-
tained effort. Her tendency was to self- repression, and to the expectation of dis-
appointment. His natural disposition was easy, and to the gratification of his
tastes. Sense of duty and love for the cause of Christ were the springs of his sub-
sequent life-long labors. But up to the day of her death, when he had been pro-
fessor for ten years, the mother lamented that Charles would '* never do himself
justice."
3
34
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1815.
wanting the one thing needful. You must not, you do not, at least I
hope you will not, want it. I remember what you said of the " pious
physician." I cannot tell you how it made me feel. I was rejoiced;
for I knew that " he that seeketh findeth," and that "he that asketh
receiveth."
[you have probably heard exaggerated accounts of the revival, as
must be expected on such occasions. I believe that there are about
thirty who are really changed. Almost all the College attend the
prayer-meeting, which is held every evening at eight o'clock, in
Newbold's roomJ Dr. Green lectures to us in the senior recitation
room every Tuesday evening, and Dr. Alexander on Friday eve-
nings. These meetings also are attended by almost all the students.
If you were to see me kiss Richards, you must think that a great
change had taken place.
There are a thousand things I would tell you, but I must refer you
to our dear brother Johns. It being half-past twelve at night is a suf-
ficient reason for my bidding you good-night.
YOUR BROTHER.
[There were one hundred and five students in the College
during the winter of 1814-15, of whom twelve had been
previously professors of religion, and were very useful in
promoting that revival. Most of them were much older
than the majority of their associates./ Of this number were
Daniel Baker, afterwards the celebrated evangelist;*
Thomas J. Biggs, subsequently professor in the Lane Theo-
logical Seminary ; Isaac W. Platt, long pastor of the church
in Bath, New York ; Robert Steele, the life-long pastor of
the church in Abington, Penna.; John De Witt, life-long
pastor of the church in Harrisburgh, Penna. Of the re-
maining ninety-three students then in College, fully one-
* Young men are sometimes disposed to determine present duty by their antici-
pations of the future. Mr. Baker told me that he expected to spend his life in
preaching the gospel in the mountains of Virginia ; and therefore would not need
a thorough theological training. On this account he declined to enter the Theo-
logical Seminary. In less than a year after leaving College he was married and
licensed, and entered on his work. The first thing we heard of him, was that he
was called to be the pastor of an important Church in Savannah ; then he was
called to Washington, where he had Senators and Congressmen for his hearers.
He subsequently discovered that God had called him to be an itinerant, and as
such, he was eminently successful.
>ET. 17.] COLLEGE COMPANIONS. 35
half gave to their fellow-men, in their after life, every
evidence of having become true believers during this revi-
val. In the light of God, the number was probably greater.
Among these were John Johns, afterwards Episcopal Bishop
of Virginia; Charles P. Mllvaine, afterwards Episcopal
Bishop of Ohio ; James V. Henry, pastor of Presbyterian
Church at Sing-Sing, N. Y.; Symmes C. Henry, pastor of
Church at Cranbury, N. J. ; Ravaud K. Rodgers, pastor of
Church at Bound Brook, N. J. ; Wm. J. Armstrong, after-
wards Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions; Benjamin Ogden, pastor of Church at
Pennington ; John Maclean, afterwards President of the
College of New Jersey ; Charles C. Stewart, Missionary to
the Sandwich Islands, and George H. Woodruff and John
Rodney, afterwards Episcopal ministers; Benjamin W.
Richards, afterwards Mayor of Philadelphia, &c., &c.
Bishop Johns, together with William James, Charles Stew-
art, and others, made his first profession of religion in the
First Presbyterian Church, Princeton, July 7, 1815. He
afterwards removed his connection to the Episcopal Church,
attended by his family in New Castle, Delaware.
Many of my College associates subsequently rose to dis-
tinction. Judge Haines, of Ohio ; William Pennington,
Governor of New Jersey, and Speaker of the House of
Representatives in Congress ; James McDowell, Governor
of Virginia ; Richard H. Bayard, U. S. Senator, and Minis-
ter to Belgium ; Henry Carrington and John Blair Dabney,
of Virginia. These last were inseparables ; room-mates,
with all their books marked " Carrington and Dabney."
Mr. Dabney became a prominent lawyer, but in middle life
took orders in the Episcopal Church. Philip R. Fendall *
was one of the first honor men of our class, and attorney of
* One day a dozen of us were standing on the front steps of the College, and
Fendall was exercising his wit on those around him, when one of the crowd said,
" Fendall, why don't you cut C ?" The prompt reply was, "What is the
use of cutting mush ?" C. was so amiable that even that gash healed by the first
intention.
36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1815.
the District of Columbia. Persifer F. Smith became a
general in the U. S. Army. He was a great favorite, and
exuberant in humor. If you heard laughter in any part of
the building, you might be sure that Smith was at the
bottom of it. He was greatly distinguished in both the
Florida and Mexican wars. After the Florida war he was
driving in Philadelphia (his native city) with a party of
friends, and the question came up, " What was the cause of
the great difficulty attending the war against the Semi-
noles ?" One of the party turned to the General and said,
" Smith, you were there, what do you think was the cause
of the trouble ?" He replied, " I do not know, but I reckon
it was the Indians." His constitution was undermined by
malaria in Mexico, and he died in 1858, while in command
of the post at Fort Leavenworth. [John Johns, Bishop of
Virginia; Charles P. M'llvaine, Bishop of Ohio, and John
Maclean, President of the College of New Jersey, have
been my intimate, life-long friends. Besides these there
were a considerable number who have become judges, or
members of congress, or distinguished as lawyers, physi-
cians, or ministers of the gospel.'
IThere were two of my college associates^ who are en-
shrined in my memory as remarkable illustrations of the
<r power of goodness, that is, of holiness ; these were Charles
B. Storrs and John Newbold. The former was the son of
the Rev. Richard S. Storrs, of Longmeadow, Mass., and
uncle of the distinguished Dr. Richard S. Storrs, of Brook-
lyn, N. Y. I remember him principally, as a member of
Whig Hall,* where everybody deferred to him. He was
intelligent, cultivated, gentle, courteous, unassuming and
eminently devout. It was his piety which made him what
he was. It was the halo that surrounded him, and which
secured for him the affectionate deference with which he was
always treated. His health was delicate, and he left college
* A permanent secret Literary Society of the College.
JET. 17.] COLLEGE COMPANIONS. 37
before graduation. After studying theology at Andover,
he removed to Ohio, and became president of the Western
Reserve College, f He died in the house of his brother, the
Rev. Dr. Richard S. Storrs, of Braintree, Mass., in 1833, at
the early age of thirty-nine.
I never saw him after he left Princeton, and therefore was
the more interested in the following tribute to his memory,
taken from the New York Times, January 24th, 1878.
" Many of the old readers of the (Boston) Herald may re-
member the beautiful poem of Mr. Whittier, to the late
President of the Western Reserve College, Charles B.
Storrs, a man of high culture and great intellectual powers.
The late Judge Humphrey, of Hudson, Ohio, said Dr.
Storrs was the most eloquent man he ever heard. Presi-
dent Storrs was an out and out anti-slavery and temperance
man. In his advocacy of these two great causes, he knew
no such words as falter or compromise. Slavery and in-
temperance were wrong, and they must be put down. Dr.
Storrs of this city, a nephew of President Storrs, who in-
herits the intellectual force of his uncle, and is a man of rare
culture, perhaps unequalled by any man in the American
pulpit to-day, told me not long ago, ' that when his uncle,
President Storrs, was sick unto death, and his mother was
watching him with the greatest and tenderest care, anxious
for his life, said to him, ' Your brother, the doctor, says,
' You must take a little brandy,' he turned his sparkling
eyes to his sister, and in tones of voice almost silenced by
the touch of death, said, in slow and measured words: 'No;
I cannot take it. I must be true to the principle.' These
were the last words he ever spoke, and his great soul went
up to God, who gave it."
John Newbold was a native of Philadelphia, and a mem-
ber of the Episcopal Church. I do not remember to have
ever known a man who was so absorbed in the things un-
seen and eternal. He seemed to take no interest in the
things of this life, except so far as they were connected
38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1815.
with duty, or with the interests of religion. His conversa-
tion was in heaven. No one went to him to talk politics,
or to discuss the relative merits of their fellow-students.
But if any were in darkness or trouble, they would go to
him for instruction or consolation. He had far more in-
fluence than any other man in the Seminary (which he
joined immediately after leaving college). If an irritating
discussion at any time arose, as soon as Newbold entered
the room there was a calm. Or if it happened, to any two
of the students, as it did to Paul and Barnabas, " that a
sharp contention," arose between them, so that they " parted
asunder," he was sure to bring them together and fuse
them into one by his love. He was tall and long-limbed,
and rather awkward, though a thorough gentleman. His
face was plain ; and would have been homely, had it not
been irradiated by the beauty of holiness. His heart was
set on going as a missionary to Persia or India. As at that
time there was no foreign missionary organization in this
country, connected with the Episcopal Church, he induced
Dr. Alexander to offer his services to the Church Mission-
ary Society in England. He was, however, cut down by a
rapid consumption, and died before entering the ministry.
For a series of years, I acted on the purpose of not allowing
his memory to die out in the Seminary. Therefore, once
at least in three years (an academic generation with us) I
held him up as an example ; I wished to cause the students
to see how much good can be done, by simply being good.
[Here ends the autobiographical notes. These, also,
were the very last sentences that Dr. Hodge ever wrote,
with the exception of two or three short family letters. A
fit and characteristic closing of the vast volume of writing^
which for fifty years had flowed from his pen.]
He graduated from college, September, 1815. John Johns
and Philip R. Fendall shared the first honor, and Charles
Hodge and Alexander Wurtz shared the second ; Charles
Hodge delivered the valedictory oration.
CHAPTER III.
FROM HIS GRADUATION FROM THE COLLEGE, SEPT., il/, TO HIS
GRADUATION FROM THE THEOLOGICAL SEMI NARY, SEPT., 1 8 19.
STUDY IN PHILADELPHIA JOURNEYS TO SILVER LAKE AND VIRGINIA SEMI-
NARY LIFE AND FRIENDS AND LETTERS TO MOTHER AND BROTHER.
HIS preparation for College, especially in the Greek lan-
guage, had been imperfect, and the effort which had
been required to raise him to the high position in the class
which he occupied at the time of his graduation^Jiad deci-
dedly taxed his physical strength. His mother, therefore,
required him to return to her home in Philadelphia, and
spend there a year in general reading, and seeking the
recuperation of -his health, before he should commence his
direct preparation for a profession. Of this year, very
naturally, but few memorials remain. He spent the winter
as proposed, in Philadelphia, following a course of general
reading, but the pain and weakness in his chest became the
cause of serious uneasiness. After the spring opened he
spent several months with his cousin, Mrs. Harrison Smith,
at her husband's country seat, in the neighborhood of
Washington city, D. C. He afterwards related that Mrs.
Smith made him drink, frequently, new milk mixed with
honey, a prescription at once pleasant to his taste, and
strengthening to his chest.
His cousin Jane, eldest daughter of Andrew Hodge, jr.,
and Nancy Ledyard, had, some years previously, married
Dr. Robert H. Rose, an intelligent Scotch gentleman of
39
40 JOURNEY TO SILVER LAKE. [1816.
great cultivation and taste, who had become the owner of
a large tract of land in Susquehanna county, near the
north-eastern corner of Pennsylvania. In that day the
country to the north of Easton, at the forks of the Dela-
ware, was, with the exception of the Wyoming valley, for
the most part a wilderness, broken only here and there by
clearings and humble homesteads. But Dr. Rose built on
the banks of the beautiful Silver Lake a residence, which,
more than almost any other then existing in the Middle
States, took the place and fulfilled the offices of a country
residence of an English nobleman. It was built of wood,
yet of large proportions, and adapted to the entertainment
of many guests, thirty at a time often staying with^him for
days or weeks, as suited their convenience. A large
library, fine pictures and works of art, beautiful conserva-
tories and gardens, and the eminent social gifts of the host,
made the place a centre of attraction, and an astonishing
oasis of civilization in the "back-woods." 1
Early in July of this year, young Charles paid a visit to
this hospitable house, making the journey from Philadel-
phia in company with his aunt, Mrs. Nancy Hodge. From
Silver Lake he wrote several letters to his mother, two of
which remain, which are given to the reader partly because
they are among the earliest traces that survive of the pen of
Dr. Hodge, afterwards so prolific.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
SILVER LAKE, July 11, 1816.
My Dear Mother : You most probably will have heard of our safe
arrival here, long before this reaches you. It was just after sun-
down on Sunday evening when we came in sight of the Lake. We
were much less fatigued than you would expect by our four days of
constant riding and, part of the time, of constant jolting. The thirty
miles we came on horseback affected aunt more than all the rest of
the journey. A considerable par^ of the road between this and the
city is dreary enough ; scarcely any thing to be seen but fields filled
with old stumps, and, in places on fire last spring, whole woods of
an. 1 8.] JOURNEY TO SILVER LAKE. 41
leafless and limbless trees. There are, however, some landscapes
more beautiful and extensive than any I can remember ever to have
seen. From a mountain near Easton there is a prospect as rich and
widely extended as your imagination can well conceive. You see
before you a fertile valley, through which the Lehigh and Delaware
flow, and in which they meet. Easton is situated on the point of
land formed by their junction, and beyond you perceive the long
ridge of the Blue mountains, covered with the richest foliage. The
whole of the ride from Tunckhannock, about thirty miles, is very de-
lightful. *****
They are all very kind, and have every thing about them they
could wish. \The place fully answers my expectations, and will be
delightful when the country is more cultivated. * * * The lake
proves an abundant source of amusement, and also of healthy exer-
cise, as we often paddle about in the old canoe. We catch here the
salmon trout, of which the Doctor is very proud, as he thinks they are
to be found no where in the State but in his tract. He told me that
if I turned out to be as clever a fellow as my brother Hugh, he
should like to make a backwoodsman of me. * * * I feel the want
of my other pair of cloth pantaloons very much. Cousin and the
Doctor have repeatedly asked me to spend the summer here, but my
want of clothes, and the impossibility of getting them, if nothing else,
would prevent it. *****
You would think it strange, perhaps, if I were to close my letter
without saying a word about my health, but I have little to say on
that subject. I eat here, I believe, in one day as much as I did in a
week in the city. My breast is sometimes painful, but not often, and
my back is well enough if I do not stoop much.
The good people here desire their love to you.
My dear mother's affectionate son,
C. HODGE.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
SILVER LAKE, July 27, 1816.
My Dearest Mother: Partly from being pretty constantly em-
ployed during the past week, but principally, I fear, from my pro-
crastinating disposition, it is Saturday morning (instead of Monday
or Tuesday, as I intended) before I am seated to fulfil my promise
of writing to you before our return. As there is now no flattering to-
morrow for me to look forward to, it must be done to-day.
(j feel, my dear mother, fully sensible that the present is one of the
most important periods of my life, viewing it as one in which the
42 CHOOSING A PROFESSION. [1816.
choice of a profession is to be made. Having left us to act freely in
this respect, you are aware of the one on which, even for some years
past, I have been conditionally determined. It is the one, I know, in
which, generally speaking, there is the least prospect of earthly hap-
piness, since there are so many deprivations and inconveniences to
which those who embrace it must submit, as they must be ever so
much more at the disposition of others than of themselves. Yet I
feel that it is the only one in which I could be happy, believing it to
be the path of my duty.^ 1
Considering,, therefore, my choice of a profession as made, the
next most important points to determine are the proper time and
place of preparation for its duties. And here, my dear mamma, I
leave myself entirely at your disposal, not, however, without urging
my own wishes, and endeavoring to convince you of their pro-
priety.
Had I been permitted to act as my own dictator, my feelings would
have led me, agreeably to the advice of friends as inexperienced as
myself, to have entered the Seminary immediately after leaving Col-
lege. From this improper step my mother saved me. Since that
time, however, a year has passed, and I feel anxious to be engaged
in serious study, fearing that if kept back for another year, the time
will be even worse than lost. For I believe it impossible for any
young man whose principal business it is to pursue an object as in-
definite as general information, to make his progress in any measure
co-equal to the value of his time. For you know that it is necessary
for the powers of the mind to be more or less concentrated in order
to produce effects. The acquisition of this kind of knowledge must
be the gradual and 'secondary work of a whole life, rather than the
main object of any particular period. Besides general reading as a
business must be injurious, as it has a tendency to render the mind
incapable of attention to severer and less interesting studies. \J$ut
should you consider that another year thus spent is absolutely neces-
sary, do you think the present the most proper time ? Would it not
be better to wait until after the three or four years of professional
studies, when the mind will be more matured, the habits of study and
attention more firmly fixed, the stock of information increased, and
the capacity for improvement in every way enlarged ? For my own
part, I am convinced that the benefit of a year devoted to reading at
that period would be nearly quadruple that of an equal period at the
present. You remember that Dr. Alexander told us that if I were to
spend a fourth year in reading under his (or their) direction, my pro-
gress would be greater than during all the other three together.
With respect to the most advantageous place for the prosecution
^ET. 18.] TOUR THROUGH VIRGINIA. 43
of my studies, I think, my dear mother, you cannot hesitate between,
on the one hand, a place in which I can enjoy the tuition of men of
talents and information, whose time and attention are devoted to the
improvement of their pupils, with the advantage of good libraries, of
the company of persons of my own age engaged in the same pur-
suits, of being in a class, of constant recitations and lectures, and
especially the advantage of a debating society attended by the pro-
fessors of College and Seminary and on the other hand, a place
in which I must be under a private gentleman who is almost entirely
occupied with other concerns, and in which I shall be destitute of
nearly all the above-mentioned advantages.
I trust you cannot suppose that I am influenced in what I say by a
childish fondness for Princeton. I am far from being sanguine in
my expectations of happiness there. The College filled with strangers
will not be the source of pleasure it was when it contained so many
of my dear and affectionate friends, and I know that my situation
must be far less pleasant in many other respects than it was when
you were there. I am ever, my dear mother, your affectionate
CHARLES.
[During the month of October of this year, young Charles
had the great pleasure and advantage of accompanying Dr.
Alexander in a tour through Virginia, among the scenes of
the Doctors earlier ministry. It was accomplished chiefly
in stages and on horseback. It extended over a line of
about 600 miles from Philadelphia and back again ; from
Philadelphia to Baltimore ; thence to Harper's Ferry, where
the Potomac breaks through the Blue ridge ; thence up the
great valley thirty miles wide, reaching from the heart
of Pennsylvania to the heart of Carolina and Tennessee, to
Lexington, in Rockbridge county, where Dr. Alexander was
born and educated ; thence back to Staunton, and through
Rockfish Gap, by Monticello and Charlottesville, and thence
to Fredericksburg, where they attended the sessions of the
Synod of Virginia ; and thence to Washington, Baltimore,
and home.
Our father used in after years to recount to his children,
with great interest, the scenes of that memorable journey,
and the happiness of that blessed companionship. He told
44 TOUR THROUGH VIRGINIA. [1816.
of the remarkable evidence given of the fervent and univer-
sal affection entertained for Dr. Alexander, and the enthu-
siasm of his reception. Of how often when under the ex-
citement of his cordial greeting, the Doctor, shut up to the
alternatives of laughing or crying, would be shaken with a
nervous laugh, while shaking hands by the half-hour, and
with hundreds of old friends. Of how the inspiration of the
old scenes and of the familiar faces lifted the Doctor to his
original elevation of extemporaneous and dramatic eloquence,
from which he had declined since he had formed the habit
of reading his sermons, as a city pastor in Philadelphia.
Especially he referred with unabated wonder to two sermons
preached by the doctor on this journey. Once, when he
preached on the sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abram, he so
minutely described and enacted the scene, that the entire au-
dience were thrilled and rent as though they were actually
present at the impending tragedy. Again, when he preached
on the judgment of the quick and dead by the Son of Man,
he so keenly apprehended the event as real, and so graphic-
ally described it, that at the crisis, when the trumpet sounded,
and the great white throne began to descend, the entire
congregation, by one impulse, rose, and bent to the windows,
that they might see Him, and take their places among the
multitudes thronging to meet Him.
But one letter pertaining to this journey remains.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
STAUNTON, VA., Oct. 10, 1816.
My Dear Mother : I am now upwards of three hundred miles dis-
tant from you, and from almost all those who feel an interest in me.
It often makes me feel melancholy to look on the map and see the
very spot where my friends are, and then reflect what a space there
is between us. I can in every hour of the day guess where you all
are situated, and what you are most probably doing ; but you can
only think of me as somewhere or other far from you, engaged in
scenes which your imagination cannot call before you. I expect
therefore that you are oftener in my thoughts than I am in yours, at
^T.i8.] TOUR THROUGH VIRGINIA. 45
least I can better bring you all before me from being acquainted with
the places you constantly frequent.
The first opportunity I had of writing was on Friday evening after
a fatiguing ride from Baltimore to Fredericktown, the hurried
letter which I suppose you received a week ago. This last mentioned
place we left between two and three o'clock on Saturday morning,
when the moon, being full, shone with such brightness, that we could
almost fancy it was mid-day. We rode eight miles to a place called the
Trap, where we breakfasted just at day-break, when we had only ten
miles to ride before we reached Harper's Ferry. During this time
we had frequently beautiful views of the mountains, and could gen-
erally trace the course of the Potomac by the fog which rises in the
morning, and which enveloping the foot of the Ridge, leaves only
the summit visible, resting apparently on the clouds. . . . After
passing the Ferry and finding the stage was not ready, we hastened
up the hill on the point formed by the junction of the Potomac and
Shenandoah, to Jefferson's rock, and kneeling on that (for we were
afraid to stand) we enjoyed the most beautifully grand prospect my
eyes had ever witnessed or my imagination had ever painted. I
shall not attempt to give you a description of the place, but only say
that I think Jefferson less extravagant in saying that a sight of it is
worthy a voyage across the Atlantic, than I did before I had seen it
myself. When I return I will endeavor to give you some idea of it.
We arrived at Winchester just at dark; the Doctor per-
ceiving the Presbyterian Church was open, we put our baggage in the
tavern and went up towards it. On our way we met Mr. Hill, the
Doctor's frie"nd and the minister of the place, who insisted on the
Doctor's preaching, although he had risen that day at two o'clock,
and had ridden fifty miles over one of the worst roads in the Union.
Here I met my old class-mate, Baker, who took me home with him,
where I was treated very kindly by all of them (there were no less
than half a dozen young ladies there). The next day being Sunday,
and their communion season, Dr. Alexander preached in the morn-
ing on the text, " Ought not Christ to have suffered these things ?"
He was as usual most excellent and affecting. We left Winchester
about three o'clock Monday morning, by moonlight . . . and our next
stopping-place was Woodstock, the county-town of Shenandoah, and
this being their court-day, the whole place was filled with the oddest-
looking, old-fashioned German men and women I ever saw. The
Doctor enjoyed the scene very much, and was constantly telling me
not to laugh, while his own mouth was wide open. v . . We slept
that night at New Market, and before three the next morning we were
in the stage. It was exceedingly cold until the sun rose ; we rode
46 ENTERED THE SEMINARY. [1816.
forty-five miles, and arrived at Staunton about four in the afternoon.
Here we spent Wednesday and Thursday at Dr. Waddel's, Mrs.
Alexander's brother, who is quite a young man. I received here all
the kindness and hospitality which I could expect or wish for even in
Virginia. A Mr. McDowell, a friend of the Doctor, was so kind as
to lend us each a horse ; so on Friday morning we left Staunton for
Lexington on horseback, and arrived there between five and six.
This ride of thirty-five miles fatigued us more than all the rest of our
journey together. I feel much better this morning, but my limbs yet
ache a good deal. We are to visit the Natural Bridge on Monday,
which is about fifteen miles from this. Then we are to return to
Staunton, and on Monday week we are to leave Staunton with the
two Misses Waddell." They will drop me at Charlottesville for a day to
visit Monticello. They intend to stop at the Doctor's brother-in-law f
where I am to rejoin them on Wednesday evening. We shall then
proceed to Fredericksburgh, get there on Friday, and, the Synod
meeting there, we shall stay until the beginning of the next week, for
the Doctor to see his old friends who will be there. We shall then
take the steamboat for Washington, then the stage to Baltimore ;
then the steamboat to where my dear mother and brother now are.
I have been very happy during this jaunt (except when I felt un-
easy about the state of my funds, which has sometimes even kept
me from sleeping.) I have met with a great deal of kindness, and
of course like the people very much. The Doctor is the man of men,
talks a great deal about the country as we pass along, and tells me
anecdotes of himself suggested by the sight of places where he used
to be. I have much less pain in my breast than I had before I left
home. I expect to return quite well.
I remain, dear mother,
Your son, C. H.
ENTERED THE SEMINARY.
On November Qth, 1816, Charles Hodge was matriculated
as a student in the Princeton Theological SeminaryJ This
institution was founded in 1812. Dr. Archibald Alexander
was the first professor, and sole instructor, until the acces-
sion of the Rev. Samuel Miller, D. D., December 3d, 1813.
At first there were neither public buildings nor libraries.
The houses of the professors were used as places for recita-
tion and worship. The main Seminary edifice, supplying
yET. 18.] THE FIRST PROFESSORS. 47
apartments for dormitories, library and public meetings,
and recitations, and for the residence of the steward, and the
refectory was opened for use in the autumn of 1817, when
only the two lower stones were finished. Charles Hodge
was the first student who ever preached in the new Ora-
tory, that sacred room with which his person and voice has
been associated for sixty-one years. The residence so long
occupied by Dr. Alexander, was built early in 1819. The
corresponding house at the other end of the main Semi-
nary building, occupied by Dr. Hodge for fifty-three years,
was built during the latter part of 1824. " The matricula-
tions of students were in 1812, nine; in 1813, sixteen; in
1814, fifteen; in 1815, twenty-two; in 1816, twenty-six; in
1817, twenty- three."
As the theological character and life-work of Dr. Hodge
was determined by the discipline he received in this Semi-
nary, and especially as he always affirmed that he was
moulded more by the character and instructions of Dr.
Archibald Alexander, than by all other external influences
combined, I will quote at length the information given by
the biographer of Dr. Alexander, as to the characteristics
of the first professors, and as to their methods of instruction
during the first years of the Institution.
"All Dr. Alexander's life long he was free to acknow-
ledge that his training, however laborious, had lacked much
of the vigor and method of the schools. Theology had,
indeed, been the study of his life. During his residence in
Philadelphia he had gathered about him the great masters
of Latin theology, whose works appeared in Holland,
Switzerland, Germany, and France, in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. A rare occasion of adding to his
stock of Dutch theology was afforded by the sale of a
library belonging to a learned minister from Holland, the
Rev. Mr. Von Harlinger, of Somerset These Reformed
divines he regarded as having pushed theological investiga-
tion to its greatest length, and compacted its conclusions
48 THE FIRS T PR OFESSORS. [ 1 8 1 6.
into the most symmetrical method. He once said to the
writer, that on a perplexed subject he preferred Latin to
English reading^ not only because of the complete and in-
genious nomenclature which had grown up in the dialectic
schools of the church, but because the little effort required
for getting the sense kept his attention concentrated. His
penchant for metaphysical investigation urged him, from an
early date, to make himself acquainted with the philoso-
phies of the periods, from which each system took its tinc-
ture, and without which it is impossible to survey the
several schemes from a just point of view. Thus he pe-
rused, and generally in their sources, not only the peripatetic
and scholastic writers, but the treatises of Des Cartes,
Leibnitz, Wolff, and Voetius. And there was no subject on
which he discoursed with more pleasure and success, than
upon the exposition and comparison of these ingenious,
though now exploded, systems. He made himself familiar
with the Christian Fathers, both Greek and Latin, and pe-
rused them at intervals during forty years. He did not con-
fine himself to writers on one side. Through long years he
was wont to seek with patience the best works in defence of
popery ; the argumentative dissertations of the extreme
Lutherans and Dutch Remonstrants, as well as the Fratres
Poloni, and other champions of Socinianism. It need
scarcely be added that he was familiar with English the-
ology, as treated both by authors of the Established Church,
and by the great non-conformist divines. His recent travels
in New England, and the prevailing excitement caused by
the speculations of Hopkins and Emmons, served to keep
him observant in regard to the phases of opinion in the
. American churches. As it respects his own conclusions,
he has left on record the statement, that on his return from
New England, and during his residence in Philadelphia, his
views, which had been somewhat modified by eastern sug-
gestions, began to fix themselves more definitely in the
direction of the common Westminster theology.
JET. !8.] THE FIRST PROFESSORS. 49
"Although called primarily to be a teacher of theology,
in its stricter acceptation, he was led both by strong native
tastes and by convictions of reason, to give first attention to
the criticism and interpretation of the original Scriptures.
With the Greek, as has been intimated, he was sufficiently
familiar to be a competent instructor, but Hebrew literature
was in its infancy in America. The works of Gesenius
were as yet unknown, and the learned labors of Gibbs and
Stuart had not been given to the world. Even in New
England the vowel points were for a time held in suspicion,
and those who desired to penetrate their mysteries were fain
to seek often the different and rare volumes of Buxtorf,
Leusden, and Opitius. Conscious of his own imperfect
knowledge, he modestly, but indefatigably, set about the
work of inculcation. For a number of years, and with in-
creased ability, he worked this field, until relieved by the
services of a beloved pupil, the Reverend Charles Hodge.
Criticism and hermeneutics was a department which had
great charms for him, and by extensive reading, compiling
and original investigation, he prepared to furnish a system
of instruction, which for years he delivered as lectures, a
number of which still remain among his papers. To this he
added copious instructions in Biblical Archaeology, on
which he prepared numerous discourses, and which
remained under his control for many years. No man looked
more reverently upon the typical Christology of the
Levitical law ; and none of his pupils can forget the awe.
with which he approached the recesses of the expiatoiy
system, or the felicitous use which he made of the altar
and the propitiatory, in his more purely theological ex-
position of the atonement.
" Deeply persuaded that many theological errors have
their origin in a bias derived from false metaphysics, he set
about the methodizing of his thoughts upon mental philo-
sophy. The German philosophy was yet unknown among
us, and he was never led to travel the transcendental, or
4
5O. THE FIRST PROFESSORS. [1816.
high " a priori road," but treated mental phenomena on the
inductive method, as the objects of a cautious generalization.
While he uniformly recommended the perusal of Locke, it
was, as he often declared, not so much for the value of his
particular conclusions, as for the spirit of his investigation ;
the calmness, patience and transparent honesty of that truly
great man. He likewise expressed great favor for Reid,
Beattie, Buffier, Campbell and Stewart, with whose general
methods, as well as their views of intuitive truths and con-
stitutional principles of reason, he was in agreement, while
he dissented from many of their definitions, distinctions and
tenets. From these topics he turned to the closely allied
domain of Natural Religion. While he was far from being
a rationalist, he was never satisfied with the tactics of those
reasoners, who, under the pretext of exalting revelation,
dismiss, with contempt, all arguments derived from the light
of nature. He rendered due homage, therefore, to the
labors of such writers as Nieuwentyt, the younger Turret-
tin, and Paley, and spent much time in considering and
unfolding, with nice discrimination, the various schemes of
argument for the Being and Perfections of God, and the
necessity and antecedent probability of a revelation. Con-
nected closely with this was the discussion of Ethical Philo-
sophy, in which he taught, from the outset, the same doc-
trines which have been given to the world in a posthumous
work.
" The anxieties belonging to an attempt to lay down the
great lines of a method for teaching the whole system of
revealed truth, to those who were to be the ministers of the
Church, were just and burdensome. As compared with
those later methods which grew out of continued experi-
ence with successive classes, they were probably more ex-
temporaneous and colloquial ; there was more use of exist-
ing manuals, and less adventure of original expedients.
Dr. Alexander, herein concurring with Chalmers, conceived
that theology was best taught by a wise union of the text
^rr. 18.] THE FIRST PROFESSORS. 5 1
book with the free lecture. Finding no work in English
which entirely met his demands, he placed in the hands of
his pupils the Institutions of Francis Turrettin. It would
be very unjust to suppose that the young men were charged
with the tenets of Turrettin, to the injury of their mental
independence. Dr. Alexander often dissented from the
learned Genevan, and always endeavored to cultivate in
his students the spirit and habits of original investigation.
He very laboriously engaged in making such brief aids, in
the way of syllabus and compendium, as might furnish to
the student a manageable key to the whole classification.
He prepared extensive and minute questions, going into all
the ramifications of theology. He assigned subjects for
original dissertations, which were publicly read and com-
mented on by both professors and students ; a near ap-
proach to the acts held in the old university schools, under
the scholastic moderator. To this were added the debates
of a theological society, meeting every Friday evening,
always on some important topic, and always closed by the
full and highly animated remarks of the professor..
" The division of his department into Didactic and Po-
lemic Theology, which the Plan of the institution made im-
perative, gave the professor an opportunity to go over all
the leading doctrines in the way of defence against the ob-
jections of errorists, heretics and infidels. In doing this he
brought to bear his remarkable stores of recondite reading.
He gave the biography of eminent opponents, clear analyses
of their systems, and refutations of their reasons. What
might be considered by some an inordinate length of time,
was devoted to the cardinal differences, such as the contro-
versy with Deists, Arians, Socinians, Pelagians, Arminians,
Papists and Universalists ; all being made to revolve around
the Calvinistic system, which, upon sincere conviction, he
had adopted."
Dr. Samuel Miller was elected Professor of Ecclesiastical
History and Church Government, in 1813. After his acces-
52 ROOMS AND ROOM-MATES. [1816-19.
sion, the entire instruction of the Seminary was divided
between Dr. Alexander and himself. " He brought with
him a high reputation, as a preacher and author, and a
Christian gentleman. His name was widely known from
his ' Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century,' and more
recently from his defence of Presbytery, against the attacks
of Doctors Hobart and Bowden."
.Hugh Hodge, in referring to his brother Charles' Sem-
inary life, remarks that " now he began to discover con-
siderable facility in acquiring knowledge, although he
was not much of a student."] This judgment must be
understood, in view of the fact, that Hugh was eighteen
months the elder, that he matured much more rapidly
than his brother, and that he was himself beyond all his
associates distinguished for the strictness of his method,
the extent of his patience and power of self-denial, and
the absoluteness of his devotion to his duty. The cor-
respondence of Charles with his mother shows, that dur-
ing his Seminary course, he attained to the habits of an
earnest and successful student. He boarded and lodged at
Mrs. Bache's during the first year of his Seminary course.
As soon as the public building was ready for use, in the fall
of 1817, he took up his abode in it. During his junior
year, he had for his room-mate, Thomas Jacob Biggs, after-
wards Professor in Lane Seminary, Cincinnati. During the
middle year, John Johns, afterwards Bishop of the Episco-
pal Church in Virginia; and during the senior year, Thomas
Scudder VVickes, afterwards a pastor in the state of New
York. With all of these brethren Mr. Hodge formed inti-
mate friendships, cherished by him with warm affection all
their lives. But the mutual love of Charles Hodge and
John Johns was singular, and in the experience of either of
them, had no rival of its kind. It burned brighter and
brighter for sixty years on earth, till now, after the briefest
separation, Episcopalian and Presbyterian brother are to-
gether forever.
JET. 19.] HIGH SPIRITS. 53
His most intimate friends among his classmates in the
Seminary, were Johns, Mcllvaine and William Nevins.^They
were an exceedingly joyous and playful company. Dr.
Hodge afterwards, writing of Dr. Miller, said, " Our class,
one of the earliest, tried his patience a good deal. We
were not bad, but boyish. One particularly, afterwards one
of the most distinguished and useful ministers of our church,
the late Dr. William Nevins of Baltimore, was so full of
fun and wit, that he kept us in a constant titter. The good
Doctor wore out his lead-pencil in thumping the desk to
make us behave, but he was never irritated. [He made
allowance for us boys, knowing that we loved and rever-
enced him.!) He often told us how Nevins' seasons of
playfulness were followed by reaction and depression, and
of his spending a large part of the night with him, seeking
to restore the cheerfulness of his faith and hope. Also,
how after he became assistant teacher, he was once called
upon to minister to the conscience of the eccentric, but
highly talented George Bush, who was overwhelmed with
fear of the desertion of God, because he had killed a mouse.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, Jan. nth, 1817.
My Dear Mother : I am not quite so lazy here as I am when at
home/ Yesterday morning I rose with the prayer bell, and I have
now been up more than an hour, and have seated myself to write
before eight o'clock.
Our ride from the city here was very pleasant, as the roads are
good, and the weather, especially in the morning, was very agree-
able. Elizabeth found a young lady, formerly a school-mate of hers,
in the stage coming on to Princeton, so that she had not to depend
on poor me for the pleasures of conversation. For my part I never
was more sensible of the superiority of the talents of ladies for talk-
ing than they made me.
Your son, C. H.
54 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS MOTHER. [i8i7.
FROM THE SAME TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, Feb. 2ist, 1817.
'My Dear Mother: We, the theological students, have entered
upon the attempt of learning singing with considerable spirit. We
have formed ourselves into a society, to be called The Musical Associ-
ation of Princeton ; have a constitution drawn, and no less than five
officers, President, Vice-President, two Choristers, and Secretary.
Biggs is our Secretary. Eaton, an excellent singer from the east-
ward, is President. We are to meet once a week, alternately on
Monday and Wednesday evening. Ladies are to attend and enjoy
the privilege of members on invitation. I hope it may succeed and
be useful in improving us all in the important as well as pleasing art
of singing. Dr. Alexander is very warmly in favor of it, and the
ladies of his family are as zealous in the cause as we can be.
Your son, C. H.
FROM THE SAME TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, June 24th, 1817.
My Dear Mamma : Here I am once more in our little study fixed
for another session. May the blessing of heaven rest with me here,
as the kindness of providence has followed me during my absence,
and may the richest mercies be multiplied to you, my dear mother
and brother.
My love to Cousin Susan. Yours, C. HODGE.
FROM THE SAME TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, July 4th, 1817.
My Dear Mother .-Caroline wishes to stay and hear Mr. Larned,
who is to preach for us next Sabbath in the Hall. I hope they will
conclude to remain, as I wish Miss C. to admire Princeton more than
merely passing through would lead her to do. The better known,
the more beloved happy the person or the place of which this is
true. And I believe, as it regards most people, it may be said with
strict propriety of this little favored spot.
I am very glad you can perceive an improvement in my writing.
I feared it was too small to be noticed. I write my copy regularly.
Your son, C. H.
^r. 19.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS MOTHER. 55
FROM THE SAME TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, JULY 15, 1817.
Dear Mamma : The Sabbath the Miss Bayards were here, Lar-
ned* preached, as was expected, his last sermon. The Hall was
quite crowded, there being a considerable number of strangers pre-
sent, and curiosity or a regard for the preacher enabled many of the
inhabitants of town to overcome their reluctance to attend our
church. They were, however, amply repaid, for Larned preached
with a degree of eloquence which few could equal. The ladies bore,
by their tears, testimony to his superior powers, and many of his fel-
low-students, who felt as though they were never to hear him again,
were not much less affected than the ladies themselves. He has
gone to New York to be ordained, and then intends to spend six or
seven weeks with his friends. It is probable he will visit most of the
Atlantic towns between this and Savannah as an agent for collecting
funds for the Seminary. This is the plan, should Dr. Romeyn de-
cline going. From Savannah he proceeds to New Orleans, there to
remain and labor for the establishment of a church in that spiritual
wilderness.
. Your son, C. H.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, Dec. 13, 1817.
Dear Mother ;-^-We are very much pressed in our studies, so that
I begin to feel as Hugh used to do, at seeing so much more before
me than I can accomplish. But it is not in my nature to worry my-
self much about what I cannot help, and it is surely best to do as
much as you can and let the rest go. I shall arrive at this conclu-
sion and make a practical use of it much sooner than he (Hugh) has
done, though he says he has at length attained it. What is dearly
bought is highly valued. I trust, therefore, he will take care not to
lose the power of looking at what he cannot accomplish or attain,
without feeling too great dissatisfaction with himself.
Dr. Alexander recommended to us this morning at recitation
nearly thirty different works, giving such a character of each as to
excite a strong desire to read them, which must be done next week
or left undone, for we then pass on to a new subject, on which we
may expect a similar supply. One great thing, however, we learn
* A prodigy of early eloquence, whose name is often mentioned with those of
Whitefield and Summerfield ; he shone brightly for a few years, and then closed
his career in New Orleans.
56 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS MOTHER. [1818.
that is, where information is to be found when we shall be more at
leisure to attend to these copious sources. And another benefit is,
that to be constantly occupied is to be happy, provided you are con-
vinced that the occupation is important in itself, and proper for you}
Accordingly I never was in better spirits than I have been in, all this
session. Up before sunrise, and not to bed ever much before twelve.
But four evenings in the week we are occupied until nine, before we
can get to study.
Susan Beattie (whom perhaps you may remember), the only
daughter of Col. Beattie,* died on Tuesday morning, between six-
teen and seventeen years old. I do not remember ever to have been
more shocked than I was when I heard of her death. Scarcely eight
days before, I saw her apparently enjoying the most vigorous health.
Her hold on life appeared firmer than that of any of her companions,
and the prospect of length of days was to few more flattering. She
was one of the pall-bearers for Susan Bayard, and now they lie
mouldering together in mournful contiguity in the house of silence,
where the intercourse of friendship never can be known.
Your son, C. H.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, March 22, 1818.
Dear Mother : My duties are so numerous and constant that there
is not an hour in the day in which I feel at liberty to attend to what
is foreign to my present pursuits. I am happy that such is the case,
being persuaded that it is necessary for me to be pressed forward, in
order to do all I am able to accomplish. It has the effect also of
making my time pass by on eagle's wings. I often think of Mr.
Bayard's telling me that as we grow old, our years, like the circum-
ference of an inverted tea-cup, become less and less^ I should feel
old indeed if I judged of my age by this criterion, and young indeed
if I judged by what I have done. Rapidly as our days and years are
flying on, how difficult is it to realize that they are hastening to a
close. In looking forward to the end of life, it appears no nearer
now than it did five or six years ago ; yet it is more than probable that
half of my race is already run, and perhaps much more than half.
Would that I could act accordingly !
Your son, C. H.
* Father of the venerable and universally beloved Rev. Charles C. Beattie,
D. D., LL. D., pf Steubenville, Ohio.
JET. 20.] LIFE IN SEMINARY. 57
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, April 2, 1818.
My Dear Mother ; My dear brother's letter gave me more plea-
sure than I ever before received from anything of the kind perhaps
much more than he experienced himself, as constitutionally he is not
as much affected by these things as I am. To be crowned at the close
of a hard-fought course is the highest gratification pertaining to this
world, and to see a brother crowned is even sweeter still. It has
made me proud of him, though I think I never was more grateful for
any blessing than for his success. To be thankful for the past, and
to trust (yet with diligence) for the future, comprises no small part
of our present duty. When the more important race of life is run,
may my dear brother then receive an applauding welcome, and a
crown of glory which fadeth not away !
Your son, C. H.
Hugh had graduated with the highest honors from the
medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, and
in order to secure the means for perfecting his professional
education in Europe, he sailed as surgeon of the merchant
ship Julius Caesar from New York for Calcutta, September
8th, 1818.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, Sept. 10, 1818.
My Dear Mother : Every circumstance appears to conspire to
render the prospect before our dear treasure pleasant and flattering.
The gentlemen he goes with ae, I expect, more than usually estima-
ble. The Captain has a high character for amiability as a man and
skill as an officer. And the ship is new, strong, swift, and hand-
some. We have indeed much reason for gratitude for the present
and the past, and should therefore with cheerful confidence commend
to God the keeping of the gift He Himself at first bestowed, and has
thus far so graciously enriched and preserved.
When at Rockaway, as I had never seen nor heard the sea, as
soon as we got there, though quite dark, I went out alone to go down
to the beach, where the roaring was really dreadful, and not being
able to see the water, and being quite alone, surrounded by the gloom
of darkness, I felt chilled almost with a kind of horror of the ocean,
and could not bear the thought of my brother ever venturing on its
58 LIFE IN SEMINARY. [1818.
bosom. But when the sun had in the morning gilded the expanse,
the awful was changed into the beautiful and sublime, and I wished
myself at sea.
Your affectionate son, C. H.
I have found among his papers a small roll inscribed,
" Correspondence of C. H. and S. B.,li8i7 and i8i83 These
are the remains of an exchange of letters he kept up with
his future wife from the first of his Seminary life until their
marriage?! As a fair specimen of this remarkable love-letter
writing, I record the following, written from Princeton, in
1818, day and month not given.
My Dear Sarah ;~ Our intercourse for some time past has been, as
far as it is carried on by writing, not only very irregular, but very tri-
fling. What can be the reason of this ? Does a note of more than
half a dozen lines require an effort which our feelings are inadequate
to produce T' 1 Or are we really so constantly employed that a fortnight
affords no half-hour on which affection might seize to devote to an
occupation it considers and constitutes delightful ?
But this is not the worst of it. LWhere, my dear Sarah, is our reli-
gion ? Why have we banished it from our conversation and our
writing ?^ Can you recollect for weeks its being the subject of either ?
This change I know is to be attributed in a great measure, and per-
haps entirely, to myself. I have never been enabled in all I have
said to you to meet the difficulties you so constantly feel. Perhaps it
would be right, therefore, not to attempt it again, but to commend
you simply to the grace of God and to the teachings of His Spirit.
But I think there is one thing which has not sufficiently engaged your
attention, and which is of great praqfical importance. That is, that
faith itself is the very first duty God requires us to perform, without
which it is impossible to please Him in any thing. All attempts there-
fore which men so frequently make to obey before they believe, is
proceeding in a way directly the reverse of what God has prescribed.
All our ability to obey is obtained by faith. Nothing else will purify
the heart. It is by faith that we become united to Christ, in whom
all our strength resides. He then that wishes to attain to holiness
will be disappointed after all his efforts, unless he begins by believing.
It is to this single point then that our first and our constant efforts are
to be directed. It is but "looking unto Jesus," as dear Armstrong
told us yesterday. Until this act be performed we are struggling in
our own strength, we are warring at our own charges ; but as soon as
I
Ml. 20.] LIFE IN THE SEMINARY. 59
we believe the battle becomes the Lord's, then all His attributes are
engaged to subdue our sins and secure our salvation. And, my dear
Sarah, the reason why persons truly pious make so little progress and
meet with so many discomfitures is because they do not carry on the
conflict in the right way. They endeavor to subdue their corruptions
by arguing with themselves and bringing up motives to holiness, in-
stead of using faith. That is, instead of throwing all upon Christ and
pleading at the moment His promise to deliver us from sin. If we
appeal to Him with confidence, He will never fail to appear in our
behalf. And this is the course, my Sarah, I would recommend to
you. Use Christ as though He were your own -J employ His strength,
His merit, and His grace in all your trials. This is the way to honor
Him. Fear not that He will be offended at the liberty.
PRINCETON, , 1818.
With regard to the subject of the first part of your last note, my
dear Sarah, I have thought that a view presented some time since by
Dr. Alexander would be of use to you. In speaking of the justice of
God in the punishment of sin, he observed that it was the foundation
of the whole plan of redemption ; for had there not been some abso-
lute necessity, arising from the nature of God, that sin should be
punished, how can we suppose that He would make the infinite sa-
crifice of His Son, rather than permit it to pass with impunity. Be-
sides, as God is not only Holy, but Holiness itself, and as sin is
the direct [opposite of holiness, it follows from the nature of things
that God must be opposed to sin, and of course to any being whose
moral character it constitutes. But he to whom God is opposed can-
not dwell with Him, and would not if he could ; for the soul polluted
by sin would find the purity of God more insufferable than the tor-
ments of hell. But not to dwell with God is by necessity to be mise-
rable. And as sin is rebellion, self-destruction, and an attempt to
destroy the peace and happiness of the universe, can God be unjust
to confine its perpetrators, that they may not make His holy creation
miserable, or to punish them for their malicious opposition to all that
is good. Thus you see, my dear Sarah, that sin and misery are in-
separably united from the nature of things, as well as from the holy
decree of God. Pray for light, for that wisdom which comes down
from heaven ; and for your encouragement hear Him say, " If any
man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally and up-
braideth not." There is more to be learned by prayer than by study.
Beware, however, how you procrastinate and where you rest. Re-
member that every foundation is sandy save one that is, Christ.
Blessed be the Lord forever that there is one. To Him, my love, go.
*
6O LIFE IN THE SEMINARY. [1818.
Go now, stay not, till by the use of means you make yourself better.
This is not the purpose for which they were intended. ^Wait not till
your heart becomes penitent and humble, but go with a proud heart
for Him to changeT] This is the blessing you want. Then go as you
are, since He alone can give you what you need.
\Our mother always attributed her religious life to the
instrumentality of her young lover and husband^. In Aug.
4th, 1820, she writes:
" I love to feel myself bound to you by indissoluble ties that not
even the grave can change to feel that after being cherished and
guided by you through time, I shall, through your instrumentality,
stand by you purified before the throne of our Heavenly Father when
time shall be no more. Can any conception comprehend the ecstacy
of such a moment, or any earthly happiness equal it ? Am I guilty
of detracting from the true source and first cause of all happiness
when I suppose that even in heaven it may be augmented by the re-
flection that a beloved partner was the means of our attaining it?"
About the middle of October he attended the meeting
of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, held in Reading, about
seventy miles north-west from the city, and passed his exa-
mination preparatory to licensure. He then went from
Reading through Easton and Wilkesbarre to Silver Lake,
from which he wrote.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
SILVER LAKE, Oct. 26, 1818.
Dear Mother : I met with a kind reception from the Doctor and
Cousin Jane. Every thing is very delightful in this fairy place. The
Doctor has made several considerable improvements since I was here
before, and he bids fair soon to raise his country seat to a full equality
with the villas of foreign lands.
Your son, CHARLES.
JOHN JOHNS TO CHARLES HODGE.
NEW CASTLE, Nov. 2, 1818.
Dear Charles : I missed the pleasure of seeing Larned and Breck-
enridge. Not expecting any of my friends on that day, I had gone
out of town. * * *
JET. 21.] LIFE IN THE SEMINARY. 6 1
I do hope most sincerely, my dear brother, that you have been re-
cruited by your jaunt to the Lake. I feel more apprehensive for you
now I must be separated from you, than when I could be constantly
with you. I add another expostulation to the many already given
that you commence this session with a determination to be more at-
tentive to your health than to your studies. Friends, duty, usefulness
demand this of you. Go see Sarah as often as you please, if nothing
else will keep you out of your room, and tell her you are following my
prescription. Guinea Lane (now Witherspoon street) is more salu-
brious than Silver Lake to some constitutions.
Although I have not roamed much since I saw you, yet I have stu-
died but little. Turrettin De Vocatione, Witherspoon 's treatise on Re-
generation, Doddridge's Series of Sermons on the same subject, Le-
land's View of Deistical Writers, and a few reviews, and several bio-
graphical sketches connected with church history, comprise my
labors.
I have attended a good many societies here, and several out in the
country. In these last I have been prevailed upon to exhort, and
have found more freedom than I ever expected on such occasions.
When my own heart is affected and the people seem attentive, it is
the most delightful thing, and I was going to say the easiest thing, in
the world to talk to a few who have assembled to worship ; but, dear
Charles, it is heavy work, inexpressibly heavy, when views are dark
and the affections languid. Very little experience on a contracted
scale has taught me what I had often heard before, that nothing but
sincere, deep and ardent piety will do for a minister of the gospel.
I trust that I sincerely feel its necessity in a greater degree than here-
tofore, and hope that this conviction is the precursor of greater com-
munications of grace and strength than I have hitherto enjoyed.
Dear Charles, write soon. J. J.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, Jan. n, 1819.
My Dear Mother : Johns communicated to us the death of our
brother Newbold. Dr. Alexander, speaking of the event before the
Seminary, said : " As to John Newbold, I always thought that man,
since I first knew him, one of the very best men I ever saw. I never
knew a youth in whose piety I had greater confidence. It was not
only genuine, but he possessed the deepest sentiments of piety. He
had an intellect of the first order, and though the impediment in his
utterance might have prevented his being popular as a speaker, yet
he had a mind capable of the deepest and clearest investigation."
The Doctor then gave some particulars of his life and prospects.
62 LIFE IN THE SEMINARY. [1819.
Such a testimony from such a man is a better legacy to friends than
the richest bequests of princes.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, Feb. i, 1819.
My Dear Mother : The third and last year of my continuance at
the Seminary is so rapidly passing by, that I cannot prevent myself
from frequently looking forward to its close, and asking the question
" Where am I to go ?" or " What am I to do ?" And it is almost time
that an answer to this question was prepared. For it is of so great
importance that it would be wrong to defer it so long that the decision
should at last be made without much deliberation. Unless I am
greatly mistaken in my own heart, I have scarcely a wish jm the
subject save that the path I pursue may be the path of duty. \JJnder
Him, whose I am by particular obligations, I feel at the disposal of
you and Dr. Alexander ; ,' and should you agree in marking out the
same course, I trust I should tread it with cheerful feetj It is of great
importance to have some definite object placed before us to engage
our minds and interest our feelings. Something at once great and
good, on which we can dwell with complacency, to which we can feel
consecrated, and for which we might be constantly preparing. I
have often congratulated Nevins and Mcllvaine on their possessing
this enviable advantage, but now their prospect is as indistinct as my
own.*
I hope to see my good brother Johns before a great while. I wish
you would send me by him a little bag of gingerbread to eat after our
long society evenings. You may smile at this corning from a man
but Johns will tell you it is worth being laughed at to gain so substan-
tial a good.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, Feb. 10, 1819.
My Dear Mother : I do not feel very impatient or anxious about
the course I am to pursue on leaving the Seminary, except that it
will be necessary to decide before the meeting of the General Assem-
bly, in case it should be thought expedient for me to take a mission
either through the Western or Southern States., This is the plan
which Davis urges. He intends to travel in the character of a mis-
sionary over almost all the Union, and is quite anxious I should join
him. Without my knowing it, he mentioned it to Dr. Alexander, who
* The mission to South America to which these brethren had been designated
had been abandoned because of the state of that country.
JET. 2 1 .] SELECTION AS TEA CHER. 63
said it would be an excellent thing for me, especially should my
health need establishing. But this is all his doing. For myself I
have scarcely thought of it for a moment, and at present have no
more plan than I had a year ago. I laughingly told the Doctor he
must dispose of me before a great while. He asked if I would be
willing to go where he would send me. I said " Yes." " Take care,"
says he; "I may shock you when I come to tell you what to do."
But I am not afraid of him. The dear little man has been unwell
two or three times this session, and as he won't take exercise, he is in
danger of becoming quite enfeebled.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, N. J., March 31, 1819.
Dear Mother : They have at last commenced the house for Dr.
Alexander. It is to be built on the Seminary grounds, having its
front fourteen feet nearer to the road than the front of the main
building. It is to be of brick, which will be very ugly, unless they
intend painting it white. The dear little man will then be so near
the Seminary, I am afraid, he will never take the least exercise.
Walking from his study to recitation, under a pretty heavy burden of
clothes, is now nearly all he makes out to accomplish.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, April 21, 1819.
My Dear Mother: The close of session brings with it an additional
burden of duties. During the last week mine has come upon me all
at once, for it has happened that several extra exercises have devolved
upon me at the same time. I have now to prepare for a difficult dis-
cussion by Friday evening, which will keep me diligent until it is
over. I suspect that I shall always have stimulus enough of this kind
% to make me undertake as much as my strength is able to accomplish.
.JVIy character for diligence is better than for any thing else, I am
afraid. One of my fellow-students, who is quite fond of me, said the
other day I must be a fool if I did not know a great deal, for I study
so much. This is a difficult alternative to choose between folly and
great knowledge.
It became more and more evident that Dr. Alexander
must be relieved from some portion of his onerous duties,
and that the faculty must eventually be enlarged by the
addition of a third professor for the Department of Biblical
Literature and Exegesis. The Doctor's preference was to
64 SELECTION AS TEACHER. [1819.
train one of his own students for the position. He had, in
the first instance, made overtures to this end to Mr. John
Johns, who, having graduated from the College of New
Jersey with the first honor in 1815, had afterwards spent
two years in <J:he Theological Seminary, exhibiting the same
high qualities as a scholar and Christian. But Mr. Johns,
one of whose parents was a Presbyterian and the other an
Episcopalian, was at that time debating the question as to
which denomination he should ultimately attach himself.
He in the end, with the advice of Dr. James P. Wilson,
pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, and
assent of Drs. Alexander and Miller, decided to enter the
ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which
eventually he became so bright an ornament. The reason,
on the part of the two Princeton Professors, for their part
of the decision, was that, in their opinion, Mr. Johns, as
providentially situated, and as characterized by his decided
evangelical and Calvinistic sentiments, could do more good
in the direction determined on than in the other.*
* Bishop Johns was brought up in the bosom of a pious and highly cultivated
family. His father, Judge Johns, was Chancellor of the State of Delaware. In
his native town, Newcastle, Delaware, there were two churches, the one Episco-
pal, of which the Rev. Mr. Clay was rector, and the other Presbyterian. Each
of these ministers had an additional country parish; and they so arranged it
that they never officiated in the town the same part of the day on Sunday.
Hence it was that the same congregation went in the morning to the one church,
and in the afternoon to the other. In Chancellor Johns' family, some of the
children were Presbyterians, and others Episcopalians. Under these circum-
stances, it was not surprising that the bishop, in the early part of his preparatory
course, was undecided as to the Church in which he should minister. The late
Rev. Dr. James P. Wilson, an eminent Presbyterian minister, before he embraced
the ministry, was a distinguished lawyer, and an intimate friend of Judge Johns.
It was under his advice that the bishop decided to enter the ministry of the
Episcopal Church. " This decision," says Rev. Dr. Hodge, " although neither
of us at the time knew anything about it, determined my whole course in life.
When Dr. Archibald Alexander was appointed professor in the Seminary at
Princeton, he had under his care the departments of didactic, polemic and pas-
toral theology, together with instruction in Hebrew. He soon found that this
was too burdensome, and therefore determined to select some young man on
whom he might devolve the Hebrew department. He selected Johns. When
he decided to enter the Episcopal Church, he took up with me. Johns was
JET. 21.] SELECTION AS TEACHER. 65
In the morning of May 6th, 1819, young Charles Hodge,
then approaching the end of his Seminary course, happened
to call upon Dr. Alexander in the study in the wing of the
small wooden house on Mercer Street, first door east of the
Episcopal Churchyard, which the Doctor occupied before his
entrance upon his permanent residence. After the business
which brought him had been transacted, Dr. Alexander,
without preparation, suddenly said : " How would you like
to be a professor in the Seminary?" Our father often in
after years told us, that this question overwhelmed him
with surprise and confusion. The thought had never en-
tered his imagination before. The Doctor, without waiting
for an answer, said : " Of course I have no power to deter-
mine such a result. It will depend upon the judgment of
the General Assembly. Say nothing now, but think upon
it. My plan for you, at present, is simply that you spend
the next winter in Philadelphia learning to read the Hebrew
language with points with some competent instructor." A
week afterwards Mr. Hodge wrote to his mother as follows :
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, May 13, 1819.
My Dear Mother : The subject of my last letter has occupied my
mind a good deal, though I have not come to any very definite deter-
mination. Did the duties of the contemplated office require me to
give up the prospect of preaching altogether, I think I should not he-
sitate in declining it; for I believe that preaching the gospel is a pri-
vilege superior to any other intrusted to men. But this is not neces-
sary, for our professors preach now nearly as much as the stated pas-
tors of congregations. This being the case, I think the comparative
always first first everywhere, and first in everything. His success was largely
due to his conscientious determination always to do his best. He was always
thoroughly prepared for every exercise in college and in the seminary. He
would be able, day after day, when in the seminary, to give what Turrettin, our
text-book, calls the state of the question ; that is, the precise point at hand, then
all the arguments in its support in their order, all the objections and answers to
them, through the whole thirty or forty pages, without the professor saying a.
word." Communicated by the Rev. Prof. Joseph Packard, D. D. Alexandria, Va.
5
66 GRADUA TION FROM SEMINAR Y. [1819.
usefulness of a teacher in such an institution as this, and that of the
generality of ministers, will not admit of much doubt. It is evident
that the moral influence of Drs. Alexander and Miller on the charac-
ter of the Church is almost inconceivable ; for they in a measure im-
part their own spirit to each of their pupils, who bear it hence to
spread it through the lesser spheres of which they may become the
centres. The very fact, therefore, of a man being pious in this situa-
tion makes him the means of incalculable good, j It seems to me that
the heart more than the head of an instructor in a religious seminary
qualifies or unfits him for his station. This is a very serious aspect in
which I have been led to look at this subject, and which renders it so
responsible that I sometimes fear to undertake it.
With respect to my competency for the duties of the situation, I be-
lieve it will depend more on diligence than on natural talent,; My
attention will not, as you appear to suppose, be confined to the study
of languages, and therefore no talent I may possess can lie unem-
ployed, but will doubtless be put to its utmost strength. It will, how-
ever, be of great advantage to me that it will be necessary to become
in some measure familiar with the dead languages ; for I am con-
vinced that they are as essential to a student as tools are to workmen
of a different kind. I know I could have made a better choice (for
the situation) than our dear professors have made, but the risk in this
respect belongs to them. I feel myself too much disposed to look on
the bright side of every thing I contemplate. Perhaps I may be cor-
rected of this error before I am gray-headed.
As the event of this plan is and must for some time continue to be
uncertain, every thing does not depend on my present determination.
I do not think I have any right to dispose of myself, as I am not my
own ; but my duty is confined to the single point of trying to find out
what the will of God regarding me is. I know no better way of learn-
ing this than by waiting the event that is, to take the preparatory
measures Dr. Alexander proposed for the ensuing year, and then to
consider it my duty to proceed, should the way be opened, and if it
be closed, consider it an indication that my path lies in some other
direction.
Your son, C. HODGE.
EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE DIREC-
TORS OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY SEPT. 27, 1819.
" The members of the committee who attended the examinations
were highly gratified, both with the manner in which the examination
was conducted, and with the manner in which the students acquitted
themselves.
JET. 21 .] GRAD UA TION FROM SEMINAR Y. 6j
"The committee, therefore, recommend that a full certificate of
their having passed through a complete course of theological educa-
tion, agreeably to the plan of the Seminary, be given to the following
young gentlemen, viz.: George S. Boardman, Remembrance Cham-
berlain, Samuel S. Davis, John Goldsmith, Charles Hodge, William
Nevins, and Aaron D. Lane."
These Diplomas or Certificates of having passed through
the entire Seminary course were publicly distributed to
these young men the next day, September 28, 1819.
CHAPTER IV.
FROM HIS GRADUATION FROM THE SEMINARY, SEPT. 2/, 1 819,
TO HIS ELECTION AS PROFESSOR, MAY 24, 1 822.
CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. ALEXANDER, AND WITH HIS MOTHER AND
BROTHER VISIT TO NEW HAVEN, BOSTON AND ANDOVER HIS LICEN-
SURE, TEACHING IN THE SEMINARY AND PREACHING AT LAMBERTVILLEf
AND EWING.
HAVING graduated from the Seminary, Mr. Hodge, in
accordance to the plan suggested by Dr. Alexander,
now returned to his mother's house in Philadelphia; with the
intention of spending the winter in the study of Hebrew, as
written with points, with which Dr. Alexander himself was
not familiar. Mr. Hodge improved this opportunity with
the utmost diligence under the valuable tuition of the Rev.
Joseph Banks, D. D., Professor in the Theological Seminary
of the Associate (now United) Presbyterian Church then
situated in Philadelphia and pastor of the Associate Pres-
byterian Church in that city. Dr. Banks had the reputa-
tion of being not only a sound Theologian, but also one of
the most eminent Hebrew scholars at that day in America.
Mr. Hodge also, during this winter, widened his education
by attending upon lectures on anatomy and physiology, de-
livered in connection with the medical department of the
University. With all matters connected with human phy-
siology, therapeutics, and the practice of medicine, he al-
ways continued to take a deep interest, and possessed, for a
layman, an unusual knowledge.
68
/ET. 21.] LICENSED TO PREACH. 69
In the meantime he was licensed to preach by the Presby-
tery of Philadelphia, at their meeting in Pittsgrove, N. J. ;
October 2 1st, 1819 ; and from that time for several years,
was pretty constantly occupied every Sabbath day in preach-
ing.
The Minutes of that Presbytery disclose the following facts
concerning his connection with it.
October 21, i8ij, Charles Hodge was received as a can-
didate. " All the College studies ; a Latin Exegesis on the
question 'An Spiritus sit Deus ? ' and a Presbyterial exercise
on 2 Peter, i : 10, were assigned to Mr. Hodge as parts of
trial to be exhibited at the next fall meeting.
Reading, Pennsylvania, October 21, 1818. "The above
parts of trial were presented and sustained."
Pittsgrove, N. J., October 19, 1819. " Lecture on Psalm
liii., was sustained. Certificate was received from Professors
in Theological Seminary, stating that he had, in a regular
and creditable manner, completed the course of study pre-
scribed by the plan of said Seminary. Examinations on
Natural and Revealed Theology and Church History were
sustained."
October 20, 1819, Charles Hodge and Samuel Cornish
(colored) were licensed on the same day.
June 2J, 1820, Charles Hodge was dismissed to the care
of the Presbytery of New Brunswick.
MR. HODGE TO DR. A. ALEXANDER.
PHILADELPHIA, December 16, 1819.
Dear Sir : Your kindness to me has been so great and so uniform
that I now feel as though I peculiarly belonged to you, and (though
you may not be very anxious to acknowledge your property) this feel-
ing constrains me to tell you the little I have done since I left your
more immediate care. I was licensed on the 2oth of October. Since
then I have preached every Sabbath, and usually twice, and have
now to preach regularly at the Falls of the Schuylkill in the morning
and at the Arsenal in the afternoon of each Sabbath. As October
was my vacation, I did nothing as to studying during that month.
70 STUDIES IN PHILADELPHIA. [1819.
But early in November I commenced attending Dr. Banks, and recite
to him five days in the week. Finding the points required so much
attention, I was obliged to devote myself to them almost exclusively
for four or five weeks, and therefore did little else than go through
the grammar and read the first four chapters of Genesis during that
period. Since then I have commenced reading the Psalms and stu-
dying Greek, and now recite alternately the Greek and Hebrew. I
have not been able to read a great deal since I came to town. Two
of the volumes of Home's Introduction, Lowth's Lectures, and three
hundred pages in Glassius, together with one or two smaller works,
include all I have yet had time to get through with. Your books
have been of the greatest assistance to me, Opitius and Bythner
especially.
Dr. Banks is very much what you said he was. He will talk all
day on any thing connected with Hebrew. It is quite amusing to see
his zeal on the subject, especially for the points and accents, to the last
of which he has devoted years of study, and which he estimates rather,
I suspect, from the labor they cost him than from their real utility,
which, however, may still be great. He is very anxious to show me
the "curiosities" of this system of the accentuation, which he thinks
does every thing, regulating the rhetorical and grammatical con-
struction, pointing out the ellipsis, indicating the emotions, &c.
Will you be so kind as in some way to let me know whether you
approve of the plan I am pursuing, and what books you wish me to
read after I finish this volume of Glassius. I am sensible that I am
asking you to add to the debt of kindness I already owe you, and
which, although I can never repay you, it will be the pleasure of my
life to feel and acknowledge. What Greek Lexicon had I better ob-
tain Schrevelius being the only one I have ? Please remember me
most affectionately to Mrs. Alexander and the boys. Tell little Jea-
nette she must not forget me.
And now, sir, may I ask you sometimes to pray for me ? This is a
favor of which I am utterly unworthy but which I greatly need. You
must excuse my asking so much. lYou do not know, sir, how much
I owe you, and no one can know ; but I hope God will reward you
openly. I am yours,
C. HODGE.
DR. A. ALEXANDER TO MR. HODGE.
PRINCETON, Dec. 22, 1819.
My Dear Sir: Yours of the i6th instant I have received, and the
only thing in it which I dislike is the anxiety which you discover that
JET. 22.] STUDIES IN PHILADELPHIA. 7 1
you may not be troublesome by the length of your letter. There is
not the least occasion for any apprehension of this sort. The mere
reading of letters is never burdensome, and I have wished and ex-
pected a communication from you for some time.
V-That I take a lively interest in your welfare and usefulness I need
not tell you, and of course I wish to know what you are doing, and
what progress you are making in your Biblical studies. The informa-
tion communicated in your letter on this subject is very gratifying to
me. I entirely approve the plan which you are pursuing, except, per-
haps, that the Greek recitations might be dispensed with, and the
whole of your recitations with Dr. Banks for this winter might profita-
bly be in the Hebrew. Although I have not the least confidence in
this whole system of punctuation, and especially of accentuation, yet
I am satisfied that you should acquire an accurate knowledge of the
whole system ; and as this winter may be the only opportunity of en-
joying the advantages of Dr. Banks' instructions, my opinion is that
it should be improved in reference to this object. Not that I would
have you neglect the Greek, but I do not perceive the great advan-
tage of your reciting on it, as there are no " curiosities " in that lan-
guage which you may not learn at home. In answer to your inquiry
respecting a proper Greek Lexicon to be purchased, I would say that
for the N. T., Schleusner should be preferred ; but if you mean for
classical Greek, Morell is, I suppose the best. Hereafter you must
have Suiceri Thesaurus Ecc. Suidas and Hesychius. I learn that
Schleusner has published a new and improved edition of Birel's The-
saurus of the LXX. That will be valuable ; also Trommius' Concord-
ance. But there is no advantage in accumulating too many books at
once.
Mr. Wisner left with me some volumes of De Moor, purchased for
you, and with his consent I presume on yours to retain all except the
first three, until you have read them. It so happened that these first
volumes were already in my possession. You will find the head De
Scriptura well worth perusal.
It is my plan that you should spend the next summer at this place,
but it is not sufficiently matured to give details. Keep this, however,
in mind.
I send you the second volume of Glassius with De Moor. The
third is the most interesting, but you must read the second first. Read
Kennicotfs Dissertation, De Rossis Prolegomena to Various Read-
ings, Wettsteiris and Griesbactis Prolegomena, &c.
Yours affectionately,
A. ALEXANDER.
72 JOURNAL. [1819.
After his licensure, Mr. Hodge was appointed by the
Presbytery to missionary work. He had appointments
every Sabbath morning at the " Falls " of the Schuylkill, and
later at Cohocksink, and on the afternoons at the Arsenal.
In connection with a record of these services he kept the
only religious diary of his life./ Some specimens of this
are here given.
On Wednesday evening, October 2oth, 1819, I preached my trial
sermon at Pittsgrove, before the Philadelphia Presbytery. Though
the Lord had kindly afforded me solemn feelings in view of my en-
trance on the ministry, yet I found my heart but little engaged during
the time of service. The circumstances in which I was placed gave
rise to feelings of anxiety which prevented my weak principle of grace
from being exercised as it should have been. My text was Rom. viii.
i. The succeeding morning, October 2ist, I was licensed to preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh ! that I may ever look upon this high
vocation with the same feelings with which the Apostle Paul ever re-
garded it, and may the Lord Jesus work within me all the good plea-
sure of his will, making me such a minister as He would have me to
be.
Sabbath, October 24th, 1819. The preceding evening I rode out to
Frankford and enjoyed sweet intercourse with my dear brother
Biggs. The prospect of preaching on the ensuing day kept my mind
serious, and gave to our conversation more of the religious character
than usual. In the morning I preached on the 53d Psalm. I enjoyed
the service myself far more than I did when preaching before Presby-
tery, and the people appeared quite serious and attentive. Whether,
however, the least good was accomplished must be left to the revela-
tions of the great day. My prayer is for humility and zeal. The af-
ternoon in Brother Thomas Biggs' room. In the evening he
preached from Gal. v. 6.
Sabbath, October jist, 1819, was spent in Woodbury. I went down
the preceding evening, and was kindly entertained at Judge Cald-
well's. In the morning I preached from John iii. 36. Many of the
people appeared attentive and serious. I know not what good was
done. For myself, I did not enjoy the services as much as usual, j
dined with Mr. White, and did not introduce religious conversation.
May God pity my weakness, and enable me to be more faithful here-
after. In the evening I preached from the 53d Psalm. The audience
was large and very attentive. The Lord granted me more feeling and
ease than I had enjoyed in the morning. The fear of man, and the
JET. 22.] JOURNAL. 73
desire of applause, God in great mercy has hitherto kept from greatly
disturbing me, especially in the pulpit. I feel myself entirely depend-
ent on His sovereign grace for the continuance and increase of this
great mercy. Were He to let me alone, I should indeed become
dreadfully corrupt in practice as well as in heart. Bless the Lord, O
my soul.
Sabbath, Nov. jtk, i8ig. The preceding day I rode up to Abing-
ton with Mr. Steele. Here I had the pleasure of seeing several times
good Mrs. Tennant, and had the privilege of praying by her bedside,
and of witnessing the composure and peace of one who had the hope
of the gospel. Oh, precious Saviour, grant to my soul and the souls
of all my friends the powerful supports of Thy grace in the hour of
death. * * *
Sabbath, Nov. 21, i8ig. This day I entered on my duties as mis-
sionary. Oh, Thou source of all good, grant me the continued aid of
Thy grace, that with purity of motive and singleness of object I may
zealously and faithfully discharge my responsible duties. Do bless
me, O my God. I rode out in the morning to the Falls with Gerard
R., and was very much pleased and surprised by hjs religious turn of
mind, and the interest he took in the institutions of piety. I preached
from the 53d Psalm to a small but respectable audience. In the af-
ternoon I rode out to the Arsenal, and spoke from the parable of the
Great Supper, Luke xiv. 15. This was a pleasant season. I hope the
Lord was there. Oh, incline that people to hear and obey the invita-
tions of Thy gospel.
The evening Bro. Davis and myself spent in our room in delight-
ful intercourse. The Lord blessed us. We prayed together before
we separated, as on the succeeding day he expects to sail for Charles-
ton. Good and powerful God attend and bless him abundantly in
Jesus Christ.
Nov. 28th, 1819. Sabbath morning I rode out to the Falls with
Gerard R., and there preached from John iii. 36. The congregation
was not very large, and my feelings were cold. I dined with Mr.
Thomson, who accompanied me in the afternoon to the Arsenal,
where I preached from Rom. viii. I with somewhat more pleasure to
myself than in the morning.
\During this sacred day I have experienced very little spiritual en- \
joyment ; my heart has been too far from God, and worldly thoughts
have too much occupied my mind. This I suspect has arisen from
my conduct during the past week. It is impossible to gain and lose
at pleasure spirituality of mind. It must be cultivated constantly.
Let not, my soul, the end of the week you now have entered find you
still at such a distance from God. Oh, Holy Spirit, return unto Thy
74 JOURNAL. [1820.
rest! Deign to make my bosom Thine abode and O attend my
feeble preaching by Thy almighty energy, for Jesus' sake. * * *
Sabbath, Dec. 26, i8ig. During the preceding week I had preached
for Dr. Janeway in his new session room. As this was the first time
1 had preached in the city (excepting once for Bro. Platt), I felt much
too anxious to acquit myself well, and was disappointed. The eve-
ning was unusually rainy, and there were consequently few persons
present. Among them, however, was my dear brother, who had just
returned from Calcutta. This made me feel less at ease than I might
otherwise have done. But the chief cause of my not enjoying the
service was doubtless my pride. I felt almost depressed under the
apprehension that I should never become even a moderately accept-
able preacher. I would give the world were my desire of honoring
Christ and of saving souls so strong that I should be indifferent to
what related merely to myself. Oh, cast me not off from Thy pre-
sence ; take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Oh, grant to my bro-
ther unfeigned piety. Would to God I might be made a blessing to
his soul.
Sabbath, Feb. ij, 1820. This day my regular ministrations at Co-
hocksink were commenced. The audience not very numerous, but
serious. The children of the Sabbath School form an important part
of my charge. It is often quite unknown at how early an age God
commences a work of grace in the heart, and it may happen that
many children have utterly lost that impression through the careless-
ness of their parents and teachers. May I be taught of God that I
may be able to teach others also. It is only the heart that has been
deeply exercised in divine things which can enable us to preach ex-
perimentally to others. '_ Piety is the life of a minister. ! * * *
Sabbath, May 14, 1820. I preached my last sermon this morning
to the people of Cohocksink. In the afternoon at the Arsenal my text
was "Lay hold on eternal life." This was an interesting season.
The presence of a considerable number of young men gave a cast to
my train of thought which interested my own feelings, and fixed in a
great measure the attention of my hearers. 1 I have yet once more to
preach to that people, and may it prove as a seal to all the rest. I
have almost uniformly found that when I have commenced a service
under a little depression of spirits, it has proved more than usually
pleasantV,
APPOINTMENT AS TEACHER IN THE SEMINARY.
In their Report to the Board of Directors, May 15^
1820, the Professors say: " The Professors respectfully repre-
sent to the Board that in their opinion the interests of the
MT. 22.] APPOINTED TEACHER IK THE SEMINARY. 75
Seminary require a distinct teacher of the original languages
of the Scripture. The Professor, who has attended to this
branch of instruction, finds that it interferes with the perform-
ance of duties which more properly belong to his office ;
and that he cannot, consistently with his health, devote to
it that degree of attention which its importance demands."
The above Report was committed to Drs. Romeyn, Neill
and Rodgers ; to whom were subsequently added Drs.
Woodhull, Rice and McDowell and Mr. Lewis.
At a meeting of the Board in Philadelphia, May 25th,
that Committee made the following report, which was
adopted : " That although the suggestion of the Professors
on the subject of appointing a teacher of the original lan-
guages appears to be important, yet the state of the funds
renders it inexpedient for this Board to endeavor to carry it
into effect at present.
" Resolved that an extract of this minute, together with
that part of the Professors' report, which relates to this sub-
ject, be laid before the General Assembly."
On the next day, May 26th, the General Assembly, while
approving the report of the Board of Directors, resolved
" That the Professors be authorized to employ an assistant
teacher of the original languages of Scripture, until the
meeting of the next General Assembly. Provided a suitable
person can be obtained at a salary consistent with the funds
of the Seminary ; and provided also that such salary does
not exceed the sum of four hundred dollars."
This authority having been obtained, the Professors ap-
pointed Mr. Hodge, who came into Princeton on horseback
to prepare for his work, in the latter part of June.
MR. HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, June 22d, 1820.
My Dear Mother : I suspect the heat of yesterday made you re-
gret my having commenced so long a ride. But I suffered less than
I expected. I got to Frankford before seven, and stayed for break-
76 LIFE AS TEACHER. [1820.
fast. Mr. Biggs then rode with me about nine miles. When we
reached Holmesburgh, which is four miles from Frankford, I found
the sun so excessively hot, that we stopped at a store, and I bought a
great sheet of paste-board, and cutting a hole in it large enough to
admit my hat, pinned it on. This effectually preserved my head and
most of my body from the direct rays of the sun. I was quite
amused to see the people along the road stop, lay down their work,
and stare after me as long as I was in sight. Some laughed right
out. And as for Bristol, I thought that I never should have got
through it. I had courage enough, however, to be looked at and
laughed at, rather than be made sick by the heat. By riding slowly,
and stopping frequently, I arrived here, but little fatigued, about eight
o'clock. Your affectionate son, CHARLES HODGE.
He now boarded in the family of his paternal friend, Dr.
Alexander, and had his study and bed-room in that wing of
the old residence of the Doctor, which had been used as
a study, and in which he was first abruptly informed of the
Doctor's plans concerning him. He at this time also began
to suffer from that obscure and painful affection of the nerves
of his right thigh which afterwards so greatly modified his *
habits of life.
Extract from Records of Presbytery of New Brunswick.
July 5th, 1820, Mr. Charles Hodge was received as a licen-
tiate from the Presbytery of Philadelphia, by certificate.
He was appointed the supply of the Church in New Bruns-
wick, and the united Churches of Georgetown and Lam-
bertville a number of Sabbaths during the year.
MR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, July 10, 1820.
My Dear Brother : My situation here is as pleasant as even my
fondest wishes had desired. I have a pleasant room at the upper
end of town, and board with Dr. Alexander's family. This I find a
very advantageous arrangement, as the intercourse I enjoy with the
Doctor cannot fail of being very profitable. I take a good deal of
exercise, think my horse the best in the world, and am very well.
The rheumatism in my limb, I think, continues pretty much as it
was. I feel it most in my knee ; it seems to be brought on pretty uni-
formly, by fatigue. Excepting a slight weakness, however, it is still
as serviceable as the other. Your affectionate brother, C. H.
^rr. 22.] VISIT TO BOSTON. Jj
MR. HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, September i8th, 1820.
My Dear Mother : On Saturday I rode to Bristol, and preached
yesterday twice in their Episcopal Church. They have been without
a pastor for some years, and though the population of the town is so
considerable, they have only casual preaching. They are so liberal
in their sentiments, that they seldom stop to inquire to what denom-
ination a man belongs ; if he is willing to preach, they are willing to
hear.
I am very well : my riding so much gives me a color, which has led
to many congratulations as to the state of my health. My limb was,
I think, a good deal better, but I believe I walked too much with it
of late, which has occasioned a return of the pain. I intend to be
more careful' on this point; and continue diligent in observing the
Doctor's (his brother Hugh) directions.
VISIT TO BOSTON.
In October of this year his friend, Mr. Benjamin Wisner,
afterwards the eloquent preacher and distinguished Secre-
tary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions, was invited to preach as a candidate before the
Old South Church of Boston. Mr. Wisner and Mr. Hodge
made a plan of riding there together, and after remaining in
that attractive city three weeks, of returning *in the same
manner, including a visit to New Haven and Yale College on
the way. They effected the journey in Mr. Hodge's old-
fashioned two-wheeled gig, on springs, shaped like the
letter C, a form of conveyance now utterly extinct. They
were drawn by his small bay horse, of Canadian extraction,
of whose fine qualities he often subsequently boasted. The
two letters to his mother, subjoined, contain all the infor-
mation now remaining, as to this visit, which produced a
decided impression on himself.
MR. HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
BOSTON, Monday, October 9, 1820.
My Dear Mother : I presume you are by this time anxious to learn
something of your traveller. I should have written to you on the
78 VISIT TO BOSTON. [1820.
way, had you not told me you could wait until we reached Boston.
We came within five or six miles of the town on Friday evening, but
did not proceed, as it was then quite dark, and both our horse and
ourselves were fatigued by a long day's ride. It would, indeed,
hardly have been safe to have entered a strange city in the dark and
without a guide. It was about eight o'clock on Saturday morning
when we first saw the distant spires of Boston, and the lofty dome of
the State House. The view excited a variety of pleasing and serious
emotions. After changing our dress we called upon Mr. (deacon)
Cutler, the gentleman whom Wisner had seen in Princeton. We
were soon introduced to Mr. Salisbury, the Lieutenant Governor, Mr.
Welsh, and to several other gentlemen, who all received us with the
utmost kindness. I had met with Mr. Dwight, (son of the late Presi-
dent), at New Haven, and he had made me promise to consider his
house as my home while I remained in Boston. As the weather had
detained Mr. Dwight from home longer than he had expected, it was
my wish to have either remained at the public house, or to have gone
with Wisner to the house of the widow of the late pastor, as a boarder.
But finding that either of these plans would have wounded the hos-
pitable feelings of these good people, I was obliged to remain with
Mr. Cutler until Mr. Dwight returns. There is no danger of our not
receiving kindness and attention enough. The danger is entirely on
the other side.
I have been very agreeably disappointed in the general appearance
of Boston. I have, to be sure, as yet seen only the -southern section
of the town, wlych is much the most pleasant. The green they call
their Common, and the hill on which the State House stands exceeds
anything I have ever seen. As Saturday was so clear, the gentlemen
who were with us thought it best to improve the^opportunity by going
to the top of the State House. On reaching this elevated point our
eyes rested on what is thought the finest prospect in America. Bos-
ton, Charlestown and Cambridge were all below us ; the harbor, with
its many islands, and the broad ocean full in view, altogether forms
a combination of the beautiful and grand, which makes the Bostoni-
ans willing to enter into a competition with the admirers of the Bay
of Naples.
Wisner preached twice yesterday for the Old South people. As
far as I can judge, the impression has been universally favorable. I
preached morning and afternoon in the Park Street Church, which is
Mr. D wight's charge.
The kindest providence has presided over our journey. We met
with no accident, alarm, or difficulty. Our little horse came as
briskly into Boston as he did out of Princeton. We spent two days
XT. 22.] VISIT TO BOSTON. 79
and a half at New Haven. Dr. Miller's letter secured us every at-
tention we could wish. We were there, as usual, soon obliged to
leave the tavern, andlstay with Mr. Taylor,* a young minister, who is
the pride of the southern part of Connecticut. We found this one of
the most improving incidents in our journey, as this young man
(about thirty), who possesses uncommonly fine talents, differs very
considerably in his theoretical opinions from the Princeton gentlemen.
He kept us pretty constantly in an animated though temperate dis-
cussion of our differences. We have been delighted with the general
aspect of things, and with the face of the country in New England,
particularly in Connecticut.
I am well, excepting my limb, which, however, is considerably
better than it was. I will write again before we leave Boston.
Your loving son, C. H.
The people of the Old South Church were delighted with,
and eventually called Mr. Wisner to be their pastor. But
they required him, according to their custom, to preach as
a probationer four Sabbaths. Therefore Mr. Hodge left
his friend, and came on to meet the duties of a new session
in Princeton, bringing Mr. John Maclean, afterwards Pre-
sident of Princeton College, in the vacant seat in his gig.
MR. HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
NEAR BOSTON, October 25th, 1820.
My Dear Mother: If praising New England will do you any
good, you shall have enough of it when I get home. I have now left
Boston. Mr. Wisner has remained. It was his intention when he
came here, to have spent only three Sabbaths, but he has found the
universal custom of the country requires that he should stay at least
four weeks, which custom he has the more willingly submitted to, as
his cold prevented his preaching more than once on the second Sab-
bath he was in Boston. You know it was our intention to return by
way of Albany, but we had heard so much of the extreme hilliness
of the country, we were almost afraid to attempt it. The necessity
of making the experiment being removed by the detention of Mr.
Wisner, I determined to take the direct road home, which will save
* Nathaniel W. Taylor, D.D., afterwards Professor of Theology in Yale Col-
lege, and author of the modification of New England Theology, called " Taylor-
ism," against which the polemic guns of the Princeton Review were trained for
forty years.
8o VISIT TO BOSTON* [1820.
me nearly a week. Happily Mr. Maclean, tutor in Princeton Col-
lege, was in Boston and. anxious to return, and has therefore taken
the vacant seat in the gig
Of the first thirteen days we spent in Boston, only two were fair ;
it rained and blew from the East almost incessantly. The good peo-
ple here did all they could to apologize for the weather, assuring us
that such a season had never before been known. But that did not
mend the matter. The great inconvenience we felt was that we were
prevented from visiting the adjacent places, as Salem, Cambridge,
Andover, &c. The Lieutenant Governor kindly offered to take us
over to Cambridge and introduce us to the President of the Univer-
sity. But the weather prevented, until Monday last, when we rode
over and were introduced to Dr. Kirkland and several of the profes-
sors. I handed the Doctor Mr. Astley's letter, and young as we
were he kindly attended us over all their spacious building. The
compliment of his personal attendance we no doubt owed to the pre-
sence of his Honor, the Lieutenant Governor. Dr. Kirkland seems
to be one of the happiest men in the world, always disposed to say
pleasant things, and is entirely free from anything which would in-
dicate that he believes, what those around him believe, that he is a
great man.
I had the pleasure of spending a tantalizing hour with Mr. Everett.
I had intended, after the first visit was paid, to make an effort to see
him frequently. But the weather, by preventing our first visit from
being made in season, broke in upon this plan. I regret this very
much, for I am satisfied that it would have been of essential service
to have seen more of this extraordinary young man.
Several circumstances besides the state of the weather, induced us
to postpone our visit to Andover until Friday last, particularly the
absence of all the professors, except Dr. Woods. I considered that
the missing of Professor Stuart would frustrate the primary object of
my visit. You may judge, then, how much I was rejoiced to hear,
about an hour after we reached Andover, that he had just returned.
We spent the evening with him, and returned the next day to Bos-
ton, as our arrangements made necessary. On Monday afternoon,
however, I went up again and remained with him until this morning,
S Wednesday). I think Stuart is the most interesting man I have
een in New England. He is kind, sociable, condescending and
communicative ; free from all formality, he becomes your friend at
once. His talents are of the first order, and no man in the country
has made any progress comparable to his in the department of Bibli-
cal literature. He has done me great good, has marked out my road,
and told me the right path, and enlarged my views as to the extent
jet. 22.] LIFE AS TEACffEJt. 8 I
and importance of the study, more than I could have conceived it
possible. He told me he had lost at least three years by taking a
wrong course at first. I am persuaded that it would be the best
thing I could do to spend a year with such a man. But it is impos-
sible. I will .write to him, however, and see him as often as I can.
The Doctor (his brother Hugh) wants to know whether I think the
people here more intelligent and better informed than they are with
us. I do, most decidedly, and the ladies beyond comparison. They
are hospitable, and as attentive to strangers as they well can be. It
is true, we came under peculiarly favorable circumstances, and
therefore, perhaps, have been the more, struck with the propriety of
calling Boston the clergyman's paradise. Mr. Wisner, of course, is
just now the object of much interest, and through him I have re-
ceived much of kindness and attention. We are now thirteen miles
out of Boston, on the road to New Haven.
Your affectionate son, CHARLES HODGE.
In New Haven, Mr. Hodge called again on Mr. Taylor,
and with his fellow traveler, Mr. Maclean, reached Prince-
ton again without serious misadventure.
MR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Nov. 2ist, 1820.
My Dear Brother : .... This, considering my six recita-
tions, is doing very well. I wish to apprize you that all the indigna-
tion you may feel for my being thus oppressed, is due to me, as I
have had the sole direction of the whole business, excepting that the
Doctor (Alexander) was kind enough to prevent my going further.
But you need not be uneasy. Most of my duties of this class are of
such a nature, that I can get through them with very little study,
while at the same time I might spend a week on each to great ad-
vantage. Thus I shall be able to accommodate my exertions to my
strength. I never knew, until I undertook it, that hearing a class of
twenty or thirty students recite is one of the most fatiguing things in
the world. The unbroken attention you are obliged to pay for an
hour and a half together, and the necessity of talking a good deal,
withal, is more tiresome than any one who has not felt it would ima-
gine. There is another thing which adds to the exertion, which is,
that these students are men well informed and not easily satisfied,
and not likely to let a mistake pass unobserved. I feel this difficulty
a good deal in Greek, as almost all the students have been studying
the language for years, and some of them have taught it, but in He-
82 LIFE AS TEACHER. [1821.
brew I have more the advantage of them. There is one thing greatly
in my favor, that I have not got your modesty to bother me.
Both you and Mamma seem to have taken up the idea that I am in
a forlorn situation here, and I can't tell why. I feel as independent
as a king, and will contrive some way to keep myself warm.} If Dr.
Alexander spent so many winters in this dear study, I suspect you
will find a good many more people to envy than to pity me for now
possessing it. And without jesting, it is much the most pleasant and
convenient situation I could have had in town.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
MR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, March 9, 1821.
My Dear Brother : We had the pleasure, last evening, of hearing
Mr. Ward.* If you have heard him you know he has little of the
graces of elocution wherewith to adorn his discourse, but he has what
is far more important even for an orator, a heart alive to the import-
ance of the object for which he pleads. After describing the diffi-
culties they had met in India twenty years ago, he told us how all
in a great measure had been surmounted. The British government
and their subjects are now in their favor. The schools connected
with Serampore alone contain eight thousand children. One thou-
sand of the natives have been baptized, and as a profession of reli-
gion there involves a living martyrdom, we may hope they are sin-
cere converts. But what is above and beyond all is that they have
given the Bible to hundreds of millions in twenty-five different lan-
guages. This is a good beyond all estimate. I never felt the im-
portance and grandeur of missionary labors as I did last evening. I
could not help looking round on the congregation and asking myself,
" What are these people living for?" Granting that each should
attain his most elevated object, what would it all amount to ? Then
looking at these men in India, giving the Bible to so many millions,
which I know can never be in vain, I see them 'opening a perennial
fountain, which, when they are dead for ages, will still afford eternal
life to millions. Should we die, which of our works would we wish
to follow us ? Which would mark our path or our grave with a ray
of light? " Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" is a sen-
tence we have reason to dread.
Mr. Ward closed his discourse by urging all to join in advancing
the cause for which Christ had poured out his soul unto death. Who
*The distinguished Baptist missionary, Rev. William Ward, connected long
and intimately with Carey and Marshman, ?t Serampore, near Calcutta.
MT. 23.] LIFE AS TEACHER. 83
so loved us that he died for us. And now, my dear Brother, do you
not feel the force of this appeal. Is there nothing in you which
makes you wish to make some return for such love as this ? " He
that is not for me is against me." Canyon bear that? Oh, my
Brother, do think of this. Your loving brother, C. H.
MR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, March 25th, 1821.
My Dear Brother : I do not think you have any reason to fear
that my system will be injured by too much excitement. I suffer
more pain for not feeling enough, than from the reverse. Though I
have not the least expectation of ever seeing India or any other for-
eign country, in the high character of a missionary, I still feel they
are the most favored men in the world.
Saturday was a laborious day to me. I spent it in procuring and
setting out trees in front of Dr. Alexander's house. We planted four
tulip poplars, an elm, two ash, a. hickory, and two dogwood. They
are beautiful specimens. Should the tulip trees live they will be
splendid, for it is the handsomest tree in America.
Your loving brother, C. H.
MR. HODGE TO HIS MOTHER. ,
PRINCETON, April n, 1821.
My Dear Mother: I have agreed, should I remain here next
summer, to supply pretty constantly the congregation near New
Hope, (since Lambertville, N. J.), which is about twenty miles from
this. The situation of the congregation is critical and interesting,
and the prospect of doing good there is very encouraging. I was
reluctant to consent to be away from Princeton every Sabbath, and
thought it would take up too much of my time. But both Dr. Miller
and Dr. Alexander urged it as conducive, both to my health by ex-
ercise, and to my improvement by diversity of occupation. They
will both assist me. So I shall have, in the three months, not more
than eight or ten sermons to preach. Your son, CHARLES.
MR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, April 2ist, 1821.
My Dear Brother: I heard the other day from Wisner, in Boston.
He mentions a most painful circumstance respecting Mr. Everett,*
which must have wounded his feelings very much. I will first copy
* Edward Everett, then a Unitarian minister, afterwards U. S. Senator, &c.
84 LIfE AS TEACHER. [1821.
Wisner's words. " When Mr. Keene was here, Prof. Everett went
to the theatre. As he entered one of the boxes a student of the col-
lege, who was in the same box, lifted up both hands and said, loud
enough to be heard all over the house, ' Let us pray.' The whole
audience were looking at and talking about the reverend Professor
till the curtain rose. The first act is finished, the curtain drops ; a
man in the pit, standing up and looking at the Professor, says aloud,
' Life is the time to serve the Lord.' It is said that some others of the
clergy had concluded to go, but the reception the reverend Professor
met with induced them to abandon their resolution." 'This shows
how deeply rooted are the modes of thinking among common people,
and how essential consistency of character is to respectability 7^ It is
probable Everett will be more injured in the estimation of the people
of New England by this casual occurrence, than anything which has
happened to him. There is quite as much wickedness as wit in the
conduct of the student, perhaps rather more, but a great deal of both.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
The General Assembly, May, 1821, passed the following
resolution : " That the Assembly approve of the employing
of Mr. Charles Hodge, by the professors, as a teacher of the
original languages of Scripture in the Seminary ; and that
the professors be authorized to employ him for the same
purpose, or such other person as they judge proper, and
that not more than four hundred dollars be allowed said
teacher, per annum, for his services."
The Presbytery of New Brunswick, April 25th, 1821, ap-
pointed him stated supply, at Georgetown (Lambertville)
for one half of his time, during the ensuing six months.
This service he performed regularly, and with such success
that an efficient Church was organized there soon after he
ceased to supply them. He also introduced to that congre-
gation his friend and former school-mate, Rev. Peter Stud-
diford, D. D., who, with his excellent son, the Rev. P. A.
Studdiford, D. D., have been to the present time the only
pastors of the large and flourishing Church into which it
has grown. The Presbytery, in the fall of 1821, appointed
Mr. Hodge stated supply of Trenton First Church, now
known as Ewing.
JET. 23.] HIS ORDINATION. 85
EXTRACT FROM RECORDS OF PRESBYTERY, SEPT. 2 7, 1 8 2 I .
" Mr. Charles Hodge, a licentiate under the care of
this Presbytery, made an application for ordination, as he
had engaged to supply the Trenton First Church the princi-
pal part of the winter term. Presbytery having considered
his application, and his standing in the Seminary as a
teacher of the Original Languages of Scripture, determined
to proceed to his ordination at a convenient time, and
accordingly assigned him I Cor. i. 21 as a subject for a
sermon, and directed him to prepare for the examination
requisite on such an occasion." Mr. Peter O. Studdiford,
at the same time, made a similar application, the action on
which was postponed for a time.
Newark, October i6th, 1821. Presbytery met in intervals
of Synod. " Mr. Wm. J. Armstrong, a Licentiate of the
Presbytery of Jersey, having received a call from the Tren-
ton City Church, was received by the Presbytery of New
Brunswick.
" Whereupon it was Resolved, That Presbytery will hold
an adjourned meeting at Trenton, on the last Tuesday of
November next, for the purpose of ordaining and installing
Mr. Armstrong pastor of the congregation of Trenton," and
also, " Presbytery agreed to proceed to the ordination of
Mr. Studdiford, also to the ordination of Mr. Charles
Hodge at the time of Mr. Armstrong's ordination and in-
stallation at Trenton : viz., on the last Tuesday of Novem-
ber next."
" The Rev. Dr. Miller was appointed to preside at the
ordination of Messrs. Armstrong, Hodge and Studdiford ;
Mr. Woodhull to preach the sermon; Mr. Cooley to give
the charge to the newly ordained ministers and to Mr.
Armstrong as installed pastor of the congregation of Tren-
ton ; and Mr. Brown the charge to the people.
" Trenton, November 2jtk, 1821. Messrs. Wm. J. Arm-
strong and Charles Hodge were examined on their experi-
86 HIS ORDINATION. [1824.
mental acquaintance with religion, on Theology, Natural
and Moral Philosophy, on Church Government and the
Sacraments, and their examinations on these subjects were
sustained. Mr. Hodge delivered a discourse from i Cor.
i. 21, and Mr. Studdiford a discourse from Isaiah xlv. 22,
which were sustained as the concluding parts of trial for or-
dination.
"November 28th, 1821. The arrangements made for the
ordination services were carried out, the Rev. Mr. Corn-
fort giving the charge to the people vice Mr. Brown, de-
tained by sickness in his family."
MR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Sept. 12, 1821.
My Dear Brother : With regard to your prospects, my dear Bro-
ther, I have never thought them gloomy. I feel assured that what-
ever difficulties may attend the commencement of your course, it
will, if you are spared, be successful. I feel this confidence because
we see God does connect, in His providence, success with diligence
and virtue. Not that we do not daily do enough to forfeit His favor,
but for the good of the world, and for the encouragement of excel-
lence, He has made virtuous exertion as much the cause of success,
as any secondary cause is connected with its appropriate result. I
saw the remark the other day that no one is ever great without hav-
ing struggled with difficulties, and I believe it is still more generally
true that few men are good who are not forced to it by affliction. If
our difficulties make us both greater and better than we otherwise
should have been, even our self-love would not have the arrange-
ment altered. Your brother, C. H.
MR. HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, Dec. 19, 1821.
My Dear Mother : I hope the Doctor is well and in good spirits.
I wish I could give him a portion of my hopes and happiness. I am
becoming daily more pleased with present duties and future pros-
pects. Indeed, were I permitted to mould my own lot, I do not
think I could devise a plan of life more suited to my desires, than the
one Providence appears opening before me. Whether this is to con-
tinue, and I am to remain in my present situation, I cannot tell, and
I hope to be cheerfully resigned to whatever Heaven may determine.
^ET.24.] LIFE AS TEACHER. 87
But I am getting so fond of what I have to do, and of what I see to
do, that if it be decided that this is not the place designed for me, it
will be a painful resignation of enjoyments and hopes.
Your son, C. H.
MR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Jan. ist, 1822.
My Dear Brother : .... A circumstance of rather more
interest was, that on Sunday last I was called to administer, for the
first time, the ordinance of Baptism, and, what does not happen every
day, was required to give my own name in full to the little stranger.
It was the child of one of the Elders of Trenton First Church (called
Ewing), where I frequently preach.
Your brother, C. H.
Mr. Hodge had organized a society among the students,
designed to promote the investigation and discussion of
questions connected with the department of Biblical Criti-
cism and Introduction. The professors attended, but Mr.
Hodge conducted the work, and directed the students in their
special preparations on particular themes. On this subject
he wrote to his mother.
MR. HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, Jan. 19, 1822.
My Dear Mother : I suppose you remember my mentioning that
I was obliged to prepare a dissertation to read before our new society
on its first meeting. This was done more than a fortnight since. The
Professors and most of the Seminary were present. The following
day Dr. Miller suggested a thing to me which I heard with a good
deal of surprise, but which he urged by considerations, the force of
which I was obliged to admit. He said he hoped and expected in
the spring some permanent arrangement would be made respecting
the vacant professorship. That, although from my situation the at-
tention of many of the members of the Church had been fixed on
myself, yet that to the great mass of the Church I was a stranger.
That in a matter of so much importance, it would be unpleasant for
them to act without some knowledge of the person to whom so much
would be officially entrusted. That, whatever they might hear from
my friends, they would still be acting in the dark as it respected
themselves. To remove this difficulty he wished the dissertation just
88 HIS FIRST PUBLICATION. [1822.
mentioned should be published, and circulated among the clergy, as
far as was thought expedient. Of course my feelings revolted from
this very strongly, as from something unseemly. Since then Dr.
Alexander has spoken to me on the subject, and thinks it ought to
x be done, and that it can be done at the request of the Society, with-
out any impropriety or indelicacy. Whether it will be done, I do
not know. Sure I am that my own feelings would say no. Though
from the peculiarity of the case, and the novelty of the subject, my
judgment would, perhaps, be brought to acquiesce, were my opinion
of the piece higher than it is.
This is a question to be left to my parental Professors. I am will-
ing to follow their advice, even with hesitating steps.*
Your son, C. H.
MR. HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, Feb. 21, 1822.
My Dear Mother : I have just returned from the Seminary, and
from the bed-side of one of our most promising students, who has
just breathed his last. He was taken on Friday with a violent in-
flammation of the bowels, which made such rapid progress, that on
Sunday his life was despaired of. On Tuesday morning, the doctor
was considerably encouraged, but he soon grew worse, and this morn-
ing, about 10 o'clock, he died. You may suppose such an event
would make a very deep impression on the minds of his fellow-stu-
dents. He was in all respects one of the most interesting and prom-
ising of their number. He was about twenty-two years old, and
remarkably healthy, and about a week since, was, perhaps, the very
last who would have been selected as likely to find an early grave.
As Mr. Turner, (James Blythe Turner, from Kentucky) was the first
who has died among the students, and was very much beloved, the
dispensation is more sensibly felt.
I am very glad the first death I have ever witnessed was a happy
one. Both of the professors were present, and his bed was surrounded
by his brethren, whom he requested to sing for him, the hymn be-
ginning with the words : " How firm a foundation, ye saints of the
Lord." I never witnessed a scene better calculated to impress the
mind with the importance and value of religion. It is, indeed, the
* It was published, and a copy lies before me, with the title, "A DISSERTATION
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE, BY CHARLES HODGE, A.M.
TEACHER OF THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGES OF SCRIPTURE, IN THE THEOLOGI-
CAL SEMINARY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AT PRINCETON. TRENTON.
PRINTED BY GEORGE SHERMAN, 1822.'' And this is the first publication of
Charles Hodge.
JET. 24.] LIFE AS TEACHER. 89
"one thing,"and the only thing which can afford the least consola-
tion in so trying an hour. I was also much impressed with the con-
viction of the truth and of the essential importance of some of the
leading doctrines of the Bible, particularly that we are saved by
faith, and only for the sake of what Christ has done and suffered for
us. Mr. Turner said over and over that the only foundation of his
hope was "the atoning righteousness of the Redeemer." When he
felt he had an interest in that, he was happy. I believe I was never
more convinced that any thing which took that doctrine from the
Bible, left no resting-place behind.
His particular friends are very much exhausted with watching and
excitement. Breckinridge (Rev. John Breckinridge, afterwards
Professor) especially looks very badly. He was for some time
Turner's room-mate.
Your son, C. H.
MR. HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, April 2, 1822.
My Dear Mother: I have not yet determined where nor how my
vacation is to be spent. Should Providence decide I am to remain
at Princeton, I would wish to devote the vacation to the study of
German, and it has suggested itself to my mind it might be well to
go and spend five or six weeks at Bethlehem or Nazareth (Pennsyl-
vania). If there were an intelligent clergyman with whom I could
stay, it might be of some advantage ; but to hear the language as
spoken by some plain country people would be of little service. If
I go, the Doctor (Alexander) would let James go with me.
As the time of the session of the General Assembly approaches, I
feel somewhat desirous of having the question of the permanency of
my continuance here determined, simply to be freed from the unset-
tled feeling incident to a state of suspense. It is a question, however,
which has never given me any disquietude. It is one indeed which
involves consequences of greater importance than I am able to esti-
mate, but the fact that it is one beyond my determination, the decision
of which I can in no way influence, seems to remove from me in
some measure the burden of responsibility. Should it ever be affirm-
atively made, however, that burden will then be mine ; and it is
great indeed.
Your son, C. H.
MR, HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, April 10, 1822.
My Dear Mother : I have been somewhat peculiarly situated in
my official duties since entering the ministry. It became necessary
90 LIFE AS TEACHER. [1821.
for me on Saturday last to baptize a man by immersion (in Howeirs
Pond, a five minutes walk from the church, on the Trenton side, while
acting as pastor for the Ewing, or Trenton first church), as his con-
science would not allow him, though a Presbyterian, to receive the
"ordinance in any other way. My good Princeton friends, though
they considered it as a matter of necessity, seemed very reluctant
that I should run the risk to health by going at this season into the
water. But it seems that no evil has resulted from it. The day was
very mild, and all the circumstances of the case as pleasant as they
could be. There were a great many persons present, but all belonged
to the congregation, which is one remarkable for its respectability.
It was a serious service, and all present seemed to feel it so.
Your son, C. H.
MR. HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, April 19, 1822.
My Dear Mother: Mr. Summerfield preached for us here yester-
day morning, and I had the pleasure of dining with him yesterday at
Mr. Bayard's. His sermon was excellent. Much better than I ex-
pected. His action was also excellent, but he is by no means as elo-
quent as I had supposed. He has very little power over his audience
excepting to produce a pleasing excitement. He could not overwhelm
them as Larned could, and he seemed to have but little talent at the
pathetic. My judgment approved of him and his discourse more than
I expected ; but my feelings were much less interested.
Your son, C. H.
In answer to a letter from Dr. Alexander, not preserved,
Mr. Hodge wrote :
MR. HODGE TO DR. A. ALEXANDER.
PRINCETON, May 6, 1822.
My Dear Sir: I would say then, in the first place, that if I know
my own heart, I wish God's will may be done. If He plainly
leads me on to the result we have so long contemplated, I confess the
fondest wishes of my heart will be accomplished. But at the same
time I believe that I would rather be homeless and penniless through
life than in any way whatever enter such an office unsent of God. I
have felt so much on this subject that I have never felt at liberty
even to pray for the attainment of this object except in the most
guarded manner.j When this day three years ago, and in this place,
JET. 23.] LIFE AS TEACHER. gi
you first mentioned this subject to me, the suggestion took me utterly
by surprise. The plan you then proposed seemed to me so important,
fraught with so many advantages to myself (upon any result), whose
ultimate success depended so entirely upon the ordering of Provi-
dence, that I could not doubt that it was my duty to accede to it.
Since that period my path has been very narrow. There has not oc-
curred a single opening whidi was calculated either to tempt me
aside or to give me a moment's anxiety as to the course I ought to
pursue. Hitherto, therefore, has the Lord led me. Whether He
will lead me any longer in this direction, I know not. LWith regard
to the Professorship itself, I think now as I have always thought that
it is decidedly the most eligible situation for improvement, for satis-
faction, and for usefulness, which our church affords, and that as far
as my feelings are concerned, I would prefer being here with the
smaller salary, to any other situation with the largest, that the coun-
try affords. Should, therefore, my salary even be continued as it is
at present ($400) I should not think it a sufficient reason for retiring
from my present situation, unless accompanied with some further in-
timations that such was the will of Providence.
Though I have been greatly disappointed in the progress I have
made in my studies, and the benefit I have derived from my many
advantages, yet I am so sensible of the value of the privileges con-
nected with my situation, that I esteem myself most highly favored.
You need never fear I shall regret the time I have spent in Princeton,
and will you let me say it gives me a pleasure to be near you and
your family, that money cannot purchase.
[ I now beg you to pray for me, that God would so order events that
He may be honored, and that by His Spirit I may be fitted for His
pleasure. This request I make most earnestly.
With filial reverence, C. H.
CHAPTER V.
FROM HIS ELECTION AS PROFESSOR, MAY, 1 822^ TO HIS
DEPARTURE FOR EUROPE, OCTOBER, 1826.
HIS ELECTION AS PROFESSOR MARRIAGE BIRTH AND BAPTISM OF CHIL-
DRENSTUDIES AND COMMENCEMENT OF THE " BIBLICAL REPERTORY"
RESOLUTIONS TO GO TO EUROPE.
Board of Directors, at their meeting, held in Phila-
JL delphia, May 17, 1822, reported to the General Assembly
as follows : " The Board with pleasure inform the Assembly
that the First and Third (senior and junior) classes now in
the Seminary, have each resolved to aid in founding a Pro-
fessorship of Oriental and Biblical Literature. To effect
this object, the students of the First class have bound them-
selves to raise and pay, if practicable, in five years, the
sums which they have respectively subscribed, amounting
in the whole to $7,000. And the students of the Third
class have on similar conditions individually bound them-
selves in sums amounting collectively to about $4,000."
May 2 ist, "Resolved, That it be recommended to the
General Assembly, that they elect a Professor of Oriental
and Biblical Literature in the Theological Seminary, with
a salary of $1,000 per annum, provided that for three years
the present funds of the Assembly be responsible for not
more than $400, the sum now given to the assistant teacher
of the Original Languages of Scripture, and that the residue
be procured by subscription."
On the same day the General Assembly resolved, " That,
92
yET. 22.] INAUGURATION AS PROFESSOR. 93
agreeably to the above recommendation, a Professor of Ori-
ental and Biblical Literature be elected, and that the elec-
tion be the order of the day for Friday next, at- twelve
o'clock."
Friday noon, May 24th, 1822. "It being the order of
the day for twelve o'clock, an election was held for a Pro-
fessor of Oriental and Biblical Literature. The ballots
being taken were committed to Messrs. John F. Clark, Cox
and Gilbert to count the vote and report the result to the
Assembly."
" The committee to which the votes for a Professor had
been committed, reported, and the Rev. Charles Hodge
was declared duly elected Professor of Oriental and Biblical
Literature."
At the meeting of the Board in Princeton, September
23d, 1822, " The Board were officially informed, by the
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, that that body had
elected the Rev. Charles Hodge Professor of Oriental and
Biblical Literature in this Seminary ; and the Board being
also informed that Mr. Hodge has accepted the appoint-
ment, resolved that Dr. Blatchford, Dr. McAuley, and Mr.
Lewis be a committee to direct the order of exercises at the
inauguration which is to take place to-morrow at n
o'clock, A. M."
Soon afterwards "The committee appointed to make
arrangements for the inauguration of the Professor made
the following report, which was adopted :
" ist. Procession to be formed at 1 1 o'clock, A. M., at the
Seminary in the following order: (i) Students of the Semi-
nary. (2) Such clergy as may be present. (3) The Pro-
fessors. (4) The Directors. The procession to enter the
Church in the reverse order, to be conducted under the di-
rection of a committee of one from each class of the stu-
dents, consisting of Messrs. Breckinridge, Stanford and
Myers."
" 2d. Hymn and introductory prayer, by the President.
94 HIS MARRIAGE. [1822.
3d. Formula to be read and subscribed, by the Professor.
4th. Induction to the chair, by the President.
5th. -Inaugural address, by the Professor.
6th. Charge, by Dr. McAuley.
/th. Concluding prayer, by Dr. Blatchford.
8th. Concluding hymn and benediction, by the first Vice-
President."
Tuesday, September 2^th, 1822. " The Board attended
to the inauguration of the Rev. Charles Hodge as Professor
of Oriental and Biblical Literature. The exercises were
conducted agreeably to the plan reported yesterday by the
committee of arrangements."
The original time-stained copy of this inaugural address
the compiler of this biography has now in his hands. The
first sentences reveal the thought and animus of the entire
discourse, and constitute a divinely significant omen for the
professional life now opening.
" The moral qualifications of an Interpreter of Scripture
may all be included in Piety; which embraces humility,
candor, and those views and feelings which can only result
from the inward operation of the Holy Spirit"
" // is the object of this discourse to illustrate the importance
of Piety in the Interpretation of Scripture''
HIS MARRIAGE.
^Tn the meantime, on the i/th of June, he was married to
Miss Sarah Bache, who has already been introduced to the
reader in the second chapter, at Cheltenham, a country seat
near Philadelphia, belonging to a mutual friend, Judge
M. McKane, Mrs. Bache having deceased in 1820. The
ceremony was performed by the Right Rev. Bishop Wil-
liam White, the first American Protestant Bishop. Dr.
White had been the pastor of the bride's family for several
generations, and had married her father, William Bache, to
Catherine Wistar, in 1797.
Uniform tradition represents Charles Hodge and Sarah
SET. 24.] HIS MARRIAGE. 95
Bache as being at that time an uncommonly handsome
couple. He was slender, of average height, very youth-
ful-looking, with light brown hair, curling over a finely
formed head, a light complexion and rosy cheeks, illumed
by the light of blue eyes, and of a mouth in which be-
nevolence and firmness, intelligence and humor were so
subtly mingled as to elude the efforts of the best painters
to represent it. She was of the full standard height for
women, of symmetrical form, dark auburn hair, large blue-
grey eyes, of that rare complexion in which the tender
pink penetrates the delicate white, as in the interior
enameling of tropical sea shells. She was endowed with
the gifts, and characterized with the temperament of a mu-
sician and an artist, full of imagination and enthusiasm, in-
tensely affectionate and self-sacrificing within the circle of
kindred, and at the same time thrilled by the widest and
most delicate sympathies with alf varieties of character and
experience. These natural qualities had already been con-
secrated by religion, and through all her life they be-
came more and more spiritualized and sanctified.
They came almost immediately to Princeton, and took
boarding in the family of Colonel Erkuries Beatty, the
father of their life-long friend, Rev. Charles Beatty, D. D.,
LL. D., of Steubenville, Ohio. Here they received great
kindness, and remained until the spring of 1823, when they
went to house-keeping in the house occupying the eastern
corner of Witherspoon and Main Streets, immediately op-
posite the centre of Nassau Hall. Here they remained
eighteen months, until, on January 1st, 1825, they took
possession of their permanent home, built by them on the
Seminary ground the square brick house at the west end
of the main Seminary building. In this house Mr. Hodge
lived all his remaining life, here all his children, except- the
eldest, were born, and here he did his life-work and died.
All the beautiful trees which adorn the grounds around this
house he planted with his own hands.
96 J3&INGS HIS WIFE TO PRINCETON. [1822.
MR. HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, June 24, 1822.
My Dear Mother : We have been received with every possible
kind attention by every body in Princeton, and it has given me the
greatest satisfaction to witness the evident cordiality Sarah has been
met with by all her old friends. Our circumstances at Mr. Beatty's
are very comfortable, and every thing promises well.
We go to Dr. Alexander's to-day and to Dr. Miller's to-morrow.
It is well we came here a week before the session commences, for it
will not be possible to get ready for study for some time. My room
is yet in confusion, havifig no book-case and no table. In a short
time, however, I expect to settle down to all the sober duties of my
office and relations. Our Brother, the Doctor, was all-important to
us. He performed his part so well on the day^ on which Sarah saw
her friends, that I was completely relieved, i It makes me happy to
see Sarah cheerful and contented. She is now singing in my ears, so
that I scarcely know what I am writing. I begin to fear that many
of the fond schemes I had formed will never come to much. As to
studying where Sarah is, it will be out of the question, unless there
be some way of charming her tongue to rest which I have not as
yet discovered. J
Your son, C. H.
But things soon permanently adjusted themselves. The
wife became occupied with household and family cares, and
the husband, of all industrious students, became remarkable
for his tolerance of interruption. His study was the home
of his wife, and the gathering place of the entire family, and
the highway of the childreri^between the outside world and
the other apartments of the house. While some of his
children remained too small to unfasten the latch them-
selves, he had left it unfastened, so that even the least of
us might come and go as we pleased.
During the first four years of his married life, the period
covered by this chapter, two children, a boy and a girl, were
born to him. His constant letters to his mother and
brother, and other intimate friends, were filled with notices
oi these children, and with the evidences of his absorbing,
as well as tender, interest in them. This characteristic of
his correspondence is far more than ordinary in its degree,
.ET. 28.] BAPTISM OF DAUGHTER. 97
and his consciousness of that fact becomes evident. To his
brother he writes :
" People say I am a little foolish, and I think it quite likely. But
I have a good excuse. With every desire that you may be as fool-
ish, as happy, and a thousand times better than your brother,
I am yours, C. H."
The whole family correspondence of this period is suf-
fused by the glow of his rich and full happiness, having their
springs in his religion, his family, and his beloved work.
DR. HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
PRINCETON, Dec. 25, 1825.
My Dear Mother : Your dear little Mary Elizabeth was baptized
this afternoon in the Oratory by Dr. Alexander. Notwithstanding
the rain, the place of service was so near we found it easy to take
our dear little treasure out to be consecrated to God in this delightful
ordinance. I never appreciated so highly before the privilege of thus
giving to God what is dearest to us on earth. We feel now as though
she were not our own, but something lent to be cultivated and pre-
pared through our agency for heaven. To be instrumental in thus
training up one of the children of the Lord to be presented before
Him without spot or blemish, is so delightful and honorable a task,
that we cannot help hoping that He who has made the prospect of
the duty so pleasant, will aid us in its performance. There is, too, so
much ground to hope that our efforts will not be in vain that we can
address ourselves to the duty with all possible cheerfulness. The
application of the pure element of water is not only designed to repre-
sent the purifying influence of the Spirit upon the heart, but it seems
to be the appointed pledge on the part of God, that if we sincerely
devote our children to Him, and faithfully endeavor to bring them up
for Him, He will bestow upon them the blessings signified by the or-
dinance, and contained in that gracious covenant to which it is at-
tached. Hence the ordinance is represented as so important in the
Scriptures. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. It
certainly never was designed to be an empty form. And as it im-
poses the most solemn obligations, so it contains abundant encou-
ragement to fulfil them. Our dear little children we have promised
to educate for heaven, and as God shall enable us, we mean to per-
form our vows. To this every thing must be made secondary. To
7
98 HIS STUDIES. [1825.
gain this world is not what we have promised to aim at. It must
therefore never be the direct and primary object of pursuit. I have
lately, in reading Bonaparte's Russian Campaign, and the Life of She-
ridan, been very much struck with the truth of the remark how little
they really enjoy the world to whom the world is every thing. Bo-
naparte says the happiest part of his life was when he was a poor
lieutenant. And Sheridan said the happiest part of his life was the
short time he spent in a cottage. There is nothing lost, therefore,
even as regards the present world, by seeking first the kingdom of
God ; that is, by making it the primary object of pursuit, seeing that
godliness has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is
to come. We feel, therefore, determined, if God shall render us
faithful to our purposes, to bring up your dear little grandchildren,
as we are sure you would have us do, with the one object supremely
in view of fitting them for heaven. I have great confidence in the
effect of religious truth upon the infant mind. Children are so sus-
ceptible, their associations are so strong and lasting, that it does not
seem strange that the effect of early education should so frequently
be felt through life. And if we add to this God's peculiar promises
to those who endeavor to bring up a child in the way in which he
should go, we shall see that there is abundant reason to hope that
exertions properly directed will be crowned with success^
Your affectionate son, C. H.
REPERTORY."
During these years the weakness and pain of his right
limb occasioned a good deal of inconvenience and appre-
hension, and at times he submitted to painful remedial ap-
plications. Nevertheless these were years of intense study.
There remain in manuscript traces of elaborate discipline in
Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic, and exegetical lectures on Ro-
mans and Corinthians, and dissertations on the origin of
language, the general principles of Hermeneutics, &c. He
preached before the Seminary every third Sabbath, and
very frequently in the neighboring churches. Writing to
his brother, November, 1822, he says: "lam incessantly
busy, having six recitations a week, and a lecture to write
besides." December, 1822, he writes: "I am studying
JET.28.] FOUNDS THE "BIBLICAL REPERTORY?' 99
German again : having a teacher in the house I hope to
make more progress than I did before. We find Mr. Ja-
downisky a pleasant and intelligent young man." In
November, 1823, he writes: "We have an unusually large
accession to our numbers, and have commenced business
under very promising circumstances. I have more writing
to do than I should, and really believe that I shall find it
essential to carry on the study of six languages this winter.
I look forward to a pretty severe term, for I must keep be-
fore my students or they will find it out."
In the beginning of 1825, he founded the Biblical Re-
pertory, with which he was connected as real editor, with
the exception of the period of his absence in Europe, for
forty-three years 1 . This Quarterly appeared at first under the
title, " Biblical Repertory, a Collection of Tracts in Biblical
Literature, Epevvdrs rdz fpa<pdz" consisting of. reprints and
translations, and making no pretensions to originality. The
translations were furnished principally by the editor, and by
Rev. Robert Patton, then Professor of Greek in the College
of New Jersey, and by James W. and Joseph Addison
Alexander. It continued in this form for four years, until
after Mr. Hodge's return from Europe, when the new series
began with January, 1829, under the title "Biblical Reper-
tory, a Journal of Biblical Literature and Theological
Science," to be conducted by an " association of gentle-
men," of which, however, Professor Hodge was always the
working and directing member, in every sense the actual
editor. In 1830 the title became " Biblical Repertory and
Theological Review," and finally, in 1837, " Biblical Reper-
tory and Princeton Review." Among the contents of the
first four volumes the only translations which I can cer-
tainly identify as the work of Dr. Hodge are " History of
Theology in the Eighteenth Century," by Dr. Augustus
Tholuck ; and the " Life of Kant," by Prof. Stapfer, of
Paris. These are both contained in the volume for 1828.
During his absence in Europe, from November, 1826, to
IOO RESOLVES TO GO TO EUROPE. [1826.
November, 1828] Prof. Robert Patton took charge of the
Repertory in place of the editor.
RESOLUTION TO GO TO EUROPE.
During the year 1826, as his knowledge increased, his
standard of the attainments necessary for a professor in his
department was elevated in a more rapid ratio, and propor-
tionably the sense of his own deficiencies became more in-
tense. He felt the need at the same time of uninterrupted
leisure for carrying on private study, and of access to the
most learned and able teachers of Biblical Science that were
to be found.
MR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, August 29, 1826.
My Dear Brother : You will perhaps think me beside myself be-
fore you are done reading this letter, but I am about to speak the
words of soberness and truth, t want to leave you all for two years !
wife and children, mother and brother. I have long felt the very se-
rious disadvantage under which I labor in filling a most conspicuous
and important station to which I feel incompetent. My education,
for which I owe my mother innumerable thanks, has been, notwith-
standing her disinterested and strenuous efforts, by the force of cir-
cumstances, very defective^ You remember I never opened a Greek
Grammar until I came to Princeton in the spring of 1812. In the fall
of that year I entered College, joining a class in which all its members
had been studying the language from one to two years. The Sopho-
more year we studied Greek several times a week. During the Junior
and Senior years, only once a fortnight. The year subsequent to my
leaving College I did nothing at it. During my three years in the
Seminary, my time was occupied with other concerns. This has been
my Greek course. What a preparation for a Professor ! Since I re-
turned to the Seminary I have had continually so many recitations
that almost my whole attention has been confined to the single point
of preparing and hearing them. Little opportunity has been afforded
for the prosecution of the important branches connected with my de-
partment. I feel constantly the most painful sense of unfitness for
my work, and the conviction that with nothing more than fragments
of time at command, I can make little progress. My plan, therefore,
is to apply to the Board of Directors for permission to spend two years
.BT.28.] RESOLVES TO GO TO EVROP'E'. '
in Europe. If they will permit my salary to go on, it is all I can ask.
I can rent my house for a sum sufficient to employ an assistant to
take my place in the Seminary. All the Seminary will lose is the
difference between my instructions and those of my substitute, which
will be little indeed ; and it will, on the other hand, gain all that will
accrue from my having so much time for improvement, and from the
increase of reputation, which is something where people are influenced
by externals. By spending half my time at Gb'ttingen and half at
Paris, I shall be able to get possession of both the German and French,
which will be an incidental advantage of no inconsiderable value.
You may suppose I do not think of this course lightly. I feel the
sacrifice I make, or rather should make, if this plan should be exe-
cuted. But with me my improvement should be paramount to all
other conditions, and I hope I should be found equal to the exile.
Mr. Patton has been to Europe and taken much the same course, and
has given me very definite information as to the expense, and I think
I can accomplish my wishes without sinking money or running into
debt.
This is all, however, between ourselves, and it depends upon a great
many circumstances I cannot foresee, and which with every thing
else I cheerfully leave to the directions of Providence. .Sarah, of
course, wishes very much (should I go] to accompany me, and
Mr. Patton tells me we could live cheaper there than we can do
here that a thousand at Gottingen would support us comfortably.
But then it would take five hundred to go, and as much to return.
Sarah would be without friends and without society. We could not
afford to travel, and I should feel so much encumbered and so
anxious in case of sickness, that I cannot help thinking the balance
preponderates on the side of her remaining at home. Dr. Alexander,
who approves heartily of the plan as far as the Seminary is concerned,
thinks that I should take my family ; and then when he contemplates
'the difficulties attending such a course, he questions the prudence of
the scheme. He thinks I could not command myself to remain six
months without my family. Perhaps not.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
At the meeting of the Board of Directors in Princeton,
September 25, 1826, the following communication was
received from the two senior professors of the Seminary :
"The undersigned beg leave to lay before the Board of Directors
the following representation. Their junior colleague, the Rev. Mr.
102 AESVL'VES TO GO TO EUROPE. [1826.
Hodge, although he has, ever since his appointment to the office of
Professor, discharged its duties in a manner which reflects equal ho-
nor on his attainments, his capacity, his diligence and his fidelity,
has been for a considerable time past under a deep impression that
^he needed further advantages of leisurely study, particularly in some
of the higher departments of Biblical criticism, and the auxiliary
branches of knowledge. These advantages he is persuaded he can
never hope fully to enjoy, unless he shall be enabled to retire for a
time from the discharge of his duties in the Seminary, and to obtain
access to those richly furnished libraries and those eminently skilled
and profound masters of Oriental Literature of whose assistance he
cannot avail himself in his present situation.
" For the attainment of these advantages it is his earnest desire
that he may be permitted to suspend the discharge of his official du-
ties in the Seminary for eighteen months or two years for the purpose
of visiting Europe and pursuing certain select branches of study, with
the peculiar aids which the best institutions in that quarter of the
globe can alone furnish. He has no doubt that the benefits likely to
accrue from such a step would be of great importance to himself, and
would add in no small degree to his capacity for serving the interests
of the Institution under the care of your venerable Board.
" The undersigned would respectfully state that after bestowing on
this plan the most serious and mature consideration in their power,
they certainly concur in these views of their colleague, and would
unite, as far as would be proper, the expression of their wishes with
his, that it may be carried into effect.
" In contemplating this subject they cannot overlook the fact that
several of the most enlightened and important institutions of our
country have adopted a measure of this kind, and in some instances
entirely at their own expense ; nor can it be doubted that an impres-
sion of the utility and importance of making this provision for the
improvement of public instruction is daily becoming more deep and
extensive.
" The undersigned would also take the liberty of suggesting, in case
the Directors should think proper to accede to the wishes of Mr.
Hodge, whether he might not unite with a short residence in Europe,
for his own improvement, an agency to solicit monies and books for
the use of the Seminary. They cannot, indeed, indulge very large
expectations of the probable avails of such an agency, yet they enter-
tain no doubt that quite enough would result from it to reward and
justify the effort.
" They have only to add that Mr. Hodge, in case the Board should f
be pleased to think favorably of his plan, does not expect them to in-
ALT. 28.] LEAVES HOME. 1 03
cur any additional expense whatever in giving their consent to the
proposed enterprise. All that he asks is that his salary may be con-
tinued during his absence. He is ready and willing to provide at his
own expense a reputable substitute to carry on his department of in-
struction in the Seminary, and one whose services he has no doubt
will prove entirely acceptable."
"A. ALEXANDER.
SAMUEL MILLER."
" Princeton, Sept. 25, 1826."
The Board gave their consent to the plan on the condi-
tions above offered. Mr. John W. Nevin, a member of the
class just graduating, was appointed the substitute for Mr.
Hodge during his absence, and he fulfilled the office for the
following two years with eminent ability. He has been
since known over both continents as the founder of the
Mercersburg school of Theology.
Mr. Hodge placed his family in the care of his mother
and brother, in Philadelphia, and sailed from New York for
Havre, October, 1826.
CHAPTER VI.
FROM HIS DEPARTURE FOR EUROPE OCTOBER, 1826, TO HIS
RETURN TO PRINCETON, SEPTEMBER, 1828.
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE, MOTHER AND DR. ALEXANDER RELATING TO HIS VOY-
AGE AND RESIDENCE IN PARIS. HIS JOURNAL KEPT DURING HIS
RESIDENCE IN HALLE AND BERLIN. LETTERS FROM DRS. ALEXANDER
AND MILLER. HIS OWN LETTERS RELATING TO HIS VISIT TO SWITZER-
LAND AND RETURN HOME, VIA PARIS, LONDON AND LIVERPOOL.
PROF. HODGE sailed direct from New York on the
packet ship " Edward Quesnel/' for Havre, early in Octo-
ber. The first letter which remains is addressed to his
mother from Rouen.
ROUEN, October 28, 1826.
My Dear Mother: Your kind letter, which I received before
leaving Princeton, has often been the subject of my grateful remem-
brance, especially when reperused. _Every day that I live I feel more
deeply the extent of my obligations to you, for every day I become
more sensible of the value of the education which your disinterested
exertions secured your children, and of the restraints and counsels
which kept our youthful feet " from the paths of the destroyer." It
is one of my daily subjects of thankfulness that God has given us
such a mother. May He, my beloved parent, richly reward you for
all your sacrifices, and give you the satisfaction of seeing your chil-
dren answering your expectations, and above all things the inex-
pressible happiness of finding them at His right hand in peace.
Your loving son, CHARLES.
104
JET. 28.] , FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 105
He writes to Dr. Alexander from Paris.
PARIS, November 2, 1826.
My Dear Sir: (There is no person beyond my own family of
whom I think as frequently, or with as much affection, now that I
am a stranger in a strange land, as yourself; and there is no person
excepting my mother to whom I feel so deeply obligated. From my
boyhood I have experienced your paternal kindness^ and shall
cherish as long as I live the recollection of your goodness, and of
the many blessings which through you God has mercifully granted
me.
It is now a week since we arrived at Havre. Our passage was
rather longer than usual, as we were at sea twenty-five days. The
greater part of the time the weather was unpleasant, and the voyage
much more boisterous than I expected at this season of the year.
We, however, escaped every accident, and, indeed, were never in
circumstances to excite any apprehension. I found the sea delight-
ful when the weather was fine, but very much the reverse when we
were driven to the cabin by rain and storms. It requires no little
strength to withstand the disposition to listless idleness which seems
to take possession of every one on shipboard. If I may judge by
my own experience the sea is no place for study. The only thing of
much interest I saw at Havre was the port itself, which is entirely
formed of piers, projecting a considerable distance into the sea, be-
tween which the water flows at high tide into the docks, where it is
confined by large gates, which are closed as soon as the tide begins
to fall. Here the shipping is kept floating, although the canal which
leads to the docks is at low water perfectly dry. Hence, it is only at
high tide that vessels can go either in or out. This is a great incon-
venience, for it obliged us to beat on and off the harbor from eight
in the morning until five in the evening. The moment the ship
touched the dock, a police officer in military dress came on board
and demanded our passports. As I and several others had none,
we were obliged to appear before the American Consul, and produce
evidence of our being citizens of the United States. The Consul
gave us a certificate to that effect, upon which the police granted us
a passport to proceed to Paris. Our baggage was subjected to the
same ceremony. This form was carried through with a good deal of
politeness by the officers, who frequently begged our pardon, and
asked permission very humbly to do what we had no power to
prevent.
The moment you set your foot on land you see you are in the old
world. The houses are antiquated in their appearance in the ex-
IO6 FIRST IMPRESSIONS. [1826.
treme. The streets are narrow, destitute of side-walks and dirty. The
people are poorly dressed, clattering along on wooden shoes, none of
the women (at least the poorer ones) wearing bonnets, but in place
of them a singular kind of cap. You soon see also, that the land is
France. We had not walked far before we heard the violin, and
discovered singing and dancing going on one side of the way, while
on the other people were praying on their knees at the door of a
chapel. There is a very ancient and fine-looking church at Havre.
On entering it I was very much struck with finding nearly two hun-
dred boys in companies of about fifty each, reciting their prayers or
other religious lessons to the priests. I have never in any Sabbath-
school, nor in any Protestant church in our own country heard chil-
dren recite so well. They appeared to have got their tasks perfectly,
and repeated them with wonderful volubility. The priest appeared
to take a great deal of pains in instructing them, explaining and
enforcing what had been recited. The necessity of the sacraments
was in one case the subject of the teacher's remarks. I found the
same thing in Rouen when I went to the great cathedral after the
service in the Protestant church was over. It is no wonder that the
Catholic religion takes so firm a hold of its votaries, since it is so
faithfully instilled into the minds of the young. I fear that in this
respect Protestants are not as assiduous.'
I expected as soon as I got into the country to lose sight of the
striking indications of a foreign land which were so obvious in town.
But in this I was disappointed. [Every thing strikes a stranger as
novel. He sees women working in the fields, 'asses harnessed with
immense wooden saddles and almost hid by the immense baskets
appended to either side, ploughs furnished with wheels ; the whole
country destitute of any enclosure, fields of grass or grain and vine-
yards all mingled together and coming down to the road-side with-
out the slightest fence to protect them. The cattle I saw feeding
were generally tied by the horns to a tree, or to a movable stake
fixed in the ground. If this was not the case, they were watched.
I frequently saw a woman with two or three cows tied by the horns,
which she attended from one part of the field to another. Flocks of
sheep were always attended by a shepherd and his dog, neither of
them very romantic-looking. The cottages looked ancient, were
thatched, and green with moss. The people appeared healthy and
happy, but their habitations very destitute of what we should con-
sider comfort. The country from Havre to Rouen is very far supe-
rior in beauty to any I have ever seen. I had no conception of the
effect of long-continued cultivation on the general aspect of the coun-
try. The fields of grass were as smooth as lawns, and the fields in-
JET. 28.] FIRST IMPRESSIONS. I o 7
tended for grain were like Dr. Miller s garden. Our country is too
new to enter into a comparison with this in any species of beauty
which does not come at once from the hands of the great Creator.
But our country people are far superior in their appearance to the
same class here. Not in their personal appearance, for the popula-
tion of France, as far as I have had an opportunity of observing,
look more healthy, and consequently handsomer than ours, but in
their appearance of comfort, independence and cultivation.
There are two views on the banks of the Seine which struck me as
the perfection of the beautiful. The one is near the village of Cord-
bee, the other is at the entrance into Rouen, the city as seen from a
high hill just on the edge of the town. I presume the latter is one of
the finest in France, as it is the subject of a Panorama Mr. Eastburn
saw exhibited in London. I entered Rouen with greater interest than
I should almost any other place in France, because of the many in-
teresting historical events with which it is associated. Of its eighty
thousand inhabitants, only twelve hundred are now Protestant. I
had the pleasure of attending their worship on Sabbath, which is so
similar to our own, that I felt myself quite at home. There were not
more than two or three hundred persons present, sitting principally
upon chairs, before a plain pulpit. The preacher appeared to be
about thirty-five years old, and was fervent and simple in his man-
ner. His sermon was nearly an hour long, and was listened to with
commendable attention. I went up to the pastor after the service,
and asked him whether he could speak English. To my great gra-
tification he answered in the affirmative. He told me the extent of
his charge, and that the venerable church in which they worshipped
was formerly a Catholic chapel, given to the Protestants at the time
of the Revolution. He also informed me that there were several Bri-
tish subjects in Rouen, principally Scotch weavers, who assemble
every Sabbath afternoon to hear a sermon read by some English
gentleman. On this Sabbath there happened to be a clergyman of
the Church of England in town, who preached and performed the
service. I felt rejoiced to hear the praise of God in a foreign land in
my own language, and could not help contrasting the beautiful sim-
plicity of the service, both morning and afternoon, with the service
which I had witnessed in the early part of the day in the great Cathe-
dral. This is said to be the finest Gothic structure in France, and
certainly to an eye accustomed to the church in Princeton it is suffi-
ciently imposing. I saw it first late in the evening, and on entering
its "long-drawn aisles," lighted only here and there by a dim lamp
which scarcely revealed the lofty roof, I did not wonder that such
places were trod with awe. In the morning I found at least fifty
108 FIRST IMPRESSIONS. [1826.
priests and other religious officers engaged in chanting the service,
and about two hundred persons, principally poor, kneeling or sitting
in different parts of the building. No one appeared attending to what
was going on, or at least few. This building is said to have been
founded by William the Conqueror. One of the towers is two hun-
dred and thirty-six feet high, and another much higher was destroyed
a few years ago by lightning. The painted windows are very striking
to one who has never seen any thing of the kind. The statue of Joan
of Arc stands in the centre of the town. There is nothing very
striking in it, except that it marks the spot on which the heroine met
her melancholy fate.
After leaving Rouen the vineyards became very frequent. They
appeared to be composed of currant bushes rather than grape vines,
which are only two or three feet high. The grapes were all gathered
and the leaves burned. The gardens here, however, look much
more green than they do with us at this season. We have lettuce
every day for dinner, and I have eaten strawberries which were very
fine. They cultivate a species called the Alpine, which continues in
bearing until frost. There has yet been no cold weather, but the sun
has scarcely been visible since I arrived, and the rain, though not
heavy, is almost constant. We did not reach Paris until nine or ten
o'clock at night, so that I lost the pleasure of a distant view of this
great city. We entered by a very broad, fine street, passing the gar-
den of the Tuilleries, the Place Vendome (ornamented with the co-
lumn made of the cannon taken by Napoleon at Austerlitz), and se-
veral of the finest buildings of the city. It is to this circumstance that
I refer the strong impression I received of the grandeur of this cele-
brated metropolis on first entering it, which has been rather weakened
than increased by viewing other and less imposing parts of it. The
streets are generally narrow, excessively muddy, destitute of side-
walks, and constantly crowded with all kinds of vehicles. I have
taken a rapid review of the Louvre, which contains a gallery of paint-
ings one thousand three hundred feet in length, of the Tuilleries, of
the Luxemburg, of the king's library, and of some other objects of
interest. I attended the celebration of mass in the king's chapel on
the first of the month. This chapel is a tastefully ornamented room
in the Palace, surrounded on the inside by a gallery supported by
large stone pillars. I unfortunately took a stand which prevented
my having a view of his most Christian Majesty and the Royal fa-
mily. The officiating bishop was dressed in a splendid robe of gold
cloth, and several of his attendants were almost as richly adorned.
The middle aisle was filled with the royal guard. The music was
said to be very fine. It made no impression on me, much less, at
MT. 29.] LIFE IN PARIS.
least, than I have experienced from hearing the simplest melody.
There was nothing in the whole service which appeared to me at all
adapted to make any man either wiser or better. To-morrow is the
regular day for a great festival (the king's birth-day, I believe), on
which it is customary to distribute wine and provisions to the multi-
tude, to illuminate the garden of the Tuilleries, to exhibit fire-works,
&c. But as to-morrow happens to be a fast-day, all this is put off to
the Sabbath !
I hope you will be kind enough to write to me. Letters from home
are more precious than gold. Remember me most affectionately to
Mrs. Alexander and every member of your family. Lbeg of you, my
dear father, not to forget me in your prayers, for I greatly need them./
I need hardly request you to present Dr. Miller the assurance of my
affectionate and grateful remembrance.
Yours with respect and affection,
C. HODGE.
LIFE IN PARIS.
He remained at Paris from the ist of November to the
1 5th of February, studying French, and Arabic and Syriac
with De Sacy.
He settled in a handsomely furnished room near the Pont
Neuf, in the Place Dauphine, at the apex of the Island,
formed by the Seine, in the heart of the city. He boarded
in the family of a Mr. Oberlin, one of the librarians of the
King's Library, living on the opposite side of the thorough-
fare to his lodging-room. All his associations were with
the Oberlin family, who spoke only French, and with a num-
ber of agreeable fellow-boarders, consisting of two barons,
one doctor in philosophy, and one captain in the army,
who were Swedes, together with a young Englishman, son
of Sir Henry Parnell, M. P.
MR. HODGE TO HIS WIFE.
PARIS, Nov. 20, 1826.
Dear Sarah : Young Parnell made his appearance among us this
morning for the first time. He is a handsome, amiable-looking youth
of about twenty. He asked me, immediately after our introduction,
whether I came to Paris with a view of studying the French language.
I 10 LIFE IN PARIS. [1826.
I answered, " Partly so, but principally with a view to Biblical stu-
dies." "Ah!" said he, "they are the most delightful in the world.
I wish I could devote my whole life to them." I said, "You are- a
citizen of a free country, and can do as you like." He answered,
"Yes; but as I happen to be the oldest son, my father wishes me to
enter political life. I still hope, however, the Lord will open my way
to the ministry." You may suppose that I felt somewhat surprised
and greatly pleased.
MR. HODGE TO HIS WIFE.
PARIS, Dec. 21, 1826.
My Dear Sarah : I went on Monday evening to Professor Stap-
fer's a gentleman who has been very kind and very useful to me.
I had the pleasure of meeting there Benjamin Constant, with whose
name you must be familiar. He is one of the most distinguished li-
berals of the Chamber of Deputies, and is a man of extensive influ-
ence. He reminded me very much of Timothy Pickering in his ap-
pearance, although a younger man. There were two Protestant cler-
gymen there. One of them was the younger Monod, a very evange-
lical man, who has undertaken the Herculean task of translating
Scott's Commentary into French.
I wrote to Mr. Robinson (Rev. Dr. Edward Robinson), of Ando-
ver, now in Germany, to ascertain which university offered the great-
est advantages, and the expenses of living, &c. I have received a
very full and satisfactory answer from him. He tells me that for the
purposes for which I have come hither there is no comparison between
any other university at present and Halle. That the advice of every
person he consulted directed him to that place, and the result of his
own observation, after spending six weeks in Gottingen, and then
proceeding to Halle, confirmed him in the correctness of all he had
previously heard. There is one very important consideration, that
one of its leading theological professors (Tholuck) is a very pious
man, the like of which is not to be found elsewhere. Halle, like all
old European cities, has narrow, gloomy, and dirty streets. The so-
ciety, however, he says, is good, and the facilities for study very great.
I had, before I received his letter, heard enough to determine me that
Gottingen was not the place for me. Eichhorn is superannuated;
Staudlin is dead; Planck is in ruins under the epilepsy, so that, as
far as theology and Biblical literature is concerned, it is almost de-
spoiled. With regard to expenses, Robinson says that Halle is
cheaper than Gottingen, though at the latter a student need not spend
more than three hundred or two hundred and fifty dollars per year.
JET. 29.] LIFE IN PARIS. Ill
With respect to Halle he says : " I find all my expenses here, exclu-
sive of clothes, books, and traveling, and including instruction, lec-
tures, &c., amount to about five rix dollars per week, i.e., three dol-
lars and seventy-five cents of our money, which is at the rate of less
than two hundred dollars per annum." After making all allow-
ance, it is certainly very, very cheap. I pay my Arabic teacher alone
almost as much for three lessons a week, i. e., I have to pay five
francs or one dollar per lesson. Paris, therefore, is not the cheapest
place in the world. Mr. Robinson informs me that the spring lec-
tures commence about the middle of April. Unless I am there at
least two months before that time, I shall be utterly unable to enjoy
the benefit of the course. I have, therefore, made up my mind to
leave this about the beginning of February.
MR. HODGE TO HIS WIFE.
PARIS, Dec. 28, 1826.
My Dear Sarah : I would follow your plan of writing something
every day, if I were not in the habit of spending all my days in the
same manner. I rise about eight, at which hour I have my French
teacher to attend on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. On other
days he comes at two o'clock. I read and study until half past ten,
when I go to breakfast, which takes rather more than an hour, in-
cluding delays. I then return to my room, and remain until half
past three, when I go three times in the week to my Arabic teacher.
At five I go to dinner, and remain at Mr. Oberlin's generally to
seven or later. The evening is almost always spent at home reading
and studying until twelve, when I go to bed. When I go out it is
generally from ten to two.
MR. HODGE TO HIS WIFE.
PARIS, Jan. loth, 1827.
My Dear Sirah : I went as I told you I expected to do, to see the
king dine on the first of this month. We passed through several of the
apartments of the palace, which were very splendidly furnished, es-
pecially his chamber of audience, which is hung with crimson velvet
and ornamented with gold. The dining-room is very long and nar-
row. One end was crowded with ladies in their court-dresses, the
opposite end was occupied by musicians and singers. Around the
table, which was in the shape of a horse-shoe, the principal officers
of the king were standing, old Talleyrand among the rest. His Ma-
jesty sat in the centre, the Dauphin on his right, and the Dauphiness
H2 LIFE IN PARIS. [1827.
on the left. The former looked like a very good-natured man, but
his wife always appears out of humor. The little Duchess De Berry
sat next to the Dauphin, and as usual seemed full of gayety and good
spirits. She is as much liked by the French as the Dauphiness is dis-
liked. Although royalty always sinks upon a close inspection, yet I
am very glad I went. How it is that the million can by choice con-
sent to exalt one like themselves so much above them, I cannot
conceive.
My young friend Parnell has entered the army. This step was
much against his will, but the Duke of Gloucester had, as a great
favor, offered his father a commission for him in the guards, which
he accepted, and then sent to his son for his consent. He is one of
the most faultless young men I have ever seen. This, however, is
only negative praise, though amounting to a great deal. His simple,
humble, devotional piety is his great characteristic. When he is gone
I shall lose the principal source of my enjoyment in Paris.
MR. HODGE TO HIS WIFE.
PARIS, Feb. I2th, 1827.
My Dear Sarah : I am now preparing for my departure from
Paris, which I expect to leave on Thursday or Friday, the I5th or
i6th.
j preached yesterday for the fourth time for Mr. Wilkes, the Eng-
lish preacher in Paris, who has been so unwell that he has not been
able to preach for more than a month. I. had the honor of having
among my hearers Gen. Lafayette's family ; that is, half a dozen of
his daughters and grand-daughters. I was very much pleased with
them when I saw them a few evenings since at the General's. His
grand- daughters are very unaffected, pleasing girls, and some of them
are quite pretty. The old gentleman looked remarkably well, and
is as kind and polite as possible. I left my letter and card on the
third ineffectual call, and received soon after a very kind note from
him. I met there Baron Humboldt, and was introduced to him. He
is not a striking, but a pleasant-looking man, very affable, and has a
fine forehead. He kindly offered me letters of introduction to Ger-
many, to any of his correspondents I might desire. An offer I was
not slow to accept.
Your affectionate husband, C. H.
A former occasion of his preaching at the Rev. Mr.
Wilkes's service, is noticed in the Journal kept by Dr. Tho-
mas Guthrie, then a young man studying in Paris :
JET. 29.] LIFE IN PARIS. i i 3
" Jan 21. I then set off for Mark Wilkes's service, which is held in
a part of the Oratoire. The preacher was a Mr. Hodge, an American
professor, who had come to Europe for the purpose of studying the
Oriental languages. He intended to do so in Germany, but was at
present studying French in Paris, as a medium of communication
with the Germans. He was a young-like, intelligent, fair, good-
looking, thin and rather little man, (Guthrie was six feet two inches) ;
and gave us a capital sermon from the I9th verse of the fifth chapter
of i John. The singing was very beautiful. The English sounded
most sweetly and pleasantly to my ear. It brought vividly before
my mind the memories of my native land ; while the smallness of the
numbers, the upper room in which we were met, the irreligious and
idolatrous country in which we were maintaining the pious worship
of God, reminded me of the infant state of the Christian Church."
Mr. Hodge writes to Dr. Alexander :
Paris, Jan. 29, 1827.
My Dear Sir: From the time at which the winter course in the
German universities commenced, it was impossible for me to derive
any advantages from the public instructions had I proceeded ac-
cording to my original plan. I therefore thought it most advisable
to spend a few months here in studying Arabic, and in gaining as
much knowledge of the French as would enable me to prosecute my
journey without suffering all the inconveniences of being completely
deaf and dumb. The advantages for the study of the Oriental lan-
guages here are very considerable, especially for those who wish to
cultivate them for the sake of their own literature, or for commercial
purposes. De Sacy lectures three times every week on Arabic, and
three times on the Persic. His method does not differ from the or-
dinary manner of hearing a recitation with us. His class, which
does not consist of more than seven or eight, read the Koran on one
day, and a part of his Chrestomathy on the other. He does little
more than explain the force of the words, and any difficulties
which may occur in the grammatical form or construction. He is
very particular and very attentive, devoting upwards of two hours to
each exercise. Besides this Professor Caussin de Perceval lectures
on the Arabic grammar three times a week. De Sacy also lectures on
Persian. Quatremere on Hebrew. His course, however, is purely ele-
mentary, at least at this season, and he has only two or three hearers.
Lectures are delivered upon almost all the Eastern languages ; San-
skrit, Chinese, Bengalee, Hindoostanee, &c. All these, as well as the
instructions in the sciences, law, and medicine, are public and gratui-
1 1 4 LIFE IN PARIS. [1827.
tous. There is a great difference between the lecture-rooms of the
Professor of Chemistry and the Professor of Hebrew. The latter
having two and the former two thousand hearers, The establish-
ments connected with the medical profession, the schools and hos-
pitals are upon a most munificent scale ; indeed nothing can be more
liberal than all the arrangements of the government connected with
the great literary and scientific institutions of the metropolis.
I have attended the meetings of the Asiatic Society, which consists
of forty or fifty near-sighted Orientalists, of whom De Sacy is the
President. It was at first amusing and surprising to see every man
with the paper or book he wished to read almost in immediate con-
tact with his face. The worthy President is as remarkable for the
shortness of his sight as for the depth of his knowledge. This is not
a comforting account for Addison, who has commenced already pay-
ing the penalty for this species of learning. The proceedings of this
Society, having no connection with the Biblical subjects, are not to
me very interesting.
I have also attended the meeting of the Institute, which consists of
the most distinguished literary .and scientific men of Paris, having La
Place for their President. At these meetings some paper is read by
one of the members, and afterwards discussed. Arrangements are
made for the accommodation of strangers and others not connected
with the Society, of whom a considerable number are usually pre-
sent.
I have made up my mind to go to Halle instead of Gottingen. Mr.
Robinson informs me that more attention is paid to Biblical literature
at Halle than at any other university. It has also the great advan-
tage of having Tholuck within its walls, who 'is as -much distinguished
for piety as for his learning. I have seen a little work of his on the
Theology of the Ancient Persians, which states in the title-page that
the materials were derived from Arabic, Persic and Turkish manu-
scripts, in the Royal Library of Berlin. As Tholuck is at present not
more than eight or nine and twenty, he must have published that
work when he was about twenty-four or five ! This is a wonder to
me. I have also seen a treatise of his to show that Christ is the cen-
tral sun and key of the Old Testament. His work on the Romans, I
was told by Profesor Stapfer here, was the best that has been pubr
lished. He has also written a work which has produced a great im-
pression, on the doctrine of Redemption. One of the leading Pro-
fessors of Berlin also, Neander, is orthodox on all the great
points.
Yours with filial respect and affection,
C. H.
JET. 29.] LIFE IN HALLE. 1 1 5
LEAVES PARIS FOR HALLE.
He left Paris on the I5th of February, 1827, at 5 o'clock,
p. M., and traveled by diligence during the coldest weather
of that entire winter, through Chalons, Metz, Mayence,
Frankfort and Leipsic to Halle, passing- the Rhine on the
ice. He arrived at Halle, Wednesday morning, February
28th, at 2 o'clock.
The same day he wrote to his wife.
My Dear Sarah : Halle is, beyond dispute, the dirtiest, ugliest,
gloomiest town of its size I ever saw. It is a great relief to find two
Americans here who welcome a countryman with sincere pleasure.
Mr. Robinson I think you saw in Princeton. He is reserved and
cold, but at the same time he appears to be really kind, and puts
himself to more trouble to be of service than many whose feelings
lead them to a more warm and cordial expression of good-will. He
is one of those men, I suspect, who slowly and surely make their way
to your confidence, which they seldom show to be misplaced. I an-
ticipate, therefore, much solid advantage from being associated with
him. I have taken a room next to his in a house which belongs to
and is in part occupied by Gesenius. Mr. Cunningham, from Boston,
is in the same house. He is a handsome young man, apparently
very amiable and quite prepossessing. We breakfast and tea sepa-
rately in our own rooms, and dine together at half-past twelve at a
public house. The rest of the day is taken up in studying and at-
tending lectures, which is the best manner of attaining this exceed-
ingly difficult language. Your husband, C. H.
The day after his arrival he was introduced to Gesenius,
Niemeyer, Tholuck and Jacob. The day of this introduc-
tion he wrote to his mother.
HALLE, March i, 1827.
Dear Mother : I have seen two of the most celebrated Professors,
and have experienced very sensibly how a man sinks into his proper
size when seen face to face. When viewed from the other side of the
Atlantic, these men seemed something out of the ordinary course of
things, but here, whatever their minds may be, their bodies are made
of very vulgar clay. I have never been so disappointed in my life
as in the appearance of Gesenius, who is the first Hebrew scholar
probably in the world. He is not more than forty years old, frivo-
lous, and, what is a wonder here, rather foppish in his appearance.
1 1 6 LIFE IN HALLE. [1827.
He has a silly laugh for every thing he says, and is in short the last
man I should have selected from ten thousand as a distinguished
philologist. He is, however, affable, polite and kind in his manners.
Although you cannot force yourself to respect him, you feel at ease
arid pleased in his society. All physiognomy and craniology fail, I
think, in reference to such men, for his talents and erudition are un-
questionable. I heard him lecture this afternoon, and though by no
means imposing even in the desk, he appears to more advantage than
in his own study. Tholuck, who is only twenty-nine or thirty, is a
very remarkable man. He is a wonder in this part of Germany for
being pious, and his countenance is expressive and pleasing. He
speaks a multitude of languages, and English among the rest. The
German Professors study in complete dishabille. It is a great pity
that the literary men of this country should be kept so perfectly
distinct- as to have none of the advantages which the intercourse
with society gives. Tholuck, however, has traveled considerably,
and, when out of his study, exhibits a very different appearance.
Your affectionate husband, C. H.
When he had been a little more than three months in Halle,
in a letter to Dr. Alexander, Mr. Hodge corrected the state-
ment of his first impression of Gesenius given above, and
gives an account of his own occupations. " Of the critics,
Gesenius appears by far the ablest, and is perhaps, doing
the most harm, although he confines himself to the Old
Testament, and appears to give himself no manner of con-
cern about any doctrinal subject, and to take no interest in
any discussion not purely of a critical character. He says
a book is genuine or not, without caring in the least whether
it pleases one party or the other. And this increases his
influence as it gives him the appearance of impartiality.
The first impression which his manner and appearance
make, as I mentioned in one of my first letters from Halle,
is by no means favorable. But in the lecture-room it is
very different. He is so clear and animated, and so per-
fectly master of his subject, that I do not wonder at his
being so popular. His lectures on Job this summer are
attended by more than three hundred students, who fill the
room almost to suffocation. I attend this course four
JET. 29.] LIFE IN HALLE. 1 1 7
times a week and his lecture on Syriac twice a week
Reisig on the more difficult points of Greek grammar
five times a week ; and Tholuck's Introduction to Theology
twice a week. My reason for attending the latter is
principally to gain an acquaintance with the theological
literature; as his object is not merely to give a systematic
arrangement of the subjects, and point out the way in
which they should be studied, but also to give the character
of the most important works belonging to each department.
I have private lessons in Syriac three times a week, and
German still every day."
IHe was at once admitted to the intimacy of Tholuck,
and formed a personal friendship, which on both sides re-
mained unabated to the end of their long livesT] Not long
before his own death, in 1877, Tholuck sent his friend with
warm expressions of love, a photographic likeness of him-
self, which was cherished by his friend with great tender-
ness for the short year he survived him.
On the nth of March, 1827, Mr. Hodge wrote to his wife.
My Dearest Sarah : I have by this time become quite reconciled
to Halle. The weather has been of late so fine, that every thing
looks more pleasant. I have not seen much of any of the Professors
here excepting Tholuck, with whom I walk three or four times a week
for an hour or two together. He has been also kind enough to call
two or three times and read German with me. Being a young man
and a pious one, and being very fond of exercising himself in Eng-
lish, which is one of the fifteen languages he understands, he puts
us entirely on a level with himself, and is very instructive. I look at
him frequently with wonder. Not older than I, he is the author of
some of the best Biblical works in Germany, and has a fund of know-
ledge which few men attain at the end of the longest life. The great
superiority of German learning (and the superiority is great) arises 1
not from the mode of instruction in the universities, but from the ex-
cellence of their primary schools. A boy is so well grounded in
Greek and Latin that he has no trouble with these languages. As
these are the great instruments of learning in all departments, they
have nothing to do but to apply them.
Your affectionate husband, C. H.
Il8 LIFE IN HALLE. [1827.
JOURNAL.
March th, Sabbath. The evening was spent at Prof.
Tholuck's, with Mr. Robinson and Mr. Cunningham. Our
conversation was principally on the doctrines of religion.
Tholuck said he thought the doctrine of depravity was the
most important doctrine of the gospel, and that he did not
believe a Pelagian could be a Christian, Justification, he
explains after the manner of the old Lutherans, as founded
on the imputed righteousness of Christ. He does not be-
lieve in the personal efficiency of the human soul, and,
therefore, thinks that all acts come from God ; when good,
both as to their substance and quality ; when evil, the
quality is from the sinner himself.
In prophecy and types he is also of the same opinion,
holding to the double sense. He asked me if I did not find
myself unsettled in reading the exegetical works of the
modern German school. I answered, no, at which he
seemed surprised, and asked what views I entertained about
prophecy. I told him I considered the Prophets under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, and that they often wrote
what they themselves did not understand, and when intend-
ing to describe their own circumstances, or events immedi-
ately at hand, really did describe the circumstances of
Christ and his church, &c., &c., &c. He exclaimed, Oh, if
you are upon that ground Neology never can touch you.
He gave us a very interesting account of the state of re-
ligion in Berlin, which he described as very flourishing.
He mentioned particularly a Prussian Baron, whose emi-
nent piety first brought him (Tholuck) to reflection and
seriousness. The thought which constantly struck him
when contemplating the character of this good man was
Can all this be the effect of natural disposition ? Is it not
the result of divine influence? Neander, he also repre-
sented as a model of Christian excellence.
March 6th, Tuesday. This morning I called on Prof.
Tholuck, agreeably to appointment, and walked a mile or
JET. 29.] LIFE IN HALLE. I j g
two out of town with him. Our conversation was princi-
pally upon biblical and doctrinal subjects. In their uni-
versity studies, he told me, they generally commenced by
giving a course of Encyclopaedia^ which pointed out the
several departments of Theology, the method of studying
them, and the books of most importance under each.
They give the Einleitung or Introduction to the Scriptures,
which includes an account of the criticism, authenticity,
contents, etc., of the sacred volume. Then Exegesis, and
then a Philosophical view and systematic arrangement of
the doctrines^
He talked a great deal about the philosophical opinions
of the present German Literati. Kant's system is univer-
sally abandoned. Fichte, who followed him, is also for-
gotten. Schelling has shared the same fate. The reigning
philosopher of the day is Hegel. Schleiermacher has a
system of his own. The present systems are all Pantheistic.
Hegel and Schleiermacher both deny the personality of the
Deity and the individuality of the soul of man. The uni-
versal principle with them is God, and, according to Hegel,
the world itself is the Realitat of the Deity, and all it con-
tains, the different races of men, and the animals in their
various orders, are all modes of existence of this one
universal principle. .This, at least, is the idea I got from
Tholuck's description. For I do not pretend to understand
a system which its author says is comprehended only by
two theologians in Germany ; and which, as Gesenius very
properly remarked to Mr. Robinson, was thereby proved to
be not worth understanding. Even the Biblical Theolo-
gians of Germany are so led away by the speculative spirit,
so characteristic of its inhabitants, that it seems impossible
they should be restrained within the bounds of sober and
important truth, except by the influence of religion on their
hearts. Tholuck, himself, who has much of this philoso-
phizing spirit, considers matter as only a different modifica-
tion of spirit, the essence of both being the same. I
I2O LIFE IN HALLE. [1827.
understood him to say that Neander was of the same
opinion.
March Jth. This morning, at 9, I attended Wegschei-
der's lecture upon the Acts of the Apostles, and then Gese-
nius on Ecclesiastical History. I have as yet been by no
means favorably impressed with this oral method of instruc-
tion. The only advantages I can perceive attending it, are
that information is conveyed to a greater number than
would take the trouble to take it out of books, and that
viva voce communication is perhaps more spirited and im-
pressive. I called, with Mr. Robinson, upon Wegscheider,
and found him in his study surrounded with books. He is
rather a dull, heavy man, in his appearance and manner of
lecturing. But he was very affable and agreeable in his
manners, and appears frank and kind.
March 8th. This morning, at 1 1 o'clock I called upon
Prof. Tholuck, and walked with him until one. He said it
was evident that vital religion was very much increasing in
Germany, and he thought, that the pantheistic philosophy
of the day was doing good inasmuch as it led men to
entertain a " deep religious feeling," and showed them the
insufficiency of the neological systems. Schleiermacher,
especially, he thought was made an instrument of great
usefulness, partly without designing it, or in a way which
he did not contemplate. His authority stands so high that
the respect which he manifests for the Bible, and the rever-
ence with which he speaks of Jesus Christ, has great influ-
ence. He has thus been the means of awakening the
attention to religion of many young men, and of some of
great eminence, as Neander, who after renouncing Judaism,
was for some time a disciple of Rousseau. Tholuck, him-
self, attributes much of his religious feeling to Schleier-
macher's influenced About 4 o'clock Tholuck called for me
to walk with him, and, although much fatigued by the
morning excursion, I could not deny myself the pleasure.
His conversation was principally on practical religion.
MT. 29.] LIFE IN BERLIN. 121
Saturday, March loth. This morning I had for the first
time the pleasure of hearing Tholuck. He was upon the
first part of the 5th chapter of Malachi. It was pleasant
to hear at least one of the celebrated Professors of the Uni-
versity giving a religious cast to his exposition of Scrip-
ture. After his lecture, I walked with him until dinner
time. He said he did not always approve of the manner
of interpretation adopted by the Tubingen Professors, and
that he thought that Storr especially was often very unnat-
ural. In the afternoon Tholuck was kind enough to call
and read with me, or rather for me, a part of Olshausen, on
the secondary sense of SS. He professed himself an ad-
herent to the grammatical historical method of interpreta-
tion, but said this would bring out the secondary sense.
Monday, March I2th. Spent mostly at home alone,
pursuing the dull task of learning German. Heard Weg-
scheider in the morning and Gesenius in the afternoon.
Tuesday, March ijth. In conversation with my German
teacher, who is a pious young man, I learnt that the
number of pious students here is not so great as I had been
led to expect. He said there were not more than twenty
of the seven hundred, theological students; a much larger
number, however, are more or less orthodox. At Tubin-
gen, he said, there was no pious professor in the university,
although much piety in the town. At 1 1 o'clock I walked
with Tholuck. He said he thought the number of pious
students here was greater than my teacher had admitted.
But that it was impossible to say. He was disposed to
think that very few of those not religious were orthodox
that in Germany there is such an indefinite variety of
opinion that men do not admit of classification. Many
profess to be supernaturalists, merely because they believe
in miracles. He said the works in general belonging to
the department of periodical literature were superficial.
Bertholdt's, though neological, was the best, except a Cath-
olic one published in Vienna. Tholuck spoke in terms of
122 LIFE IN BERLIN. [1827.
great admiration of Martyn, and said he was so delighted
with his memoirs that he had determined to translate them,
but was anticipated. He has himself long cherished a
strong desire to consecrate himself to the missionary work.
But Providence has as yet closed the way. He' spoke feel-
ingly of the peculiar difficulties which most of the present
pious learned men have to contend with. Having most of
them been previously neologists, they found their old scep-
tical doubts, particularly with regard to the Old Testament,
continually to harass them.
Wednesday, March i^th. I have, this evening, had the
pleasure of conversing for two or three hours with Tholuck
in my own room. Our conversation was principally on the
philosophical systems of Germany. He said that many
Christian theologians were inclined to many of the princi-
ples of the Pantheistic philosophers that they could not
conceive how God could create out of nothing and there-
fore admit that the material universe and the soul of man
are of the divine essence. But they differ from the Panthe-
ists in being persuaded of the personality of the Deity, and
the individuality of the human soul, believing that it is the
highest exercise of divine power to confer this personal
individuality upon his creatures. Schleiermacher would
not admit the appellation of Pantheist, which he says is a
nick-name, and belongs to the materialistic Pantheists, while
he is himself what would be commonly understood by the
term. Tholuck said that of English philosophers Reid and
Hume were most esteemed, Stewart less, and Locke not at
all. fit seemed to me a great misfortune that philosophy is
mixed up with religion in this country/ for it gives so
abstruse and mystical a character to the explanations of im-
portant truths that there is little reason to be surprised that
the term Mystics has been applied to the advocates of
piety. Thus, for instance, they make faith to be the devel-
opment of the life of God in the soul that is the divine
essence everywhere diffused and the universal agent
MT. 29.] LIFE IN HALLE. 123
unfolding itself in the heart. Tholuck read several
passages for me from Schleiermacher's Dogmatik, but
they seemed to me to darken counsel by words without
wisdom. Tholuck surprised me by saying that since his
twentieth year he had seldom been able to secure more
than three or four hours a day for study.
Thursday, March ijth. Tholuck called at eleven for me
to walk with him. He said he thought the Rabbinical dia-
lect more important for the illustration of the New Testa-
ment than any other whatever, and, therefore, more useful
to the Biblical student than either Arabic or Syriac. Arabic
was of little use except to make use of the " helps " in
reading the Old Testament. He said he had been very
much struck with the coincidence between the manner of
expression and argument in the Rabbinical writers and
those of the New Testament.
In the evening, together with Mr. Cunningham, I drank
tea with Prof, von Jacob, who is an old gentleman, author
of some works of distinction on political economy. His
daughter is also an authoress, and remarkable for her
knowledge of language.
Tuesday, March 2Oth. Walked with Tholuck at eleven.
We were led at first to talk on the possibility of a Christian's
falling from grace, which led to the doctrine of the freedom
of the will. Tholuck said, he agreed entirely with the
doctrine of Edwards, on that subject. He told me that
Schleiermacher, who belongs to the Reformed Church, was
strenuous in his defense of some of its peculiar doctrines;
maintaining that they alone were consistent. He told me
also that there was more vitality among the Reformed than
among the Lutherans. Basle, Bremen, Bonn and the four
places in which religion is in the most flourishing state,
were principally settled by the Reformed. At Berlin, also,
where there is so much religion, the Reformed are numer-
ous. In the evening, I drank tea with Robinson, Tholuck,
&c. Tholuck was in fine spirits, and surprised me by his
124 LIFE IN HALLE. [1827.
familiar acquaintance with the poetry and lighter works of
his own country. Scarcely a book was mentioned from
which he could not at once repeat numerous passages.
Thursday, March 22d. This morning I again had the
pleasure of walking with Tholuck. He finds a great deal
of difficulty, he says, in reconciling the doctrine of the final
perdition of all men who die in unbelief to his feelings, and
seems disposed to adopt the opinion, that there will be
hereafter, other offers of mercy to the souls of men. The
passage in Peter, referring to Christ's preaching to the
spirits in prison, he interprets as teaching a descent into the
abodes of departed souls, and the offer of salvation, to those
who had either not received or rejected them when on
earth. He says, that some evangelical men, in Germany,
hold something similar to the old doctrine of the Limbus
Patrum. Wegscheider maintains strenuously, that Paul
taught the doctrine of predestination just as the Calvinists
hold it, and urges this as a proof of the little dependence
we can place on that Apostle.
Saturday, March 2/f.th. This morning I took my last walk
with Tholuck. He is just leaving town for the vacation. He
told me he had much to endure from the many unfounded re-
ports, which the enemies of piety were constantly spreading,
respecting the few of that character here. He is much wor-
ried at what the Germans call Kleinstadtigkeit, i. e., little- city-
i?m y a most expressive word, which prevails in Halle. As
all the other professors are far from orthodox, he is regarded
as a strange being, and subject of suspicion and tale-bearing.
March jotk. Yesterday at dinner, I made the acquaint-
ance of our countryman, Rev. B. Kurtz. This evening I
spent in his company. He informed me that in St. Peters-
burg he had received one thousand rubles from the
Empress, and experienced considerable attention from dis-
tinguished personages. He spoke favorably of the state of
religion among the Lutherans in the sea provinces of
Prussia. Among the Greeks, as far as he could judge from
XT. 29.] LIFE IN HALLE. 125
the service of their churches, there was very little piety.
The service was in Sclavonic, which the people do not
understand. At Konigsberg, he also found a great deal of
piety, and in Berlin, as much as is to be met with in Phila-
delphia or New York. The Royal family paid him great
attention, and contributed handsomely to the funds of the
Seminary for which he is soliciting. In Copenhagen, he
was also received graciously by the King and Queen.
April ist, Sabbath. I had the pleasure of hearing Mr.
Kurtz preach a real evangelical sermon on Eph. iii. 19. May
God of His infinite mercy bless brother Kurtz for having
praised His Son, and representing love for Him to be the
one thing needful, without which, with all eloquence and all
learning, we should be only as a tinkling cymbal.
April jd. Mr. Kurtz says he has met a great many
pious Prussian officers. That in Berlin, in one company, he
saw twelve of this character. That the aids of the Crown
Prince, and almost all the Governors and Governesses, in
the Royal family, are of this character. The Moravians at
Herrnhut retain, he says, their evangelical character.
Sabbath, April 8th. This morning I attended the Re-
formed Church, and heard Herr Rinecker, who is considered
the best preacher in Halle. In the afternoon, I witnessed
the interesting service, attending the confirmation of from
fifty to one hundred children. They came to the church in
a procession preceded by the pastor, and attended with
music. As soon as they entered the building the organ
commenced playing, and an appropriate hymn was sung.
The minister then took his stand at the altar, and the children
stood up around him. After a short address he commenced
a catechetical exercise, which continued for about half an
hour. Another hymn was sung ; the organ was accom-
panied by four trumpets. This is the first time I have heard
this kind of music in a church. The effect upon my
feelings was very strong and very pleasing. The preacher,
Superintendant Tiemann then commenced his sermon from
126 LIFE IN HALLE. [1827.
Proverbs, " My son, give me thy heart." His discourse
appeared to me very good, recognizing the leading doc-
trines of the gospel, and delivered with a great deal of
animation. His audience was frequently in tears. In his
prayers for the dear children, whom he was about to receive
into full fellowship in the church, he prayed for every bless-
ing a Christian heart could desire. After leaving the pulpit
he again addressed the children, who read aloud the
Apostles' Creed, and audibly before the congregation pro-
fessed their faith. After this, they approached the pastor
four or five at a time, and kneeled before him. He, in the
name of the ever blessed Trinity, blessed them, and recog-
nized them as members of the church, taking each one by
the hand, and placing his hand upon their heads succes-
sively, as he addressed to them a short exhortation.
The impression which this whole service made upon my
mind was very pleasant. And I could not help feeling that
however little authority there may be for confirmation, as
of divine appointment, that some service of the kind might
properly be introduced into our churches. It would have
at least this good effect, that baptized persons would then
be brought more under the discipline of the church, and
the nature of their connection with it would be rendered
more definite. I could not help feeling also, from the impres-
sion made upon the children and the audience, that few
occasions would, humanly speaking, offer better opportuni-
ties of doing good to the souls of all present. [This I bear
testimony was Dr. Hodge's opinion, often expressed to the end
of his life]. God grant that this little flock of lambs which
has been gathered into the fold to-day on earth, may be recog-
nized by the Good Shepherd, as a part of that little flock to
whom it is the Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom.
Wednesday, April nth. This morning I went with Rob-
inson and Mr. Mtiller* to visit Merseburg and the battle-
* Since the Rev. George Miiller, of Bristol, England, who was Mr. Hodge's
German teacher in Halle,
,ET. 29.] LIFE IN BERLIN. 127
field of Rossbach. We set off at five o'clock, and the day
proving remarkably fine, we had a very pleasant ride.
Merseburg is a pleasantly situated town of about nine
thousand inhabitants, and about half an hour beyond it lies
the field upon which Frederick the Great, in 1757, defeated
the French. A simple monument is raised on a small
mound in the middle of the extensive plain. The inscrip-
tion states that the monument was erected by the 3d corps
of the Prussian army after the battle of Leipsic in 1813,
the previous monument having been removed or destroyed
by the French. From the foot of this monument we
counted between forty and fifty villages, which were all dis-
tinctly visible from the spot. From Rossbach, we rode
over the country to Llitzen. Here we had the pleasure of
visiting the simple monument erected on the spot where
the body of Gustavus Adolphus was found, after the san-
guinary battle of Liitzen, 1632. This monument is nothing
more than a large granite stone, on which the name of the
fallen hero, and the date of his death* are cut. Stone seats
are placed around for the convenience of visitors. Here
one of the greatest generals and monarchs of his age fell.
Here Charles XII. of Sweden stood. Here Napoleon
fought and conquered almost for the last time. The great
battle between the French and the Allies, in 1813, occurred
on the opposite side of the town. But Liitzen itself was
afterwards occupied by the French, and the Allies filled the
surrounding country.
Friday, April ijth. This being Good Friday, I attended
the service of the Lutheran church this morning. The
Lord's Supper was administered after the ordinary exercises.
The three pastors of the church proceeded to the altar, on
which was a small silver image of our blessed Saviour, and
several large wax candles, very like the altars seen in
Catholic chapels. The officiating clergyman read an ex-
planation of the sacred supper, and an exhortation to the
people, and then turned to the altar, and in a solemn voice
! 2 8 LIFE IN BERLIN. [1827.
chanted the consecrating service. The two other clergymen
first received the communion from his hands kneeling;
then one of them took his stand at one end of the altar,
while the officiating clergyman stood at the other. One
took the bread and the other the cup. The people then
approached, three or four at a time, and kneeling before the
first suffered him to place the consecrated wafer in their
mouths ; they then rose and proceeding to the second
clergyman, in the same way received the wine at his hands.
In neither case were they allowed to touch the element
with their hands. I should have thought myself in a
Catholic chapel, were it not for the sound of the German
language instead of the Latin. Very few of the Lutheran
clergy retain their belief in the doctrine of consubstantia-
tion, and yet the customs and ceremonies which arose out
of it, are almost all preserved. I felt like a stranger here,
and longed for the time when again, in the simple Scrip-
tural manner of our church, I could partake of the me-
morials of our dying Saviour's love.
Wednesday, April i8th. This day has been observed as
the Jubilee of Niemeyer, the Chancellor of the University,
who has now completed the fiftieth year of his academical
life. We called with all the rest of the world to present
our felicitations to the old gentleman this morning. lis
rooms, which are spacious, were crowded with strangers,
and ornamented with the numerous presents which had
flowed in upon him at this season. Here we met among
many other strangers, Schleiermacher and Bishop Eylert,
from Berlin, Bishop Westermeyer, from Magdeburg, Titt-
mann from Leipsic, &c. &c. At eleven o'clock the com-
pany met in the Hall of the University. Professor Schultz
read a Latin address ; after which, the Curator of the Uni-
versity, presented Niemeyer with a beautiful porcelain vase
in the name of the King. Bishop Eylert made a long dis-
course in German. Tittmann and his colleague from Leip-
sic each spoke in Latin. The pro-rector then exhibited
JET. 29.] GNADA U AND MA GDEB URG. 129
the marble bust of Niemeyer, which the University had
caused to be made as an expression of their esteem. He
received also a porcelain vase, presented by his numerous
pupils of past days, and a silver civic crown from the city
of Halle, to which he was a great benefactor during the
last war.
Gnadau, Saturday, April 28th. This morning at eight
o'clock I left Halle with the intention of making a short
tour before the lectures commenced. The whole of this part
of the country is a great plain. The land is generally fertile,
and the villages frequent and miserably built, and the people
poorly clad. Gnadau is a settlement of the Moravians, the
congregation including only two hundred members. The
village is remarkably neat, and the people superior in ap-
pearance to those of the neighborhood. In the evening, at
seven o'clock, I went to the Prayer Hall, where the brethren
assemble for their evening worship, and heard only singing.
In the morning at half-past eight, I went again, and heard
the Liturgy read and sung. At ten o'clock was the regular
preaching. The preacher chose for his text the passage of
St. John which describes our Saviour as the Good Shepherd.
Like all the sermons I have heard in Germany, this sermon
was hortatory, instead of doctrinal, and unlike most it was
pious and animated. From all I could see and hear, I should
judge that the spirit of pure and simple piety is preserved
in a high degree among these people, and the superior com-
fort and intelligence of the inhabitants was very striking.
Monday, April joth. This morning early I rode over to
Gloetke, a small village about five miles distant, and spent
a very pleasant day with the pastor, Westermeyer. This is
a pious and intelligent young man, son of the Bishop of
Magdeburg. He was brought to an entire change in his
views and feelings during a six months' residence in England
and Scotland.
Magdeburg, Tuesday, May ist. As this city, with the
exception of the Cathedral and a few small houses, was
9
130 MAGDEBURG. [1827.
utterly destroyed by the Austrian general Tilly, 1631, it is
comparatively modern, and therefore agreeable. It is situated
on the Elbe, has numerous manufactures, and contains about
33,000 inhabitants. The fortifications of this place are said
to be among the most formidable in Germany, and the
garrison at present between two and three thousand men.
In the evening I called upon Bishop Westermeyer, and was
very kindly received.
Wednesday, May 2d. I visited this morning the celebrated
Cathedral. The tout-en-semble of this building, either
externally or internally, is not striking, and will not admit of
comparison with that of Rouen. But it contains many most
interesting monuments and works of art. Near the altar is
interred the Emperor Otho I. who died A. D. 973. His
tomb is now covered with a plain marble slab without an
inscription; the silver railing by which it was surrounded
was taken away by Tilly. His wife's tomb, an English
Princess, is striking from the ancient figures which are
sculptured upon it I was shown the helmet, commander's
staff and gloves of mail of Tilly, which were secured after
his defeat near Leipsic, and deposited here by Gustavus
Adolphus. The pulpit was a most beautiful piece of i/th
century workmanship, made of alabaster and profusely orna-
mented with figures relating to Scripture history. Among
the various tombs which are shown to the stranger, there
was none to me so striking as that of the Archbishop
Ernest, erected in 1497. It is entirely of bronze, and
covered with figures for the most part emblematic. A
figure of the Archbishop in his robes lies upon the top; his
countenance is remarkably fine. The whole monument,
although so old, appears fresh and new. ... I drank tea
to-day with Bishop Westermeyer, and was impressed very
much with the free and friendly manner in which he treated
me. They all had so much to ask about America that I
learned but little about Germany. Through the influence
of the good Bishop, I obtained permission from the Com-
JET. 29-] LEIPSIC.
mander to ascend the tower of the Cathedral, a thing which
on military grounds is permitted to few. The ascent is by
240 stone steps, and the view is very extensive.
In the evening I called on the pastor Storig, who, I under-
stand, is almost the only orthodox minister in Magdeburgh.
Here again the warm-hearted kindness of the Germans was
manifested. The pastor and his family were particularly
desirous of learning the character of the Presbyterians in
America, whom they appeared to regard very much as we
do the Covenanters or the Puritans. He told me he agreed
with the younger Westermeyer, who, I find, is looked upon
as something out of the ordinary course, since he is what
we should call faithful and pious.
On Thursday, May jd, I left Magdeburg, and reached
Leipsic the evening of the next day.
Saturday, May $th. I walked out this morning to see
the appearance of Leipsic during the great fair, which
attracts people from so many different and distant places.
The streets were thronged^with a very heterogeneous crowd,
Greeks and Jews, Hungarians, Frenchmen, etc., etc. All
the streets which were wide enough for the purpose, were
lined with booths in which every variety of article was
exposed for sale. The most numerous class of merchants
appear to be Jews. Their signs written in German and
Hebrew are everywhere to be seen. They almost all wear
their beards, and the better sort are clothed in a silk frock-
coat reaching down to their feet, and bound round their
waist with a girdle. The poorer class have a similar dress
of cotton and woolen, and many of them seem miserably des-
titute. The Greeks were dressed in a loose frock of green
cloth reaching to the knees, the sleeves large and open ex-
cept at the wrist. Their appearance was tasteful. The Hun-
garians had large loose coats of wool, of its natural color,
reaching to the feet. I spent a considerable part of the day in
the museum, which contains all the literary publications of
this part of the country and some from France and England.
132 LEIPSIC. [1827.
Sabbath, May 6th. This morning I went to the St.
Thomas Church at half-past seven, when the service com-
menced. The church was crowded, the singing continued
for nearly an hour, when the superintendent Tzchirner,
ascended the pulpit and preached a very interesting sermon,
as far as I could understand. The Lord's Supper was after-
wards administered with more ceremony than I had yet
seen it in a Lutheran Church. The Consecration Service
was as usual chanted, one minister standing at the altar, and
the other immediately behind him. Two little boys clothed
in black frocks and white scarfs stood on each side of the
altar. I observed that the ministers and their attendants
bowed not only when the words " Jesus Christ " occurred,
but when he repeated the phrases "this is my body," "this
is the New Testament in my blood." When the communi-
cants received the wafer, it was placed in their mouths, and
the little boys held a blue napkin spread out beneath to
prevent the least particle falling to the ground. The same
precaution was observed when the wine was administered.
Monday, May jth. This morning I called on Professor
Hahn, to whom I had a letter. He is a man of about
thirty-five, I should suppose, rather small and by no means
imposing in his appearance. He received me with great
kindness, and offered to call with me upon any of the other
Professors whom I wished to see. We accordingly called
on Professor Linden, who has the superintendence of the
Pedagogium. He as well as Prof. Hahn are Christians, as
pious men are emphatically called here. In the afternoon,
I went with Messrs. Robinson and Cunningham to the
garden, in which there is a simple monument to Prince
Poniatowsky, erected near the spot on which he lost his
life, in attempting to cross the Saale.
Tuesday, May 8th. This morning Prof. Hahn called,
and accompanied us to Prof. Tzchirner's. This gentleman
is the continuator of Schrockh's Ecclesiastical History, and
author of the Analecta and some other works. He is now
JET. 29.] LIFE IN HALLE. 133
engaged in writing the history of the fall of Paganism. He
is also distinguished as the great anti-Catholic champion.
He is a very polite and agreeable man, considerably ad-
vanced in life. In his sentiments, I am told, he agrees more
with the English and American Unitarians, than with the
German Rationalists. I also had the pleasure of seeing
Prof. Winzer and Prof. Beck, who is quite old, but very
amiable and kind in his manners. Rosenmtiller was the
only other one of the Leipsic literati whom I had the plea-
sure of calling upon. He is a tall, great-headed man, has
an impediment in his utterance, and does not impress a
stranger so agreeably as some other of the gentlemen
mentioned.
This evening I returned to Halle.
May 1 2th. I have had the pleasure of seeing Tholuck
several times since my return. He seems much benefited
by his journey, and has had, he says, his heart warmed in
Berlin, and has heard many circumstances of an encourag-
ing character, relative to the progress of vital piety in
Germany.
May 20th. Having since this day week dined in com-
pany with Tholuck every day, and expecting to continue
this agreeable and profitable arrangement, I have already
increased my acquaintance with the character and opinions
of persons whom I have no opportunity of seeing per-
sonally, and I hope to do so still more.
Tholuck says, that Professor Hengstenberg of Berlin was
formerly of Bonn, and a very warm and decided rationalist.
Although now not more than twenty- five years old,
he was already so distinguished that professorships in
several departments were in his offer, Greek, Oriental Lan-
guages, Philosophy and Theology. He determined, how-
ever, to leave Bonn, and left behind him a strong and open
declaration of his principles. Shortly after, he was led to
attend a religious service among the Moravians. The dis-
course made such an impression on his mind, that his con-
134 LIFE IN HALLE. [1827.
fidence in the truth of his own opinions was very much
shaken. He betook himself to the simple study of the
Bible, and at last came out a firm and practical believer in
the great truths of the Gospel. He is now Professor of
Oriental Languages at Berlin, and exceedingly bold. In
one of his first lectures he said : " It matters not whether
we make a god out of stone, or out of our own under-
standing, it is still a false god; there is but one living God,
the God of the Bible." This declaration was received with
hissing and scraping by a large part of the students, by
which he was little intimidated. He often asserts that it is
only the heart which doubts.
Olshausen, the pious professor in Konigsberg, is also
a young man not more than two or three and thirty. He
too was formerly a Rationalist, but when his heart was once
touched his opinions changed of course. Tholuck told me
he used to think he was one of the last persons likely to be
converted. He was continually exhorting him (Tholuck)
to beware of Pietism and Mysticism, and reproaching him
with being a Herrnhutter. Shortly after one of these con-
versations, Olshausen thought he would see for himself
what Moravianism was, and so read the Life of Zinzen-
dorf. On Tholuck's next visit he was surprised to see him
dejected and sad, and asked him if he were not well.
" Yes," he answered, " but my dear Tholuck, I have been
railing at you as a Herrnhutter, but I knew not what it
meant, and that book (Life of Count Z.), showed that I did
not know what I am myself." He is now one of the warm-
est and most decided Christians in Germany.
May 26. I have within a few days had the pleasure of
several interviews with the Rev. Mr. McCall, who has been
for six years a missionary among the Jews in Poland. He
appears to be a warm and sincere Christian, entertaining
most of the opinions relative to the Jews, which their pecu-
liar friends generally hold respecting their restoration and
future exalted state in the church on earth, etc. He says
JET. 29.] LIFE IN HALLE. I 35
that the Jews are very willing to hear, so much so that
there is no necessity to seek them ; they come in crowds to
the house in which they know the missionary is to be
found. They are exceedingly ignorant ; when best educated
their learning being confined to the Talmud. The Scrip-
tures have little authority with them. They have a common
saying which illustrates their sentiments on this point, viz. :
*' The Scriptures are water, the Mishna wine, the Gemara
spiced wine." The Pentateuch and historical books they
can generally understand, but the Prophets few of them can
translate. They are complete Pharisees in all their opinions
and customs, and are generally sincere in their faith. There
is a class among them calling themselves German Jews, who
are generally infidels. Another sect, which is of recent
origin, but which has taken the old name Hasidim, pretend
to peculiar sanctity. Their rabbis are infallible, work
miracles, give absolution, etc. The Jews are miserably
filthy and offensive when not raised much above the ordi-
nary level by wealth. They are, however, more moral than
either the Catholics or Protestants of Poland. Little has
been effected among them as yet, except the production of
a general spirit of inquiry, and the diminution of their pre-
judice against Christians. Very few of them can be in-
duced to engage in agriculture. They prefer merchandise
in its various forms.
Among the Catholics, who are exceedingly degraded and
superstitious, there have recently been several conversions.
That of a young priest has excited a great deal of atten-
tion. Mr. McCall speaks of him as likely to become a
second Luther. The Grand Duke Constantine is very
favorable to missions and adverse to the Catholics. Mr.
McCall, when passing through Berlin, was sent for by the
Crown Prince,* who was very inquisitive about the
mission, and expressed his approbation and interest in
* Frederick William IV., elder brother of the present Emperor of Germany.
136 LIFE IN HALLE. [1827.
its success. It is interesting in a country where the
King is head of church and state, and has such uncon-
trolled sway, to know the character of those who are likely
to' influence the religion of Germany. As illustrative of
the character of the Crown Prince it is worth while to men-
tion some things which he said to Mr. McCall. He ex-
pressed his deep regret that so large a portion of the clergy
had renounced the pure " Bible faith," and preached such
"stupid stuff" as the Rationalists do in its place. ,He
was rejoiced, he said, that there were several in Berlin who
now preached the true doctrines. He spoke of the state of
the English Church, where, he said, they retained the doc-
trines, but had not much of the living power of the gospel.
God grant that he in whose hands so much power may one
day be lodged, may use it for his glory.
Halle, June 2Oth. Tholuck surprised me very much this
evening by the account which he gave of the prevalence of
Rationalism in Germany from 1790 to 1815 or '17. During
this period, with the exception of the Tubingen theolo-
gians, there was scarcely a voice raised against the prevail-
ing system of Deism. He had himself lived to his fifteenth
or sixteenth year without having seen any person who be-
lieved in the Bible ! excepting one boy, in the school to
which he went. In this school the Deistical system alone
was taught: and this was almost universal. Of the old
men, who belonged to the preceding generation, some few
remained who still held to the old system, but in town and
country, among professors and pastors, the Rationalistic
opinions were so dominant, that with few exceptions no one
had courage to support the contrary doctrines. Professor
Harms of Kiel, blessed be his memory! was the first to
break this dreadful stillness. Upon the occasion of the
ter-centennial celebration of the Reformation of Luther, he
published the theses of that great man, and added many of
his own against Rationalism. He was overwhelmed with
abuse. No less than eighty pamphlets of all kinds in Ger-
,ET. 29.] VISIT TO DRESDEN. 137
man and Latin were directed against him. But from this
time the advocates of the truth began to multiply, and its
progress has been constant, and in some departments rapid
ever since.
August. I have recently had the pleasure of seeing two
pious preachers from the neighborhood of Elberfeld, Messrs.
Sanders and Krummacher. The account which they give
of the state of religion in that region is very encouraging.
In a small party, however, the doctrine of predestination
has been carried out into practical antinomianism. These
people feel themselves above the gospel and all its ordi-
nances, and when they condescend to enter a church it is
easy to see from their listless, careless, assured manner, that
they think the doctrines which they hear are only fit for
babes.
Monday, August 2*jth. This morning I left Halle with
Dr. Tholuck and Mr. Ehlers for Dresden. Our ride to
Leipsic was pleasant, and enlivened by the debates of these
gentlemen on philosophical points. Tholuck maintained
that what actually is, is all that is possible. That the world
cannot possibly be other than it is. He bases this opinion
on the attributes of God. He urges the idea that attributes
and essence are the same in the divine Being. That
beauty, holiness, knowledge are in God essential, that is,
that God is essential beauty, holiness and knowledge, etc.,
and that all the beauty, holiness and knowledge in the uni-
verse is not only derived from God, but is the beauty, holi-
ness, etc., of God, so that God is not only the most perfect
Being, but is all that is good or beautiful in the universe.
He makes the conscience of man and all his moral and re-
ligious powers the essence of God. For God cannot be
only the partaker of good, but must be all that is good.
In answer to my objection that we cannot conceive of
beauty as an essence or seyn (esse), any more than of pro-
portion as an essence, Tholuck replied, that proportion was
an essence, so that the proportion or relation of four to
138 DRESDEN". [1827.
eight, and of eight to sixteen is an essence, seyn. Prox-
imity is also an essence, a seyn, etc. Tholuck appeals
strongly to Augustine in support of his ideas on this sub-
ject, particularly to his ' Confessions.' One very important
principle of Tholuck's whole system seems to be entirely
false. He appears to make what the Germans call Anschau-
ung, the test of all truth respecting invisible things, that is,
the ability of forming a distinct image of the subject
before the mind. This they call intuition, and when they
cannot have such an Anschauung of any subject they can-
not feel its truth. But, as I said to Tholuck, it is utterly
impossible to form such a bild, or image of the soul, or of
God, or of any spiritual subject. But he maintained that
all clear ideas of these subjects assume this form, and that
this is the test of the correctness of these ideas.
We reached Dresden Tuesday evening, August 28th, and
put up at the Golden Anchor tavern. The next morning
I visited the gallery of paintings, which is the object of
most interest among the curiosities of this city. This
famous collection, thought to be the finest in modern
Europe, is by no means so imposing in its arrangement as
that of the Louvre. With regard to the pieces themselves,
I am not able to give any judgment. I was much disap-
pointed. Many of the paintings which are extolled as
master-pieces produced very little impression upon me.
The Night of Correggio belongs to this class. I can conceive
that an artist can take pleasure in discovering the beauties
of the proper distribution of light, which proceeds from
the infant Saviour, but this is as little adapted to the untu-
tored eye, as the intricate harmony of sound to the untu-
tored ear. The figures in this piece have no individual
beauty. The same confession I am obliged to make with
regard to most of the productions of Rubens. The color-
ing is indeed surprising, but the effect, for me, seldom,
either strong or pleasing. The Madonna of Raphael is an
exception. This was as much above, as the others were
J&T. 29.] DKESDEW. 139
below my expectations. The infant here is wonderful; the
expression of the eye belongs to no human infant, but we
may well imagine such an expression in the case of our
Saviour. The Virgin is the , ideal of human purity and
beauty ; what the human frame may be when this corrup-
tion has put on incorruption, and this mortal is clothed
with immortality.^ The Magdalen of Correggio, also, is a
beautiful picture, and many others which at first produced
little impression. I found it far more interesting, after
repeated visits to the gallery. But on every visit I was
attracted and held bound by Raphael's Madonna.
On Thursday morning I called with Tholuck and Ehlers,
upon the pastor Stephani, a man of about forty-five, of very
friendly and open manners, plain and blunt in all he says.
He is a warm Lutheran, reads the works of the Reformer
by day and night, and unfortunately insists as much upon
the peculiar tenets of his church as upon the points essen-
tial to godliness. He is, however, a great blessing to Dres-
den, and has served to keep alive a spirit of piety among
the common people. He was educated in Halle about
twenty years ago, and related many circumstances to show
how utterly to all appearance religion and orthodoxy had
died out. No one ever thought of preaching on the leading
truths of the gospel, and some went so far as to propose
to introduce a new Bible, which should contain more in-
teresting histories than those relating to the Jews, and a
purer system of morals.
This evening we drank tea with Mr. Zahn, a pious young
man who is director of a seminary for the education of
country school-masters. At 9 o'clock all his pupils were
collected in the lecture- room for prayers. After singing a
few verses Tholuck read and expounded the words, from
our Saviour's last address to his disciples, " In this world
ye shall have tribulation," &c. He made this a test of
Christian character in a very happy manner. " If," said he,
" the world satisfies us ; if in the society and pleasures of
140 THE SAXON SWITZERLAND. [1827.
the world we find no deficiency, nothing that gives pain,
that leaves our most urgent wants unsatisfied, we are not
the disciples of Christ. But if we are constantly longing
for the joys that flow from His presence, then we have part
in His promise. "I will give unto you eternal life."
Saturday, September ist. We left Dresden on an excur-
sion of a few days in the interesting country further up the
Elbe, called the Saxon Switzerland. Mr. Zahn accompanied
us a few hours distance to our dining-place. /He and
Tholuck, in a long argument against Ehlers and myself,
maintained that every thing in nature had Bewusstseyn,
consciousness, a sense of life trees, stones, everything that
exists. The arguments for this opinion were mostly drawn
from general pantheistic principles. For although these
gentlemen abhor Pantheism, they have, as far as their phi-
losophy is concerned, many principles in common with it.
About 10 o'clock we passed the Elbe at Pillnitz, the country
residence of the King of Saxony. The grounds are simple
and neat; the palace is simply a row of low buildings, occu-
pying three sides of a hollow square, facing inwards. We
dined at Lohmen, a village situated at the foot of the first
mountain. After dinner we rode about an hour up the
mountain, and then commenced our tour on foot under the
direction of a guide. We descended, by a flight of narrow
stairs, partly cut in the rock, and partly made of wood, into
a deep valley, or rather cleft, which intersects the mountain
in various directions. It is sometimes twenty or thirty
yards wide, and at others only a few feet, the rocks rising
on either side, in most instances perpendicularly, two, four,
or six hundred feet. Huge masses of rock have fallen
into this cleft, and where it is narrow, have been stopped in
their course, and remain jammed between the sides. After a
while we began to ascend at an opening where the ascent is
gradual and easy. Poor Tholuck began to walk too soon
after dinner, and hence was exceedingly unwell and could
enjoy nothing. The ascent brought us to the summit on
/ET. 29.] THE SAXON SWITZERLAND. 141
the bank of the Elbe ; here the rocks rise perpendicular to
the bed of the river, eight hundred feet high. From this
point the view is very extensive and very peculiar. On the
right you look over a large plain gradually rising toward
the horizon, over which immense piles of rock are scattered.
Some of these, as the Konigstein and the Lilienstein, are
miles in circumference, and rise perpendicularly for twelve
hundred feet. On the left we look over a vast number of
these rocky prominences, which stand as the skeletons of
mountains, from which all the softer parts have been washed
away. The prominence on which we stood is called the
Bastey. A bridge of wood is built over some of these
caverns, which gave us access to part of the mountain
which was formerly the resort of thieves, and afterwards
the place of refuge of the inhabitants in times of war. Evi-
dent indications that this wild region was once inhabited are
still visible such as flights of stairs cut out of the rocks,
the remains of walls by which the breaches of the natural
bulwarks were closed, &c., &c.
Tholuck, being too unwell to proceed, went by a nearer
way to the rendezvous of the carriage, and I proceeded with
the guide for an hour or two through the customary path-
way along the mountain. Early in the evening we reached
a bathing establishment, with an excellent public house,
romantically situated just without the small town of Schan-
dau, on the banks of the Elbe. Here we had a quiet Sab-
bath, September 2d. On our return we passed through
Pirna and Konigstein. Near the former place we visited a
very extensive hospital and asylum for insane persons. The
physician kindly went over the establishment with us, and
showed us the means of amusement and cure they had
devised for their patients. The latter are various bathing
establishments, chairs, and beds, which can be set in rapid
rotary motion, the quickness and duration of the motion
being proportioned to the state of the patient. Near this is
Konigstein, the celebrated fortification, built upon the rock
142 DRESDEN. [1827.
above mentioned. It has, I believe, never been subdued by
force. It contains a well said to be seven hundred feet deep,
cut through the rock. We reached Dresden again on the
afternoon of Monday, September 3d.
September ^.th, Dresden. This morning we spent about
an hour with Dr. Neander. He is rather an old-looking
man for thirty-five, has much of the Jewish countenance,
and his manners, though peculiar and awkward, are exceed-
ingly kind. The poor man has studied himself almost to
death. He is so weak, and his nerves so much shattered,
that he is not allowed to walk out alone. There is perhaps
a constitutional weakness of nerves about him, as his sisters
are very peculiar. The one who is traveling with him came
hurrying home the other day in a great fright, lest some one
should murder her brother in her absence. Neander is
beyond competition the first man in his department in
Germany, and is as much distinguished for his piety. Yet
his opinions are peculiar and arbitrary. He believes in
miracles, and yet gives himself the greatest trouble to
explain away the gift of tongues. I heard him at length
endeavor to interpret the passage in Acts as a mere natural
occurrence but very unsatisfactorily. He said the various
classes there mentioned spoke for the most part the same
language, that the number spoken did not exceed four, and
these the Apostles might have learned in the ordinary way.
The XahsZv fXcoacrat^ mentioned in Corinthians, he explains
of " ecstatic speaking," as Plutarch says the priestess of
Apollo "spoke with tongues. I am told Neander is a
Sabellian and Patripassian, but I know not. It is pleasant
to see that talent in Germany, at least in the learned profes-
sions, has fair scope. Neander's father was a Jew, who
trafficked in old clothes. Twesten's was a lamp-lighter.
Tholuck's a silver-smith.
I had the honor of dining twice with Twesten, who is a
hale, healthy-looking man. He belongs to the orthodox
party, and has the character of being more variously learned
JKT. 29.] LEIPSIC. 1 43
than most of his literary brethren not only in the various
branches of Theology, but in Philosophy, and the natural
sciences, medicine, law, &c., &c. He seems to have the
principle that a man to be properly cultivated should sub-
mit his mind to the influence of all kinds of knowledge.
He goes to the theatre from a sense of duty to cultivate his
taste. He has published the first volume of a system
of Theology, which, as far as its philosophy is concerned,
is like that of Schleiermacher, from whom, however,
he of course differs in many important points. He has
got free from the chains of Pantheism, the fragments of
which hang around many otherwise orthodox professors of
the present day. He makes the world, however, a living
being, if I understand Tholuck correctly.
I had also the pleasure of meeting Prof. Ritter, of Berlin,
who is more of a gentleman than most of the German
Doctors in externals. He has lately published a system of
Logic, directed against the Half-Kantians and Pantheists.
What his own opinions are I do not know, and suspect that
it is not easy, from his books, for a common man to dis-
cover. He says that every earnest and deep thinker has
always acknowledged that the human race has a general
personality distinct from that of the several individuals, i. e.,
the personalitat der Menschheit, distinct from that der
Menschen.
September loth. I left Dresden in the Post for Leipsic,
where I remained three or four days, and had the pleasure
of seeing much of Prof. Hahn, whose kindness I have much
reason to remember with gratitude. I heard him lecture on
the 1 5th chapter of ist Corinthians. His manner was feeble,
but what he said was clear and to the point. Hermann I
heard read on Hesiod. His lecture was in Latin, and his
manner very hesitating, a fault, I am told, which he has as
much when speaking German as Latin. I called also on
the preacher Wolf, and had about an hour's conversation
with him. Dr. Heinroth, who has written several works in
144 JENA. [1827.
favor of orthodox Christianity, is a small, active, fami-
liar man, speaking loud and bold on every subject.
His views are his own, and as he expresses his ideas
on Christian doctrines in philosophical language, it is
not always easy for the uninitiated to understand what he
means.
I left Leipsic on the evening of the 1 4th, in order to
reach Weimar on the morning of Saturday, the I5th. After
spending an hour or two in walking through the town, and
particularly through the Park, I rode over to Jena. Jena lies
in a hollow, surrounded by abrupt and high hills. On one
of these the Prussian army was encamped when it was so
totally defeated by Napoleon in 1806. The pass through
which he led his army and drew his cannon is so steep and
difficult, that an unencumbered man finds it no easy task to
make his way. In Jena I heard two miserably cold anti-
christian sermons: the one delivered in the University
Church, was by a young man without a trace of Christian
character in his discourse, and was intended for the students,
of whom I saw only one present. I have nowhere else been
so strongly impressed with the total absence of religion.
I am told that the students boast of the fact that they have
nothing of fanaticism among them. Fighting duels seems
to be as common here as ever. A few weeks since, a young
man, the only son of a widow, was killed. I have been in
Halle seven months without hearing a word said on the
subject. Yet one of the students lately said that they
occurred almost every day or two. Jena, however, has
always been particularly famous in this respect, and here the
method of fighting is more dangerous than in the other
universities, as thrusting is the fashion and not " slashing."
In Gottingen also, according to the statement of one of its
students, duelling is still exceedingly common. The stu-
dents are divided into innumerable Landsmannschaften,
which are not formed merely for the different states, but for
every neighborhood of the same state. Those from the
^ T . 29.] JENA AND HALLE. 145
same district band together, and have to maintain their owh
honor. If one be insulted, accidentally touched while
passing in the street, or the like, he or some other of his
company must fight the offender, or some one belonging to
his clan. And so it goes on, often half a dozen such affairs
in a week.
I had a letter from Dr. Tholuck to Dr. Baumgarten Cru-
sius, and from Gesenius to Dr. Hofmann. The former I
found buried in his books, although it was afternoon. He
had not yet made his toilet, which with a German Professor,
whose studying habiliments are rather peculiar, is essential
to his appearance in public. This good and famous man
was driving his studies without, to the best of my observa-
tion, even the encumbrance of a pair of pantaloons. As,
however, he is one of the most learned theologians of his
day, and withal received me so kindly, I should not dis-
course on such particulars. He is now engaged in printing
three works the one is a Dogmengeschichte ; the other
a Biblical Theology ; and the other I have forgotten. He
was kind enough to introduce me to Prof. Schott, Editor of
the New Testament, &c. He is an old man, and rather
peculiar in his manners. With Dr. Hofmann I supped on
Monday evening, and was very much pleased with him and
his family. He is distinguished as an Orientalist. Reads
Arabic, Syriac, Hebrew, Sanskrit, &c., &c. His Syriac
Grammar, which is just leaving the press, will be far the
most full and extensive yet published.
I left Jena on Tuesday, September i8th, for Halle, where
I remained until October loth, engaged principally in
writing. It was vacation ; my friends were absent. I supped
one evening with Gesenius, in company with Reisig, the
two Professors Niemeyer, Professors Meyer, Jacob and
Friedlander. Such loud talking and laughing would seldom
be heard among an equal number of English literati. Reisig
is a complete Bursche, loud and indelicate, but apparently
good-natured.
10
146 HALLE AND WITTENBERG. [1827.
LETTER FROM THOLUCK RECEIVED BY MR. HODGE WHILE
STILL IN HALLE.
RADENSLEBEN, NEAR RUFFIN, Sept. 22, 1827.
My Dear Beloved Brother in the Lord : I am sitting in a stately
castle ; opposite me are the dove cotes and gardens, and the great
highway ; in the room near me my beloved friend, Hengstenberg ;
round about me the articles for the Church Journal. The sky is
cloudy, the air is heavy, but my heart is light and dwells upon a far
distant land, and a beloved brother in another part of the world,
whom God has given to me. You, dear brother ! You have become
so dear to me that I can scarce express to you my love. But were
our bond not secure in God, it would be in vain ; and had we not
been directed to each other, in the spiritually dead Halle, our bond
would not have become so firm on God. Therefore I am sincerely
thankful to gloomy Halle
I reached Berlin about 8 o'clock in the evening. On the second day
I met by appointment Justice Focke, a very intimate friend of mine,
who said much to me regarding you, and is very proud of you. On the
third day I dined with the Patriarch (Baron Kottwitz), in a great com-
pany. O what vivifying power springs from such Christian fellowship.
Hengstenberg was not in Berlin, but at his parents-in-law, upon a
country estate 40 miles from Berlin. On the fourth day of my presence
in the city, a coach suddenly made its appearance, and bore me in
the country to visit him. Here I have been for eight days. My
dear friend, how are you passing your time in Halle ? Does it pass
pleasantly or drag upon your hands. Pray leave behind the glbomy
place, and hasten to friendly Berlin.
Now with sincere love, I commend you to God, and to the protec-
tion of His grace. Your faithful, A. THOLUCK.
JOURNAL.
On Wednesday evening, October loth, I left Halle, after
a residence of seven months, probably forever. A thought
which makes one sad, however little interest the object may
have in itself, which is seen for the last time. I reached
Wittenberg about six o'clock the next morning. I first
visited the Seminary which is intended for the more practi-
cal part of the preparation of students of theology for their
office. At present there are about twenty-five students, of
whom a considerable portion are considered really pious.
MT. 29.] WITTENBERG. 147
The old Prof. Schleusner, whom I wished very much to see,
was not in town. Prof. Heubner I heard lecture on the
history of Jacob and Joseph. This exercise was altogether
practical, and his remarks were characterized by a spirit of
genuine and devout piety.
After the lecture, I had the pleasure of attending him, in
a walk around the town, in company with the Chevalier
Bunsen, the Prussian ambassador in Rome, who also has
the reputation of being a Christian. He is at least very
zealous against the rationalists. We spent the evening at
Dr. Heubner's, the conversation turning on the King's new
liturgy, to which the clergy of Wittenberg are warmly
opposed; more, I believe, from the source from which it
comes, than from its contents.
I visited, in the course of the day, the church in which
Luther used to preach, and in which Luther and Melanch-
thon lie buried. A simple iron or bronze plate marks the
spot where these great men are awaiting the resurrection of
the just. An original likeness of each hangs on the wall
over their graves. These likenesses, which are in them-
selves fine pictures, are said to be remarkably true. The
Church is also ornamented with bronze figures of the
Electors of Saxony of that period. In walking down the
main street I was struck with the following inscription on
one of the houses. Hier wohnte, lehrte und starb Melanch-
thon. " Here Melanchthon lived, taught, and died." The
house in which Luther lived was formerly a -cloister, and is
now occupied by the Seminary. His chamber, however, is
left undisturbed, as he occupied it ; the same stove, the
same table of solid oak, and the same window chair, which
three hundred years ago supported the cumbrous weight of
the bold Reformer. The walls are covered with a thousand
names of insignificant persons distinguished from the
number, the cipher of Peter the .Great is preserved from a
fate, to which the others .seem with little remorse relin-
quished, by being covered by a pane of glass.
148 MOVES TO BERLIN. [1827.
BERLIN.
On Friday, the 1 2th of October, I arrived at Berlin and
put up in the Stadt Rome, under the Linden. The first
impression which Berlin makes on a stranger is very impos-
ing. The streets are broad, the houses large and well built,
and the avenue lined with a four-fold row of trees is cer-
tainly the finest street I have yet seen in Europe. On
Saturday, the I3th, I went early to see Tholuck, who was on
a visit to Berlin. I found him wrapt up in his schlafrock,
hard at work. His reception was extremely affect ionate.
We walked together about the town and through the Thier-
Garten, which is a great forest before the Brandenburg gate.
In the evening he took me to the house of Otto von Ger-
lach. Here I met with a number of Christians ; the Land-
gerichtsrath Focke; Kammergerichtsrath le Coq; the
Count von der Reke ; several military officers, and others.
Tholuck read and expounded a passage of Scripture ; we
prayed and sang a couple of hymns. The rest of the eve-
ning was spent in religious conversation. My heart was
rejoiced at the prospect of having such a place of religious
communion accessible every week.
[In order to introduce to the reader this remarkable circle of
Christian men with which it was the happiness of Mr. Hodge
to be associated during his residence in Berlin^and with
some of whom he corresponded for many years, I will give
a short account of the brothers von Gerlach, drawn chiefly
from Tholuck's biographical notice of Otto von Gerlach in
Herzog's Encyclopaedia. There were four brothers von
Gerlach, born in the following order: William, a lawyer;
Ernest Ludwig, statesman ; Leopold, a soldier, and Otto, a
clergyman. They sprang of a noble family; one of the few
which followed the Brandenburg family when they went
into the Reformed Church, the members of which had, for
a hundred years, served the king in office. The friends of
Mr. Hodge were Ludwig and Otto. Of the latter, Tholuck
JET. 29.] EX PL ANA TOR Y NO JES. 1 49
says that, "in 1820, after studying law, he came to Berlin,
entering a circle in which Christian life existed in freshest
bloom. It was the beautiful time of first love, when a num-
ber of young men of rank, principally of the military and
legal professions, some of them returned from the wars of
liberty, drew together in loving friendship in Christ. Under
the impressions made on him in this beautiful society, his
early love for the gospel was strengthened, and after much
conflict he gave up the prospects of ^ambition, and entered
again the academic career. In 1828 he became Privat docent
in the University of Berlin. In 1834 he became pastor of the
Church of St. Elizabeth, built by the king, in the suburbs of
Berlin. Here he was indefatigable in preaching and all
kinds of pastoral labors. He was the Wesley of Berlin.
Translated the lives of Wesley and Baxter. Founded the
Berlin Foreign Missionary Society. All the methods of
promoting worship and religious life, which have since
been adopted, found in this man a previous example."
He reached the very highest positions possible in his
profession, Councillor of the Consistory, Court Preacher
and Honorary Professor Ordinarius. He died Oct. 24th,
1849.
Ludwig von Gerlach, the elder brother, was born nearly
three years earlier than Mr. Hodge. He fought through
the wars against Napoleon, and afterwards entered the judi-
ciary service of his country. He founded the Kreuz-Zeitung,
the organ of the High-Church party. In 1865 he became
Privy-Councillor of the Supreme Court of Justice of the
province of Magdeburg.
The Life of Hengstenberg, by Dr. Bachman, frequently
details these gatherings of devoted Christians, mentioning
the same names that recur so frequently in Professor
Hodge's Journal Hollweg, Lancizolle, the Gerlachs, the
Chancellor le Coq, the adjutants of the Crown Prince von
Rceder, Count v. d. Groben, von SenfTt, the Ober prasiden-
tin von Schonberg and Caroline Focke, the Theologians
1 50 EXPLANA TOR Y NO TES. [1827.
Neander, Tholuck, Strauss, Couard, Lisco, and the preach-
ers Ritter, O. von Gerlach, Lindl, Gossner and others. It was
a wide-embracing bond of friendship in the Lord, of men
and women of the most different ages, rank and conditions
in life, in the midst of which the Patriarch Baron von
Kottwitz moved pre-eminent. Sec. 1,193.
Much light is thrown upon the society with which Prof.
Hodge was brought in contact, by the description given in
this work of the/ great revival of piety against Rationalism,
which had several years before sprung up in Germany, i. e. t
in 1823. The most varied elements of rank and culture, of
church connection and of Christian tendency found them-
selves thrown together in these awakened circles. But the
feeling of inmost union held all together ; in faith and love
they knew they were one. In every corner of Germany
and Switzerland, wheresoever a little believing company
came together, a living witness for evangelical truth arose.
The remarkable move in the Catholic Church of South
Germany, emanating from Boos and Gossner, drew thither
more than one traveler from Berlin ; young men of the
Kottwitz circle, von Lancizolle, Hollweg and others, made
the journey to Bavaria, and there knit together the most
intimate relations, and received the impulse to an eternal
progress. It was thus as Tholuck expresses it ; " that beau-
tiful primitive time of first love, when the consciousness of
that which unites the Church of Christ far ^ut- weighed the
consciousness of that which divides it." Confessional dif-
ferences constituted no barrier to the communion in love"
and work for the kingdom of God ; in the joy and custom
of what is common, the idea of a [union of believers out of
all churches could arise. One hears with the same edifica-
tion the reformed Theremin and Couard, with the Lutheran
Janicke and Strauss, the preachers of the Brother Commu-
nion with the Catholic Lindl and Gossner ; * one embraces
* Gossner joined the Evangelical Church in 1826.
^rr. 29.] EXPLANA TOR Y NO TES. I$l
in the same love the believing brethren in the Catholic
Church, with the Reformed Swiss and Lutheran zealots in
Silesia. Not to what confession one and another belongs,
is the question ; it is enough to know themselves one, and
to confess faith in the name that is given to men, one Sal-
vation. A Catholic ecclesiastic commended to a Protestant
pastor for directions, a humble person, taking it for granted
that he was to receive the Lutheran communion. Many
Catholics were active members of the Bible Society.
Full twenty different devotional hours could be enumera-
ted during twenty years in Berlin, (p. 192) daily on Sunday
and week-days. Sometimes in many parts of the city, and
without by the Hamburg gate, &c., at an appointed evening
hour larger or smaller circles might be found gathered
about their leader. And it seems to be regarded as a
healthful life that in none of these assemblies any sectarian
tendency, a disposition to degrade the public worship of
God, was manifested. Had any worshipper been disposed
to this, he was immediately set right, and confuted out of
the word of God.
At the same time the so-called pietism of the revival
times is clearly distinguished from the old pietism, in that
the latter set itself in opposition to the Church, in which,
with all its lifelessness, the foundation, the pure doctrine of
the word of God, remained untouched ; the new pietism
developed itself in opposition, not to the Church itself, but
against the rationalistic corruption of doctrine in the
Church. The pietism of the revival times had not, like
the old, orthodoxy as its opposite, but it carried orthodoxy
in its bosom. It was easy, therefore, for it to proceed by
appointed churchly paths; Only when the Church placed
itself in opposition to the newly awakened life, did this
enter upon a separate existence. Fortunately, in Berlin,
the churchly connections were never entirely broken, hence
the possibility and security of a decided Church develop-
ment later, was secured.
JOURNAL RESUMED. [1827.
In 1823 the evangelical party constituted a great people,
increasing from year to year. In many pulpits of Berlin, the
witness for Christ, the only Saviour, had again become clear
as a power which filled the deserted churches anew. The-
remin at the Dom, Bishop Anders, of the Brother Commu-
nion, Couard at St. George's, LofHer at the Gertraude
Church, Frederick Strauss in his double office of Dom and
Court preacher and Professor in the University, brought
multitudes under the influence of the truth. From the
whole city multitudes came together who had an ear for
the word of God ; and many also who had hitherto stood
aloof, were aroused to ask after the way of life. Couard's
preaching was particularly crowded, so that there was
not standing room in the ample church. [Vol. I. pp.
187, &c.]
If any discrepancy between this account and that which
Dr. Hodge gives in his Journal, is perceived the reader
will consider (i) the difference of the means and standards
of estimate of the German Professor and the American
stranger. (2) The difference between the times described
by each, i.e., between 1823 and 1827-8 and (3) The dif-
ference between Halle and Berlin.
JOURNAL RESUMED.
On Sunday, the i/J-th, I went to hear Schleiermacher, not
knowing of any more evangelical preacher who had service
in the morning. The sermon was peculiar. The words
were Biblical, but the whole tenor so general, the ideas so
vague and indefinite, that it was impossible for me to under-
stand exactly what he meant. His text was, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, &c. This is the
first and great commandment. This, he remarked, was the
highest end of our existence, to come to this full love of the
Supreme Being that this end can be attained only through
Jesus Christ, whom he called the source of all truth, and the
truth itself. The difference between this law as presented
/BT. 29.] BERLIN. 153
in the Old Testament and as it stands in the New, is this,
that in the Old Testament it was part of a law, a coercive,
external command, while in the New it is the spontaneous
result of a renovated nature. It is no longer a law, but the
voluntary bent of the heart; and to bring about this sponta-
neous tendency of the soul to God is the great work of
Christ. This is what I took to be the drift of his discourse.
In the afternoon I went with Tholuck to see the good patri-
archal Baron Kottwitz, who has been so long and actively
engaged in the service of the Redeemer. In the evening
I attended a religious service at the Baron's, and heard a
very warm, pious sermon from the Moravian Bishop An-
ders, who is to sail for America in a few days. Here I
met a large circle of religious friends, partly the same I had
met the evening before. Among others a very interesting
man, Prof. Hollweg, the present Rector of the University.
Saturday evening, October 2Oth, I attended the same
meeting that I did a week ago. Tholuck had left town a
day or two before for Halle. The services were conducted
by a young candidate of Theology.
On Sunday I heard Marheineke, a warm advocate of
Hegel's philosophy. His sermon was dry and general. In
the afternoon, in the same Church, I heard an evangelical
discourse from the junior Pastor, delivered with a good deal
of animation and feeling.
On the 23d Neander began his lectures to a crowded
audience, on the Epistles to. the Corinthians.* His manner
is clear and simple, and the wonderful compass of his his-
torical knowledge enables him to bring many very interest-
ing and striking illustrations of the passages he wishes to
explain.
December i6th. Since my last date I have attended
regularly the lectures of Neander, and part of the time those
*Full MSS. report of these lectures, fully written out by Dr. Hodge, are in
existence.
BERLIN. [1827.
of Hengstenberg* and Bockh. Mr. Monod, of Paris, came
early last month to reside in the same house with me, which
I have found very agreeable. Some time since he gave me
a verjr interesting account of the religious exercises of the
daughter of Baron Cuvier on her death -bed. She had been
* EXTRACT FROM THE LIFE OF HENGSTENBERG, BY DR. I. BACH-
MAN. GUTERSLOH, 1876-1879. Vol. II. p. JO. (fSfp.)
Particularly pleasant to Hengstenberg was his acquaintance with
Professor Hodge, of Princeton, in America, who, after he had spent
the summer of 1827 at Halle, in intimate association with Tholuck,
came, in the winter of the same year, to Berlin, and here, as also
Monod, industriously attended upon Hengstenberg in his lectures
and at his house. Even at their first meeting he had much pleased
Hengstenberg, particularly because of his " simplicity, modesty and
sincerity," and at the end of the Semester, April 27, 1828, he thus
expresses himself: "I was, in those days, much with Hodge,
whose departure grieves me much, and to-day I took a long walk
with him. He told me mucji that was delightful of America, of
the great Christian earnestness which prevails there, the great mo-
deration in conduct, the consistency in denying the world ; and he
himself is the best evidence of the truth of what he says." But in
the following letter he speaks of both these foreign friends : " I have
now, for the first time, heard much of the beautiful activity which the
French preacher, Monod, has exercised here. For instance : Hodge
and Monod sit together at the lecture ; a student looks into Hodge's
note-book, which is written in English, and asks him whether he is
an Englishman. No, says Hodge, an American. That caused the
student, who supposed that all Americans must be copper-colored,
such astonishment, that he uttered an oath. Monod reproves him
with earnest words for the misuse of the name of God. The student
receives the reproof thankfully, Monod goes home with him after
lecture, and talks with him of salvation in Christ. He finds a recep-
tive heart, and the acquaintance is continued until he came to full
decision. Monod is at table with Ancillon, and hears that a little
French physician, a Catholic, is studying here, who has an earnest
disposition. This is motive enough for him to visit him. He finds
in him absolute ignorance of the doctrine of salvation, but a very
receptive spirit, and it- was not long before he was unitecf with him in
the Lord. Yesterday he was with Hodge. Such activity cannot fail
to give offence. There are about Hodge and Monod the most won-
derful and wildest stories in circulation."
;ET. 29.] BERLIN.
some years pious, a state to which she was suddenly
brought after a long season of thoughtfulness ; awaking, as
one of her friends expressed it, one morning, without well
knowing how or why, in peace with God. She was on the
eve of being married when taken ill. As she approached
the hour of her dissolution her faith became more and more
triumphant, so that she was the astonishment and admira-
tion of all who saw or heard her. Her physicians, ignorant
of the gospel and of its effects, looked on in silent wonder.
Her poor father, whose name is famed through the civilized
world, was often seen kneeling for a half an hour together
in prayer, by her bed-side. God grant that he and others
by this event may be brought to the knowledge of the truth
as it is in Jesus.
The death of the Baron de Stael, who was one of the
leading men among the pious Protestants of France, is an
event, humanly speaking, to be deeply regretted. His last
hours also were such as to evince the power of the gospel,
and to leave the most pleasant conviction on the minds of
his surviving friends, that he had entered into his rest.
I have heard several evangelical preachers since coming
to Berlin, particularly Strauss and Lisco. The former is court
preacher, and much of an orator ; the latter is remarkably
simple and faithful.
The French Protestant Church here, once so flourishing,
is now in a very low state. There are nominally 5,000 per-
sons belonging to their several congregations, and they have
funds to the amount of $500,000, but the congregation on a
Sabbath does not generally exceed twenty or thirty persons.
I drank tea, the other evening, with the Lieutenant Senffi.
Prof. Hollweg, the Rector of the University, who is a very
interesting man, apparently about thirty-five years old, gave
us an account of the recent revival of religion in Pomerania.
A young officer of Hussars, who was for some time in ser-
vice in Berlin, was brought to the knowledge of the truth.
He resigned his commission in the army and retired to his
156 BERLIN. [1827.
estate in Pomerania. Here he found the clergy and people
alike sunk in the deepest indifference to vital religion. He
began his work in his own family. God blessed his efforts.
His brothers, who had hitherto lived at variance, were re-
conciled to each other, in being reconciled to God. His
father also was converted. He and his brothers now began
to assemble the peasants on their estates for religious in-
struction and worship. The clergy, of course, opposed
them violently, and appealed to the Government. But the
word of God produced a most powerful effect. Multitudes
were awakened. In one house belonging to these gentle-
men 600 persons, regarded as truly pious, are in the habit
of meeting to worship God. The Government issued an
order to the military to disperse all such assemblies. But
the colonel refused, and appealed to the military commander
of the Province, the Crown Prince, who forbade any such
step being taken. A commission was now appointed to
examine the nature of this religious excitement, all the
members of which, with the exception of Prof. Heubner of
Wittenberg, were Rationalists. Their report was unfavor-
able. But Heubner made such a representation to the king
that all persecution from the side of those in authority has
been prevented. This is not the first instance I have been
informed of, in which the king and members of his family
have shielded true Christians from the oppressions of the
civil and ecclesiastical authorities. Unfortunately the writ-
ings of two famous mystical writers, Gichtel and Jacob
Bcehme, fell into the hands of two of these young noble-
men, and gave them a complete mystical cast. They have
ceased all their efforts to do good, contemn all their former
active course, and place all religion in mystical union with
God, and private contemplation.
This morning I attended worship at the Duke of Cum-
berland's. His Chaplain appears to be an amiable young
man of the High Church orthodox order, but a very cold,
uninteresting preacher.
^T. 29.] BERLIN. 157
December 2^.th. This morning I went with Justice Focke
to the Erziehungshaus. It contains about fifty boys, from
seven to fourteen years of age, all of whom have been
already convicted of- some crime. They are placed here
for reformation and education. The institution has been in
operation about three years, in which time thirty pupils
have been regularly dismissed, of twenty-seven of whom the
directors have the most favorable accounts. After the
children had sung a hymn they were examined by the
teacher respecting the object and the observance of Christ-
mas, and then more generally on the history of our Saviour,
giving all the leading prophecies of Him in the Old Testa-
ment, and then showing their fulfilment in Jesus of Naza-
reth. Since I have been in Europe I have witnessed no
scene with such pure and decided pleasure. On the 23d I
attended, for the first time, the Lord's Supper in the Lu-
theran Church. It was administered by the Pastor, Lisco,
at 7 o'clock in the morning. The communicants proceeded
into the confessional, where, after a very feeling address, the
Pastor repeated a general confession of sins, and called upon
those present to say whether they confessed themselves
sinners in the sight of God, trusted in Jesus Christ for par-
don, and had the purpose of leading a holy life. On re-
ceiving an affirmative answer, he pronounced the usual
form of absolution. We then returned into the Church,
and the sacrament was administered in the usual way. I
have recently been more than ever, I think, affected by
the sense of the indescribable excellence of our adorable
Saviour. His character has appeared in a purity and
beauty which my blind eyes have been long in discovering.
O that I could see more of this loveliness every day, and be
more transformed into his image.
December 2jth. I took tea this afternoon with Lieutenant
von Senrft. He gave us a very interesting account of a
revival of religion in a village in Silesia. A young man, a
miller, came from that village to Berlin for employment, and
1 58 BERLIN. [1827.
was providentially directed to a pious man, in whose family
he lived some time. On his return he related to his father
that the man with whom he had lived used to read and
pray in his family. The father immediately declared his
purpose to do the same. The neighbors came in from time
to time to hear the Scriptures. Some mocked and others
prayed. The result, as Lieut von SenfTt witnessed, was
about thirty persons, of all ages, in this village were con-
verted to the Lord, and were living in the faith and love of
the gospel. From this village the fire spread to others.
In the evening all our usual circle of friends assembled at
Justice Focke's to meet Tholuck, who had just arrived. It
was a great pleasure to meet the dear man once more after
so long a separation. The evening was spent chiefly in reli-
gious conversation. Returning home, I walked with Ludwig
Von Gerlach, a man who has excited more love and respect
in me than almost any other I have seen here. He took
this opportunity of speaking to me very seriously respecting
my political principles, not so much in their political as
their Christian aspect. I was surprised to find how much
that was unchristian mingled in all my feelings on this sub-
ject. With this dear man I cannot agree in his opinions,
yet I felt that he was much more a free-man in his heart
(with all his strong ideas of the divine right of kings) than I.
This night thirty years ago I was born. Thirty years of
love and mercy. Thirty years of sin. Thirty years and
nothing done. Oh my God, from my soul I pray thee,
grant me thy Holy Spirit that if permitted yet longer to
live, it may be to more purpose, that my time may be
better improved in working out my own salvation and the
salvation of my fellow-men. Bless, O God, my dear, pre-
cious mother, who, thirty years ago, first rejoiced over me.
That thou hast so long spared her to me I thank and bless
Thee. Still spare her, oh, Lord, and grant that every suc-
ceeding day she maybe more and more filled with thy Holy
Spirit, and more richly crowned with thy tender mercies.
JET. 30.] BERLIN. 159
December 28th. To-day I dined with Tholuck at Justice
Focke's. They both made me a present of a devotional
book on the occasion of my birth -day. The Lord bless
these dear friends for being the means of quickening me in
the life of godliness. The love of the Saviour is of all
bonds the purest and the strongest. Tholuck drank tea
with me and Mr. Monod. In answer to a question of the
latter, he spoke very much in favor of always reading with
the pen in hand. He said that for the period of two
months in the year 1820, he recorded every important idea
which occurred to his own mind everything interesting he
heard in conversation, or in reading. The records of these
two months he finds still valuable.
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF DRS. ALEXANDER AND MIL-
LER TO MR. HODGE WHILE STUDYING IN GERMANY.
Their affection and care for him is rendered very evident
by their long and frequent letters ; and their prayerful anx-
iety for the preservation of his personal orthodoxy and spi-
rituality under the special exposures of his life in Germany
is interesting, especially in view of the fact which his after-
life rendered so conspicuous, that their prayers in this be-
half were fully answered.
Dr. Miller writes, July 2 1st, 1827:
"You have no doubt been informed that we are going on in Prince-
ton, as to the Seminary, very much as heretofore ; but with respect to
the College and the congregation by no means favorably. The num-
ber of students in the College is about eighty, and when the present
Senior Class shall leave us, the number, I think, will fall below
fifty. Nor do I perceive any prospect of a better state of things.
On the contrary, I am afraid the Institution has not reached the low-
est point of depression. The multiplication of Colleges all around
us ; the zeal, enterprise, and ostentatious publications of their officers,
and the incessant importunity of their begging for funds, seem to be
gradually taking away from us all our human resources and hopes.
Some of the members of the Board of Trustees, however, are still
sanguine that the College will retrieve its affairs before long
I 6O LETTERS FROM DRS. ALEXANDER AND MILLER. [1827.
"We all long to see you, and shall be glad of your return at the
earliest possible hour that your plans will admit. I do not believe,
my dear colleague, that you appreciate as you ought your importance
and acceptance in our Institution. I know that your mind was often
much oppressed by a sense of your own want of adequate qualifica-
tion, and I was willing and even desirous that you should visit Europe
if it were for nothing else than to get cured of this inordinate and
morbid impression. But pray come back as soon as you can con-
sistently with the substantial execution of your main purpose. We
greatly desire and need your presence."
Again Dr. Miller writes, Jan. 29, 1828:
"You will probably learn by letters which will have reached you
before this, that the winter session in our Seminary opened with a
larger accession than we expected. We have matriculated thirty-
eight new students. Four more have returned whom we expected
never to have seen again, and who had been absent for some time.
So that our whole accession may be estimated at forty-two, which
makes our whole number at present one hundred and nine some-
thing like fifteen more than we had the previous session.
" Our College goes on feebly. The present number of the students
is about sixty-five or sixty-six, and rather on the decline than on the
increase. I am afraid it will be reduced to extremity before long, and
that some crisis in its affairs is not very distant. What that may be,
whether for the better or the worse, I can scarcely conjecture."
Dr. Alexander wrote :
" PRINCETON, March 24th, 1827.
" My Dear Sir : * * * I hope while you are separated from
your earthly friends, you will take care to keep the communication
with heaven open ! Remember that you breathe a poisoned atmos-
phere. If you lose the lively and deep impression of divine truth
if you fall into skepticism or even into coldness, you will lose more
than you gain from all the German professors and libraries. May
the Lord preserve you from error and from all evil. You may depend
upon any aid which my feeble prayers can afford. Write as often as
you can. Do not be afraid of troubling me. Affectionately, yours."
And again, Dr. Alexander writes:
" PRINCETON, July 27, 1827.
" * * I suppose that before I write again you will have left Halle,
but of this you must give me early notice. * * * The air which you
breathe in Germany will either have a deleterious effect on your
moral constitution, or else by the strength of faith required to resist its
^rr. 30.] LETTERS FROM DRS. ALEXANDER ANDMILLER.\1
effects your spiritual health will be confirmed. I pray God to keep
you from the poison of Neology ! [j wish you to come home en-
riched with Biblical learning, but abhorring German philosophy and
theology ."j I have been paying some attention to Kant's philosophy,
but it confounds and astonishes me."
Again Dr. Alexander writes :
"PRINCETON, Aug. 16, 1827.
" I feel anxious to hear from you, to know how you are, and what pro-
gress you make in the literature of Germany. You must come home
loaded with riches. Much will be expected of you. But I know how
little can be acquired by man in the course of a whole life-time and
when I think that you have the disadvantage of having the language
to acquire and the multiplicity of objects to which your attention
must be turned, I confess that my hope of any great success is not
sanguine. JBut it will be worth while to have gone to Germany to
know that there is but little worth going for. It will at any rate
place you on a level with the other traveled literati of this country.
But whatever you may gain of literature and knowledge of the world,
J hope and pray that you may not lose any thing of the love of the
truth and spirituality of mind. On many accounts we miss you very
much. . . . For many weeks Dr. Miller was sick, and then the whole
charge of the Seminary was on me. I wish now to begin in good
earnest to prepare for another world. I think before very many years
you will be senior Professor in this Institution, and I am afraid you
will see trouble. But siifficient to the day is the evil thereof. Let to-
morrow take care of itself. I remain affectionately yours,
"A. ALEXANDER."
On October 30, 1827, Dr. Alexander writes:
" I rejoice to learn that you live in an infected atmosphere, without
being yourself infected. May God preserve you."
Again Dr. Alexander writes :
"PRINCETON, May 14, 1828.
" I mentioned to you that Dr. Henry intended his library for our
Seminary. But the entire matter became subject to the disposition
of his father, and under the influence of certain persons he has been
induced to give another direction to the bequest. At least there re-
mains no doubt but the books will be transferred to the Allegheny
Seminary. The matter was laid by him before the Directors in a let-
ter, but they referred the whole question to him again, to dispose of
as he thought best. The idea which the old gentleman seems to
entertain is that we have books enough, and that his son's library is not
11
1 62 JOURNAL IN BERLIN. [1827.
needed here. Inter nos this new Seminary will affect us here more
than all the rest put together. It is received by many as the last
stronghold of orthodoxy, and the most secure deposit for funds in-
tended to support the truth ; and at this time I have little doubt that
Dr. Green and others of our staunch friends feel a deeper interest in
that Institution than in this. These are merely my own conjectures.
After all, we shall be forced to look to New England for students.
" Your little family we see very often, and they are as well in health
as they can be. April was a month of storms, and Mrs. Hodge ex-
perienced some inconvenience from coming so early, but she seems
to bear every thing patiently, and is cheerful.
"Make haste and come home. There will be much for you to do.
The two crazy old men that are here need some one who has vigor
of nerves to put his shoulder under the burden. In truth, however,
we do not expect your aid until the fall, so make the best of your vi-
sit to Britain. You were very specially remembered in the public
prayers offered up here during the late meeting
" I remain affectionately yours, A. ALEXANDER."
JOURNAL RESUMED.
[From this time Mr. Hodge, having obtained a ticket
from Baron Humboldt to attend his lectures on physical
science, regularly kept full notes of those lectures as long
as he continued in Berlin.]
December 29. This evening I heard Tholuck lecture at
Otto Von Gerlach's. This was the most Christian, heartfelt
exhortation I have heard for a long time. He spoke prin-
cipally from the words, " Quench not the Spirit."
Dec. 30, Sunday. This morning heard Strauss preach a
New Year's sermon. As usual, it was evangelical, but his
manner is too violent. Lieut. Senfft walked home with
me. He is one of the 'most brotherly Christians I have
seen. Prince William, the king's second son, [the present
Emperor] with an income of 36,000 thalers, which is very
small for his expenses, gives 6,000 to the poor. He is
remarkably correct in his conduct. He wished very much
some years ago to marry a young princess to whom his
father objected as not vornehm enough for a king's son.
The matter was committed to the faculties of law, etc., in
JET. 30.] BERLIN. 1 63
the universities, but the king at last decided positively in
the negative, and poor Prince William had to give up the
lady. This is hard. Berlin deserves the name which
French Christians have given it, viz. : La Ville de St. Jean.
Of the propriety of the name I had a proof this evening at
the Lady Schonberg's, in the affectionate manner in which
the Christians here act towards each other, and towards
strangers whom they regard as such. The two adjutants
of the crown prince and their wives were there. Major
von Roder (one of these gentlemen) is fondling even in his
manners. " Kiss me," he said to Count Graben, his brother
officer, who was passing him. Which request was com-
plied with without hesitation and without remark. There is
something delightful in the exhibition of the gospel in
these military men ; such a warmth and openness of feel-
ing; such an entire absence of stiffness or presumption.
The whole company seemed as if they were of one heart.
The Graf Schepin was another of these Christian officers.
Gossner lectured in his usual extempore manner on the
1 3th chapter of Mark. Speaking of Christ's coming, he
said, " Are you so ready that you could see the world de-
stroyed as calmly as a child looks at his falling house of
cards ? " The peculiar prominence of the Saviour, common
to the preaching and prayers of the Germans, is very
marked in the case of Gossner. I have heard him pray
several times exclusively to the Saviour. Not praying in
the name of Christ, but simply to Christ. The manner of
address too, is such as would appear very strange in English;
as 0, du kleines Kind.
I was told this evening by Judge Focke, that in all the
great revivals of religion which have occurred in Germany
of late, the same bodily exercises which excited so much
attention in the south and west of our country, have been
present to a greater or less degree. In Pomerania, cases
of what were called demoniacal possession occurred. A
young woman was often thrown into the greatest bodily
1 64 BERLIN. [1827.
agitation; rolling over and over, and her mind subsequently
thrown into a state resembling the heathen ecstasy, in
which she would prophesy (in what sense of that word I
know not). These were only transient seasons ; for the rest
she appeared to be a true, humble Christian. These extra-
ordinary appearances soon ceased. It is certainly remarka-
ble that on both sides of the Atlantic, seasons of religious
excitement should be attended by such similar outward
disturbances. I suppose it was to cases of this kind that
Tholuck referred the other evening, when speaking on the
passage " Quench not the Spirit," he said, " We should be
( careful not off-hand to condemn as fanaticism, anything of
an extraordinary character, which attended unusual out-
pourings of the Spirit."
December 3 ist. I spent this evening with Tholuck, in
company with others, at Neander's. Neander had just
been reading a review of Bishop Hobart's sermons in the
Christian Observer. He was much surprised to find such
high church principles in America, which he thought little
accordant with the spirit of freedom. He said he was
going Catholisch. Tholuck said, that it was singular that
from England, three works should at this period make their
way to the Continent, all tending to promote the Catholic
cause ; " Lingard's History," already translated into Ger-
man, French and Italian; "Dallas's History of the Jesuits,"
also translated ; and " Cobbet's History of the Reforma-
tion in England," this last, particularly as translated by
Catholics, is a matter of offence to the Protestants here.
Neander said, he thought " Hug's Introduction to the New
Testament," although the best, was very imperfect in its his-
torical part. The accommodation theory, he said, had been
given up by all Rationalists of any consequence. This
led to a conversation on the doctrine of Inspiration.
Neander was disposed to recognize the infallibility of the
Apostles in all doctrinal points, but not in their manner of
proving them. Thus it was certain that Christ was God,
JET. 30.] BERLIN. 1 65
but all Paul's arguments in support of the doctrine from
the Old Testament are not of force, as in the 1st chapter of
Hebrews. To this succeeded a long discussion on the doc-
trine of Predestination. All were opposed to it. Calvin,
Neander said, makes God the author of sin, and this he
considered the dangerous tendency of the doctrine. He
admitted that those who represent the cause of a sinner's
rejection of the gospel as lying in himself, avoided the dan-
gerous practical tendency of the doctrine. He acknow-
ledged freely that it is entirely of grace, that men are
brought to faith and salvation. But it lies with every man,
either to accept or reject this grace. This he considered to
be involved in the idea of man's efficiency and freedom,
selbstbestimmung. Tholuck remarked that the two ex-
tremes were Pelagianism, and the making God the author
of sin. Truth lies in the midst. To this I believe all freely
assented, predestinarians and anti-predestinarians. Neander
maintained that it was clearly to be inferred from the Scrip-
tures that those who have no offer of the gospel in this
world, will have it in the world to come. This follows ne-
cessarily, he said, out of the principles contained in the
Bible. As to others nothing can be distinctly affirmed.
He thought that the passage in which our Saviour says,
" The sin against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven
either in this world or in the world to come," implied that
other sins might be forgiven, or that sinners might be
brought to faith in Christ after death. In both these points
Tholuck concurred. In coming away, Neander shook me
very affectionately by the hand, and said to Tholuck, "Tell
our friend Hodge, that though we dispute with him, we
belong to the same Lord, and are one in heart."
Read at evening prayer with Monod the poth Psalm.
So closed another year of sins and mercies.
To Jesus Christ, God over all and blessed forever, may my life be
consecrated. His kingdom come, His will be done. Amen. Charles
Hodge.
1 66 BERLIN. [1828.
January 2d t 1828. I spent this evening at Professor
Hollweg's, Rector of the University, with Tholuck, the
Gerlachs and others. Tholuck asked which was the better
way when working among the heathen, or Christians sunk
in error, as the members of the eastern churches, to preach
publicly against the reigning doctrines, and come out as
reformers and form a distinct sect, or to confine attention
alone to the heart, and let all abuses alone, to be cast aside
by those whose hearts are changed. Prof. Hollweg was
for the latter. Tholuck seemed more inclined to the former.
jt seemed to me that neither pointed out the exact course.
The truth and all the truth should be preached as by Paul
with like wisdom and faithfulness, and each truth in pro-
portion to its importance ; regeneration and atonement
above all. The men of our day are too feeble. They
speak too softly to the people. They are not like the pro-
phets and apostles. _
(The Christians here seem inclined to think it is against
the spirit of the gospel for women to be authors!]
Saturday, $th. This evening I went with Mr. Robinson
to Otto von Gerlach's. A discourse from Zinzendorf
was read.
Monday *fth. Called with Mr. Robinson upon Neander,
and found the dear little man in a very talkative humor.
He is very inquisitive about the United States, and seems
afraid of the increase of the Catholics among us.
Thursday, loth. Drank tea this evening with Hengsten-
berg. He remarked, that Gesenius scarcely in any one
point, differs in his views of the Old Testament from De
Wette. He has only carried further out what De Wette
had said in fewer words. Jahn, he thinks, on the testi-
mony of Heubner, was a Christian, and did not defend the
authenticity of the various parts of the Old Testament,
because he was a Catholic. This led to a conversation on
Jahn's view of the original state of man. Hengstenberg
maintained that our first parents were in many respects
XT. 30.] BERLIN 1 67
children ; they had indeed the image of God, but undeveloped
and unbewusst. I objected to this the light in which
they are presented 'in the Old Testament, and especially the
position of Adam as our federal representative. This led
to a long conversation on the point of representation.
Hengstenberg said, he would willingly admit it as a fact if
it was taught in Scripture. But he thought it was not, or
at least not clearly, and that if it were, it left us just as we
were without it, as it is impossible to conceive how we are
made sinners in this way. He admits hereditary original
sin not as an evil or sickness, but as a sin but how to
reconcile it with the attributes of God he cannot answer.
This is the mystery ; the fact he admits.
Sunday, ijth. Heard, this morning, Theremin preach a
very plain, excellent sermon on the barren fig-tree. In the
evening I attended the meeting at the Frau von Schonberg's,
the company much the same as before. Gossner lectured
on the 1 2th chapter of Acts. His remarks on the efficacy
of prayer, and the influence of afflictions in driving us to
pray, were very excellent. His Roman Catholic peculiarities
are striking. He addressed both his prayers from begin-
ning to end to the Saviour ; and as the last verse of the
hymn which was sung, spoke of the hand of the Saviour lead-
ing His people, he addressed this hand for some time,
du Hebe hand, O thou dear hand which was nailed on the
cross for us. His warm piety, his experience, his sufferings
make him an interesting man.
Ludwig von Gerlach came home with me and remained
until 2 o'clock. As usual we got into a religious political
debate, for politics with him rests on religion. The result
of our conversation was for me very interesting, as I have
clearer views of his ideas of the foundations of government.
He had previously spoken of the authority of kings as ana-
logous in its basis to that of fathers. But to-night he made
it rest solely or mainly on the right of property. He said,
We have only to think of a man with considerable proper-
1 68 BERLIN. [1828.
ty, servants, tenants, etc. ; whose property is constantly in-
creasing, until he becomes a prince. Two hundred years
ago the King of Prussia, as Graf von Niirnberg was not so
rich as an English "lord. But by marriages, by gifts, by
purchases, by conquests, his property has increased to its
present size. He and all kings are ground owners ; all others
are tenants under him. But their rights are as sacred as his,
and his rights may, as has occurred in England particular-
ly, continually decrease he and his tenants may, from
time to time, as circumstances require, make new contracts.
If the king disregards the rights of the tenants to a certain
degree, they have a right to exclude him and call the next
heir, from whom they may exact a promise of respecting
their rights as, for instance, when James II. of England
was excluded and the Orange family succeeded, it was upon
the condition that they and their successors should remain
Protestant. It is with states as with individuals, property
may be increased in an unjust, as well as in a just manner;
but as in the case of the individual, the title of property,
though bad at first, became sanctioned by time, by con-
tracts, etc. ; so it is with kings. All this he forced me to
admit, and I feared that I was completely foiled in the argu-
ment. My resort was this having obtained the conces-
sion that the king's authority is founded on property, and
not on the parental relation, which is entirely a different thing,
I put \\imjirst to historically proving that kings were the
real proprietors of all the ground in their respective king-
doms, and here my great inferiority in historical and legal
knowledge put me to a great disadvantage. I therefore
asked secondly, on what rested the right of property itself?
What was its moral ground ? He answered, " God's com-
mand," but he conceded that the ultimate ground was ex-
pediency in its best sense, i. e., a tendency to promote the
good of society. Then, I claimed, when this right inter-
fered with this object, it ceased to exist. This principle he
recognized. It is recognized in every community. When
MT. 30.] BERLIN. 1 69
the private right of property vesting in an individual comes
evidently into conflict with this object, his right is sacrificed
to the public good, e. g. y the sacrifice of private property
in cutting new streets and roads, and in time of war. Hav-
ing fixed this principle, we agree, that admitting this right
of property in kings, it could be justly invalidated on the
same grounds on which the private right of property may
be invalidated. So far we agreed. Now it is for me to
prove that the immense accumulation of property in the
hands of kings, as proprietors of whole countries, is incon-
sistent with the well being of society, the best interests of
man. When the enjoyment of another's right of property
is inconsistent with the enjoyment of my right of property,
one or the other must yield. In the case of nuisances,
when the right of property of one interferes with the right
of property of many, there is no doubt which must yield.
But a fortiori, when the right of property of one interferes
with or endangers not merely the rights of property of mil-
lions, but their moral and religious improvement, their best
interests in this world, and their hopes (more or less) in the
next the case is clear enough what is to be done.
He is a noble fellow. Though grieved with my obsti-
nacy, he gave me two kisses when he went, (one, however,
less than usual). Happily he does not wear mustachios.
Wednesday, 16. This evening I drank tea with Major
von Roder, his two brothers, and several others. The
Major is a very affectionate, free and easy man. His heart
seems always full of pious feeling. He talks of the Saviour
as one talks of a friend. The difference between the free
German manifestation of feeling, and our reserve, is very
striking. Roder had three brothers killed in the last war,
and he himself was shot through the side of his head, which
has destroyed the hearing of one ear and the sight of one
eye without disfiguring him in the least. Yesterday and
to-day the thermometer is about one degree above zero of
Fahrenheit.
I7O BERLIN. [1828.
Friday, January 18. Thermometer still about zero.
This evening the Lieutenant von Senfft drank tea with me.
He read some letters which he had received lately from
friends. One from an officer, whom he described as a rough
and imperfectly educated man, who, having been brought to
the knowledge of the Saviour in Berlin, is now working
with great effect in the place in which he is stationed. All
these were dead before, but at present several of his brother
officers have been converted, and many of the citizens come
to him to talk about their souls, and the children flock to
him for tracts and religious books. Er muss viel beten, said
Senfft. He related also that six or seven of his personal
friends had been awakened from their indifference in the
first instance by Schleiermacher. Monod related a conver-
sation he had this afternoon with Mr. Ancillon, one of the
Councillors of State. He spoke very severely against de-
votional meetings, and thought that all religious meetings
out of the Church should be forbidden. His reason was
that those assembled could talk of politics. Happily for
Prussia, the king has much more liberal and Christian views
than many of his ministers. Senfft, speaking of the king,
praised his economy very much. He is far from spending
his income, and is constantly laying up money, although
he gives liberally whenever called upon. He allows his
unmarried sons 36,000, his married sons 80,000, and the
Crown Prince 120,000 thalers per year.
Sunday, 2Oth. I heard this morning a very indifferent
sermon from the Probst Neander (not the professor). In
the evening I was at Neander's. He is very much in-
terested in the state of the Church in America, and wishes
very much that the Church and State could be separated
here. On this subject there was much conversation this
evening, for his liberal views are not shared by all his
friends.
Thursday, 24.. This afternoon I attended a meeting of
the Royal Academy of Sciences. Schleiermacher read a
JET. so.] BERLIN. 171
short paper on " Kings being authors," Humboldt, on
" The Analogy of Languages," and a translation of an
Eastern mythological poem. The astronomer Enke read
an account of his progress in forming certain astronomical
tables. It was strange to see the old Duke of Cumberland,
the Crown Prince, and several other members of the Royal
family at such a meeting.
Friday, February i. I called this morning upon the ex-
minister Bekedorf. This gentleman, while in the govern-
ment, had the charge of the primary schools and the Semi-
naries for teachers. Since his passing over to the Catholic
Church he has vacated his station, but continues the super-
intendence of the journal devoted to the school system.
He was exceedingly polite in communicating information
on this subject, and promised to send me his work, in which
the whole system is explained. He said his first grand ob-
ject was to get proper teachers, and for this purpose at least
one main seminary for teachers is established in each of the
ten Prussian provinces. These are intended for the prepa-
ration of teachers for all schools below the gymnasia (which
are under another system) excepting those of the very
lowest order, in which merely the most indispensable
branches are taught. The preparation of teachers he con-
sidered the main object. The support of the teachers came
from the people, not from the government. Every man,
whether he had children or not, was assessed according to
his property, and all then had the right to send their child-
ren to the school, and the civil authorities had the right to
force reluctant or negligent parents to send their children.
The same plan is carried out in all parts of the kingdom
among Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. All must send
their children to school.
Monday Evening, February ^.th. I was at Professor Holl-
weg's. There were several Professors of the University and
their wives present, and Ritter, the great geologist and
physical-geographer, among the number. I was very glad
172 BERLIN. [1828.
to have an opportunity of seeing this interesting man. He
is mild and humble, with a remarkably intelligent face. I
was always under the impression that he was rather of the
free-thinking school, as so many devoted to his branch of
science are. But to my delight I learned that he was a
Christian. Strauss, the popular Court Preacher, was also
there ; a man of astonishing vivacity. The subject of the
connection between Church and State was introduced. On
this subject his opinions are ultramontanist. He makes
the king the ordinarius of the whole Church the supreme
bishop. Against this the whole company exclaimed
Baron Bunsen, the Count von Graber, Major von Roder,
Senfft, Le Coq, Hollweg. This I thought was a good
sign. They appeared almost as much shocked as I was to
hear Strauss declare his conviction, that if the State with-
drew its support from the Church in this country, it would
fall entirely. After a hundred years, there might be some
traces of Christianity left, but that would be all ! !
Tuesday, $th. This evening I attended a meeting at
Strauss's. There were about fifteen or eighteen students,
privatim-docentes, &c., present, with Baron Bunsen and
Count Graber. One of the students read a translation of
one of the discourses of Macarius. On this there was
considerable conversation, displaying on the part of the
young men a considerable acquaintance with this and other
Fathers. The subject of conversation was then stated
whether the justitia vitae of a Christian was really or only
figuratively a sacrificium ; on this point there was a warm
debate pro and con., for above an hour : the whole a mere
logomachy. This gave me occasion to remark the effect
on their minds, of the universal attention to philosophy re-
quired of the students in Germany. They were acute and
discriminating, but amazingly deficient in plain, healthy
good sense. A second question was started. " In what
sense can public worship be called a sacrifice? In the same,
or in a different sense from that in which the justitia vitae is
^ET. 30.] BERLIN.
so called ?" Here again the opinions were various. Bun-
sen, though a layman, has occupied himself much with the
subject of Liturgies, and has got the notion that the Opfer-
idee should be the reigning idea in Christian worship. In
this there is nothing of a papistical sense; he means merely
a presentation of ourselves before God, as a living sacrifice
consecrated to his glory. But the abuse of this term lies
so near, that most present objected to its being employed.
I was particularly delighted to hear Graber, in his soldier's
uniform, cry out against the idea that men could give any-
thing to God. " I have," said he, " nothing but my sinful,
hateful self to give. Shall I call that an offering, when the
Bible calls Christ an offering ? To apply the same term to
things so infinitely different, is too much." His good sense
and warm Christian feeling made him see more clearly and
express more forcibly the true merits of the case, than all
the speculating theologians present.
Sunday, February loth, 1828. This evening Otto von
Gerlach came to see me. His conversation is always
instructive. He spoke a good deal of the Jews, and of the
efforts made for their conversion. Of all those with whom
he had anything to do, he found only one in whom he has
entire confidence. The numerous instances of disappointed
hopes exceed almost belief. They turn out badly after the
longest probation; they make the most enormous demands;
have the idea that they are the lords of the world ; that
all exists only for them. In short they are here as they are
with us in America. The good king, much to the scandal
of all classes, to-day gave a ball at mid-day, during Church
time, and is said to have requested his sons to give a mask-
ball next Sunday. This is something quite unusual here.
The king appears to have few resources in himself, takes
little interest in the government, and therefore turns to the
theatre and to balls to fill up his head and heart. A. Von
H said he was "!' homme le plus ennuye et le plus en-
nuyant dans le mond." Otto von Gerlach thought the
174 BERLIN. [1828.
measures of the minister Hardenberg, for the liberty of the
peasants, most unjust. In many cases, where they were
tenants on leases of six years, the rule that by giving up
one-half of the land to the proprietor, they should receive
the other in fee-simple, was applied. The peasants them-
selves, he says, regard the king as making them pure pea-
sants. The liberal party, which had its fall in 1819, was
unfriendly to the rights of cities and communes, and
confined its views to making the general government liberal,
while it endeavored to stretch governmental authority over
the most minute arrangements, allowing no town to elect
its own officers. The Anti-liberal party opposed this, and
by its success prevented Prussia being brought into the
state in which France is at present, where the mayor and
officers of every city, commune, department, and province,
is appointed by the central government. In Bavaria, Wur-
temburg, and other places, where constitutions have been
given, the people are in reality less free than before, as the
central governments meddle with eveiiything. This almost
everywhere in Germany is far more the case than it was one
hundred years ago, except in the kingdom of Saxony, and
in Mecklenburg, where the old regulations are preserved.
Gerlach gave several instances of the evil of the central
government meddling with everything. The ministry
ordered at one time that mathematics should be introduced
into all schools in the kingdom, and made the Bildungs-
princip. After a few years another general order came
directing that all the schools should be newly organized,
and conducted on a different principle, and so it changes.
In one province an order was issued that all houses must
stand fifty feet apart, and they actually tore down houses to
prevent their standing too near together.
Wednesday, 2jth. This evening I drank tea with Hengs-
tenberg. I was surprised to hear him and other gentlemen
present, say that the idea usually entertained of the learning
of the German clergy generally, was erroneous ; that he was
JET. 30.] BERLIN, 175
sure the majority could not read the Greek Testament.
This he ascribed to the influence of Rationalism, as former-
ly the reverse was the case. Almost every preacher was in
the habit of taking the original Scriptures in the pulpit and
commenting on them more or less in every discourse.
March 2d, 1828. To-day I attended the disputation of
my good friend, Otto von Gerlach. His Theses were in a
true evangelical spirit, and were not attacked by his oppo-
nents with much force. His opponents were the privat
docent Pelt, and Drs. Wegner and Schneckenburger. The
accession of Otto von Gerlach to the University may be
considered as a very favorable circumstance for the cause of
truth in Berlin.
Wednesday, March I2th. This evening the Herrn von Bii-
low and von , from Pomerania, drank tea with me, in
company with the Gerlachs, Focke, Le Coq, &c. These
two gentlemen come from the very midst of the revival
which is still continuing in that country. It commenced in
1820-21, by the agency of two brothers of Von Biilow.
After various struggles with the ministers and civil authori-
ties, in which this gentleman was often fined, and the gens
d' armes were sent to scatter the people who assembled in
his house, the work appeared to subside. But it has now
broken out anew. Eight hundred often assemble in his
mansion ; these he regards as true Christians. Much that
is disorderly and much that is very remarkable has occurred
visions, prophetic powers, possessions, &c. as might
have been expected among a people so little cultivated, and
in a state of so much excitement. With these two gentle-
men I was exceedingly pleased. They had the same fervent
freshness of feeling which men active in revivals most com-
monly have with us. Before the evening was over, they
proposed singing and prayer. As the clergy in Pomerania
are peculiarly opposed to every thing like vital piety, these,
and other young men, have taken upon themselves the
office of preaching, and stand in a very uneasy relation to
1 76 BERLIN. [1828.
the Church, their sentiments on Church discipline, on
the nature of the Church, and the rights of members agree-
ing very much with those of the Puritans.
Friday, ifth. I dined to-day with these gentlemen at
Justice Focke's. A servant, with whom they were previous-
ly acquainted, came from Potsdam to see them, and these
noblemen kissed and hugged him as though he had been
their equal and brother.
In the evening I called for a few moments, with Lieuten-
ant von Senfft on the Grafin von Graben. She is a most
interesting, lovely woman, full of ardent feelings of piety,
and with much more vivacity than is common among Ger-
man ladies.
Saturday, ijtk. Had a long conversation with Otto Von
Gerlach about our form of Church Government. Here all
the ecclesiastical affairs are under the direction of the con-
sistorium and the ministerium. Each province has its
consistorium ; the members appointed by the king, of equal
numbers of clergymen and laymen. There are many
merely nominal members, as the title of Consistorial Rath
is often given as a mere matter of honor. The consistorium
has very little power. It has the duty of examining can-
didates and watching over the doctrines preached. The
executive government of the several circles, of which there
are generally two in each province, has the right of patron-
age, i. e., exercises the king's patronage within their limits,
which extends to about one-half the congregations. The
other half receive their pastors, some by the appointment
of the magistrates of towns, others by that of the land-
holder ; a very few have the right of choosing their own
pastors. The power of the Minister of Ecclesiastical
Affairs, and of his council, extends over the whole kingdom,
and is very great. Otto von Gerlach relates several
instances of the interference of the government in the
most harmless affairs, as in the case of his own brother,
who was several times molested for having a prayer-meeting
/EX. 30.] BERLIN.
in his house. And the candidate Meinhof told me of his
being called to account for having talked and prayed with a
man who called to see him under considerable religious
excitement.
[Under date of March 2Oth, Mr. Hodge writes to his
wife." I shall soon be left alone here. That is, my house
companions, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Monod, are going in a
few days, the former to Halle, the latter to Paris. You
will be surprised to hear that the sober Mr. Robinson has
fallen in love. I received a note, a day or two ago, written
by him (as his modesty prevented a personal communica-
tion) with the official information that the Fraiilein Von
Jacob had consented to accompany him to America as his
wife. I have spoken to you, I believe, of this lady and her
family before in my letters. Robinson has done well. The
lady is agreeable and very accomplished, speaking several
languages, and acquainted with the literature of most
European nations."]
Sunday, March 2jd. I heard Lisco preach this morning
on the Fall of Peter. The Church was so full that it was
impossible to get a seat. Last Sunday Mr. Robinson
could not get in at all, not even open the doors. It is a
good indication that those ministers who preach the gospel
faithfully have their churches overflowing. In the evening
I drank tea with Lisco, met the Moravian minister, Mr.
Semler, and von Senfft. The conversation at first turned
on the late order of the Ministerium, requiring every
student, who is to be examined, to produce a certificate of
regular attendance upon Church and the Lord's Supper.
The students, with the approbation of the faculty, petitioned
against this. The Ministerium returned a very severe,
harsh answer, viz. that such inexperienced youth ought
not to have the presumption to think they could change the
opinion of Ministers, &c., &c. This the students received
in the mildest possible manner, and said they would endea-
vor to show the Ministerium that they did not need such
12
1 78 BERLIN. [1828.
external Inducements to make them do their duty. In con-
sequence of the active part which one of the students took
in the petition, his licentia conscionandi has been refused
him. This whole affair has excited great attention. The
Christians, as well as the liberals, are exceedingly opposed
to the order of the Ministerium. Schleiermacher, who
belongs to the latter description, refuses to give certificates
to those who attend his Church or Communion table, and
he tells them to say to the Consistorium, that he will not
act according to the requirements of the Government
in this respect. The whole thing will, I suspect, fall
through.
Mr. Couard complained of the operation of censure in
reference to printing the tracts of the Tract Society. He
said it was so hard to satisfy those in authority that a tract
did not lead to separatismus, a thing as much dreaded as a
revolution in politics, Mr. Semler said that in an article he
wrote for the newspaper on establishments for the poor, he
remarked that " nothing could be done until the education
of the poor was put on a Christian basis." The word
" Christian " was struck out, and " moral " inserted, because
the Ministerium had forbidden any thing to appear which
might bring before the public the " religious movement " of
the day. Lindner, a Professor at Leipsic, was displaced
from his office as teacher of religion in one of the largest
schools there, because in explaining the passage that a man
must love Christ more than father, mother, &c., his remarks
tended to diminish the respect of children for their parents,
and therefore had a revolutionary tendency. Prof. Lindner
is an excellent man. This is equal to the solicitude of the
pastors of Geneva, who requested Mr. Monod to erase from
his sermon the expression, that " if a man hate not his
father, &c." I have been pained to hear from Monod that
the state of morals, even in the Protestant Cantons of
Switzerland, is exceedingly corrupt, and particularly in
Berne and Lucerne. Geneva forms a striking exception.
^T. 30.] BERLIN. 179
The Swiss battalion in Berlin from Neufchatel is said to be
the most corrupt of any in the Prussian guards, if not of the
whole army. Monod says it is the same with the Swiss
officers in Paris. Mr. Semler mentioned that the battalion
in the Tyrol has been the means of the greatest good in that
country. The soldiers serve eight years, and during that
time they have a constant course of religious instruction.
It is said that the Ministerium wish to send Prof. Hengs-
tenberg to Bonn, or force him to relinquish the Kirchen-
Zeitung. It seems as if a storm was brewing. The Min-
isterium censured the Theological Faculty respecting the
petition of the students, and particularly Neander. The
Hegelians are working strongly against the Evangelical
party. Marheineke had the amazing presumption to say to
Neander in a meeting of the Senatus Academicus, " Thou
ignorant man (p. 149). You are unworthy that I should
answer you." " Happily," replied Neander, " You are not
my judge." When some person present exclaimed at Mar-
heineke's conduct, asking how he could call one of the
most learned men in Germany an ignoramus, he answered,
" He knows nothing of Philosophy," i. e., Hegel's system.
Wednesday, March 26th. Das Hohe Ministerium are
much dissatisfied with the Evangelische Kirchen-Zeitung,
and have given Hengstenberg to understand that he must
either give it up or be removed to another University. He
preferred the latter. Whether their threat will be executed
remains to be seen. They warned him that if he appealed
to the Crown Prince, who they know is favorable to the
Zeitung, he would be lost, so says Ancillon. In Weimar a
tract society has been suppressed, and the distributer
punished with a fine of 20 Florins. The state of things
throughout the Herzogthum Weimar must be deplorable.
The superintendent, Prohr, in writing for a person to fill an
important vacancy in the Church, told his correspondent to
select a rationalist, and added " but do let him be of good
morals."
180 BERLIN. [1828.
Sunday, March joth. I was, this evening, at Madame
Schonberg's for the last time, as she is about to leave Ber-
lin for a while. The company was larger than usual. Goss-
ner preached in his peculiar way from Matt. 27 : I. He
said, as the enemies of Christ rose early to plot His death,
should not Christians rise early to take counsel with the
Holy Spirit, how they may serve, love, and honor Him ?
As they bound the Saviour with cords, so should we bind
Him with faith, love and hope, to our souls. As Judas
betrayed his Master for gold, he begged us to think how
often we had sold Christ, His presence, His communion,
for the sinful enjoyments of this world; and that ill-gotten
wealth could do us no good; that one day we would be
glad to throw it away. Judas's repentance not being joined
with faith availed him nothing, etc. Prof. Lancizolle, who
was present, gave me an interesting account of the course
of instruction for confirmation which he had received from
Von Ancillon, then a pastor in the French Church. He
said it was not until the last week that he was told there
was such a book as the Scriptures. All the previous
instruction was about sun, moon, stars and all other points
than those relating to the doctrines of the Gospel. It is in
this way that the good effects of the method of instruction
are lost.
Marc It Jist. There was a review to-day of the whole
Guard in garrison in Berlin. The King conducted the
review, attended by all the higher officers, his sons, etc.
Through the kindness of Lieutenant Von Senfft I obtained
an excellent place on the Zeughaus for viewing this display
of the flower of the Prussian army. There were 10,000
men, cuirassiers, lancers, dragoons, infantry, horse and foot
artillery. The Prussians think their own army the finest in
the world, and I should think it ought to be from the
amount of attention devoted to it.
April ist. I dined to-day at Madame Schonberg's in
company with the Graf Lippe, his wife and daughter, a
^ET. 30.] BERLIN. l8l
Polish Hauptman Gauratcki, and another Graf, whose name
I do not know. This Graf Lippe is from Cleves. His lady
takes a great interest in missions, inquired of the state of
religion in America, and spoke of Mrs. Judson's letters, etc.
Almost everywhere the indications of the spread of religion
among all ranks in this place, are to be seen. Strauss said,
some days since, that it was seldom he had an hour to
himself before night, since he was so constantly occupied
by persons calling to see him to converse on the state of
their souls and ask his counsels.
Friday, April 4-th. This was Good Friday. I attended
Church in the morning and went to the communion. Lisco
preached, as usual, with much simplicity and feeling. It
gave me pleasure to find by my side, at the communion
table, the dear Neander; for whose character I have con-
ceived the greatest reverence.
Sunday, 6th. In the morning I was at Church ; in
the evening with Neander. He showed me several pass-
ages from the letters of Jacobi, in which he speaks of the
folly and extremity to which the German philosophers per-
mit themselves to be led away in their speculations. He
expressed the greatest abhorrence of the spirit at present
prevailing . among this class of men ; this making them-
selves God, or reducing God to an idea (BegrifT) so that
Hegel says that Nichts ist die allerhochste Realitat. I asked
Neander if he did not think that something of the spirit or
principles of the Pantheistical system had passed over into
the evangelical writings of the present day in Germany,
and said that the idea that alles Seyn ist das Seyn Gottes
seemed to me of this character. He said, " By no means
all that was meant by that phrase is that God is the only
real independent substance, and that all other existences
are grounded in a mysterious way in Him.' This, he said,
was contained in the idea of the omnipresence of God, and
in the declaration of Paul that " in Him we live, and move,
and have our being " and that l ou xat di bu are all things.
1 82 BERLIN. [1828.
The ec ov, he said, means something more than. merely
efficient cause. I asked him, then, in what relation our
efficiency stood to that of God ? He replied, that in all
good we were merely the organs of God, and that sin only
broke off this relation. I said, this coincided with the idea
of the older theologians as to the concur sus Dei in all our
acts. He replied " Yes, I think they were perfectly right
on this point."
In coming away, the dear man pressed my hand very
kindly, and said, " I think we can agree." He seems to
think that if he debates with any one, or differs from him,
he does him a wrong, and is uneasy until the feeling of
perfect peace is restored.
A few days before this I had a conversation with the
Gerlachs on the Personalitat der Menschheit. They main-
tained that the race of man was a whole, as a tree is a
whole. No one stands for himself; so that the race is not
a collection of individuals as an army is, but of the consti-
tuent parts of one great whole. It is on this idea they ex-
plain the idea of original sin. The whole race was then in
Adam, as completely and as really as an oak is in an acorn.
It was not Adam as an individual, but Adam as the human
race who sinned. To the question, "Are we conscious of
having personally participated in the sin of Adam ? " They
replied, "That very question is founded on a false view. It
is not /, as an individual, that there sinned ; it is not a
matter for my consciousness, but for the consciousness of
the Menschheit (humanity)."
Thursday, April 8th. This evening the Lieutenant von
Senfft called for me, and we went to drink tea with the
Geheimrath and Professor Schmalz. There is here a large
family of daughters, who, with their mother, are pious.
There were two or three other gentlemen present. Otto
von Gerlach, who is much of a musician, took his seat at
the piano, and the company sang various parts of an
oratorio by Gans, the death of Christ, which is always per-
^ET. 30.] BERLIN. 183
formed here on Charfreitag also parts of Handel's Mes-
siah and of his Judas Maccabeus. They sang, also, one
piece from an old German composer, Bach, whose works
have long been neglected, but which they say are equal to
almost any of the best German compositions.
Friday, April nth. This morning I rode out in com-
pany with Messrs. Amory and Cunningham, to see the
prison, at Spandau. The Inspector went round with us
and showed us everything. There are here five hundred
prisoners, of whom ninety are females. The greater part
of these are employed in the manufacture of cotton and
wool in various shapes. Those condemned to hard labor
turn the great wheel which sets the machinery in motion.
The prisoners are neatly dressed. There are thirty-six
cells for solitary confinement, for the punishment of offences
committed within the prison. A young man is considered
ruined when once sent to prison in this part of Germany,
the corrupting influence is so great. The number of crimes
since 1806 have increased amazingly. Four thousand per-
sons are arrested every year in Berlin alone, and of these
seventy-five per cent, are condemned. The greater part of
the female prisoners are in for life, for murdering their
infant children. The proportion of murderers is astonish-
ing. The Inspector said that his confidential prisoners
were all murderers, whose sentences had for some reason
been exchanged from death to imprisonment for life. He
said he found they were uniformly less hardened and
depraved than the thieves who came back upon them half
a dozen times. There is a Chaplain for the prison who
preaches every Sunday, and visits the prisoners twice in the
week. They are also supplied with Bibles.
Sunday, ijth. .1 heard Lisco this morning preach from
the words : " I am the light of the world." In the evening
I was at Neander's. Dr. Julius, a gentleman from Ham-
burg, was there. He has been some time in England, ex-
amining their prisons, and is about publishing a work on this
184 BERLIN. [1828.
subject. Neander, as usual, found occasion to speak of the
danger arising from the spread of Hegel's philosophy, which,
by making the Begriff God, deifies man. He showed me a
remarkable passage in Jacobi's work on religion, in which
the Prophecy of Lichtenstein is quoted. This predicts that
the world will become so refined that it will be as much
unfashionable to believe in God as in a spectre, and that men
will go still further, and make themselves, and God, and the
universe but a spectre. This, he says, is wonderfully ac-
complished by Hegel's system, which makes God but an
idea nullity the origin of everything and the universe a
mere phantom. Neander thinks that Schleiermacher's
change of opinion, as exhibited in the difference between his
Reden iiber die Religion and his Dogmatik, has arisen from
his approaching nearer 4o Christianity the main point of
difference is, that in the latter he appears to admit the per-
sonal existence of the soul after death. He spoke also of
the wonderful contrast between the practical common sense
of the English, and the speculative spirit of the Germans,
and he again referred to the passage in Jacobi, in which he
says, that the Germans must always have a golden calf to go
before them, and an Aaron to offer sacrifice but that they
are always willing to see the calf destroyed and reduced to
powder, provided this be not done by a Moses, but by
another Aaron, who will make them another calf. Thus is
it with their philosophical systems. The system of Hegel
has become a matter of ridicule in the little, low papers
which appear here in Berlin. One man is made to ask his
neighbor, Weisst du wohl dass du gar nicht existirst ? Wie
so denn Weil alles was ist, ist vernunftig du bist unver-
nimftig daher existirst du nicht.
Tuesday, i$th. I went on Saturday last, with Messrs.
Amory and Cunningham, to visit the Gewerbs Institut, an
establishment for the education of artists and mechanics,
similar, though on a much larger scale, to the Franklin
Institute in Philadelphia. Lectures are delivered on Che-
^T. 30.] BERLIN. 185
mistry and the various branches of natural philosophy, and
the students have regular instruction in drawing, modeling,
etc. They also work in the preparation of all kinds of ma-
chinery, make casts, original and copied. The institution
is furnished with models of the best English, French, and
American machines. There is a young American here em-
ployed by the Prussian Government to erect and superin-
tend various spinning and weaving machines. He was
raised in the Brandywine factories, near Baltimore, and
seems to give great satisfaction. The American machines
have displaced the English, and every year there is a com-
plaint that one expensive machine is rendered useless by
the Yankees inventing a better. A spinning machine, es-
tablished in Spandau, a year since thought to be the best
possible, is put into the background by one just received by
the Government ; the production of the latter to the former
being as eleven to five.
Wednesday, i6th. Spent the evening with Justice Focke,
and Ludwig and Otto von Gerlach. John 10
Saturday, iqth. Visited Potsdam in company with
Messrs. Amory, Cunningham, and Mr. Lowell, an intelli-
gent and interesting young man from Boston.' The day
was fine and our ride agreeable, although the country is
remarkably uninteresting until you reach the neighborhood
of Potsdam, where the dull, barren, sandy wastes are ren-
dered somewhat susceptible of cultivation by the numerous
lakes of the Havel. When we entered Potsdam the cavalry
regiment of the Guard were parading with their fine music
in the garden of the palace. We went first to visit the
palace of Sans Souci and its grounds. The latter are beau-
tifully laid out and ornamented. Before the time of Frede-
rick the whole was a barren waste of sand. Sans Souci
stands on the top of a hillock, the south side of which is
covered its whole length with hot-houses, from top to bot-
tom. The palace was built after the Seven Years' War, and
is only one story high. It consists of the main building,
1 86 POTSDAM. [1828.
and two wings separated at some distance from it, and one
of them on much lower ground. The east wing contains
the picture gallery. The Hall is splendid, made entirely of
Italian marble. The pictures are of the Flemish and Ita-
lian schools. These are twenty-seven by Rubens, all hor-
rible. The most celebrated are a Vertumnus and Pomona,
by L. da Vinci ; a Sleeping Venus, by Titian ; two or three
by Raphael, the most distinguished being an Ecce Homo,
which is by far the most affecting picture in the whole col-
lection. In the palace of Sans Souci itself there is nothing
very interesting, excepting the rooms of Frederick as he
left them. Voltaire's room, his bed and table, are still in
statu quo. It made me almost sick to look around me.
For of all men who ever lived he most excites my bad feel-
ings. From this we walked through the gardens to the
new palace another piece of Frederick's enormous extrava-
gance it is conjectured to have cost 11,000,000 Prussian
dollars. Nobody ever used it. It is the Versailles of
Prussia. In returning, we stopped at the Church where
Frederick and his father are buried. Under the pulpit
there is a recess in which their coffins lie on a marble floor.
To stand near the ashes of a man who had acted so con-
spicuous a part during his life, and contrast the gloomy
little receptacle of his body with his gorgeous palaces was
well adapted to produce a deep impression of the emptiness
of worldly glory. Tuesday, April 2pth, I visited, with Jus-
tice Focke and a few other friends, the Kunst Cabinet in the
palace. The collection is neither very large nor remarka-
ble. The king has caused to be prepared a wax figure of
Frederick I. which is said to be a most striking likeness.
The face is formed after a cast taken immediately after
death. The clothing is such as he wore, and the sword is
the one which hung by his side during the seven years'
war. The insignia of the various orders, and hat worn by
Napoleon and taken at the Battle of Waterloo are here
preserved.
^ET. 30.] BERLIN. 187
In the evening some of my friends came to drink tea with
me and bid me farewell for ever in this world, humanly speak-
ing. Otto Von Gerlach sang a hymn and his brother Lud-
wig prayed before we separated. They were kind enough
to present me with a German Stamm-Buch, i. e., a book in
which friends inscribe their names under the date of their
birth, together with some sentence or verse expressive of
kind feeling or important truth. That written by Neander
is beautiful. I happened the other day to be sitting in his
study, when the messenger handed this book to him, then
altogether unknown by me. Neander quietly and rapidly
wrote his sentence and returned it to the messenger without
remark.
" Let us stand fast in the liberty in which Christ has
made us free ; whom alone to serve is a glory and a joy ; and
let us not become slaves of men or of any other creature,
To rejoice in the Lord, to be nothing in one's self; in the
Lord all things." A. NEANDER.
1 88 LEA VES BERLIN. [1828.
Wednesday, ^oth. I remained at home. Justice Focke
Tippleskirch, G. von der Recke, and Cunningham, came to
see me in the course of the day. I left Berlin, taking my last
farewell of Von Senfft and Dorfs at the Post-office. I did
not expect to" have my heart so interested by a stay of six
months in any place. The kindness, the Christian love, the
warm-hearted conduct of those with whom I have passed
this winter so happily, will remain deeply impressed on my
heart as long as I live. When I bid my friends farewell
I cried like a child. Neander's farewell I shall never
forget.
May i st. I arrived in Halle about 12 o'clock. The
evening I spent with Mr. Robinson at the Staatrathin Von
Jacob's.
Tholuck had gone to Rome for a season, and Mr. Hodge
saw his friend no more. A little while before, while Mr.
Hodge was at Berlin, Tholuck, on the eve of his departure
for Rome, addressed him the following letter. (The original
in English).
HALLE, April, 1828.
My Dear Hodge : You will have been greatly astonished
as many have at my resolution to spend this year in Rome. There
is certainly a number of circumstances that make it a scrupulous
matter, but the opportunity was so very favorable, and some acci-
dents encouraged it so much, that I could not resist any longer.
A pious Professor will supply my place this year, and according to
all probability remain my colleague. This is the most important
fruit of the plan with respect to Halle.
As to my state here, I must thank God that, since my complaints
have lessened, I feel like new-born. I feel, of course, the burden of
a lonely, friendless life. I feel particularly the tediousness of contin-
ual dogmatical researches and disputations, which are so very sel-
dom interrupted by other occupations and distractions; but being
more delivered than I was when you were here from the constant
aggression, I can find access to the throne of grace, and can be satis-
fied with God's ways
I am sure that I shall not only enjoy much at Rome, but that I
shall be of use also as well to Bunsen as to the congregation. I shall
^ET. 30. ] LE TTERS FR OM THOL UCK. 189
draw much profit myself, I hope, from being employed practically in
the gospel
I cannot express what I feel at the idea of my not seeing you again.
You have been sent to me through God's mercy as a messenger of
glad tidings, as a C9mforter in cheerless hours, as an elder brother
to show me the simple way to heaven. I owe you very much, or
more properly I have reason to be most thankful to God for what He
has bestowed upon me by your means. And never ! never ! on this
side of the grave shall I see you again. My eyes run with tears !
Dear friend, do not forget me ; do not forget to pray for me. . . .
I am in Christ Jesus our Lord,
Yours most cordially, A. THOLUCK.
Remember me most cordially to our dear Monod.
Again he wrote from near Rome, at the time that Mr.
Hodge was on the eve of embarking from Liverpool, and
believing that he was already at home, Tholuck addressed
the letter to Princeton. (The original in English.)
FRASCATI, July 30, 1828.
My Dear and Beloved Friend and Brother in Christ : You are
now, I am sure, safely brought to your dear home, and sit cheerfully
smiling among wife and children, thankful for all the great mercies
of our Lord. And here I sit, too, among dear children (although not
my own) in happy Italy, thankful for the mercies of my Lord, where
I can rest a little from all the afflictions and tribulations of past years.
... I found myself well, better than in Halle, and soon became de-
lighted with the enjoyments which the family circle of Bunsen and
he himself offered to me. He has six amiable children, a most re-
spectable wife, and him I found a thorough and sincere follower of
Christ. My pastoral duty also gave me much pleasure, having an au-
dience before me in which the simple gospel tidings met with a ready
reception. Since the first of July (the heat in Rome getting more and
more intense), we removed to the country, where I now reside with
the family in a beautiful villa surrounded with the Sabinian and Al-
banian mountains, having Mons Soracte in the face, and in a dis-
tance at the right side the seterna Roma, at the left the borders of the
sea. One day passes swiftly away after the others, under useful and
edifying conversation. The morning begins with family prayer and
hymns sung by the boys. The day closes again with singing hymns.
Neither philosophical nor critical doubts trouble the mind where it
daily experiences the sweet comfort of Christian communion. Like
1 90 G OE TTINGEN. [1828.
a dreary waste my life in Halle lies behind me. I was sick all the
days I lived there sick in body and sick in mind. Oh ! what pa-
tience have you then had with me ! I hope you would find me now
another man. But blessed be my Saviour who sent you then to my
great consolation and comfort. You see then, dear Hodge, that I
may justly call this, my present abode, a place of rest. When the
disciples returned from their missionary tour, the Saviour told them :
avairaveade b^iyov. This I do now, but only 6/Uyov. By no means I
shall protract this absence from Halle.
Much is hoped from Bunsen's future career. He is decided to
leave soon his present situation and to occupy an important one in
the ecclesiastical department of the Ministerium. He now studies
Hebrew very hard. I read the Psalms with him. He is a little too
averse to Republican States, and consequently to your happy
country. Believe me, my dear brother,
Your true friend in Christ, A. THOLUCK.
ON HIS WAY HOME, VIA GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, FRANCE
AND ENGLAND.
Journal. On the morning of the jd May, I left Halle
for Goettingen. I dined at Eisleben, where Luther was
born. The room in which this event occurred is a school-
room. In another apartment are preserved many relics
of the Reformer ; such as his table, desk, letters, &c. The
country from Halle to Nordhausen is much more varied
than any part of North Germany I had yet seen. From
Heiligenstadt to Goettingen, the first part of the road is
very interesting, hilly and abounding in trees. I arrived in
Goettingen about eleven, and stopped at the crown tavern.
In the morning Mr. Wm. Amory called to see me. We
walked together round the town, and found the public
promenade very pleasant. Goettingen itself has little to
recommend it in externals. In the afternoon we visited the
museum and attended the lecture of Blumenbach. It is
impossible to give any idea of the manner of this extra-
ordinary man. One would suppose he was desirous of
showing the capability of the human face of assuming
queer forms. He talks with as much unconcern as in his
^T. 30.] G GETTING 'EN. 1 91
study. We called to see him the next morning. He re-
ceived us very kindly, showed us his collection of skulls,
and begged us to try and get him from America various
articles he yet needs to complete his collection. He spoke
very favorably of many Americans he had known. Al-
though about eighty years of age, he has all the vivacity
and interest in all persons, and things he has anything to
do with, as though he were in the prime of youth. I
called on Prof. Lucke with the letter of Dr. Neander. He
appears to be about thirty-five, an amiable and friendly man.
He was kind enough to call on me at four o'clock and
take me to see several of the other theological professors.
We first called on the elder Planck, a man apparently be-
tween seventy and eighty. He had such an asthmatic affec-
tion that it appeared difficult for him to converse. We
then called on Prof. Pott, a man of about fifty. He talked
chiefly about books, and the great library, the pride and
pillar of the university. We called also upon Prof. Hem-
sen. The decided manner in which he came out in the
late difficulties, respecting the missionary society, has gained
him the confidence of all Christians. He and Lucke both
spoke very warmly against the Berlin philosophical school.
Lticke appears to be a great friend of Schleiermacher, al-
though reckoned as belonging to the orthodox party, and
not a little abused by the opposers of the present struggle
for life in Germany. He said that he had little difficulty in
this place ; that the professors treat him kindly, and his au-
ditorium is well filled. On the evening of May 6th, I
drank tea with the two Messrs. Amory, and met several pro-
fessors and teachers of the university. I had a long talk
with Prof. Reiche on Mysticisms. He is a most decided
Rationalist, yet without that bitter hatred to the truth and
its advocates which so strongly characterizes most of his
school. It is as clear as day that the most intolerant and
bitter spirit rankles in the bosom of many who have made
the greatest advances in the Aufklarung of the times. I
1 9 2 GOE TTINGEN. [1828.
visited the library and saw Prof. Beneke, to whom Prof.
Patton had given me a letter. He spoke of Patton with
affection, and it is pleasant to find how universally the
Americans, who have been to Goettingen, are remembered
with respect and affection. I called also to see Prof. Ewald,
whom I regard as one of the most remarkable men I have
seen in Europe. He is about twenty-four, looks much
younger, is modest in his manner even to bashfulness, al-
though confident even to arrogance, in his writings. He
has more hearers than any other Professor who reads on
theological subjects. He expressed his hope of being soon
able to find time to write a Syriac Grammar. Hoffman,
he says, has made no new step, has been diligent, but that
is all. He regrets the opinions of Vater, Eichhorn, &c., on
the Pentateuch ; makes it with the exception of Deutero-
nomy very old. Job he sets between seven and eight hun-
dred years B. c. The present prologue is, he thinks, spurious.
The latter part of Isaiah he rejects. We went afterwards
to meet Mrs. Goeschen, a lady whom I had met nearly a
year ago at her son-in-law, Westermeier's. We drank tea
with Blumenbach. Mrs. Goeschen and family were there.
The old gentleman talked a great deal of our Indians, for
whom he seemed to have a great liking. His wife is
mother general of the Americans, whom she praised to the
skies. The last thing she said to me was, "Send us plenty
of Americans." Prof. Hemsen was kind enough to come
and sit half an hour with me this afternoon. He gave no
very encouraging account of the prospect of doing much
good to students at present. No missionary-society, after
all, had been formed. No prayer-meetings were allowed.
All that had been gained in the late struggle was that a
missions stunde was held, in which the missionary journals
were read. He presented me in the name of Prof. Pott,
with the first part of the commentary on Corinthians, an
attention on the part of Dr. Pott I had no ground to ex-
pect. I supped at Prof. Lucke's, but was obliged to come
JET. 30.] WUPPER TIfAL. 1 93
away early, in order to meet the stage passing from Han-
over to Cassel.
The 8th and qth of May, I passed in Cassel. The new
part of this city is very beautiful. The old part is not re-
markable. The gardens and walks round the town are the
finest I have seen in Germany.
At 5 o'clock I left Cassel. The country from this to the
Rhine is generally varied, and fertile, and beautiful. The
dominions of the Elector of Hesse Cassel are marked by a
degree of poverty I cannot account for. The villages are
the most miserable, and the people more ragged-looking
than any I had elsewhere seen in Germany. The aspect of
things change for the better as soon as you enter the pos-
sessions of Prussia. As soon as the Wupperthal (the
valley of the Wupper, a short but copious stream entering
the Rhine on the eastern side, about fifty miles below
Cologne) commences, a scene is opened which could not
have been expected in Germany. The poverty which every-
where else characterizes the peasantry, here disappears.
Well-built houses, tasteful gardens, and a general appear-
ance of refinement and comfort everywhere meet the eye.
The entire valley, of which Elberfeld is the centre, is almost
a continual village, filled with manufactories of every kind,
so that the traveller feels as if he were suddenly transported
to England. Elberfeld contains about twenty-two thousand
inhabitants, and is probably the richest place of its size in
Germany.
These Rhine provinces of Prussia have much that is
peculiar and interesting in their ecclesiastical arrangements.
They formerly had, under a Catholic Prince, their own
Presbyterian form of Government. This, however, has been
much weakened since they were brought under the domin-
ion of Prussia. Each Circle has its Presbyterium, consist-
ing of the pastors of one or two elders for each congregation,
and each Province has its Synod. But the actual govern-
ment of the Church is taken, for the most part, out of the
13
KRUMMACHER. [1828.
hands of the Presbyteria and Synods, and given to the
Consistoria, as elsewhere in Prussia. The Consistoria
examine candidates, and alone can depose a pastor, and that
only by reporting to the Ministerium in Berlin, from whom
the act of deposition must proceed. The changes which
have recently occurred, have principally been brought about
through the influence of the clergy. The Rationalists in
this part of the country are said to be favorable to the
Consistorial form of ecclesiastical administration, as it
brings them more in connection with the state, and gives
them more worldly power. The congregations, however,
have retained the right of electing their own pastors, and
hopes are entertained that the powers and rights of the
Presbyteries will be restored.
I heard the pastor Krummacher preach in the morning.
The Church was large and crowded. The people seemed
mostly of the poorer class, although, I am told, that the
richer part of the population are remarkably regular in
their attendance on Church. The sermon was peculiar.
The subject was the rainbow, which he made, first a sacra-
ment, and then considered as a type of the Church. The
points of resemblance were five ; origin, color, form, posi-
tion, and . This was carried through with a good
deal of taste and talent, but the whole discourse wanted that
authority and power which belong alone to truths obviously
contained in the word of God. I called to see the Pastor
Wichelhaus, to whom I had a letter. He received me
kindly, and gave me the information concerning the eccle-
siastical government of these provinces I have recorded
above. He also informed me that in the Wupperthal,
during the prevalence of infidelity all over Germany,
orthodoxy still retained its place, and the spirit of piety,
although for a time depressed, never lost its hold on the
people. All the preachers in this neighborhood are con-
sidered orthodox and pious. In the present state of lively
religious feeling here, there are two dangers which struck
-ST. 30.] DUSSELDORF.
me as threatening to disturb the beauty of this part of God's
vineyard. The first is a tendency among some few of the
preachers to antinomian principles. The other is the ex-
travagant allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament.
In the evening I visited the Superintendent Snecklager,
where I met four or five other preachers from the neighbor-
hood, and a Mr. Le Grand from Basle.
Tuesday, May ijth. I left Elberfeld at six o'clock for
Dusseldorf, distant about fifteen miles. It contains about
sixteen thousand inhabitants, a majority of whom are
Catholics. The country in this neighborhood is perfectly
flat on both sides of the Rhine, and continues so until
Bonn. In the afternoon I walked out to Dusselthal, the
institution of Count von der Recke. This was originally a
cloister, surrounded by a brick wall, and including thirty-
six acres of land. There are now a large dwelling-house,
a brewery, oil and flour mills, a long house, including car-
penter's and smith's shops, &c. The Count has now eighty
boys and fifty girls, all poor protestant children, with the
exception of two Jewish children. He told me that all his
long-continued efforts to do something good for the Jews
had proved ineffectual. They had all proved themselves to
be actuated by such selfish and worldly motives that he was
unable to say that he regarded one of all those under his
care from the commencement of the institution a sincere
Christian. The amazing pride they always manifested
made it exceedingly difficult to get along with them. Si-
mon, he said, had given him more trouble than words could
well express. He complained of the extravagant ideas en-
tertained by the English Christians as to the dignity and
future destiny of the Jews, and said he could not find in the
Bible that they were destined to be the rulers of the world.
The Jewish inmates left in mass when he made it plain that
the attraction he offered them was religious instruction and
not worldly gain. The Count has the entire expense of the
support of the institution on his own hands. Voluntary
196 COLOGNE AND BONN. [1828.
contributions from Christian friends amount to very little
and the product of the labor of those engaged in the various
industries is far from being sufficient. I asked him what he
thought of the plan of the American Jewish Society. He
said he thought they were engaged in an utterly hopeless
effort.
On the 1 4th, at four o'clock in the morning, I left Dus-
seldorf for Cologne, where I arrived at nine o'clock. It
contains sixty thousand inhabitants, chiefly Catholic, twelve
thousand beggars, and twenty-seven churches. The Cathe-
dral, commenced in A. D. 1 248, but never finished, is the
most beautiful specimen of Gothic architecture in Germany.
It contains the bodies of the wise men of the East, and the
staff of Peter. St. Peter's church contains the famous pic-
ture of the Crucifixion of Peter, by Rubens, and some re-
markable painted windows. In another church are pre-
served the bones of the eleven thousand virgins. This is a
hot-bed of Catholic superstitions.
I left Cologne at two o'clock, and arrived at Bonn at
six. Here the mountains commence and the beautiful
scenery on the banks of the Rhine. I soon met Mr. Wool-
sey, who continued with me three days in Bonn, and went
with me by steamboat to Coblenz. I have got to love him
ten times more than ever.* I called on Prof. Nitzsch, to
whom I had a letter from Neander. He is a middle-aged
man, rather melancholy-looking. I also called on Prof.
Sack, a very agreeable and affable man, and apparently a
friend of piety and the truth. I heard Schlegel lecture, and
was disappointed in his appearance and manner. Freytag
* President Theodore D. Woolsey said at Dr. Hodge's Semi-Centennial Com-
memoration, April 24th, 1872: "Some years after (I had known him in Prince-
ton Seminary) I was in Bonn, and he coming into (out of) Germany, I think in
1828, stopped in Bonn. I saw him, and went up the river with him to enjoy his
society. Then he spoke to me I may say if permitted to speak of myself that
I was in darkness) he spoke to me words of cheer, of comfort, of strength. I
do not remember the words, but I remember the impression, and that impression
will go with me through life."
/ET.30.] LETTER TO HIS WIFE. 197
lives a mile or two out of town, and therefore I did not see
him. The University of Bonn is not more than ten years
old. Yet it has nearly one thousand students, of whom
from three to four hundred are studying theology, about
two-thirds being Catholic. The Elector's palace and its
beautiful grounds have been appropriated to the service of
the University.
(Here the Journal ends.)
PROF. HODGE TO HIS WIFE.
SURSEE, May 28th, 1828.
^ My Beloved Sarah : I have seen the Alps ! If now I never see
any thing great or beautiful in nature, I am content. I felt that as
soon as I saw you, I could fall at your feet and beg you to forgive my
beholding such a spectacle without you,| my love. You were dearer
to me in that moment than ever. I left Basel about one o'clock with
a young English gentleman for Lucerne. We rode about fifteen
miles and arrived at the foot of a mountain. As the road was steep
and difficult, we commenced walking up the mountain in company
with two Swiss gentlemen. We ascended leisurely for about two
hours before we reached the top. I was walking slowly with my
hands behind me, and my eyes on the ground, expecting nothing,
when one of the Swiss gentlemen said with infinite indifference
" Voila les Alpes." I raised my eyes and around me in a grand
amphitheatre, high up against the heavens, were the Alps ! It was
some moments before the false and indefinite conceptions of my life
were overcome by the glorious reality. The declining sun shed on
the immense mass of mingled snow and forests the brightness of the
evening clouds. This was the first moment of my life in which I felt
overwhelmed. Every thing I had ever previously seen seemed ab-
solutely nothing. The natural bridge in Virginia had surprised me
the Rhine had delighted me but the first sudden view of the Alps
was overwhelming. This was a moment that can never return ; the
Alps can never be seen again by surprise, and in ignorance of their
real appearance.
Berne, June 2d. I am now writing in Berne. After having com-
pleted a short tour among the mountains, we reached Lucerne about
twelve on the 28th of May. We took a hasty dinner and set out for
Mount Righi, after having procured mountain shoes and walking
poles. We crossed Lake Lucerne, and then commenced the ascent
for three hours. The sun was shining for the first hour, which, with
198 LETTER TO HIS WIFE. [1828.
the difficulty of the way, made it by far the most severe task I had
ever undertaken. We were obliged to lie down every ten minutes.
After the first hour the ascent was not so severe. There was a shower
of rain, and enough of cold wind. After three hours and a half, we
had accomplished the task. It was so cloudy and so late that we
could see little from the summit, which is 5,550 feet above the sea.
We went flattering ourselves with being repaid by beholding the
rising sun. But we were again disappointed. There was so dense a
fog that nothing could be seen. About 7 o'clock it began to clear
and then the sight was splendid. From this point you overlook the
varied surface of the north of Switzerland. To the right and on the
left you have a view of the long, unbroken chain of lofty Alps. Of
these we could see but little, yet we were amply repaid by the grand-
eur of the prospect to the right, and the ever varying forms of the
clouds as they drove over the plain below. We descended to the lake
on the other side of the mountain. The lake of Lucerne deserves all
the praise which has been lavished upctn it for romantic scenery, and
almost every spot on its vast borders is rich in associations with the
heroic memories of the deliverance of Switzerland. At Stanze my
English companion gave out. We took a carriage to Sachseln, where
we slept. The next morning we rode to Lungeren, and then, partly
on horseback and partly on foot, crossed the Brtinig and dined at
Brienz. We were rowed over this beautiful lake in three hours, and
on the evening of the 2gth reached Unterseen, which lies on a plain
between the lakes of Brienz and Thun. The next morning I set out
alone with the guide for Lauterbrunnen, distant about a three hours
walk. This is one of the most beautiful valleys in Switzerland, closed
by the Jungfrau, one of the loftiest mountains. It is also famous for
the waterfall of the Staubbach, which falls nearly perpendicularly 925
feet. I rode up the Wengern Alp, which separates Lauterbrunnen
from Grindelwald, on a mule, in four hours. On the top we enjoyed
two cloudless hours of surpassing grandeur. We were within musket
shot of the immense masses of rocks of the Jungfrau and Eiger, which
rose from our level between 6,000 and 7,000 feet. This near view of
these immense mountains of ice, rock and snow is as overpowering
as the first distant view of their grandeur. We saw and heard at least
twenty avalanches. It was like a long-continued thunder-storm, so
rapidly did one falling mass succeed to another. The mountain we
passed had still so much snow that the mule could proceed no further.
I therefore commenced the descent on the opposite side on foot. In
four hours we reached Grindelwald, having made a detour to get to
one of its famous glaciers. What will my wife and mother say to my
lameness walking nearly twenty miles and riding ten in one day ?
^T. so.] LETTER TO HIS MOTHER. 199
But with heartfelt gratitude I may say it has not injured me in the
least. Saturday was so disagreeable that I had to relinquish plans
and so, returning to Unterseen, a walk of five hours, and dismissing
there my guide, I made the best of my way to Berne.
Yours, &c., &c., CHARLES HODGE.
PROF. HODGE TO HIS MOTHER.
LONDON, June 28th, 1828.
My Dear Mother : From Geneva I made an excursion of
three days to the valley of Chamouny to see its celebrated glaciers
and to get a view of Mount Blanc. Having seen in the Canton of
Berne scenery of the same kind, the impression was by no means so
strong as when things at once novel and sublime strike the sight. I
crossed the celebrated sea of ice, an enterprise of much more diffi-
culty than I expected, and attended by a degree of danger that, had
I been aware of it, would have deterred me from the attempt. The
ice changes from month to month in these immense glaciers, so that
you are never secure in finding it in a good state, unless your guide
has passed at that particular place within a few weeks. These gla-
ciers are immense bodies of snow and ice, and will fill up the elevated
valleys of the mountains. The one called the Sea of Ice is eighteen
leagues long, and from one to three miles broad. The surface is as
irregular as the ocean. What may be called the waves are ten,
twenty, or fifty feet high. The difficulty consists in getting up and
down these waves, and over the chasms which run in all directions,
and are often slightly covered with snow. With a careful guide, how-
ever, accidents are exceedingly rare. Those which do occur are ge-
nerally the result of the folly of young men who disregard the advice
of their conductors. The guides in these mountains are regulated
just as pilots are in the difficult harbors of maritime nations. They
are examined, must receive certificates, and are responsible for the
safety of all whom they conduct. I found the excursion of this day
walking nine hours under circumstances which required great mus-
cular effort too much for my limb. Otherwise I was scarcely fa-
tigued at all. Were it not for that weakness, I should think myself
equal to any amount of bodily fatigue.
From Geneva to Paris the country is not peculiarly interesting. At
Paris I felt myself almost at home. I dined one day with ten Ameri-
cans Dr. J. R. Clark, Dr. Hopkinson, Dr. Ralston, Dr. Cunningham,
Mr. Chauncey .
I left Paris for London with the dear good Mr. Chauncey, and am
now settled with him in good, comfortable lodgings.
Your son, C. H.
2OO LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. [1828.
PROF. HODGE TO HIS WIFE.
LONDON, 27th, 1828.
My Dearest Sarah : As Mr. Chauncey had been by Calais
and Dover, he preferred the route by Dieppe and Brighton. We
spent one day in Rouen to view the old churches, &c. After a ride
of six hours we found ourselves in Dieppe. Our passage over the
Channel was not pleasant but in twelve hours after leaving Dieppe
we were standing on the chalky shores of old England. You may
suppose it was with a swelling heart I trod upon the soil of the mo-
ther country, which, with all her faults, is the most wonderful and
admirable the world has ever seen St. Paul's church is much
the most sublime and striking of any I have seen when viewed from
under its immense dome. We attended last evening the House of
Commons. You are aware that they sit in a room very much like a
Methodist meeting-house that the members wear their hats and
lounge about as they please. I heard about twenty speak in the
course of three hours, and never heard so much poor speaking in my
life. I have never attended Congress, and therefore can make no
comparison ; but I am sure our General Assembly does not offer a
sight of twenty such dull people.
Your own husband, C. H.
PROF. HODGE TO HIS WIFE.
LONDON, July $th, 1828.
My Dear Sarah : A few evenings ago I attended the de-
bates in the House of Lords, and heard the Duke of Wellington, the
Marquis of Bute, Lord Calthorpe, and several other members speak.
All most miserable speakers, excepting the Duke, who can say what
he wants in a plain, sensible manner. The whole assembly is far
from imposing, and the members almost as negligent as those of the
Commons, lounging about and talking to each other. Lord Calthorpe
is a very pious, excellent man, and therefore I heard him with plea-
sure, although he is a very poor speaker.
Your own husband, C. H.
Mr. Hodge visited the usual sights in London, and heard
Dr. Wardlaw, of Edinburgh, preach twice. He was kindly
entertained over Sabbath at the house of Mr. Roberts,
about five miles out of the city. He and Mr. Chauncey
spent the I2th, I3th, and I4th of July in Cambridge, and
heard Charles Simeon preach, with great delight, and
^:T. 30.] RETURN HOME. 2OI
visited Professor Lee, to whom he was introduced by a
letter of Tholuck's. But as it was vacation the majority of
the professors were absent. Returning to London, he went
to Oxford and visited the Colleges, but all the gentlemen
to whom he bore letters were absent, enjoying their vaca-
tion. He then visited Blenheim, the seat of the Duke of
Marlborough, and Warwick, the seat of the Earl of War-
wick, and went thence to Liverpool. On the twenty-second
he left Liverpool for a rapid visit to Edinburgh, of which
not a single line of record survives. On the 1st of August
he sailed from Liverpool, in the Caledonia, for New York.
He reached his home, in Princeton, about the i8th of Sep-
tember, 1828, WHERE THERE WAS JOY. Then was the first
abiding image of his father, and of Drs. Alexander,
Miller, and Maclean, who gathered to the greeting, fixed in
the mind of the collector and recorder of these memoirs.
From this point journals and domestic letters cease to be
copious, and personal recollections begin to yield their con-
tributions to the history which remains to be traced.
CHAPTER VII.
FROM HIS RETURN TO HOME AND WORK IN PRINCETON, SEP-
TEMBER, 1828, TO HIS TRANSFERENCE TO THE CHAIR OF
SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, MAY, 1840.
WORK AS PROFESSOR AND PREACHER CORRESPONDENCE WITH GERMAN
FRIENDS CHILDREN, FAMILY RELATIONS, AND RECREATIONS CORRES-
PONDENCE WITH BROTHER DEATH OF MOTHER POLITICS LAMENESS
HIS DEPARTMENT OF INSTRUCTION REINFORCED BY MR. HUBBARD AND
PROF. J. A. ALEXANDER GATHERING OF PROFESSORS AND FRIENDS IN
STUDY THE Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review ITS HISTORY AND
ESTIMATE OF ITS CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE THE QUALIFICATIONS
AND SUCCESS OF DR. HODGE AS AN EDITOR AND REVIEWER, HIS ASSO-
CIATES AND PRINCIPAL CONTRIBUTORS HIS COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
HIS CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF
THE UNITED STATES.
THE eleven years, the record of which is assigned to this
chapter, were years of critical significance in the history
of the American Presbyterian Church, as well as those in
which passed the crisis of Professor Hodge's life. During
this period the conflict of elements in the church flamed
into open controversy, and the great division into its Old
and New School branches was consummated. Dr. Hodge's
part in this ecclesiastical convulsion was so important that
it will be reserved for a chapter by itself. This same period
was marked in the history of Professor Hodge as the one
in which, through protracted confinement and acute physi-
cal suffering, he achieved his reputation as a scholar,
teacher, writer, and pre-eminently as an effective controver-
202
JET. 30.] HIS INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 203
sialist and church leader. [He returned from Europe com-
paratively an unknown young man, and he entered upon
his new professorship of Didactic theology in 1840, with
very much the same general reputation he enjoyed to the
end of his life. ~]
He opened the session of 1828, '29, with the Introduc-
tory lecture, in which he endeavored to impress upon the
minds of the students " the practical truths which the cir-
cumstances of foreign states and countries had deeply im-
pressed upon his own." These were : First t the great
importance of civil and religious liberty, as illustrated by
the effect of our institutions in elevating the intelligence
and character of all classes of the people, and in setting
religion and the church free from the trammels of the State.
Second, the training of youth in knowledge and religion.
In this respect he declared the institutions of Germany to
be greatly in advance of those of the United States. He
sketched the system of public instruction, through all the
grades of schools, throughout the Kingdom of Prussia,
with special reference to religious teaching and its results.
" But the most interesting feature of the whole system is
that religion is as regularly and as systematically taught as
any other subject. Each class of schools has its regular
text-books on this subject ; and in all, the history and lead-
ing principles, both in doctrines and morals, of the Scrip-
ture3 are inculcated. The nature of this instruction depends
of course very much on the individual character of the man
to whom it is committed, and it is too often the case that it
embraces little more than the leading facts and moral prin-
ciples of the Bible. Still even this is of immense advantage.
So thoroughly is this system carried through in
Prussia, that I never met a boy selling matches in the street
(and I made several experiments of the kind) who could not
answer any common question on the historical parts of the
Old and New Testaments." " The German system provides
for education of Protestants, Catholics and Jews alike, and
204 INTRODUCTOR Y LECTURE. [1828.
where it is possible, by separate schools, (is it not possible
in this country to have the Christian religion taught in the
common schools ?^J The selection of teachers and the course
of instruction depends on the commissioners of the several
districts. If public opinion once be brought to decide for
the measure, it can be accomplished The various
sects are uniting not only to distribute the Bible, but also
to circulate doctrinal tracts. May they not be induced to
unite in the preparation of religious school-books in which
the historical facts and essential doctrines, in which all evan-
gelical denominations agree, may be taught and inculcated ?
If such books could receive the sanction of the ruling bodies
of the various sects among us, there would be no difficulty
in their being generally introduced." The Third head was
the intimate connection between speculative opinion and
moral character. The correspondence between opinion and
character is strikingly observable in the various religious
parties in Germany. The leading parties are the Orthodox,
the Rationalists, and the Pantheists. ['Wherever you find
vital piety that is, penitence and a devotional spirit there
you find the doctrines of the fall, of depravity, of regenera-
tion, of atonement, and of the deity of Jesus Christ. I ne-
ver saw or heard of a single individual who exhibited a spi-
rit of piety who rejected any one of these doctrines. Holi-
ness is essential to the correct knowledge of divine things
and the great security from error." j "If these be so, bre-
thren, ' keep your hearts with all diligence ;' beware of any
course of study which has a tendency to harden your hearts
and deaden the delicate sensibility of the soul to moral truth
and beauty. Lean not on your own understanding, and
keep as you would your hold on heaven your reverence for
Jesus Christ."
Mr. Hodge now devoted himself with renewed enthusi-
asm and with untiring diligence to his studies and class in-
structions. His professorship covered all the ground now
distributed between the professorships of " Oriental and
JET. 3L] HIS WORK AS TEACHER AND PREACHER. 205
Old Testament Literature," of " New Testament Literature
and Biblical Greek," and of the " Instructor in Hebrew,"
etc. Until his lameness, he met two classes every day,
teaching and lecturing on the Hebrew language, literature,
and exegesis in the mornings, and on the New Testament
literature and exegesis every afternoon. He prepared also
extensive courses of lectures on Biblical criticism, herme-
neutics, special introduction, sacred geography, and the
exegesis of several books of both Testaments. He de-
livered to the junior class exegetical lectures on Paul's
Epistles, an exercise which he continued without interrup-
tion to the end of his life, a period of fifty years. At this
time, also, until jncapacitated by lameness in the summer
of 1833^6 preached in his turn in the village church, and
afterwards in the Seminary Oratory, and the various
Churches of the neighboring cities and surrounding country.
His preaching at this time was more fresh and animated
than it was in his later life. He engaged in the work with
genuine enthusiasm, and was heard with universal interest
and profit by intelligent audiences. He uniformly wrote
and read the entire sermon/} In style they had the well-
known characteristics of all that proceeded from him ; clear-
ness, comprehensiveness, and vigor. He read naturally and
simply, at times perhaps too quietly, but with his strong
and inflammable emotional nature ready to burst forth at
any moment as a boiling spring, or as a volcano, flashing
light as well as sending forth streams of passionate feeling.
None of the sermons preached at that period are extant.
The tradition, however, yet remains of certain occasions
when his feelings were powerfully wrought upon, and when,
leaving his manuscript, he for a while melted or thrilled his
audience by the tenderness or the passion of his appeals.
Such an occasion was the funeral of Edward, second son
of the venerable Dr. Samuel Miller, in the autumn of 1832,
when Mr. Hodge preached in the old Church which pre-
ceded the present first Church of Princeton. Dr. S. Ire-
206 AS A PREACHER. [1832.
naeus Prime writes me, " My first sight of your illustrious
and now glorified father was in the pulpit in Princeton, in
the autumn of 1832, when he preached the sermon at the
funeral of Dr. Miller's son Edward. The tenderness,
simplicity and beauty of the discourse filled me with won-
der and with love, and awakened a new train of thought in
connection with the science of religious education. In my
mind theology had not been associated so much with the
writings of John as with those of Paul ; but suddenly I saw
both these men of the Bible blended and reproduced in the
teacher and preacher who stood before me." The compiler
of these memoirs, then a child in the gallery, can still vivid-
ly recall the wave of emotion which swept over the whole
audience, when the preacher lifted himself and addressed to
the college students, filling the gallery on his right hand
with the voice and the countenance of a herald from the eter-
nal world, the message sent to them by Edward Miller just
before he died " Tell them to stop ; they are mad ! "
An instance of the same kind, though much more remark-
able, occurred when he was called to deliver the funeral ora-
tion on the occasion of the death of his intimate friend, Rev.
Dr. Albert B. Dod, the brilliant Professor of Mathematics in
Princeton College, in November, 1845. Dr. Hodge had spent
days and nights at the bed-side of his dying yet triumphant
friend. His whole soul was in the highest state of spiritual
exaltation. An account of this address and the effect it
produced is given by Dr. Paxton in the closing chapter of
this volume.
HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH GERMAN FRIENDS.
During these years. he kept up a very active and general
correspondence with his personal friends, and wich the lead-
ers in the Church's work alike in England and on the Eu-
ropean continent and in America. Of his own letters not
many except those written to his brother can now be re-
called. But several of the letters from his beloved German
GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE.
2OJ
friends are given because of the intrinsic interest attached to
the names of the writers, and because they beautifully illus-
trate the warmth of personal love which it was a character-
istic gift of Dr. Hodge to attract in all communities and
during his whole life.
PROFESSOR HODGE TO PROFESSOR THOLUCK.
PRINCETON, October i2th, 1828.
My Dearest Tholuck : You can hardly conceive of the pleasure
I experienced when my little boy came into my study two days since,
and said, " Father, here are two letters for you from over the wide
sea." A single glance was enough to assure me that one was from
that dear friend to whose kindness and affection I am so much in-
debted. The many happy and instructive hours I have spent in
your society, will be the subject of delightful recollection to the close
of life. I look back to my sojourn in Germany with feelings of un-
mingled pleasure, so far as the recollection of misimproved advan-
tages will permit. I love the German character, as exhibited in
Christians, quite as much as though I were myself a German, and
cannot pass a German immigrant in the street without feelings of
interest I experience for no other people. You beg me to inform
you " of my affairs." This may be done in a few words. After
taking a tour from Dusseldorf up the Rhine, I went to Heidelberg,
thence to Basle ; spent two or three weeks in traveling in Switzer-
land ; passed a few days in Geneva, and proceeded thence to Paris.
I reached England about the 2oth of June ; delivered most of your
letters. I visited Cambridge, and was kindly received by Professor
Lee, whom I found determined to write down all your German neol-
ogists. In Oxford I missed both of the gentlemen to whom your
letters were addressed. I sailed from Liverpool on the 2d of August,
and arrived in New York on the 8th of September. To my inex-
pressible joy, on reaching Princeton the following day, I found my
wife and children in perfect health and surrounded with every
blessing.
Dear Tholuck, you can hardly think how happy I now am. My
lovely children (for they are very lovely), are hanging on my knees
all the time, and my dear wife I will not talk about you must come
and see her ! Our seminary is prospering, and is furnished with its
ordinary number of students. The spirit of piety has not declined
among them, and perhaps more of a disposition to embark in foreign
missions was manifested during the last term than usual. My ven-
208 GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. [1829.
crated colleagues, Drs. Alexander and Miller, you would love very
much. They are the lights of our church, and their memories will
long be blessed when they are gathered to their rest.
The American Board of Missions met last week in Philadelphia.
Their report was very interesting, and their income last year was
108,000 dollars, and the information received from their various
stations encouraging. I will endeavor to send a printed copy of
their report to Berlin by the first opportunity. The History of The-
ology in the i8th century has been printed. It would, I presume, be
much too expensive to you if we should send it to you at Rome. I
will, therefore, forward it to Halle for you. I am very much dis-
tressed to hear of the state of mind of poor Krummacher. It was
nearly as bad before I left Berlin, but I cannot help regarding it as
mainly the effect of disease, and consequently hope to learn, that
with returning health, his faith and hope have been restored. I am
very much surprised to hear what you mentioned of Otto von Ger-
lach. I wish he would come to this country. He would, I
am persuaded, find a wide field for the exercise of his talents.
Should a kind Providence ever send any one of the dear friends I
love so sincerely, to these distant shores, I should be overjoyed to
meet them my house and heart stand ever open to them. I should
have written to you sooner, had I not thought it better to write by the
way of Leghorn ; but opportunities for that port occurring so seldom,
I hasten to take advantage of the first packet for Havre. I thank
you most cordially for your dear letter. Do write to me as often as
your time will permit. Tell me whatever of interest occurs in your
section of the kingdom of God. Let me know of important theo-
logical works which you think I ought to send for. I obtain books now
regularly from .the Buch-handlung des Waisenhauses in Halle, and
shall therefore be able to procure whatever works you may recom-
mend to me.
Give my best respects to Herr Bunsen, who, I rejoice to hear, is
likely to attain a station of so much usefulness, as a seat in the
Ministerium.
And now my dearest friend accept the assurance of my warmest
and most grateful affection. Do not forget me may love to our com-
mon Saviour bind our hearts in perpetual union.
Your brother in Christ, C. HODGE.
LETTER TO PROF. HODGE, FROM PROF. A. THOLUCK.
ROME, Feb. 2/th, 1829.
My Dear Brother in the Lord: The distance that separates Prince-
ton from Rome is such, and the waves that roll between my dear
^ET. 31.] GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. 2OQ
brother and myself are so numerous, that I really despaired of our
ever being able to stretch our hands to each other beyond the ocean.
However, you have received from the hands of your little darling
the lines of your poor German pilgrim in Rome, and Sir Thomas, the
"maestro di casa" of the Prussian ambassador, has put in my hands
the unexpected news which I have received from the dearest friend
I possess in your part of the world. You can scarcely imagine,
my dear Hodge, the delight and the eagerness with which I broke
the seal of your message. So delighted was I, that scarcely any
letter from my country excited in me the same degree of eagerness.
All the sweet and quiet evenings, spent in the floor room of the
Ulrichs Strasse, and the little, green spot out of the Galgthor, all the
delicious enjoyments of the Kuhstall and Tharand, all the solemn
hours passed in the fellowship of the Berlin brethren stood at once
before my eyes. Earthly and spiritual enjoyments, earthly and
spiritual cares have linked our hearts together, and space and time
shall never separate what God has united.
You enjoy again all the delights and the sweetness of a Christian
family-life, and your days will pass on quietly to the end. To me
new scenes of life have appeared, and are opening again before my
eyes, but for me the spot of undisturbed tranquillity lies forever be-
yond, in that life, from which none has ever returned, but He, who
will lead there all troubled souls, and myself among them, as I
trust in God. The days of my residence in Rome are running fast
to an end. Before German spring begins, I shall find myself once
more at the solemn gateway of the Galg-Strasse. The time spent in
Rome has been for me a time full of various enjoyments and various
engagements ; and, although the sting in my flesh has made many
an hour gloomy, I must still and will ever praise the Lord for the
great mercies he has shown me during the past year. I shall leave
Rome with my bodily vigor partly recruited, and with faith and hope
still more increased. I have good reason to hope that the spiritual
condition of Halle will improve. Although hindered by various
intrigues the appointment of Guericke as extraordinarius is almost
sure, and very lately Prof. Ullmann has been called there to the
professorship of Niemeyer. He will probably become a more sincere
fellow-labourer than Thilo, although there is a"bout him a good deal of
fear and timidity of men. A little flock of faithful students is still
remaining in Halle, and under God's blessing will increase. The Ber-
lin Church journal (Kirchenzeitung] is becoming more and more a
standard for the faithful in Germany. The persecutions Hengsten-
berg has suffered on its account evince it the more a work agreeable
to the Lord of the Church, and dangerous to its adversary, the foul
14
2IO GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. [1829.
fiend. The communications which it contains from America, have
been a stimulus to many others as well as myself to fresh exertions.
They are truly delightful. Pray send to me at Halle some more of
your publications.
I cannot help mentioning again our dear little Krummacher. I
understand that the mist which involved his mind is disappearing.
His spirit was terribly excited by the grand subject of predestina-
tion, which his uncle had enforced upon his mind, and which was so
violently combated at Berlin, and this has now come to be appre-
hended by him as by his whole family as a truth.
I send this letter to Havre by the kindness of Dr. Jarvis, an
Episcopalian from Boston, who saw you in Paris. He intends to
spend the summer of 1830 at Halle. Our dear Robinson has not yet
reached Rome, and I do not know whether I am still to expect him.
Pray dear friend write to me very soon and send to me whatever
you think interesting. In the bonds of Christian fellowship, and
with a greeting to your esteemed, though to me unknown, wife.
Yours sincerely and faithfully,
A. THOLUCK
PROF. HODGE TO PROFESSOR THOLUCK.
PRINCETON, February 28th, 1829.
My Dear Friend and Brother : I wrote to you some months
since, directing, as you requested, to the care of the Prussian Lega-
tion, Rome. I write now to Halle, in the expectation that this letter
will find you there by the first or middle of April. My affection for
you remaining undiminished, I am very desirous to hear from you
and learn the state of your health, and the character of your present
prospects. I trust that your long absence in so delightful a country,
and under such favorable circumstances, has been the means of re-
storing your spirits and preparing you anew for the arduous duties of
your station. Let me know how things look in Halle. What pro-
gress the cause of truth is making there and elsewhere in Germany ?
I feel a deep interest in all that concerns your important section of
the Church, and cannot but hope that the time is coming when she
will arise in new splendor from the ruins of her lamentable fall.
With us there is little of much interest which you will not learn
from the American journals. Although I feel as deeply as ever the
great advantages which our ecclesiastical liberty confers upon us, and
think that we have great reason to rejoice in the general prevalence
of truth and piety in most sections of our country, I am now aware to
a greater degree, than formerly, of the evils which attend even the best
system. Our worldly men are more worldly even than yours. Reli-
JET. 31.] GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. 211
gion being no concern of the state, they do not even pay it the
formal regard which in your country it receives as a part of one
general secular establishment. Everything depends with us on
public opinion, and this will, in the main, be right as long as vital
piety be prevalent to the extent it is at present. (Revivals of religion /
continue in every section of the country, particularly to the North
and East, and greater exertions are now made than ever before for
the propagation of the Gospel, both at home and abroad, and for the
diffusion of knowledgeT]
My Berlin friends have never written to me. I wrote a few weeks
after reaching home to Ludwig Von Gerlach, but have as yet received
no answer. I long to hear from them, but fear to trouble them with
my letters. I am very desirous to be kept informed of the progress
of theological literature in Germany, and for this purpose have
ordered several of your periodicals the Tubingen Zeit-Schrift, that
by Umbreit, Lucke, &c., the Evangelische Kirchen-Zeitung, and
several others, but they come very slowly. July, 1828, is the last num-
ber that I have received of the Berlin journal. Please speak to Mr.
Funke (the manager of the Buch-handlung), and beg him to forward
the periodicals as rapidly and as regularly as possible. Please order
for us, from time to time, any book which you may think important
for us to have, to the amount of from 50 to 100 Prussian dollars
annually. You know the kind of books I want, valuable works on
the language, literature and exegesis of the Old and New Testa-
ments.
As I presume so far on the bond of Christian fellowship which
binds us together, as to make such demands on your goodness, can-
not you find something for me to do for you ? Are none of your
friends ever coming to our side of the Atlantic ? I should be de-
lighted to have it in my power to manifest my gratitude towards
Germany, by showing kindness to any German. I wrote a letter of
introduction for Rev. Edmund D. Griffin, of the Episcopal Church,
to you about a week since. He is the son of an eminent lawyer
in New York, and a young man, I understand, of amiable character.
I do not know him personally, and therefore cannot say whether he
belongs to the High-church or the Evangelical party of the Episco-
pal church.
My dear Brother in Jesus Christ do not forget me. Write to me
often. Give my best love to Dr. Guericke, and to all my Berlin
friends. May the best of Heaven's blessings always attend you.
Your friend and brother in Christ,
C. HODGE.
212 GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. [1829.
PROF. HODGE TO PROFESSOR THOLUCK.
PRINCETON, June 8th, 1829.
My Dear Friend: I received some weeks since your second
letter from Rome, written on the eve of your departure for Halle.
Some time before your letter was received, I had written and di-
rected to you at Halle, under the expectation that you would be there
in March or April. I greatly rejoice at the renewed health and
spirits with which you return to your usual duties, and cannot but
hope that Providence will render you a great blessing to the section
of the church in which he has called you to labor. The accounts
which I have incidentally received regarding the progress of the Re-
deemer's cause in Germany, are very encouraging, and make me
regret that my means of intercourse with you are not more frequent
and more direct. You are the only one of my German friends who
has written to me.
I have just returned from Philadelphia, where I have been for the
last two weeks attending the meeting of our General Assembly. We
had a large and interesting meeting, and have much reason to re-
joice in the progress of the cause of Christ in our country. We
received several very excellent letters from the French Protestant
churches, with whom we have opened a correspondence, which bids
fair to be mutually useful. I will endeavor to send you a copy of
our minutes, and of the reports of our several religious and benevo-
lent societies. They will serve to exhibit to you more of the activity
of " the hands and feet " of the church, and arouse you, who consti-
tute the head and heart, to do your work in unison. I had the
pleasure of seeing our good friend, Bishop Andres, in Philadelphia.
This was his first visit to that city. He had been shut up in Bethle-
hem, and has, I fear, not received the most favorable impression of
his new residence. He complained much of the heat of the climate,
and of the difficulty of adapting himself to it. I hope he may make
me a visit in Princeton, it would give me the greatest pleasure to be
kind to a real German.
Please write to me soon and often. My heart yearns toward you
with all its first affection, and I cannot bear to think that my dear
friends abroad have so soon forgotten me. I heard lately from dear
Monod, who is laboring faithfully and successfully at St. Quintin,
and'a little while after received from the Stadtrath Semler a beautiful
little picture of Lisco's church, and a short note. I wish you would
thank him for me, should you have an opportunity, though I hope
soon to write to him myself. Give my best love to all my friends
both the von Gerlachs, Le Coq, Focke, von Senfft, Hengstenberg,
^ET. 31.] GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. 213
Guericke, &c. I often think of them with great affection. The intelli-
gence which you gave me of Krummacher's return, did not surprise,
though it greatly rejoiced me. He will, I hope, come out from the
fiery trial, by which he has been tried, as gold doubly purified.
May God our Saviour bless and keep you my dear friend and
brother, and enable us both to run, with joy, the race which has been
set before us. Yours, with much affection and esteem, C. HODGE.
LETTER FROM PRESIDENT LUDWIG VON GERLACH TO
MR. HODGE.
BERLIN, July I4th, 1829.
To Mr. Hodge : How ungrateful must I have seemed to you, my
friend dearly beloved in the Lord, in that I have left unanswered un-
til to-day your letter of the 28th of last September a letter so friendly
and gracious ! I ask you, nevertheless, to believe that I, like your-
self, hold fast the common interest which faith in Christ and His love
has awakened in us, and that I constantly and thoughtfully recollect
the blessings which God has bestowed upon me through the instru-
mentality of His children in America, and especially through an ac-
quaintance with the American churches, and particularly through
yourself, since you have shown me the living image of that which
written and printed descriptions but imperfectly represent. I feel so
deeply in myself and most German Christians the lack of determina-
tion and completeness which are to be found in both theory and prac-
tice among the followers of Christ in England and America ; and I
know so well that whatever profoundness of thought and feeling may
exist in Germany is but a poor substitute for these effectual operations
of the Holy Spirit. These latter qualities of the German character
may very easily entice and lead us not to God, but into the abysms
of Pantheism. For this reason communion with the Lord's people
beyond the sea is a necessity. If, notwithstanding, I have left your
letter so long unanswered, I must plead in excuse the press of affairs
and business which my stay in Berlin brings with it. Not every mo-
ment is fitted for converse with so true and dear a friend. We await
rather a time when heart and soul are fresh and free from business
cares and outside impressions, and while thus waiting, month after
month passes away. I am not even now able to write to you because
the proper mood is come, but to-day is an important epoch and
turning-point in my life, and I do not wish to carry over into the new
period the debt of love which your letter of the 28th of September has
laid upon me, although I repay it poorly and unsatisfactorily with
these rapid lines, and your undeserved friendship and love will make
me ever your debtor,
214 GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. [1829.
To-day is my wedding-day. Let me but look into your house in
Princeton at the joy of seeing once more your loved wife and children
"all loveliness and promise to a father's eye," and then you will feel
with me what I experience to-day, especially when you recall that it
is, as you know, my second marriage. My life has not been, as you
once said of your own, "like a silver stream." It has overflowed
with sorrows. The mercy of the Lord meets me once more with con-
solation and joy, but my heart has not yet recovered from its wounds,
and longs to be free from sin and death, to rest in Him who alone
hath everlasting joy and life. My bride is the cousin and dear friend
of my late wife, and in this way first became dear to me. Gossner is
to perform the ceremony. Day after to-morrow we leave for Halle,
where I have been appointed Landgerichts-director, President of an
inferior court of justice ; and there I hope to enjoy Tholuck's com-
panionship. You will learn from the accompanying letters of Otto
von Focke, together with much beside, that durtng last May we suf-
fered a sore affliction in the loss through death of our dear friend Le
Coq, with whom we were so often together. The peace and tranquil-
lity of mind which characterized him lasted through many sorrows to
the end, and his death awakened the heart of his brother, whom you
also know, and moved him to give himself up wholly unto the Lord.
The little time which remains for me to stay is almost gone. Let
me beg you once more to pardon my long silence, and to rest assured
of my warmest brotherly affection. As Cato always said, " Praeterea
censeo Carthaginem esse delendam," so I say to you, and would
like to say the same to all Christians in America, among others to
Dr. Alfred Post, in New York. Be on your guard against material-
istic politics and the false liberalism of the infidel French and English
of the last century Voltaire, Gibbon, Rousseau, &c., &c. Compare
not only your doctrines, but also your feelings, with those of the
blessed Lord, of St. Paul, and of the saints of former times, on the
one hand, and with those of the liberals of our own time on the other ;
but compare thoroughly and candidly, without prejudices, as before
the all-seeing eye of the Holy One, and shudder if you disagree with
the former and agree with the latter. Alas ! that Satan should always
prefer to build chapels close beside the churches of God !
Yours forever, LUDWIG VON GERLACH.
My warmest regards for Mrs. Hodge, my half-countrywoman.
LETTER FROM JUSTICE OTTO FOCKE,
BERLIN, July 29, 1829.
My Dearest, Dearest Brother : Oh ! that I could express by words,
my dearest friend, how I love you, and how my heart longs to see
^T. 3L] GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. 215
you again in this life ! But that is the blessing of the bond of Chris-
tian love, that, although far separated by land and sea, the hearts are
and remain united in tender and firm love and in prayer. God bless
likewise our bond of love ; and as I never will forget my dearest and
loveliest friend Hodge, you may sometimes remember Berlin, and
pray for the friends you have in this city. Your friendly letter to von
Gerlach has rejoiced us very much, and I hope that you will continue
to communicate to us from time to time news of your welfare.
My friends have probably written to you that one of our dear bre-
thren, the soft and lovely Adolph Le Coq, walks no more amongst
us. He was the best of the Christian friends here at Berlin, and
therefore God hastened to bring him in peace. Oh, that we may see
ourselves with him before the throne of God. What a joy to be
united there with all friends in unseparated connection. There shall
be no more leaving nor separations by land or by sea. Yes, there
shall I see you again, and see your beloved wife and dear children.
We had the last winter, also, some very dear friends from America
here amongst us, the dear Post and Woolsey, but they were no
Hodge.
That beloved word,' 'America,' has been a great deal more in my
mind and heart since I met such dear friends from there, and know
that they are safe at home again. Alas, that the world is so large,
and friends so widely scattered. Prof. Tholuck was here during Whit-
sunday and stayed with me. Remember him often in your prayers,
that the Lord may give him faith, the most steadfast and happy, and
also aid him with firmness and decision in his course of life. He is
now engaged to a young lady in Halle. May the Lord bestow his
blessings on this bond. He remembers you constantly with much
love.
Our circle of Christian friends, through the removal of the beloved
Ludwig von Gerlach to Halle, and of Prof. Hochweg to Bonn, and
through the death of the blessed Le Coq, has suffered a very painful
loss, and there is great need that the Lord raise up new brothers.
Alas ! that there are so few Christians, and that even among Chris-
tians themselves, there is so little firmness and decision. The Lord
has visited Europe with severe trials and heavy calamities, with
earthquakes, floods, violent storms, diseases, etc., but the majority of
the people heed neither the voice of love nor wrath.
The times appear to me to indicate more and more that the coming
of the Lord is near at hand. Therefore we will take courage and
await Him with watching and praying. Yes, He will surely come,
and we will pray, 'come soon !' Now, farewell, God bless you and
your dear wife and children, with His everlasting blessing.
21 6 GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. [1830.
Let us receive good tidings from you very soon, and write also
some lines to me.
Farewell, and remember your faithful and obedient brother in the
Lord. OTTO VON FOCKE.
LETTER TO PROF. HODGE, FROM PROF. A. THOLUCK.
HALLE, March 30, 1830.
My Dear Friend Hodge: I sent you a letter last summer, some
time in August. Did it not reach you ? It was my heartfelt expres-
sion, but I have received no answer to it. I have been quite well
during the past winter, and have been able to do a great deal of
work, but my wife* is very sickly the greater part of the time. In no
way can I keep her with me very long ; yet the Lord's will be mine.
Our beloved Guericke, who enjoyed the happiest of marriages, has
suddenly lost his wife in child-birth. He is so afflicted thereby that
he is thinking of resigning his professorship, and becoming a pastor.
We have experienced much in many ways during the last few
months. The King has now appointed an able committee to investi-
.gate the teaching of Profs. Gesenius and Wegscheider, but no further
results will be reached. On the whole I have not been able to agree
with Von Gerlach's action he is the author of the article in the
Kirchenzeitung. The excitement is still going on here. I know not
whether the cause is really advanced by it. Yet there was a warmer
and a firmer bond of love between some thirty students last winter
than ever before.
We had also established a missionary society, the regulations of
which I enclose with this letter. I besought you urgently in my
last letter to prove your friendship toward me by sending a contribu-
tion to the Literary Advertiser. I will now limit still further my wish
expressed at that time, and ask you only for the notice and critical
opinion of the most current work in America for or against predesti-
nation, together with a historical review of its advocates and oppo-
nents. I beg you not to refuse me this friendly service. I shall soon
expect its execution.
In the Lord our Saviour, yours ever the same. A. THOLUCK.
PROF. HODGE TO PROFESSOR THOLUCK.
PRINCETON, February Qth, 1831.
My Dearest Tholuck : How often and how affectionately my
thoughts and heart have been turned towards you since I last wrote,
it would be difficult for me to state. It is seldom, I believe, that a
* Married since his return to Halle from Rome, summer of 1829.
MT. 33.] GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. 2 1 7
day passes without your image presenting itself in some form or
another before my mind. I commune with you in your writings,
where I trace those same features which were so familiarly exhibited
during our personal intercourse. Or I hold intercourse with your
spirit through the recollections of the past. Rejoice over the remem-
brance of your friendship, and in the prospect of meeting you Jen-
seits in a purer world. I have sympathized with you much in your
trials in Halle. The more, because you could not, as you mention in
your letter, fully approve of the course of your own friends. It is
difficult for a stranger to enter understandingly into all the circum-
stances which should modify the application of general principles to
particular cases, in a distant land. To us the principle on which our
dear friend von Gerlach seems to have proceeded, that the members
of a church should, while they continue such, conform to its stand-
ards, seems self-evident. And in such a country as ours, its applica-
tion is easy. But how it is possible, rebus sic stantibus, to do the
same with you, it is not for me to judge. My feelings, however, side
with von Gerlach and Hengstenberg in this business, and force me
to dissent from the course the venerated Neander would have the
friends of religion in Germany to pursue. I rejoice much in the
spirit of your communication to the Evang. Zeitung, respecting the
nature of your relation to the Rationalism of Halle. You will excuse
my saying, that the drift of some passages of your discourse on the
Relation of Revelation to Reason, published in your Anzeiger, made
me fear that we differed considerably on this point, and that you
were less impressed with the radical difference between the two sys-
tems, Rationalism and Faith in God's word, than we Positive men
could have wished. The spirit of your communication to the Kirch-
en-Zeitung has removed in a great measure this apprehension, and
made me feel that we all are of one mind on this subject. I regret
that I do not receive the Anzeiger and other periodicals more regu-
larly and frequently. Nothing later than May, 1830, has come to
hand.
The wonderful changes that have occurred in the political state of
Europe since you wrote, are full of interest for the Christian. I fear
troublous times are at hand for your poor Prussians ; with Poland
convulsed on the east, and intoxicated France on the west, it seems
scarcely possible that peace can long be maintained. Will you not
be tempted to seek an asylum on our peaceful shores, far from the
struggles of the dying systems of feudal Europe ? I have profited
much from the lessons of Ludwig von Gerlach, and though I rejoice
in the progress of liberty as much as ever, am rather cautious to see
that whatis/z/j/, as well as what is desirable, should be kept in view.
2l8 GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. [1833.
I have not the purpose of writing on politics to you. The state of
things in our country, politically, is not without its clouds. I do not
apprehend any serious convulsions, but our present rulers take such
a view of our relation to the dependent Indian tribes on our borders,
that I very much fear our national character will be deeply stained by
their disregard of solemn treaties. The religious state of the country
is as favorable as in years past. The number of extensive revivals in
various quarters is considerable. For particulars I must refer to the
New York Observer. The progress of the Temperance Reformation
has been astonishing. No one could have imagined that such a result
could have been produced by the simple proposition, that men should
agree never to use ardent spirits except as a medicine. The consump-
tion of this destructive article has, by the exertions of temperance
societies, been diminished perhaps one-half.
I thank you for the books which you ordered in my name at the
Waisenhaus. I wish to receive the most important of your theologi-
cal works, that I may be kept going, so to speak, with the German
mind. We have not received the 2d part of the 2d volume of Nean-
der's Ecclesiastical History. Will you order for me a copy of Frey-
tag's edition of Golius ; of Schlegel's Philosophische Vorlesungen,
delivered in Dresden ; of the Greek Testament, Scholz ; of Draseke's
sermons, and whatever good and new works you choose within
moderate limits.
Give my best love to Guericke. How severe has been his loss, and
how shameful the treatment he has received ! I did intend writing
to our friend Ludwig von Gerlach this afternoon, but am prevented
by company. Assure him of my continued and warm affection.
Dear Friend, do write to me. I long to hear from you. Do not pun-
ish me for my silence. Write at once on the spur of the moment.
You have a home in America whenever you choose to come and
claim it. I saw Mrs. Robinson last October in Boston. I was much
delighted with meeting her again. She appeared well and happy,
and takes just and philosophic views of things in this country. The
Richtung of the people is so different from her's, that she can hardly
feel herself at home yet, particularly at Andover. I want to send
you a set of the Biblical Repertory published here in Princeton.
Love to all dear German friends.
Yours, affectionately, C. HODGE.
PROF. HODGE TO PROF. THOLUCK.
PRINCETON, April 6th, 1833.
My Dear Friend: In commending to your kind and affectionate
reception Mr. J. A. Alexander, I feel as though I were commending
JET. 35.] GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. 2 1 9
my second self to you, if you will understand this expression as in-
tended to convey, in the strongest terms, the interest which I feel in
his welfare, and that I will rejoice as much over kindness shown to
him, as if I experienced it in person. Mr. Alexander is my associate
in the department of Biblical Instruction in our Seminary. He is
more of a scholar, especially in your favorite field of Oriental lan-
guages, than any American within my knowledge, who has visited
Europe. He is an amiable and excellent man, and what is of more
importance, and of greater interest to you, he is a Christian. I feel
assured, therefore, you will receive him for his own sake as well as
mine, with open arms, and facilitate in every way you can his improve-
ment and happiness. I wish it were possible for him to spend the
winter with you, as I have no doubt it would be of great service to
him, and a great pleasure to you. His plans are not yet definitely
fixed, and you may greatly aid him in making the most advantage-
ous disposition of himself during his stay in Germany. Will you be
good enough to facilitate his access to your scholars and libraries,
and do for him as you did for me, which includes all kindness. That
neither time nor distance has either weakened or changed my feel-
ings for you, I hope your own heart will lead you readily to believe.
You are as bad a correspondent as I am. I wish you would reform
in this respect, and I will promise to follow your example.
Yours, affectionately, C. HODGE.
LUDWIG VON GERLACH TO PROFESSOR HODGE.
HALLE, Whitsunday, 1833.
My Beloved Friend and Brother in Christ: From this subject in
regard to which I have ventured to presume a perfect'unity of feeling
between your Christian fellow-countrymen and myself, I will now
pass to another, which by its close relation to the fate of the kingdom
of God, affected me not less than the former. In regard to this I can-
not presume upon such a unity with you and your fellow-countrymen.
I mean the shock of Christendom -through Liberalism since July 1830.
It is true you remarked in a letter to Tholuck, Feb. 1831, " That you
have profited so much by my lessons, that though rejoicing in the
progress of liberty as much as ever, you are rather cautious to see
that what is just as well as what is desirable should be kept in view."
But when the "just" and the "desirable" become placed near each
other, as two different things with a like meaning, then indeed does this
seem far different from the lesson which Christ the Lord taught us,
" Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (which com-
prehends all that is "just") and all these things (the desirable) shall be
22O GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. [1834.
ADDED unto you." Few things in my life have so long and so deeply
affected me as the existence of Liberalism and its relation to the
Church of Christ and to our age. If therefore, as I hope, the brotherly
love which you entertained for me in Berlin, and have preserved on
the other side of the ocean by letter, still dwells in your heart, then
you will see nothing more than a desire for brotherly communication
when I ask you to read what I have written since the July revolution
in the Evangelical Church Journal upon this subject, and also in
regard to Church power, authority, freedom, etc., etc. It has surely
reached you, and may I ask you to express yourself to me freely
thereon.
Should Christians be at variance on such grand and fundamental
questions ? Is it not a disgrace to the Church, that it becomes
divided into two heads by political ideas, while in the i6th and iyth
centuries religious doctrines divided the political world ? Is it not a
shame that the earnest Christians of North America and Scotland
should be under the same yoke with the Roman Catholic O'Connell,
and the deistical and atheistical French liberals ?
O, that the Lord would gather together the sheep of His fold ! That
we who bear the name of Christ were at all points of like mind and
heart ! What victories we could win under the banner of our Hea-
venly King!
With the most sincere brotherly love, yours most truly,
Finished Jan. 23, 1833. LUDWIG VON GERLACH.
A LETTER FROM OTTO VON GERLACH.*
BERLIN, Feb. 28, 1834.
My Dear Friend: Three years have already flown by since I
received your friendly letter, and during all this time I have left it un-
answered. Meanwhile, I have heard with many heartfelt sympathies
of your great bodily affliction which you have, however, if not alto-
gether, yet in good part overlooked for the sake of your calling. May
the Lord soon restore you to health, and prepare you anew both in
body and mind for the responsible position you hold. It has given
me much joy to receive through Mr. Alexander! news from Princeton
and America. I am of the opinion that the school of Prof. Stuart, to
judge from his new "Comentary on the Epistle to the Romans," will
become the source of many heretical opinions, the beginning of which
lies in his teaching concerning original sin, and of the Son of God, the
eternal Sonship of Christ. I think it an excellent thing that opposition
* " The Wesley of Berlin."
f Professor Joseph Addison Alexander.
VET. 36.] GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. 2 2 1
to this departure from the true doctrine is already taken at Princeton.
Moreover, I deem it a happy result that more life and animation in-
fuse themselves into the English and American literature through
the influence of German theology. In England, where one finds so
many treasures of books, and where Christian life especially prevails,
things in the realm of theological learning are at a greater standstill
than ever before. With us, thanks be to God, prospects have greatly
brightened since you were here. In Pomerania, where at that time the
first great revival had occurred, the number of orthodox ministers has
more than ordinarily increased. In one region there were seven of
them in immediate neighborhood, and among them there is much
genuine sympathy and much fellowship in the service of the Lord.
The Bishop Ritschl has constantly been becoming more determined
in his avowal of the Gospel. He is a blessing to the whole province,
favoring everywhere the installation of Evangelical ministers and
the removal of the incapable and vicious. The number of believing
ministers here in Berlin has increased. You are aware that the
Methodist Minister Gossner, whom we have so often heard together,
has become a disciple of Janicke. His Church is crowded at all
times, and his labors among the lower orders are especially rich in
blessings. I am constantly forming the acquaintance of persons who
hav.e been brought into the Church through him. The Rev. Mr.
Kuntze, who was in London assistant to Dr. Steinkopf when you were
here, is also preaching now ; and for the past year, Rev. Mr. Arndt,
a pupil of Strauss, has been laboring with churches constantly filled,
and his labor results in many blessings. Further, no one of our
believing pastors has been called away by death, and everywhere
the number of their hearers has increased rather than diminished. Our
missionary society is in a very prosperous condition, that is, when
considered from a German and not from an American or English
point of view. Its revenue in comparison with the past has increased
threefold in the last six years, and it now has thirty missionary posts.
These have of course in many places to contest vigorously with the
authorities, but these engagements have almost always resulted suc-
cessfully, and they have brought about and increased brotherly
relations. Last fall, the first five missionaries were sent from here to
South Africa. Since they were detained by storms a long while on
the Isle of Wight, the latest information we have of them is of their
being on the Atlantic Ocean. The number of ministerial associations
(Predigervereine) has greatly increased in Germany. In Silesia, in
Prussia-Poland and in Prussia proper they are in part quite numer-
ously attended. The persecutions on the other hand on the part of
the Consistories have only begun here and there.
222 GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. [ 1 834.
Thus only recently a society in Konigsberg, which was under the
direction of Dr. Ashansens, was suppressed by order of the King,
because (a striking circumstance which calls to mind the heKo^ev
faac 6 Saravaf *) two of the ministers had become crazy for the ad-
journment of the convention. How effective Tholuck's sermons are
at present in Halle you will hear through Mr. Alexander. An old
school-friend of mine, together with his wife, has lately been brought
to Christ through one of them. The Christian work is progressing in
Prussia as in several other of the German lands. Many active min-
isters of the gospel have made themselves conspicuous in the king-
dom of Hanover, which a few years ago was apparently dead. In
Gottingen my dear friend Julius Miiller has become the university
chaplain ; he is a profound and righteous man, who has written an
article against Hegel's philosophy in the Studien und Kritiken. He
also delivers lectures on exegesis and practical theology. Lucke, as
you know, is there also. He is, however, at present, so feeble and
undetermined, that I would not be surprised to hear that he accom-
plishes little. In several of the cities of Hanover, where lately the
Christian cause was entirely dead, there are now active ministers of
the cross of Christ. Especially is the condition of the free-city Bre-
men encouraging. Five ministers are laboring there with great
earnestness and effect. They are aiding each other in their wprk,
and a struggle between light and darkness, which is highly interest-
ing, has begun there. In Hamburg the rising generation give
promise of quite a number of ministers ; while the old people are for
the most part worldly and inclined to universalism. The most dis-
couraging outlook, however, is in middle Germany. In Leipsic and
Jena scepticism is prevalent, and particularly in the province of
Saxony matters have of late become rather worse than better. You
will not be surprised when I state that the liberal constitution which
that unfortunate land has received, increases still more this sad con-
dition. In Hesse affairs are becoming now somewhat more en-
couraging.
At Cassel there are several evangelists, and also a clergyman. In
Marburg Kling, the editor of Flatfs Lectures, has recently become
professor of theology. The worthy Harless has now become professor
extraordinary at Erlangen, and from him we look for a thorough
commentary on the epistle to the Ephesians, in a short time. Only
in Tubingen does the future seem dark. The old school of Storr,
Flatt, etc., is now completely supplanted by the followers of Schleier-
macher, as Baur, Hegel, Strauss and others. Steudel has very few
* i Thess. 2 : J.8
^ET. 36.] GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. 22$
hearers. This is not to be wondered at, for that old school had be-
come too indogmatical and too partial to exegesis, and their successors
were becoming even shallower.
At present the Prussian lands are enjoying in general the richest
blessings, and the others are beginning to rise from their wretched-
ness. But in the otherwise so greatly blessed Wurtemburg, the cause
of Christ seems to be greatly in danger on account of the many
sects prevailing there. In our university here in Berlin things appear
in many respects far otherwise than they did six years ago. Since
the evangelical Kirchenzeitung of 1830, Neander has labored in much
closer connection with Schleiermacher, and withdraws still further
from Hengstenberg. One notices this especially in the students,
among whom since that time it appears to me that the Christian life
has been sadly lacking in decision. On the other hand, since that
time, Hengstenberg has had many hearers, and it is especially pleas-
ing that so many thoroughly energetic disciples of Christ have at-
tached themselves to him and to me.
You have probably learned ere this that Dr. Schleiermacher died
on the 1 2th of February of this year. Up to the eighth day before
his death he had been in excellent health, and had read with me for
three hours daily. Everything is now in great commotion over the
important question as to who is to become his successor. The great
majority as far as shown by open manifestation are for Twesten
particularly so is Neander and his followers, together with all the
partizans of Schleiermacher. On the other hand the theological faculty
(to which Neander at present does not belong) has come forward
with a request to the Minister to call Olshausen ; a step which has
caused great surprise. Should the latter be called I would be more
than ordinarily rejoiced, for notwithstanding a peculiar weakness of
his, I regard Olshausen as one of the best thinkers and most deter-
mined men among our University theologians. His commentary
has already had a second publication in two volumes. It is widely
circulated and accomplishes much good. Twesten, on the other
hand, agrees almost altogether with Schleiermacher, and is said to
be a worldly-minded, fickle man, who visits the theatre, indulges in
high living and neglects in this manner the proprieties of his vo-
cation.
After this much of public news, let me say a few words about our
friends here and in other places. Frau von Schonberg, at whose
house you often met with us, has dwelt for the last three years in
Stettin, where her husband is the Ober-president of Pomerania.
Her quiet, devout disposition and her energetic love have accom-
plished even more there than they did here, where she labored in a
224 GERMAN CORRESPONDENCE. [ 1 834.
more retired position. She is helping greatly the advancement of
the cause of Christ. Count Groben is still in his former position. It
was only last week that he lost his only and very amiable daughter,
yet he will be greatly strengthened in the Lord by this calamity.
Our old friend Senfft has been married for four years, and already
has three children. He has an excellent, truly Christian wife, and
gives evidence of being happily married. He heartily returns your
greeting, and thinks of you often with tender love. Focke has been
in very poor health for three years, so that we have often indeed
believed that God wished to call him out of this, to him, oppressive
life. However, he is now recovering again by degrees, and we hope
yet longer to keep him with us. The old venerable Baron Kottwitz
is still living, now in his 77th year. The king has often of late
shown him confidence in a noteworthy way, and he has thereby
brought it about that four new churches have lately been built in
our densely populated suburbs. I am to become pastor of one of
them in a few months, but will also continue to lecture in the univer-
sity.
The great gap that was made by the death of our beloved friend
Le Coq, is still at all times painfully present to me. You will be
able to imagine in some degree how sad his loss was to us. What a
lovely image of our Lord shone in his heart ! How one could turn
to him at all times, and ever find the same honest, loving, friendly
heart, the same desire for the advancement of the kingdom of God.
Hengstenberg has been married also for some time, and although
" considerably under thirty," yet is even now the Dean of the theo-
logical faculty. The third volume of his " Christologie " will appear
soon. After which he is purposing to write either a great work on the
authenticity of the Pentateuch, or a popular commentary on the
Psalms. I advise him, by all means, to undertake the former of
these in the first instance, since I deem a critical examination of the
Pentateuch as the most important work for a Professor of the Old
Testament. My own studies draw me more and more from the pe-
culiar German kind of scholarship. I am inclined too much to
action, too greatly adapted to church work. Hence I cannot bury
myself so to speak, among my books, as is necessary for a German
scholar. Yet I have chosen for myself a subject which sooner or
later will prove of greater importance, if God gives me time and
strength, viz., a history of Christian Church government in connec-
tion with a dogmatic exposition of the doctrine of the Church.
I have been engaged for three years on a practical edition of the
Bible, which is to contain the Lutheran text, with short explanatory
remarks. The printing of the New Testament will begin this sum-
JET. 36.] RELATIONS WITH HIS BROTHER. 22$
mer. For the future I am purposing to found near my parish a small
Minister's Seminary, similar to that of Wittemberg, but " non salarie
par 1' etat" but upon the American principle of disconnection be-
tween church and state. You have perhaps seen my plans in regard
to these things (much talked about between us in 1827 and '28) in
Tholuck's " Literary Advertiser," of 1832, where the article upon
" The re-arrangement of the Church Government in the Evan-
gelical Church" was written by me. You have no doubt also seen
the long article by me, which appeared in the September number of
the " Evangelical Church Journal," for last year, entitled, " Con-
cerning the cultivation of the relations between Church and State in
the Lutheran and Reformed Churches." In regard to this, your
acquaintance has been a great advantage to me ; for without it I
could scarcely have become acquainted with North America in gen-
eral, or interested myself in any degree in it. I have requested
Mr. Alexander to send me the most important historical works on
North American Church history. You promised me this six years
ago, but I have received nothing. May I ask you to assist him with
your advice, since you understand me and my needs.
Now I must conclude, my dear friend, ever present to me in my
thoughts. Keep for me across the ocean your sincere love until we
see each other in the future, where we may embrace without sin in
the society of the blessed. O ! may no one of all those who are
mentioned in this letter be left behind. " May each one who has
such hope within him, purify himself even as he is pure," and un-
ceasingly seek for the jewel of a heavenly calling. With the request
for a few lines, as opportunity may offer,
I remain in sincere love, your friend and brother,
OTTO VON GERLACH.
CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER.
CHILDREN, FAMILY RELATIONS AND RECREATIONS.
During all these years he exchanged weekly letters with
his brother. He had never known a sister nor any other
brother. They were only eighteen months apart in age,
and in childhood and youth had been all in all to each
other. They were one in principles, opinions and interests,
temporal and spiritual. Their differences of character and
position were precisely such as to cause them to be mu-
tually attracted to and dependent upon each other. In this
15
226 RELATIONS WITH HIS BROTHER. [i83O-' 4 o.
correspondence Dr. Charles Hodge's whole life, inward and
outward, personal and family, lies embalmed. Through
this channel, for fifty-three years, from his settlement in
Princeton in 1820, to his brother's death in 1873, he poured
out without reserve all the contents of his mind and heart.
The whole is a singular monument of that brother's nobility.
The Philadelphia brother was the elder, with much more of
the instinct and habit of the anxious care taker than was
proportioned to the difference of age. He was of the more
cautious disposition, and of the more deliberate and cooler
judgment. He was a skillful and experienced physician.
He lived in a great city, lately the seat of government of
the United States, and, at the time of which we write, the
ecclesiastical metropolis of the Presbyterian Church in
America. After his practice was established, and he had
entered upon his professorship in the medical department of
the University of Pennsylvania, he became the richer of the
two. Thus it came to pass, that in all things he was his
brother's counsellor, supporter and comforter. Before the
days of railroads, telegrams and express agencies, he was
the unwearied agent for the execution of a ceaseless stream
of commissions. No matter who else was the family
physician, every detail of morbid symptom of every mem-
ber of the Princeton family was narrated to him, and his
advice sought, and often his personal presence asked for
and obtained. When the children multiplied, and expenses
with them, when the theological professor's salary failed to
be paid for months, and the Editor of the Repertory was
pressed for money to pay its bills, for which the returns
from subscription were at first entirely inadequate, the
Philadelphia brother, with inexhaustible generosity, came
to the rescue by loans and absolute gifts.
lt was during these years, from February, 1830, to De-
cember, 1840, that Professor Hodge's six youngest children
were bornj" The letters, like an echoing gallery, repeat the
voices of those days, and bring back into the present, not
JET. 36.] FAMIL Y LIFE. 22 J
only the words but the very flush, and tone, and gesture by
which his love for and delight in these little ones is ex-
pressed. They are full of their doings and sayings and of
the father's joy and pride and hope on their account. [They
were at every age and at all times allowed free access to him.
If they were sick, he nursed them. If they were well, he
played with them. If he were busy, they played about him?
' His study had two doors, one opening outward towards the
Seminary for the convenience of the students, and a
second one opening inward into the main hall of the home.
Hence his study was always the family thoroughfare^
through which -the children, boys and girls, young and old,
and after them the grandchildren, went in and out for work
and play. When he was too lame to open the door, and
afterwards when he was too busy to be interrupted by that
action, he took the latch from the doors, and caused them
to swing in obedience to gentle springs, so that the least
child might toddle in at will unhindered. LHe prayed for
us all at family prayers, and singly, and taught us to pray:
at his knees with such soul-felt tenderness, that however
bad we were our hearts all melted to his touch. During
later years he always caused his family to repeat after him
at morning worship the Apostles' Creed, and a formula, of
his own composition, professing personal consecration to
the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost] But
that which makes those days sacred in the retrospect of his
children is the person and character of the father himself
as discovered in the privacy of his home, all radiant as that
was with love, with unwavering faith, and with unclouded
hope.
His musical tastes and talents were not remarkable,
yet he loved good music, and especially singing, which
appealed to the religious affections. His older children,
remember him before his lameness walking up and down
his study singing devotional hymns. Finding that his
second son, while an infant on the knee, discovered special
228 RECREATIONS. [i8 3 o-' 4 o.
susceptibility to music, he revived his own flute-playing,
which he had practiced when a theological student. After-
wards he got a violin for his boy, and the grave professor
and commentator himself used it until he had acquired
quite a respectable skill.
Partly because of his lameness, and partly because of his
taste, he always kept a single horse or pair from 1832 until
his death. Partly to provide for their support, and partly
for his own recreation, he purchased November, 1830, six
acres of ground, immediately adjoining the Seminary pro-
perty to the westward. To these he subsequently added
by purchase, two acres in the spring of 1832. He culti-
vated these lots for more than a quarter of a century, with
great interest and success. He manured and limed and
drained them in the most advanced methods. He raised
the best crops, of the finest quality and largest quantity in
proportion to his ground, known in the neighborhood.
Successes of this kind pleased him very much, and the only
boasting his most intimate friends ever in all his life knew
him to express by word or look, came from him colored
with a boy's enthusiasm in view of such achievements as
these effected through the instrumentality of his hired man.
Especially was this the case when on some occasion he
exhibited to a farmer or other competent judge some high-
bred calf or colt he had raised. He intelligently appre-
ciated and heartily delighted in all the points which exhibited
and proved their perfection of type and style, and their
physical excellence in general. To the end of his life he
delighted in fine horses, and would listen with animated
interest to the conversation of gentlemen who also happened
to be connoisseurs in horse lore, and were describing the
perfections of some celebrated horse, or narrating his
achievements on the road or course.
;ET. 34.] HIS MOTHERS DEATH. 2 29
DEATH OF HIS MOTHER.
Qn April, 1832, his beloved mother died after a brief ill-
ness, so unexpectedly) that her youngest son, although he
used all diligence, was unable to reach her bed-side until
after her departure. As soon as he returned to Princeton
after her funeral, he wrote to his brother:
" I was much mistaken in thinking I should have little compara-
tively to call dear mother to mind. Almost everything, I find, is in
some way associated with her. So many articles of clothing of the
children, so many of their books and playthings, and so many of my
own clothes bear marks of her care, that she is constantly recalled to
our recollection. The loveliness of the children now gives a mourn-
ful pleasure, as I know that the eyes which would have looked on it
with so much delight, are now closed. But constant recollection of the
mercy of God to her and to us, the thought of how much everything
has been ordered as she would have wished, soothes and satisfies
me. I feel very much for you, my dear brother. Great as I feel my
own loss to be, I know yours is greater. You have a daily and sen-
sible void in your circle of duties and enjoyments. But as you have
more to mourn for, you have more to console you. You were the
chief earthly stay and comfort of our dear parent, and most of the
happiness of this world which she enjoyed came through you. You
too had the inexpressible satisfaction of being with her to the last ;
of seeing and receiving the evidences of her confidence in her Re-
deemer, and the assurances of her love. So dear brother you have
every consolation of which such an affliction can admit.
Your loving brother, C. H."
In July and August of that year, the Asiatic Cholera
prevailed in this part of America for the first time. Its
character and the condition of its progress appeared mys-
terious; its virulence baffled the skill of the physicians, and
its ravages were dreadful. Four citizens of Princeton fell
victims to it that season, and quite a number of the laborers
on the canal and stragglers from the road came into the
village hospital to die. Mr. Hodge was very active in as-
certaining from the most competent sources the proper
treatment of the disease, and in visiting the patients in per-
230 POLITICS. [1831.
son, and in making arrangements for their comfort. Every
case and its treatment was made a subject of consultation
with his brother. The son as well as the brother of a physi-
cian, and having in early manhood attended lectures on
anatomy and physiology, he always took the greatest inter-
est in reading upon and discussing medical questions, and
in cases of necessity, was himself capable of acting the part
of a respectable practitioner.
POLITICS.
[He was always an attentive and interested witness of
political events, and entertained and expressed the most
decided opinions. He was trained by his family in the
opinions of the old Federalist party of Washington, Hamil-
ton and Madison, and he held them tenaciously as principles
to the end of his life. He had a poor opinion of President
Jackson, and of the Locofoco party, and was a warm advo-
cate of the protective tariff, and of the United States Bank.
He always adhered to the old Whig party until its death ;
then in 1857 voted for Fremont, the first Republican candi-
date for the Presidency, and continued to be a decided Re-
publican as long as he lived]
He writes to his brother, October ist, 1831 :
My Dear Brother: The commencement passed off much in the
usual manner. As I seldom attend on such occasions I cannot speak
of it from personal knowledge. Mr. Dallas' oration on the preced-
ing afternoon was better than that of Forsyth the year before, but
still very deficient in solid worth. The only production of this kind
which seems to have given much satisfaction generally was that of
Mr. Wirt. He, it seems, is the anti-masonic candidate for president.
I wish he could succeed. But this splitting up the anti- Jackson men
into Calhoun, Clay and Wirt factions will only secure their own
defeat, and burden the country with the present miserable incumbent^
for another term. The apathy of the people in respect to his miscon-
duct is of serious omen for the future. The missionaries in Georgia
are probably, through his desertion, by this time condemned to the
penitentiary for four years ! [Verily, I think I could in such a case
-ffiT.35-1 POLITICS. 231
join a rebellion, with a clear conscience, as I am sure I could with a
full heart] But not a voice is raised on the subject. The dreadful
excitement on the negro question will absorb all interest in the South
for a time. I heard to-day that fresh murders had been committed,
and that one planter had called up four of his slaves, and caused
them to be shot without the pretence of a trial, and that it was feared
a dreadful massacre of the blacks might yet occur. The papers state
that tortures are resorted to to extort confessions ; that the suspected
are flogged to make them confess and disclose. This is a most de-
plorable state of things, and will serve to exasperate the feelings of
the South against the North, although it be more than ever unrea-
sonable. Your brother, C. H.
TO HIS BROTHER.
March 10, 1832.
The decision of the Supreme Court has filled all hearts here with
gratitude and joy. The memory of these judges will be cherished as
long as good men live in America. It is the most important decision,
taking all things into view, which that court ever made. Jackson
men here, at least the best of them, say they will stand by the Court
in preference to their master, and I hope there will be enough equally
well principled to cause it to be the course of policy to execute the
laws. Your brother, C. H.
TO THE SAME.
December 15, 1832.
My Dear Brother : I rejoice with you over the President's pro-
clamation it is excellent, worthy of Washington in doctrine and
spirit. I presume it was written by Taney, the Attorney General,
who is a Federalist. Livingston took different ground, I remember
in his speech on nullification in the Senate from that assumed in the
Proclamation. He differed from Webster, especially where Webster
and Jackson coincide. That is as to the origin of the Government.
Webster and the Proclamation saying that it was formed by the peo-
ple of all the states as a whole. Livingston maintaining that it was
a compact between the several states as such. I conclude, therefore,
that he is not the author of this paper. Besides its whole spirit is too
elevated. It is a striking proof of Jackson's imbecilityjthat he can
put his name with so much composure to documents which differ so
entirely in doctrine as the Veto Message and the Proclamation. I
should feel still more rejoiced at the character of the latter if I thought
the old gentleman really understood it, or knew what he said. I
should not be surprised to find that when called to act on the princi-
232 POLITICS. [ 1 833.
pies just avowed, he should allow Amos Kendall to prepare a pro-
clamation worthy of the most atrocious Jacobin, and sign it without
remorse, or even the consciousness of his folly. Still what we have
is a great good, for which we should be thankful. And if the Presi-
dent be true to his text, I would be for voting him a statue and for
evoking the spirit of Phidias to make it.
Your brother, C. H.
TO HIS BROTHER.
January 23, 1833.
My Dear Brother: We should all be very thankful that God has
led Jackson to do his duty in the present crisis so promptly and ably.
I like the Proclamation, however, better than the Message, though
the latter will do. The true policy now for the Nullifiers is to secede
from the Union (/. <?., according to their own principles). Their laws
and ordinance rendered the collection of the revenue under the
existing laws of the Government out of the question. Jackson pro-
poses to alter those so as to secure the revenue, and render nugatory
all that Carolina has done. If they go no further they are ridiculous.
Besides standing on the ground of nullification they stand alone.
The whole South as well as West and North pronounce that a heresy
but the advocates of the right of secession are ten to one to those
who advocate nullification. As soon as they assume the position of
seceders, they have the opinion and sympathy of a large portion
of the South in their favor. If Virginia holds the right of secession
how can she either aid or allow the exercise of that right being de-
nied to a sister state ? Beside the casus contemplated in the ordi-
nance has so nearly arrived should the President's suggestions be
acted upon, that it would be folly in them to think of hesitating for a
moment.
This seems to me so clearly the policy of these disorganizers that
I much fear they will pursue it, and then, unless God in mercy pre-
vents, we shall have hard times.
Your brother, C. H.
TO THE SAME.
January 28th, 1834.
My Dear Brother : Nothing, I think, has yet appeared compara-
ble to Binney's speech, except Webster's short expose of his views.
Gold coin drops from his lips whenever he opens his mouth. He is
still among the statesmen facile primus.
Your brother, C. H.
MT. 39.] POLITICS. 233
TO THE SAME.
August ist, 1837.
My Dear Brother : Is it true that Maryland is going with the Ad-
ministration ? ! ! It is beyond all comprehension, and affords
another proof of the (ascendency of the rabble^ fff we could have a
Republic with the right of suffrage restricted to householders, who
can read and write, and have been at least ten years in the country,
we could get along grandly. But a democracy with universal suffrage
will soon be worse than an aristocracy with Queen Victoria at the
head. I feel such an interest in that youthful sovereign, that I could
acknowledge her authority with far more complacency than that of
Martin Van Buren.|
"" Your affectionate brother, C. H.
TO THE SAME.
January pth, 1834.
My Dear Brother : I have been reading Major Downing's Life
and Letters. It is a most excellent and useful book ! not merely for
excellent humor and point, but for a complete exhibition of the whole
nature, machinery and chicanery of American politics. It is grand.
There are a multitude of letters which I never saw in the papers, and
some of the best of the Portland, or real Major's production. Of the
New York Major there are only two or three given by way of appen-
dix. Your brother, C. H.
TO HIS BROTHER.
August I7th, 1837.
! My Dear Brother : It seems that, notwithstanding all the country
has suffered, the elections are going in favor of Van Buren, almost
as much as ever. \L do not believe we can stand it much longer.
We must get rid of universal suffrage or we shall go to ruin7
Your brother, C. H.
TO THE SAME.
June 7th, 1839.
My Dear Brother : The little Queen has my hearty approbation !
Which she will no doubt appreciate duly. Sir Robert Peel has made
a great mistake as far as I can see. He moved too soon. He ought
not to have displaced the ministry until his road was clear, but hav-
ing done it, to be frightened back by these ladies of the bed-chamber,
appears ridiculous.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
234 LAMENESS. [1833.
Although heartily and conscientiously an American
patriot, maintaining that the United States is a Nation, and
loving it and admiring its institutions as more excellent
than those of any other,|he was ever proud of his part in
the inheritance of Anglo-Saxon traditions and glories.
Great Britain was loved and honored as the Mother-
country, and her history and prestige were sacred to him?
Above all was he a life-long admirer of the Duke of Wel-
lington, and the history of all of his campaigns and battles
was known to him in all its various versions and critical
details,
LAMENESS.
The portion of his life allotted to this chapter was for the
greater part a long scene of severe physical suffering and
confinement. His affliction was an obscure affection of the
thigh of the right leg ; as to the nature and proper treat-
ment of which different opinions were given by different
physicians ; and the views of the same physicians wavered
with the changing aspects of the case. The final judgment
was that it; was an inflammation of the thigh -joint, which
was arrested by entire rest and depleting treatment in its
earlier stages, after which the cold douche and gradual ex-
ercise restored the tone and usefulness of the limb.
He had suffered much pain, and undergone treatment for
the same trouble in the earliest years of his professorship.
During his residence of two years in Europe, he was almost
entirely relieved from any inconvenience from this source,
so that he was able to climb over the ascents and the gla-
ciers of the Alps for days. A result which Mr. Hodge
attributed to the salubrity of the climate. After he came
home, for the first four years, he suffered only as he was
limited in his powers of locomotion, by the weakness and
tenderness of that leg. But in the spring of 1833, he was
commissioned to canvass the Presbyterian Churches of the
city of New York, for the purpose of collecting money for
^T. 35-41.] LAMENESS. 235
the erection of the new chapel for Princeton Seminary. He
made several visits to the city, and spent many days in
going over its vast distances on foot. The result was a
violent and permanent aggravation of his disease. The
pain became severe, the distress occasioned by walking un-
bearable, and the limb shrank in size. He returned home,
and was put almost at once upon his back, and subjected to
a most violent system of counter-irritants. While in Phila-
delphia consulting several eminent physicians, Dr. Archi-
bald Alexander wrote to him from Princeton, August iSth,
1838:
PRINCETON, August i8th, 1838.
My Dear Sir : I hope you will not suffer your mind to be dis-
turbed about Seminary affairs. It is in every way for the interest of
the institution that you should take the most effectual measures for
the restoration of your health. Make this for the present your only
object. Composure of mind is one of^ the best medicines in all
diseases. " Be careful for nothing." Roll all your burdens on the
Lord. He knows best how to dispose of you, and what afflictions
are necessary. We shall, I trust, get along very comfortably here.
The students, when I was attacked, wished to have a suspension of
all exercises for a week or two, but it was judged inexpedient.
Several, however, have gone home, and will not return this session.
Yours, affectionately, A. ALEXANDER.
When Mr. Hodge came back he was put flat upon his
back upon a hard paliasse, resting upon a narrow couch,
moving on rollers. The policy of absolute rest was tried
in the first instance, his body was perfectly and rigidly
horizontal, and his right leg fixed immovably in a wooden
splint. For months he was kept in that position, night and
day, without change, until at last it was only gradually, and
interrupted by many turns of faintness and dizziness, that
he could be accustomed again to assume a sitting or stand-
ing position. In January, 1834, the methods of cure began
to be so far ameliorated that his limb was released from the
wooden splint, which was replaced by a splint made of
236 HIS STUDY CHAIR. [1839.
straps of steel, more elastic and capable of being easily car-
ried while he was in a vertical position, and of being put
on or off as occasion required. While reclining horizon-
tally, by far the greater part of the time upon his couch, he
now began to move somewhat about upon crutches. In
June, 1834, he tried sea-bathing at Old Point Comfort, the
site of Fortress Monroe, Virginia. During August of the
same year he tried the same agency with little effect at
Cape May, New Jersey. On his return he was again almost
entirely confined to the house, andCby far the greater part
of the time to a horizontal position] He slept by himself
in the back parlor, where after so many years he died. His
couch occupied during the day, from September, 1833, pre-
cisely the same position in his study as that subsequently
occupied by his chair until the time of his death, a period
of forty-five years. The chair in which all his students
and surviving friends remember to have seen him either
sitting or reclining was given to him by his brother, Novem-
ber, 1839, and was thenceforward used by him exclusively
as long as he lived. Indeed he did not leave it until about
the end of his last sickness. He said pathetically a few
days before he died, " this chair and I for forty years have
been growing to each other very closely." This fact is a
striking and characteristic illustration of his constitutional
trait of conservatism forty-five years reclining and sitting,
reading, writing, praying and talking in one spot of one
room,' During all these years also he omitted on no single
morning, when at home, to record the direction of the
wind, and the state of the thermometer, and of the sky.
He likewise, until almost his last years, resisted all the
efforts made by a younger generation to induce him to have
his clothes made elsewhere than at the same old shop
which he had patronized from the first, through all its suc-
cession of occupants. \There was no element of his nature
inclined to new measures, any more than to new doctrines.
During this time, from the early autumn of 1833 to
>ET. 3S-4L] HIS LAMENESS. 237
1836, he was most heroically treated with violent counter-
irritants. His hip, and thigh, and knee were over and over
again blistered, cupped, rubbed with tartar emetic and
iodine ; treated with issues, and setons, and the moxa, i. e. y
burnt with actual fire from the hip to the knee. All this
he bore, not only with bravery and resignation, but with
habitual cheerfulness, and continued without serious inter-
ruption, constantly engaged in his studies and writing. In
the fall of 1834, his distinguished friend, Professor Joseph
Henry, brought his battery to Mr. Hodge's study and
applied galvanism to his limb, without any known effect.
In the spring of 1838, he believed that he had made no
progress toward recovery, and becoming impatient of the
old methods, he urgently pressed upon his physicians the
propriety of his trying either the hot springs of Baden in
Germany, or those of Virginia. After much discussion
and many plans, he settled down to trying the effect first
of warm baths, and then in October, 1838, of the cold
douche upon his lame hip and thigh, in his own home.
With the use of the latter, the tone and strength of the
limb gradually returned, and [he slowly increased his exer-
cise, and laid aside first one crutch and then the other, and
finally settled down upon the support of a cane which he
used until the end of his life, f
All this time of languishing pain and confinement, his
general health was preserved almost in perfection. He not
only was well, but he appeared to others unusually fresh
and youthful. This is to be attributed to the strength of
his constitution the placidity and sunny cheerfulness of his
disposition, his Christian faith, and his remarkable tempe-
rance in food, and regularity of habit. Few men have ever
been known who possessed a more complete control over
their appetites, and although his emotions were always
strong, and on occasion uncontrollable, he was characterized
to a remarkable degree by the faculty and habit of throwing
off from his mind all painful or disagreeable subjects. On
238 HIS LAMENESS. [1833-40.
December 3d, 1834, he writes to his brother, " I have not
walked across the room without a crutch for a year and
a half." He has marked as a note attached to his daily
record of the weather, under date of July i6th, 1842,
" Preached in Elizabethtown for the first time since 1833 j"
that is this was the first instance of his preaching in that
time. Again, under the date of September i8th, 1842,
" Preached in the Chapel for the first time." And on the
ijQth of June, 1843, "Walked to town (the village) for the
first time in ten years.3
During the worst of this time, the latter part of 1833 and
the first of 1834, he employed at his own expense, with the
assistance of a friend or two, of whom the sainted Dr. Miller
was the principal, the Rev. Austin O. Hubbard, of the last
graduating class, as an assistant. Mr. Hubbard relieved
him of the Hebrew, while Mr. Hodge continued to lecture
on Introduction and Exegesis. Mr. Joseph Addison Alex-
ander was appointed assistant in his department, and en-
tered upon its duties immediately upon his return from
Europe in May, 1834 declined his election of Adjunct
Professor of Oriental and Biblical Literature in 1835, and
accepted it, and was formally installed in 1838.
From the summer of 1833 to the 22dj)f February, 1836,
with a trifling exception, in June, 1834,' Dr. Hodge met his
classes in his own housed sometimes in the study and
sometimes in the back parlor. The rooms being crowded
up to the edge of his couch with settees during class time,
while during the intervals the settees were pushed together
to the walls.
Meantime, it was evident that he was conducting his
studies and using his pen under the most serious physical
embarrassments. From 1833 to 1840 inclusive, he wrote
twenty-eight articles for the Repertory, besides reading and
editing all the rest. While at the worst, lying perfectly
horizontal, and at times, at least, with his right leg in a
splint, he wrote his reviews of Stuart on the Romans, and
JET. 38.] GATHERINGS IN THE STUDY. 239
of Barnes on the Romans, his two articles on the Act and
Testimony, which shook the Church, and shaped its history,
and his own commentary on the Romans. He learned
then to write upon a board covered with leather held upon
his breast by his left arm. This, plan he practiced exclu-
sively until 1853, when he was with some difficulty induced
by his wife to substitute for the board the table, which in
the wood-cut of the study is represented as standing at the
side of the chair. His later articles, commentaries and his
" Systematic Theology," were written sitting at that table.
While confined to his couch his books were placed in part
in a revolving case, and stood in every available place on
stands and chairs by his side, while, of course, at that time
he fell back constantly upon the assistance of members of
his family, to get his books and place them in convenient
positions, and to read to him while he copied or translated
passages for quotation.
THE GATHERINGS IN THE STUDY.
The fact of his long confinement, and the further fact that
he was in age and general qualities the central man, the
common bond of intercourse and action among the Prince-
ton Professors of that day, caused his study to be for many
years the meeting place and intellectual exchange of both
Institutions. Here during all these years the faculty of
the Seminary held all its meetings. Here the Associa-
tion of gentlemen which conducted the Repertory met
for the reading and criticism of articles, and for the
discussion and decision of the policy of the Review.
Here all debates and consultations of general interest
were held, and here literary strangers, visitors to either
Institution, were brought to meet the gentlemen of the
town. Here almost every night for long years came
Professors Dod and Maclean, and frequently Professors
James W. Alexander, Joseph Henry, and the older Profes-
sors, A. Alexander, and Samuel Miller, President Carnahan,
240 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER. [1838.
and frequently when visiting the town, Professors Vethake
and Torrey, and Dr. John W. Yeomans. Thus at least
in the eyes of the young sons, gleaming out from the
corners, from the shadows of which they looked on with
breathless interest, this study became the scene of the most
wonderful debates, and discourse on the highest themes of
philosophy, science, literature, theology, morals and poli-
tics. When Professor Dod was here alone, the time was also
improved by playing chess, at which he was a distinguished
master. Mr. Hodge at that time attained to such skill in
this intellectual game, that he held his own respecta-
bly, not only with his habitual antagonist, Professor Dod,
but also upon occasion even with Professor Henry Vethake
of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the most distin-
guished chess players of the United States.
PROF. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
August 2d, 1836.
My Dear Brother : I am glad you were in season to welcome
your fourth son into the world. There is no reason for turning up
your nasal member at boys. They are not to be despised. Happy
is the man who has his quiver full of them, he shall talk with his
enemy in the gate, jjf he turns out to be a good man, that is better,
because a harder and a rarer thing than a good womaru) Train him
up in the right way, and leave the result to God.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
TO THE SAME.
January nth, 1838.
My Dear Brother : I have had Dr. Sweet to see me ! What a
fall was there, my countrymen ! I, the son, the brother, the hus-
band (?), the father, it may be, of a doctor, harboring a quack,
illiterate and presumptuous. I suppose you will cut my acquaintance
instanter. You must at least admire my courage in telling you. Send
me a dose of prussic acid.
Yesterday afternoon when I came from recitation I found a plain,
respectable old gentleman, about sixty, sitting in my study waiting
my return. He handed me a letter from a clerical friend, begging
JET. 40.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER. 241
to introduce Dr. Sweet, who, he assured me, had been effecting a
multitude of marvelous cures in his neighborhood, and entreating
me not to allow the fear of quackery to induce me to decline his
services. Here then was the man himself, of whom I had heard so
much, who had been recommended to me by lawyers, bishops, mer-
chants, ministers, sent without any agency or preconcert of my own.
Was this not Providential ? Would it not be a foolhardy rejection of
a chance of relief to turn my back upon his offers of assistance ? I
confess I thought so, and felt quite moved. On conversing with him
I found he was ignorant to a wonder. He informed me that the
sciatic nerve was the round ligament ; that the doctors were in a
manner unaccountable to him, unable to discover a dislocation, when
he could see it in a moment. His whole language was that of an
illiterate man. On the other hand there was much to inspire confi-
dence. In the first place he was plain and serious, just such a man,
they say, as General Harrison, whom you tried to make President of
the United States. In the second place, his grandfather and his
father had been bone-setters before him ; he himself has done nothing
else for more more than forty years. If there is anything in a here-
ditary gift, or if practice makes perfect, he surely might challenge
confidence in his own calling. In the third place, admitting one-half
of his vaunted cures to be imaginary, there remains a multitude of
cases which cannot be questioned. I know of several on the best
human testimony. Young is one ; Mr. of Rahway, is
another, who had been for years under Stevens & Mott, and could
hardly walk on crutches, who was dancing in a ball-room within a
month after Sweet took hold of him. He is sent for all over the
United States. He went not long ago to Kentucky, to see a Mr.
, who had not walked in ten years, In a week he was walk-
ing about, and in three weeks he was riding on horse-back, and
carrying on like a young man. For this cure he received five hun-
dred dollars, and is to receive a like sum if the cure proves perma-
nent. This last story is his own. He certainly has a wonderful
memory, for he went into details, the most minute, about cases which
I had heard of from other sources. Well, do you blame me now ?
Only the other day he cured (he says) at Mount Holly a young man
whom Randolph had kept twenty-three months in a splint. He was
walking about the streets when he (Sweet) left him. This is one of
the cases my clerical friend referred to.
When he examined my limb, he pronounced immediately that the
hip was out of joint and the knee also ! ! This was really too much.
However he convinced me that my diseased limb is nearly an inch
longer than the other. At least I did my best to make the measure-
16
242 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER. [1838.
ment accurate. He was not unduly urgent for me to submit to his
operation. He said it would not last more than ten minutes, nor
give more pain than drawing a tooth ; that it would require very little
force, nor more than half his strength ; that I could immediately
walk about the house without crutches, and in a week or two walk as
well as ever ; that he never persisted in an operation when a patient
complained or fainted ! but used all possible gentleness.
Even Sarah began now to give way, and urged that I should let
him begin, and make him stop when the pain became severe. But I
refused, and manfully held fast to my integrity. So after he had sat
here four hours and a half, I paid him $5 for the expense of coming
at the request of my friend, and dismissed him, saying, that as soon
as I was convinced that my hip was out of joint I would send for him.
Now if you do not glorify me at a great rate for this, I will send for
him right off. For I am by no means sure that I have not acted like
a big fool. He may be entirely mistaken in his absurd talk about
dislocations, and yet, like those famous shampooers of the East,
have a knack of cracking a man's spine, neck and limbs, greatly to
his edification. I maintain I have performed a great action. Whether
a wise or foolish one you must judge.
Your brother, C. H.
PROF. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
January i6th, 1838.
I feel unsettled and dissatisfied about myself, and you must not be
surprised if (should we all live till spring) I should enter on some
desperate enterprise. I have of late suffered more pain than usual,
particularly at night. What gradual change there is in my limb
is for the worse, I am sure, though I cannot trace its progress. I am
also impressed with the belief that this limb is longer than the other.
I have repeatedly had it measured since I first mentioned the- fact,
and always with the same result. The idea that is now haunting me
is the possibility of getting to some hot mineral baths. I should
greatly prefer those in Virginia, could I get to them. But how to
travel so far is the question, and the accommodations for bathing, I
am told, are very poor. I have thought that by getting a dearborn
wagon on easy springs, and large enough to hold my mattress, I might
lie down and ride even over the rough roads, for the one hundred and
fifty miles from Richmond. Were I rich I would venture on going
to Baden, though I have no desire to cross the ocean again. By
going first to London, then to Rotterdam, and then up the Rhine, I
could reach those springs with little or no land carriage.
Your brother, C. H.
^T. 40.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER. 243
His brother, while with characteristic generosity offering
him pecuniary assistance to execute his desire of visiting
the hot springs of Baden, expressed his want of confidence
in the proposed remedy, and in the virtue of natural mineral
waters in general. Hence the following philippic against
doctors in reply.
PROFESSOR HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
January 29, 1838.
My Dear Brother: I am going to write a philippic against doctors,
founded on your last letter. If the public have no confidence in the
profession you have to thank yourselves for it. You not only call
yourselves pretenders, vain boasters, etc., etc., but make assertions
which shock the common sense of mankind. For example, you say
that hot water is hot water whether it be in Germany, Virginia or
Princeton. This of course means that the hot natural mineral baths
have no greater remedial powers than artificial hot baths. Now this, I
maintain, is contrary to reason, to testimony and to experience, /. e.
it is opposed to all the kinds and degrees of evidence that can by
possibility apply to the case. It is contrary to reason that different
things should have precisely the same effects, and hot water is a
different thing from hot sulphureous water impregnated with iron,
magnesia, and other matters. Secondly, a hot bath is a very different
thing from those natural bathing places where the patient imbibes,
exhales, inhales, absorbs and drinks down, for what I know, the
fumes of these medicated waters hour after hour. Your assertion is
contrary to the testimony of all classes of men. Dr. Johnson says,
that though he cannot explain it, it is still the fact that one grain of
iron in the natural mineral waters produces a greater tonic effect
than one hundred grains administered as an artificial preparation.
Besides this kind of testimony there is that of those who, having
tried the artificial baths to no effect, have been essentially benefited
by the use of the natural ones. And finally as to experience, those
baths have been frequented, in some cases for six hundred years,
by hundreds and thousands of people. Are all mankind crazy ?
Might all these people as well have stayed at home, and sat down in a
tub of hot water ? Is a medical fact (the most slippery thing in
nature, I admit) utterly incapable of being established even by the
experience of thousands of years and of thousands of individuals ?
I know your answer to all this " Charles wants to go, and he will
prove it reasonable." But I have no fancy for the journey nor for
244 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER. [1838.
the isolation from friends and home comforts. I should rejoice to
be able to believe that all the advantages of these springs could be
obtained at home. As to the French douches, you forget I tried
them all one summer to no purpose. The idea of comparing such
matters with one of nature's steaming caldrons, in which the patient
lies for hours at a time beneath a vaulted roof, inhaling sulphureous
fumes, while his body soaks in hot medicated waters, is like compar-
ing a trickle of tepid water to a thundering cataract. So much for
the philippic, in which there is so much good nature, I fear it will be
but a brutum fulmen. You must consider it as written in great wrath.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
He, however, submitted to try first the hot and then the
cold douche at home, and afterwards rapidly and perma-
nently improved.
PROFESSOR HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
June 5th, 1838.
My Dear Brother : We have had a visit of two or three days
from the Rev. Samuel Hodge, of Tennessee, an humble, pious and
sensible old gentleman. His grandfather came from the North of
Ireland, and settled in North Carolina. He says the name is quite
common in Carolina and Georgia, and he is inclined to think from
the similar physique, that all who bear it are of one origin. " They
are characteristically large men, with light complexions, friendly,
yet ready to fight"
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
\_When writing his " Constitutional History of the Presby-
terian Church in the United States," he consulted his bro-
ther as to the best sources of information upon the subject
of nervous epidemics, &c. This he sought by way of
preparation for discussing the history of the physical phe-
nomena accompanying the revival of religion in Kentucky
in the early years of this century^
-j
PROF. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
August 15, 1839.
My Dear Brother /You seem to think I meant to penetrate very
far into the labyrinth of medico-metaphysical speculations about
ALT. 41.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER. 245
nervous diseases. You need not be apprehensive on that score. A
single page will probably embrace all that I have to say, but to write
that page, I should like to read a volume or two. A page will con-
tain a good many assertions, and I should like very much to be able
to make them on good authority. The phenomena of fainting, con-
vulsions, jerking, etc., which have in all ages attended strong and
general religious excitements, I am persuaded are nothing but one
form of an infectious nervous disease, generated by strong impres-
sions on the imagination and lively emotions, tjf so they have noth-
ing to do, properly speaking, with religion, and instead of being
encouraged or tolerated, as they almost always have been by good
men to the great injury of religion, they ought by all means to be
guarded against and suppressed as much as epilepsy or hysterics./
Your brother, C. H.
PROF. HODGE TO THE SAME.
October 10, 1839.
My Dear Brother : I was greatly concerned to hear of the suspen-
sion of your banks. It must be a death-blow to the Whig party, as it
will turn popular clamor against all banks and their advocates. There
was great joy in Washington when the news reached there, beyond
all doubt. The sub-treasury is now inevitable, and we shall have
all the loco-focos dipping their straws into the molasses hogsheads
of the people's money, and smacking their lips at a great rate. This
is not the worst of it. I cannot see how the banks can retain their
charters. If these are withdrawn, what a revolution of property must
take place. How many hundreds, who depend on bank dividends,
will have no income, until they can get their money back and re-
invested, should the banks prove ultimately able to pay their stock-
holders. However, the Lord reigns.
With regard to your physico-theological investigation, I fear I can
give you little assistance. You are beyond my depth. I do not
know of any speculation on the subject, and I suspect we all know
just nothing. We can only reason from analogy. A plant is a plant
the moment the seed begins to sprout. It has all that is essential to
its nature, not only as a plant, but as a plant of a certain genus or
species. It has its own specific vis formativa, if that is anything
more than an infidel expression for the divine energy. Still it has its
own character from the beginning. So with regard to every animal.
I should suppose it must be granted that it has ite specific character
from the commencement of its organization. If this is so, why must
it not be allowed that the human being is a human being from the
\
246 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER. [1839.
beginning? There is no greater difference between the new born
infant and the embryo, than between the infant and a full-grown man.
I should say, therefore, that the moment life begins, it is the life of a
human creature, having all the essential attributes of such a being.
And life begins when development or growth begins. The human
soul, as I understand the matter, has no separate existence (in this
world) from the body, nor the body from the soul.
If I can hear of anything on this subject, I will let you know. Do
write to me and let me hear how the world wags.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
PROF. HODGE TO THE SAME.
October 15, 1839.
My Dear Brother : I am happy to hear of your professional suc-
cess, and hope you may meet with many such instances to make up
for your sleepless nights and laborious days.
[l feel very much concerned about the poor Bank of the United
States, not only, and, as I fear, not chiefly because of the distress
which her misfortune must occasion, but I am mortified as a Whig, as
a Philadelphian, as an American^ It is a shame, no doubt, to blame
Mr. Biddle and the Bank for measures, which, before the issue was
known, were almost universally regarded as wise and salutary. Still
his reputation must suffer, as there can be no doubt that the present
result has proceeded mainly from his measures. The general causes, of
which you Philadelphians speak, will account for the general pres-
sure on the money market, but not for the peculiar pressure upon
the United States Bank. You may remember that Mr. Biddle, in his
last letter to Mr. Adams, said, that instead of restricting its operations
during the suspension of '37, the Bank greatly enlarged them ; that
it advanced freely to planters and banks on the pledge of cotton,
and he boasted, and with great reason, that he had thus saved the
country millions, and had enabled it to pay honorably its debt to
England ; and now, he added, the bank should resume its appropri-
ate sphere as a Bank. Unfortunately, however, the Bank was not
able to get out of its mercantile business. It was still obliged to deal
largely in cotton. Whether this arose from the premature resump-
tion of specie payments, or from hope of gain, it is acknowledged
that the Bank did deal immensely in cotton. It subjected itself,
therefore, not only to banking, but also to mercantile risks, and now
that cotton has come down, the Bank suffers. I have seen these
things said over and over, and long ago in the English papers, and
Mr. Biddle censured for making the Bank a great trading concern.
MT. 27.] THE "PRINCE TON RE FIE Wr 247
Add to all this, the large investments which the Bank has made in
other banks, in railroads, &c., &c., thus locking up its capital, and I
think there is no great mystery in the result. I sincerely hope she
may weather the storm, though it be at a great loss.
Some of the newspapers are perfectly atrocious in their abuse. The
Journal of Commerce calls it a broken concern mercantilely and
morally, exhorts all the Philadelphia banks to throw out its paper as
bankrupt rubbish, or they will all sink with it, &c., &c., and points
with exultation to its stock at 70.
This is rather a strange letter for me to write. It is written before
breakfast, while waiting for the lazy part of the family, and therefore
may be a little crusty.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
THE " BIBLICAL REPERTORY AND PRINCETON REVIEW," ITS HISTORY AND
ESTIMATE OF ITS CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE. DR. HODGE'S QUALIFI-
CATIONS AND SUCCESS AS AN EDITOR AND REVIEWER, HIS ASSOCIATE
EDITORS, AND PRINCIPAL CONTRIBUTORS.
As has been above noticed, Mr. Hodge began in Janu-
ary, 1825, the publication of a quarterly journal, under the
title of the " Biblical Repertory. A Collection of Tracts in
Biblical Literature." The design of this publication was
"to assist ministers and laymen in the criticism and in-
terpretation of the Bible." It had been occupied for the
first four years almost exclusively with reprints and transla-
tions of the essays of European scholars. Prof. Robert B.
Patton had acted as editor during Mr. Hodge's absence in
Europe. The translations had been prepared for the most
part by President James Marsh, then of Hampden Sidney,
Virginia, Drs. James W. and Joseph Addison Alexander,
and by Professor Patton and Mr. Hodge. In January, 1829,
the entire plan and management of the journal was changed,
and the " New Series " of Volumes date from that year. It
was thenceforward entitled "The Biblical Repertory and
Theological Review." Its object is declared in a long Ad-
vertisement to be 1st, to furnish Christian readers with "fa-
cilities for a right understanding of the divine oracles;" 2d,
248 THE " PRINCETON REVIEW." [1825.
" to bring under strict, impartial review the philosophy and
literature of the time, and show their influence, whether for
good or evil, on biblical interpretation, systematic theology,
and practical religion, in doing which it will be necessary to
correct and expose the error of founding religious doctrines
on isolated passages, and partial views of Bible truth, or
forcing the Scriptures to a meaning which shall accord with
philosophical theories;" 3d, "To notice and exhibit the
dangers of the particular form of error prevailing in the
period;" 4th, " To present the history of religious doctrine
and opinion, to notice the revival of old and exploded doc-
trines, and their effects on vital religion ;" 5th, " To con-
sider the influence of different principles of ecclesiastical
polity on piety, morals, literature and civil institutions;"
6th, "To observe and sustain the various enterprises of
Christian benevolence, especially the vast and growing in-
terest of Sabbath-schools ;" 7th, " Such attention as the
limits of the work will admit, will be bestowed on the im-
portant interests of general knowledge, and select literary
information will be given in every number;" 8th, "The
work is not designed to be controversial in its character,
but to state temperately and mildly, yet firmly and fear-
lessly, Bible truth in its whole extent." This commenda-
tory advertisement is signed by the following leading
ministers of the day: Ashbel Green, Samuel Miller,
Archibald Alexander, John H. Rice, Ezra Fisk, Ezra Styles
Ely, Francis Herron, Thomas Cleland, Samuel H. Cox,
Thomas H. Skinner, James Hoge, Henry B. Weed, Wil-
liam Nevins, Joseph Sanford, Thomas J. Biggs, Samuel L.
Graham, Luther Halsey. Thus some of the strongest and
most prominent partizans of each of the two Schools, into
which the Presbyterian Church divided in 1831, were in
1829 united in laying the foundations of the Biblical Reper-
tory, destined to take so decided a part in the coming con-
flict.
The new Review henceforth instead of bearing the name
JET. 27-74.] THE " PRINCE TON RE VIE W." 2 49
of a single man,[was edited by an " Association of Gentle-
men in Princeton.^" These were Rev. Drs. Archibald Alex-
ander and Samuel Miller, the Rev. Mr. Hodge of the
Seminary, and President Carnahan, and Professors Maclean
and Dod, of the College. The Rev. James W. Alexander,
then of Trenton, New Jersey, and Mr. Joseph Addison Alex-
ander, then of the College, and afterwards of the Seminary,
were from the beginning copious and most important con-
tributors to the Review, and they soon began to take a
leading position in its editorial management. In 1837 the title
was changed to " Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review."
In January, 1840, the " Literary and Theological Review" of
New York, hitherto edited by the Rev. Mr. Pigeon, in the
interests of the old orthodoxy, was merged into the " Bibli-
cal Repertory and Princeton Review." \Although conducted
by an association of gentlemen from ^1829 to 1855, Mr.
Hodge was the actual working editor during the greater part
of the time, to whom fell the correspondence, the procuring
of contributions, and in the first instance, their examination.
In 1856 he again put his name on the title page as sole
editor, which position of unrelieved labor and unshared
responsibility he maintained until the end of the year 1868-
Then he was fortunate enough to secure the consent of
Rev. Lyman H. Atwater, D.D., of Princeton College, to act
as his colleague in the Editorship.' Dr. Atwater had abun-
dantly proved his pre-eminent fitness for this great office, by
the ability and steadfast orthodoxy of his contributions to
the Review for many past years. And henceforth, although
Dr. Hodge's name continued to appear on the title page as
senior Editor, and he continued to share in its direction and
to contribute to its pages, Dr. Atwater discharged the major
part of the work. After the reunion of the two branches of
the Presbyterian Church, the "Biblical Repertory and
Princeton Review" was in 1872 combined with the "Ameri-
can Presbyterian Review " of New York, with the title of
" Presbyterian Quarterly and Princeton Review" under the
250 " PRINCETON REVIEW." [1829-56.
editorial management of Rev. Dr. L. H. Atwater, and Rev.
Dr. H. B. Smith. And in the latter end of 1877 it was sold
to the present editor of the new "Princeton Review" a
transfer for which Dr. Hodge was in no degree responsible.
He was the founder of the Review, and he continued in
connection with it as sole or joint editor, from January,
1825, to December, 1871, a period of forty-six years.
Of the management of the Review by an "Association
of Gentlemen," which continued from 1829 to 1856, Dr.
Hodge writes in his " Retrospect of the History of the
Princeton Review" published in the Index Volume in 1868:
" The Association above-mentioned was not defined within
very strict limits, nor was it controlled by any special terms
of agreement. It consisted of the more frequent contribu-
tors to the pages of the journal, who were willing to assume
the responsibility before the public of its character and con-
tents. It included the Professors of the Theological Semi-
nary, and some of the officers of the College. Although
the laboring oar was still in one pair of hands, it was of
importance that the work had the sanction of a number of
gentlemen who had the confidence of the public; and it
was a real advantage that all contributions touching delicate
or difficult questions were read and canvassed by the Asso-
ciation before being committed to the press."
The most eminent and frequent contributors were Dr.
Samuel Miller, Drs. Archibald, James W. and Joseph Addi-
son Alexander, Profs. Dod, Maclean, Stephen Alexander,
J. H. Mcllvaine, Wm. H. Green, James Moffatt, Lyman H.
Atwater and John Forsyth ; the Hon. Chief Justice Lowrie,
the Hon. Stephen Col well, of Pennsylvania, and Samuel
Tyler, of Washington. Dr. Samuel Miller contributed be-
tween 1830 and 1842 twenty-five articles; Dr. Archibald
Alexander in all seventy-seven articles ; Dr. Joseph Addi-
son Alexander, ninety-three ; Dr. James W. Alexander,
one hundred; Dr. Lyman H. Atwater contributed from
1840 to 1868 sixty-six articles ; [and Dr. Hodge in all con-
^T. 27-74.] DR. HODGE AS A REVIEWER. 25!
tributed one hundred and forty-two articlesj averaging with
his proportion of the literary notices, at least five thousand
octavo pages, or ten ordinary octavo volumes. (These arti-
cles of Dr. Hodge were in the form both of essays and of
reviews, didactic and controversial, and they ranged over a
wide circle of subjects, including besides theology and bib-
lical criticism, discussions in metaphysics and psychology,
in personal, ecclesiastical and political ethics, and in all the
range of ecclesiastical polity, constitutional and administra-
tive, theoretical and practical, springing from the passing
events of the time?;
The grand characteristics of these reviews are knowledge,
clearness and faith. These, in the degree and combination
in which they existed in Doctor Hodge, gave them the
qualities of breadth, independence, moderation, conserva-
tism, clearness of thought and style and eminent conviction.
\His religion was a personal experience. The most close
and critical observer never in any moment of his living or
dying hours saw in him the least symptom of doubt) That
Christ is what he is set forth in the Scriptures to be, and
that the Bible is the infallible word of God, were facts insep-
arable from his personal consciousness. The logical force
and habit of his mind made him see and grasp all things in
their relations. All that he saw to be logically involved in
a vital truth by which he lived, was to him part of that
truth. [Thus he experienced the whole Calvinistic system,
and would defend it at all cost as the truth of God, from
loyalty to Christ, and love for human souls. The whole
was a matter of conscience and of life and death. Hence,
also, he was apt sometimes, as his critics have successfully
pointed out, to go beyond the warrant of historical fact, in
asserting that the Church had everywhere and always held
as he held as to secondary matters^ Hence, also, he saw
all truths in their relations. Defect at the circumference
threatened heresy at the centre, and defective theistic con-
ceptions of men of science in the various spheres of nature
252 DR. HODGE AS A REVIEWER. [1829-68.
threatened atheism, and were to be met and vanquished at
the time and place of their birth, before they had gathered
strength, or extended their pernicious influence. Hence,
also, from his logic, came the symmetrical form into which
his essays were arranged, like an army skillfully set for
battle ; and from his faith came that momentum and pene-
trating force of absolute conviction which rendered the
serried ranks of the attacking army irresistible. Hence he
was transparently disinterested and essentially impersonal.
He fought only in obedience to the Master, for the honor
of Christ and the salvation of souls. It was God's cause,
and all personal share in it was swallowed up in that awful
fact, always and perfectly realized. \He cherished inimical
feelings to no man, or class of men, except in as far as he
thought he saw they were opposing God's truth, and were
thus knowingly or ignorantly dishonoring Christ and im-
periling soulsT) Only once in all his life did he strike out
with an angry, personal intent, and that was in the article
entitled " The Princeton Review and Cousin's Philosophy,"
April, 1856. The occasion was that Caleb S. Henry, D.D.,
after waiting seventeen years, had attacked Dr. Hodge's
friend, Albert B. Dod, eleven years in his grave, for an arti-
cle on Transcendentalism published in 1839. He did strike
in wrath the man who tore open the grave of his friend.
But with regard to all other opponents, he had no other
thought or feeling than that involved in the reverent defence
of the ark of God. If others praised him, he rejoiced in
their love, and thanked God, to whom only praise belongs,
and from whom alone all graces come. If others angrily
scourged him in their attacks or replies, then, after the first
sentence in which he detected the flavor of the hostile ani-
mus, he closed the page, and refusing even to hear what
had been said, he banished the whole thing from his mind.
He certainly missed much improving discipline, which his
antagonists have laboriously prepared for his good,j There
probably was never another warrior of equal extent of ex-
JET. 27-74.] HIS QUALIFICATIONS AS A REVIEWER. 253
perience who sat so habitually in placid unconsciousness of
the missiles of the enemy, whether from the ambush or the
open battle, whether the pistol or rifle of the newspaper, or
the siege-guns of the great reviews.
(jThe same qualities caused him to be both conservative
and moderate] [He was conservative because the truth he
held was not the discovery of the progressive reason of
man, but the very word of God once delivered to the saints,
and therefore authoritative and irreformable^ and because
reverence for that word repressed in him all ambition for
distinction as the discoverer of new opinions, or as the
improver of the faith of the Church. [The consistency with
which, under all changes of times and party-combinations,
he for fifty years maintained without shadow of change
absolutely the same principles was very remarkable, and
without any parallel in this age. He held precisely the same
doctrines in his age as in the early controversies of his
youth, and the same principles as to the relation of govern-
ment to moral and religious questions, and as to temperance
and slavery after the war as he did years before. He was
always moderate also, because his loyalty to the Master
made party spirit impossible, and because the amount of his
knowledge and force of his logic caused him to see things
in all their relations in all directions,) by the aid of the side-
lights as well as by the aid of those shining in the line of
his direct vision. Of the fact of his moderation, his whole
controversial history is an illustration. Dr. Ward, the
editor of the Independent, notices this trait in an editorial
on occasion of Dr. Hodge's semi-centennial celebration,
April, 1872. The form and spirit of his "Systematic
Theology" abundantly and conspicuously show it when
compared with the representatives of the extreme par-
ties of the Reformed Churches, as Beza and Gomarus, on
the one hand, and Amaraldus and Placaeus, on the other.
The same is shown by his position as to the questions
of slavery, temperance and Romish baptism. At first
254 HIS QUALIFICATIONS AS A REVIEWER. [1829-68.
he opposed the ultra Old School men in 1836 who
were bent on the division of the Church, because the New
School brethren were too bad to live with. Again, he op-
posed the same men and their successors in 1866 and '8,
who would precipitate the re-union of the two branches,
because the same New School brethren were too good to
live without! "As early as 1855, some of our southern
friends who had taken extreme ground as to the policy of
boards, raised a further question as to the prerogatives of
the Church respecting matters that had secular relations
and bearing. Dr. Hodge, in the Review, earnestly opposed
the extreme action carried by a small majority at Indiana-
polis. A harmonious understanding, however, seemed to
have been reached, after the warm, though courteous, de-
bate at Rochester in 1860. But when the Church in 1861
(the Spring Resolution) apparently leaned over to the op-
posite extreme, he still adhered to the principles of the Ro-
chester action. No articles from his pen have attracted
more general attention or called forth more praise and cen-
sure than those on the state of the country and affiliated
subjects. During the excitement of the times, the radical
friends of the North and the ultra friends of the South cri-
ticised him with unmeasured severity; but the Church and
the country appears to be gradually returning to his mode-
rate position." Thus the rock in the sea by maintaining
through all tempests an unchanged position, at once op-
poses and measures the oscillations of the changing tides
and of the restless waves.
He possessed in perfection that kind of bravery which,
while perfectly consistent with humility, love of approba-
tion, and love of ease, yet makes it easy for a soldier to do
his duty regardless of opposing odds and of consequences.
It is an historical fact that he quietly took the personal re-
sponsibility of the Princeton side of all the controversies for
the forty years of the most momentous controversies ever
known to the American Church. He just as often stood up
MT. 27-74-] HIS QUALIFICATIONS AS A REVIEWER. 255
in defence of his opinions in the face of opposing majorities
as with their support. iHe alternately opposed both sides,
and often stood almost alone, as before the General Assem-
bly in Philadelphia in 1861.' The press of the city, the mob
in the street, the majority in the Assembly, the constituen-
cies at home, were all violently excited at the futile opposi-
tion made to their wishes. Many men were swept off their
feet by excited feeling, and many more were intimidated.
One confessed to Dr. Hodge : " I am opposed to these re-
solutions, but if I vote against them, I can never go home."
But then, as under all other circumstances, for fifty years
Dr. Hodge stood fast where the Master put him. Not one
of his debates or controversies was ever prompted by am-
bition, or by any inspiration of the mere gaudia certaminis,
but in every instance he spoke by way of obedience as the
servant and soldier of Jesus Christ. "Here I stand, and
cannot do otherwise. God be my help. Amen."
Of the general character and conduct of the Review,\JPr.
Hodge himself wrote in his Retrospect of the History of the
Princeton Review, in the Index Volume, 1868 : "The con-
ductors of the Princeton Review, however, were Presbyteri-
ans. They firmly believed that the system of doctrine con-
tained in the Westminster Confession of Faith, the system
of the Reformed Church and of Augustinians in all ages, is
the truth of God revealed for His glory and the salvation of
men. \ They believed that the upholding that system in its
integrity, bearing witness to it as the truth of God, and its
extension through the world, was the great duty of all those
who had experienced its power. They believed also that
the organization of the Presbyterian Church, its form of
government and discipline, was more conformed than any
other to the Scriptural model, and the best adapted for pre-
serving the purity and developing the life of the Church.
It was, therefore, the vindication of that system of truth and
of the principles of that ecclesiastical polity, the conductors
of this Journal, from first to last ; had constantly in view.
256 HIS QUALIFICATIONS AS A REVIEWER. [1829-68.
In this world life is a constant struggle against the causes
of death. Liberty is maintained only by unsleeping vigi-
lance against the aggressions of power ; virtue is of neces-
sity in constant antagonism to vice, and truth to error.
That a Journal consecrated to the support of truth should
be controversial is a matter of course; it is a law of its ex-
istence, the condition of its usefulness. The Bible is the
most controversial of books. It is a protest against sin and
error from beginning to end. To object to controversy,
therefore, is to object to what is in this world the necessary
condition of life. It is, consequently, no just ground of re-
proach to this Journal that it has been engaged in contro-
versy during the whole course of its existence. If it has
always contended for the true and the right, and done this
with due humility and charity, it has fulfilled its destiny.
That it has often failed at least in spirit and manner may,
and we fear must, be conceded. All such failures are to
the surviving conductors matters of regret ; but they can
honestly say they have ever labored to support the truth of
God and to promote the interests of His kingdom to the
best of their understanding and ability." " It is with un-
feigned and humble gratitude to God that the conductors
of the Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review can look
over the comparatively long period of its existence with the
conviction that from first to last it has been devoted to the
vindication of that system of doctrine contained in our
standards, and which, as all Presbyterians believe, is taught
in the word of God. No article opposed to that system has
ever appeared in its pages. It has been the honest endea-
vor of the conductors to exhibit and defend the doctrines of
our standards under the abiding conviction that they are
the doctrines of the word of God. \They have advanced no
new theories, and have never aimed at originality. Whe-
ther it be a ground of reproach or^of approbation, it is be-
lieved to be true that an original idea in theology is not to be
found in the pages of the Biblical Repertory and Princeton
^ET. 27-74.] HIS QUALIFICATIONS AS A REVIEWER. 257
Review from the beginning until now. The phrase ' Prince-
ton Theology,' therefore, is without distinctive meaning.'^)
The following interesting testimonies as to the character
and conduct of this Review is furnished by independent and
competent witnesses. [The British Quarterly Review, in an
article on the American Press, January, 1871, saysj: "The
Princeton Review is the oldest Quarterly in the United
States. It was established in 1825 by Charles Hodge, the
well-known commentator on the Epistle to the Romans, a
Professor in Princeton Theological Seminary. It is beyond
all question the greatest purely theological Review that has
ever been published in the English tongue, andlhas waged
war in defence of the Westminster standards for a period of
forty years, with a polemic vigor and unity of design with-
out any parallel in the history of religious journalism. If
we were called to name any living writer who, to Calvin's
exegetical tact, unites a large measure of Calvin's grasp of
mind and transcendent clearness in the department of sys-
tematic theology, we should point to this Princeton Profes-
sor./ He possesses, to use the words of an English critic,
the power of seizing and retaining with a rare vigor and te-
nacity the great doctrinal turning-points in a controversy,
while he is able to expose with triumphant dexterity the
various subterfuges under which it has been brought to
elude them. His articles furnish a remarkably full and ex-
act repository of historic and polemic theology. The great
characteristic of his mind is the polemic element; accord-
ingly we find him in collision with Moses Stuart, of Ando-
ver, in 1833, and with Albert Barnes in 1835, on the doc-
trine of imputation; with Prof. Park, in 1851, on 'The The-
ology of the Intellect and the Theology of the Feelings ;'
with Dr. Nevin, of the Mercersburg Review, in 1848, on
the subject of the ' Mystical Presence ;' with Prof. SchafF, in
1854, on the doctrine of historical development; and with
Horace Bushnell in. 1866 on vicarious sacrifice. In fact, a
historical duel has been going on between Andover and
17
258 HIS QUALIFICATIONS AS A REVIEWER. [1829-68.
Princeton for over forty years,) the leading controversialists
of Andover being Stuart, Park, Edward Beecher, Baird and
Fisher, and those of Princeton Hodge, the Alexanders and
Atwater. The articles in the 'Princeton Review' on sci-
ence, philosophy, literature and history have generally dis-
played large culture and research. The review of Cousin's
Philosophy, in 1839, bv Professor Dod, was one of the
most remarkable papers that appeared on the subject in
America, and was afterward reprinted separately on both
sides of the Atlantic."
(jProf. James Macgregor, D. D., of the New College, Ed-
inburgh, in an article in the " British and Foreign Evan-
gelical Review" for July, 1874) on "Dr. Charles Hodge
and the Princeton School," says : " In thus speaking of Dr.
Alexander we are not led away from Dr. Hodge, [jfhe
two men are only two parts of one whole. We might set the
matter thus: Alexander was the Socrates of the Princeton
School, and Hodge has proved to be its Plato and Aristotle.
The two between them have been the leading power in
eliciting a school of Christian thought, which more and more
manifestly, is destined to be the dominant thought of Chris-
tian J\.merica.
iiThe Princeton school has been markedly Biblical in its
thinking^ Dr. Archibald Alexander was all his life-long an
enthusiast in biblical studies, especially in relation to her-
meneutics and criticism. His son, Joseph Addison, author
of the learned commentaries on Isaiah and the Psalms, who
was reckoned a prodigy of linguistic erudition, devoted his
whole life to the study and exposition of Scripture. The
' Princeton Review ' was at first, for some years a ' Biblical
Repertory' directly devoted to the expiscation of questions
regarding Holy Writ. Dr. Hodge, the now acknowledged
Coryphoeus of the school, had been twenty years Professor
of Biblical Theology before he became Professor of Sys-
tematic Theology. The influence of this biblical culture
appears not only in his production of commentaries on the
JET. 27-74.] HIS QUALIFICATIONS AS A REVIEWER. 259
Romans and Corinthians, but appears most clearly and
fully of all in his great work now completed of Systematic
Theology.
" The manner of the Princeton School has been peculiar.
Controversy is perhaps not a good test of Christian charac-
ter. The proverbial odium theologicmn may be really cre-
ditable to the theologians as a class, because evincing the
glowing earnestness of their convictions. Still we cannot
close our eyes to the fact that controversy brings about sur-
prising revelations of natural character. Some men, here-
tofore supposed to be simply saints, will betray a frailness in
the fibre of their manhood. Other men will evince a firm fibre
of manhood, either by sweet and uncomplaining acceptance
of defeat, or by magnanimous forbearance and kindness to-
wards those over whom they have got the upper hand. This
greatness of nature has been exhibited in remarkable mea-
sure from first to last by the Princeton school in general,
and by Dr. Hodge in particular. They have in their con-
troversies been earnest, eloquent, warm, even passionate;
but so far as we know, they have invariably spoken as true
Christian gentlemen, who in relation to adversaries] make
due allowance for the fact that speaking more Americano
'there's a good deal of human nature in man.' They
have shown themselves to be manly men of the heroic type."
Dr. Charles P. Krauth, the great theologian of the
Lutheran Church, testified at Dr. Hodge's semi-centennial
celebration in 1872, "that he (Dr. Hodge) had always
treated the doctrines of Churches and parties differing from
his own with candor, love of truth, and perfect fairness."
Dr. Irenaeus Prime, of the New York Observer, said at
Dr. Hodge's semi-centennial, April, 1872, "I think, and I
have had connection with the Press for thirty years I
think Dr. Hodge the ablest reviewer in the world. Any
one who has carefully studied the ' Princeton Review ' for
the last thirty years will bear witness when I testify to the
trenchant power with which he has defended the truth, and
260 HIS QUALIFICATIONS AS A REVIEWER. [1829-68.
put forth the peculiar views which have made that Review
a power in the Church and in tjie world."
And in an editorial in the " N. Y. Observer" the week
after Dr. Hodge's death, June 27th, 1878, Dr. Prime says:
" The ' Princeton Review ' in his hands was an army with
banners. It did not array itself on the side of the Church,
or of any party in the Church. It was the organ of his
opinions. And they were set forth with no dogmatic stub-
bornness, but with such Christian meekness and deference
to the Divine word, that they carried weight with them as
if his was the flagship of the fleet, iron-clad, that sailed in
with victory on its prow. We recall a case in which the
General Assembly, after one of the ablest debates ever held
on its floor, came to a decision on an important ecclesiastical
question (Romish Baptism) with almost entire unanimity.
Dr. Hodge reviewed the decision in the 'Princeton Review'
with such masterly power, as to set back the opinions of
the Church, and hold it on the other side to this day. And
to us this power of his appears the more wonderful, as we
believed then, and do now, that he was wrong, and the As-
sembly was right."
The editor of the life of Dr. Lytnan Beecher says, with
reference to the article of Rev. Prof! Albert B. Dod, July,
1837, on " Beecher's Views in Theology," that "the Prince-
ton Review was the most powerful organ in the land."
Autobiography, etc., of Lyman Beecher by his Son, Vol.
II., p. 402.
^Mr. Hodge, whom henceforth we will style by his title
of doctor of divinity, which was conferred upon him in
1 834 .by Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N, jQ contri-
buted to the Review, during the eleven years now under
review from January, 1829, to April, 1840, thirty-six arti-
cles as follows :
1829. Introductory Lecture. Public Education. Reply
to Dr. Moses Stuart's Examination of the Review of the
American Education Society.
JET. 3 1-42.] AR TICLES IN THE PRINCE TON RE VIE W." 2 6 1
1830. Reply to Dr. Moses Stuart's Postscript to his Let-
ter to the Editors of the Biblical ^/^r^r^.-4Regeneration
and the Manner of its Occurrence.5- Review of an Article
in the Christian Spectator on Imputation.
1831. Sunday Mails. Sprague's Lectures to Young
People. Doctrine of Imputation. Remarks on Dr. Cox's
Communication.
1832. Hengstenberg on Daniel. The New Divinity
TriedJ
1833. Suggestions to Theological Students.,. Stuart on
the Romans.
1834. Lachmann's New Testament. The Act and Tes-
timony.
1835. The Act and Testimony. Barnes on the Epistle
to the Romans. The General Assembly. Narrative of
Reed and Matheson.
1836. Riickert's Commentary on Romans Slaveryi
The General Assembly.
1 837. ^Voluntary Societies and Ecclesiastical Organiza-
tions.* Bloomfield's Greek Testament. The Xieneral As-
sembly.
1838. Oxford Tracts. The State of the Church. The
General Assembly. West India Emancipation.
1839. Clapp's Defence of the Doctrine of the New Eng-
land Churches. The General Assembly. Dr. Dana's Let-
ters. Testimonies on the Doctrine of Imputation.
1 840. January. Latest Forms of Infidelity.
The most important of these articles may be classified as
follows for the purpose of a brief notice :
I. Those relating to the controversy with Professor
Moses Stuart as to the American Education Society. Dr.
Hodge, in his " Retrospect of the History of the Princeton
Review \ 1871," says on this subject: >"The first controversy
on which the Repertory took an active part was the Educa-
tion Question. In 1829 the General Assembly had reor-
ganized the Board of Education, and called upon the
262 THE AMERICAN EDUCATION SOCIETY. [1829.
churches to sustain it in providing for the expenses of can-
didates for the ministry in their preparatory studies. At
the same time the American Education Society, a voluntary
society having its origin in New England, and its chief seat
of operations in Boston, Mass., offered to grant its aid to
all suitable candidates for the sacred office in any part of
the United States. Branch societies were organized in dif-
ferent parts of the country, and a large number of Presby-
terian churches contributed to its funds in preference to the
treasury of our own Board. In the July number of the
volume for 1829, the late Dr. Carnahan, President of the
College of New Jersey, published an article on " The Gene-
ral Assembly's Board of Education and the American Edu-
cation Society," in which the objections to the plan of the
American Society were briefly and clearly stated. This
called forth a long communication from Professor Stuart of
Andover, in reply. Professor Stuart's article was printed
at length in our October number, with a rejoinder from the
conductor (Dr. H.) of this Review. A separate edition of
Professor Stuart's article, with a postscript of sixteen pages,
being published, that postscript was reviewed in our num-
ber for January, 1830. This ended the discussion as far as
this journal was concerned.
" In this controversy, the general question of ecclesiastical
boards and voluntary societies was not brought under dis-
cussion. The simple point was the wisdom, propriety and
safety of the plan adopted by the American Society. That
society not only required its beneficiaries to make a quar-
terly report, detailing how the amount they had received
had been expended, and what each had received from other
sources, but regarded its contributions as loans. All the
candidates under their care were required to give their notes
for the sums received, payable in one, two and three years
after the close of their preparatory studies, with interest
after the same had become due. All the candidates for the
ministry were thus placed in the relation of debtors to the
;ET. 3 1 .] THE AMERICAN ED UCA TION SOCIE TY. 2 63
society, and must enter on their work burdened by this
load of pecuniary obligation.
"To this it was objected, i. That the whole plan pro-
ceeded on a wrong principle. It assumed that the candi-
dates had no right to the aid afforded ; that it was a pure
gratuity, which the donors, if they pleased, were authorized
to demand should be refunded. This placed the candidates
in the position of " charity scholars." Being so regarded
by their patrons, they were so regarded by their associates
and by themselves. This was an injustice and an injury.
This journal took the ground, 'that whenever a man devotes
his whole time and talents to the service of any community,
at its request, it is obligatory on that community to provide
for his support.' The recognition of this principle changes
the whole status of the candidate. He ceases to be regarded
as an object of charity. All ground for the minute inspec-
tion into his receipts and expenditures is done away with.
He is regarded as a man receiving no more than he is enti-
tled to, and for which he renders a full return. This prin-
ciple, it was contended, was scriptural, lying at the founda-
tion of the institutions and commands of the Bible. It was,
moreover, evidently just and reasonable, and was acted on
by all civilized governments in the education of young men
designed for the public service, especially in the navy and
army.
"2. It was objected to the plan of the American Society
that it was unjust to bring young men into the ministry
burdened with debt. The salaries of young ministers are
very seldom more than sufficient for their support, and in
the majority of cases utterly inadequate for that end. If,
in addition to providing for their necessities under these
circumstances, they had to pay the money advanced for
their education, they could not fail to be painfully embar-
rassed and harassed. To be in debt is to be in a state of
depressing anxiety.
"3. The Scriptures say: 'The borrower is servant to the
2 64 THE AMERICAN EDUCA T1ON SOCIE TY. [1836.
lender.' If the plan of the American Society had been fully
carried out, the great body of the younger ministry in the
Congregational and Presbyterian Churches would have
been in this state of bondage to that society. Every one
knows that virtually and effectively the power of such
societies is in the hands of the executive committee. Thus,
some half dozen men, with no official relation to our church,
would have this controlling power over our ministers.
This was evidently intolerable. The objection was not that
the power had been abused, but that it existed. It was a
power of dictating to a large proportion of the pious youth
of the country in what academy, college or theological
seminary they shall pursue their studies. It is the power
of deciding under what theological influences our future
ministers are to be formed. It is the power of holding and
influencing these ministers as bondmen when they come
out into the Church.
" 4. This society was, in a great measure, independent of
public opinion ; first, because it elected its own members ;
and, secondly, because its income, so far as derived from
the payment of the notes given by the beneficiaries, was
not derived from the churches.
" The General Assembly's plan was not subject to these
objections: I. Because the Assembly did not elect its own
members, but was renewed every year by the Presbyteries.
2. Because its Board was not the creditor of those aided by
its funds. 3. Because the candidates for the ministry were
not under its control."
II. Two of these articles, that on " The General Assem-
bly, 1836," and another in the January number of the vol-
ume for 1837 relate to the respective advantages of volun-
tary societies and ecclesiastical boards. Of this Dr. Hodge
said in his " Retrospect," etc. : " Much greater interest
attached to the controversy respecting the conduct of the
work of missions, foreign and domestic. The General As-
sembly in 1828 reorganized its Board of Domestic Missions.
MT. 39.] ECCLESIASTICAL BOARDS. 265
The American Home Missionary Society was at that time
in operation, and rapidly increasing in influence. At first,
it seemed to be hoped that the two organizations might
operate harmoniously over the same field. The General
Assembly, as did Dr. Green and Dr. Philips and other
leading friends of the Assembly's Board, expressed their
cordial willingness that all Presbyterians should be left to
their unbiassed choice as to which organization they should
support. But it was soon found that in the existing state
of the Church, harmonious action was impossible. There
were so many interests at stake ; so many causes of aliena-
tion between what became known as the Old and New
School parties, that the Assembly's Board, under the control
of the one, and the American Society, under the control of
the other, came into constant and painful collision. This
of necessity gave rise to serious conflicts in the General
Assembly. The friends of the American Society took the
ground that the Assembly had no right to conduct the
work of missions; that it was incompetent for that purpose;
that voluntary associations were more trustworthy, more
efficient and more healthful ; that two organizations for the
same purpose were not only unnecessary, but injurious.
They endeavored, therefore, in every way, to embarrass the
Assembly's Board. In the Assembly of 1836, they nomi-
nated as members of that Board men known to be hostile
to its very existence, and secured one hundred and twenty-
five votes in their favor. In the same Assembly they suc-
ceeded in preventing the Assembly establishing a Board of
Foreign Missions. One of the reasons most strenuously
urged against the appointment of such a Board, was that
the Assembly had no right to conduct such operations.
On this point, Dr. James Hoge, one of the wisest and most
moderate ministers of our church, said: 'As the subject
has been proposed in other forms, I have always objected.
But the question is now brought before us in a new form,
and is to be decided on the naked ground of the power and
266 ECCLESIASTICAL BOARDS. [1836.
rights of the Assembly to conduct missions. And on this
ground I cannot abandon it while I love the faith and order
of the Presbyterian Church. He further said, that if the
majority pursued the course which they did actually take,
' it would convulse the church to the very centre.' And so
it did. The action of the Assembly of 1836 in reference to
matters of doctrine and to the Boards of the Church, was
the proximate cause of the disruption which occurred in
the following year.
"(The question of Voluntary Societies was not an isolated
one. ? Its decision did not turn upon the point, which mode
of conducting benevolent operations was in itself to be pre-
ferred. It was far more comprehensive. The friends of the
Assembly's Board not only contended that the Assembly
had the right to conduct the work of Missions, Foreign and
Domestic, but that it was highly expedient that that work
should be under the constituted authorities of the Church ;
that the selection, sending forth, and locating ministers, was
properly an ecclesiastical function, and that it was to the
last degree unreasonable and dangerous that that work
should be committed to a society meeting annually for a few
hours, composed of all who chose to subscribe to its funds,
(which was the fact with the American Home Missionary
Society), and to a large degree controlled by Congrega-
tionalists, hostile on principle to our polity, if not to our
doctrines. (Besides the objections founded on principle,
there were others not less cogent founded on the action of
the American Home Missionary Society. It was regarded
as a great party engine, devoting, apparently, its immense
influence to revolutionizing the Church. It sent out men
educated in New England, holding sentiments condemned
not only by Old School Presbyterians, but by the Woods,
Tylers, Nettletons, of New EnglancQand by such men as
Drs. Richards, Fisher and Griffin of our own church. Its
friends and beneficiaries voted en masse in the General As-
sembly against the condemnation of those sentiments, and
-*r. 32-35.] HIS ARTICLES ON "IMPUTATION? &c. 267
in favor of allowing men never ordained as elders, sitting
and voting in our highest judicatories. It is no wonder,
therefore, that this controversy excited so much feeling.
Throughout the struggle this journal sided uniformly and
earnestly with the friends of the Assembly's Boards."
III. A third class offarticles are those on " Imputation,"
" Regeneration, and the Manner of its Occurrence," and the
" New Divinity Tried," which together with his Commen-
tary on the Romans, first established Dr. Hodge's reputa-
tion as a theologian^' Of these articles he says in his "Retro-
spect," &c., 1871 : "As early in the history of this Journal
as 1830, Dr. Archibald Alexander published two articles,
one on 'The Early History of Pelagianism ;' the other on
'/The Doctrine of the Church on Original Sin;' and, in
1832, another on 'The Articles of the Synod of Dort' To
the first of these the Christian Spectator for June, 1830, pub-
lished a critique, over the signature of ' A Protestant,'
(Prof Stuart), which was reviewed (by Dr. Hodge) in our
October number for the same year. The discussion was
continued in the Spectator, in the number for March, 1831,
which contained two articles in reply to our review ; one
from ' Protestant,' and the other from the editors, con-
tinued and completed in the June number. Of these arti-
cles this journal contained a review published in October of
the same year, (on ' The Doctrine of Imputation,' by Dr.
Hodge). See also the article entitled ' Testimonies on the
Doctrine of Imputation,' 1839, f which twenty-four pages
are filled with quotations from the Protestant Confessions
and Theologians, in support of that doctrine. The same
subject was discussed in review of Professor Stuart's Com-
mentary on the Epistle to the Romans, 1833, and of Mr.
Barnes' Commentary on the same Epistle, 1835, and inci-
dentally in several other communications in subsequent
years.
" At the same time the doctrine of Regeneration was
under discussion. It was maintained, by some prominent
268 HIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ARTICLES. [1835.
theologians among us, that regeneration was the sinner's
own act; that it consisted in his making for himself ' a new
heart.' What that was, was differently explained. Accord-
ing to some it was loving God ; according to others, it was
the purpose to seek happiness in God instead of in the world ;
according to others, it was the purpose to seek the happi-
ness of the universe. According to all the new views man
was active in regeneration. The idea of passivity, as it was
called, was held up to ridicule. The old doctrine, common
to all Christian Churches, that regeneration is the act of
God ; that man is the subject, and not the agent of the
change ; and that it consists in the quickening of the soul,
or imparting to it a new principle of life, a new disposition,
or, in the old scholastic language, ' a new habit of grace/
was vindicated in the article on ' Regeneration, and the
Manner of its Occurrence,' (by Dr. H.). To this article Dr.
Samuel H. Cox replied at length in our number for Octo-
ber, 1831, which number contained our answer (by Dr. H.)
to his ' Remarks.' "
IV. In 1835 he began to write a series of annual articles
in review of the action of each successive General Assembly,
in which he furnished a brief recapitulation and analysis of
the proceedings, and discussed the doctrinal and ecclesiasti-
cal principles involved. He contributed each of the articles
of this series from 1835 to 1867 inclusive, with the excep-
tion probably of 1841. They contained a summary of the
arguments used by the prominent speakers on each side of
disputed questions ; they are to this day of great historical
value, affording information not elsewhere accessible.
He says of them himself: " It is not the object of these
accounts of the proceedings of the Assembly to give the
minutes of that body, or to record all the motions and de-
bates, but simply to select the topics of most importance,
and to give the best view we can of the arguments on either
side. We make no pretensions to indifference or neutrality.
The arguments of those from whom we differ, we try to
^T. 35-38.] REVIEWS OF STUART AND BARNES. ' 269
give with perfect fairness, as far as possible, in the language
of the reports given by their friends. But we do not un-
dertake to argue the case for them. This we could not do
honestly or satisfactorily. On the other hand, we endeavor
to make the best argument we can in favor of the measures
we approve, using all the speeches of the supporters of those
measures, and putting down anything which may happen
to occur to ourselves."
Hence it has come to pass that they contain an exposi-
tion of his views of all the fundamental principles underly-
ing the constitution of the Church, and its administration,
and of the practical application of these principles to the
various historical conditions experienced by the American
Presbyterian Church during that long period. These, to-
gether with a series of articles upon the " Idea of the
Church" and its various attributes, which appeared from
1845 to 1856, are the source from which the important
[posthumous work on " Church Polity " has been compiled
by one of his best pupils, Rev. Wm. DurantJ
V. His reviews of the Commentaries on the Epistle to
the Romans of Stuart, 1833; of Barnes, 1835; of Riickert,
1836. For Professor Stuart, Professor Hodge felt and
expressed the strongest admiration and gratitude. "We
have, therefore, long been in the habit of regarding Prof.
Stuart as one of the greatest benefactors of the Church in
our country, because he has been the principal means of
turning the attention of the rising generation of ministers
to this method (philological and exegetical) of studying the
Bible. This we doubt not is the great service of his life : a
service for which the whole church owes him gratitude and
honor, and which will be remembered when present differ-
ences and difficulties are all forgotten, We do him, there-
fore, unfeigned homage as the great American reformer of
biblical study; as the introducer of a new era, and the most
efficient opponent of metaphysical theology. Alas, that he
should have himself fallen on that very enchanted ground,
2 7O RE VIE WS OF STUAR T AND BARNES. [ 1 833-36.
from which it was the business and glory of his life to with-
call his younger brethren."
Mr. Hodge's criticisms are directed to the exposure of
Prof. Stuart's false and inconsistent metaphysical theology,
as far as that was involved in his interpretation of the Epis-
tle to the Romans. " We have now surely seen enough to
convince the reader of two things : First, that the doctrine
of imputation is not touched either by Prof. Stuart's exegesis
or metaphysics. It is precisely where it was before ; and,
second, that his whole exposition of Rom. v. 12-19 1S so
inconsistent with itself that it cannot possibly be correct.
In reading this portion of his commentary we have been
reminded of a remark of Lord Erskine in reference to one
of Burke's efforts in the House of Commons : ' It is a sad
failure; but Burke could bear it.'" Dr. William Cunning-
ham, " Reformers and the Reformation," speaks in the
highest terms of this article.
With reference to Mr. Barnes' book, Mr. Hodge asserted
that "he had plucked his pear before it was ripe." That it
gave evidence of prejudice and crudity of opinion, and was
transparently inconsistent in the various statements of doc-
trines it contained, was the product of a perverting contro-
versial animus. " We beg our readers to bear in mind that
our review is not of an aggressive character. The book,
which we have been examining, contains a violent, and, as
we think, gratuitous attack upon some of the more impor-
tant doctrines of the church. If there be, therefore, an
offensive and defensive attitude in relation to this subject,
we certainly are in the latter. Had Mr. Barnes adhered to
his design and given, according to his own views, ' the real
meaning of the epistle without any regard to any existing
theological system,' what a different book would he have
produced ! So far, however, from his having no regard to
any system, the system of doctrines contained in the stan-
dards of the Presbyterian Church seems to have been con-
stantly before his mind. Instead of simply stating and
MT. 37.] COMMENTAR Y ON R OMANS.
defending his own views, he frequently and at length attacks
those of the Confession of Faith. He goes out of his way
repeatedly for this very purpose; introducing these topics
where the passage on which he comments gives not even a
plausible pretext for so doing."
VI. There remain a number of important articles, the
consideration of which, for various reasons, we must defer
to a subsequent chapter. The articles on the "Act and
Testimony," October, 1834, and January, 1835, and on the
"State of the Church," 1838, will be considered in connec-
tion with the "Disruption of the Presbyterian Church/'
under the next chapter. The article on "Slavery" will be
considered in connection with that on "Abolitionism,"
under the date of the latter article, 1844. The article on
" The Oxford Tracts " belongs to a class of articles on the
Church appearing from 1845 to 1856.
HIS COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.
It was during the period embraced in this chapter that
Dr. Hodge published his first books. [His Commentary on
the Romans was written during the darkest days of his
confinement, the winter of 1834 and '35, while stretched
horizontally on a couch, and his right limb often bound in
a steel-splint.j It was published by Grigg & Elliott in
Philadelphia, but soon afterwards passed into the hands of
Wm. S. Martien. A cheaper and abridged edition for the
use of Bible-classes was published in 1836. A new edition
revised and in a great measure re-written was published in
1864.
Every good commentary on such texts as that of Paul's
Epistle to the Romans must possess in greater or less de-
gree two distinct qualities. It must show evidence of
scholarship and exegetical tact and skill in the interpreta-
tion in detail of the words and sentences constituting the
original text. It must also discover a. comprehension of
the subject discussed, and of the design of the writer and
272 COMMENTAR Y ON R OMANS. [ 1 835.
the scope of the ideas which constitute the subject-matter of
the treatise commented on. It is self-evident that in Dr.
Hodge's Commentary the latter of the two characteristics
predominates. He has done his best honestly to get at
what the words and sentences mean. But he has written
in a prevailingly doctrinal interest. And in expounding
that doctrine he is as clear as a crystal in the sunlight. He
gives an analysis of the epistle as a whole. He gives the
contents of each chapter; an analysis of each logical sub-
division of the apostle's argument; then a commentary, or
exegetical discussion of each clause and verse ; and then he
presents a minute statement of all the doctrines taught in
the section, and closes with a series of remarks illustrative
and practical. The church at that time was convulsed with
the controversies growing out of the intrusion into a com-
munity deriving its Presbyterianism from Scotland and the
Westminster Assembly, of \the new anthropology of the
New England School] These " improvements " were rather
negative than positive, and involved a rejection of the con-
sensus of the Reformed Churches as to the imputation of
the guilt of Adam's sin to his descendants, as to original
sin, as to inability, and as to the part of God in man's
regeneration. 'From early in 1830 the Biblical Repertory
had been engaged in an active controversy with the cham-
pions of the New Theology on these points. YLDr. Stuart
and Mr. Barnes published Commentaries on Romans, in
which the new doctrines were brought into association with
the word of God. Dr. Hodge wrote his Commentary under
these moral and ecclesiastical conditions, and he has striven
to defend the ancient faithjof the Reformation by a faithful
appeal to exegesis, on the side which that faith presents to
the hostile lines of what was then known as the " improve-
ments " in theology imported from New England.
In his new edition published in 1864, he again reviewed
his whole work, and re-stated and defended his interpreta-
tion with the added light of Meyer and other German com-
JET. 3 7 .] COMMENTA RY ON R OMANS.
mentators, and with additional notice of the realistic theo-
ries, which lie over against the truth on the side opposite
to those New England theories against which, in his first,
edition^his energies were chiefly directed.
While writing his original Commentary, because confined
to his couch, Dr. Hodge communicated with Dr. A. Alex-
ander by an interchange of notes. Although they were all
designed for a temporary purpose, and no effort was made
to preserve any of them, it happens that a few of these waifs
have drifted into the hands of the compiler. They are
given because they illustrate the relations of the two men,
and because they prove, what has sometimes been denied,
that] Dr. Hodge never departed from the theology of his
beloved teacher.
DR. A. ALEXANDER TO DR. HODGE.
My Dear Sir : I have read over with some care the whole of
these sheets. I am truly thankful that you have been enabled to
write so much in the diseased state of your body, and I sincerely
rejoice that God has helped you so thoroughly to expound this diffi-
cult and important portion of divine revelation. In the main, I am
deeply persuaded that you have brought to view the doctrines which
the Holy Ghost intended to reveal by the pen of Paul. In a few
minor points I hesitate as to the correctness of your interpretation.
It seems to me that there is less clearness and lucid order in your
exposition of the fourth chapter than of any other, as far as you have
gone. Indeed, this part is more involved and intricate than any
other. I think your exposition of the latter part of the fifth chapter
is admirable. It exhibits the truth with a lustre that cannot easily be
resisted. I cannot easily express how much good will probably result
from the publication of this exposition. The language of the whole
is characterized by simplicity and conciseness, and needs no improve-
ment.
The parts entitled "Doctrines" and "Remarks," especially the
latter, might be advantageously amplified. There are too many
parentheses. Often the sentence would be more perspicuous by
leaving out the dashes and parentheses.
Some method must be invented to prevent the Commentary from
being encumbered with the references. Consult James and Addison
18
2 74 COMMENTAR Y ON ROMANS. [1835.
on this point. The text of each chapter had better be placed at the
beginning of the Commentary.
When your exposition depends on a criticism of the original words,
it will be best to subjoin a critical note at the bottom of the page ; but
let the text of your Commentary be pure English. By thisnneans it
will be studied by all intelligent Presbyterians, and will become a
hand-book for teachers of Sunday Schools and Bible Classes.
I entreat you to go on with the work as speedily as you can. I am
anxious to have it in general circulation. It ought to be so continued
as to make an 8vo. volume of 500 pages.
I assure you I have not for a long time read anything with so much
interest as these sheets.
I am affectionately yours,
A. ALEXANDER.
DR. HODGE TO DR. A. ALEXANDER.
My Dear Sir: Few things in my life have given me more pleasure
than the approbation which you expressed of the part of the Com-
mentary on the Romans, which you were kind enough to look over.
I trust, too, that I shall derive great good from having the prospect
of usefulness presented as something attainable.
I will endeavor to profit by all your suggestions. I feared that the
Commentary on the fourth chapter would not be satisfactory to
others, as it is not to myself. I find great difficulty often where there
seems to be the least. Though I would not make the remark as an
apology for my failure in this case, yet there seem to be many pas-
sages in which the sacred writers, who wrote as men, are obscure and
confused in themselves. In many cases of apparent confusion there
is a real principle of logical arrangement which it requires only a
little attention to discover and exhibit. But in others there seems to
be no such principle any more than there is in the HQth Psalm.
This remark, I know, very rarely applies to the writings of Paul, and
certainly not to the former part, at least, of the fourth chapter.
I now send you the Commentary on chapters vi. and vii. As a great
part of the paper is written upon only on one side, it appears much
longer than it really is. In looking over the Commentary on the
early part of the sixth chapter, which I think peculiarly difficult, I
feel a good deal dissatisfied. It has to myself the appearance of
being written during the actual process of studying out the meaning
of the passage, and might, perhaps, be improved as to clearness by
being written over again.
I feel grateful to you for taking the trouble to read my manuscript.
JET. 37.] COMMENTAR Y ON R OMANS. 275
You can hardly know how much peace of mind your imprimatur, my
revered Father, gives me.
Very respectfully,
C. HODGE.
DR. A. ALEXANDER TO DR. HODGE.
My Dear Sir: I have cursorily read your manuscript on the sixth
and seventh chapters of the Romans. As before, I think you have done
best on the most difficult and disputed part. The opinion which I have
formed of the exposition of the two chapters bears a near analogy to
the opinion which I have already expressed on the fourth and fifth. I
do not think of anything that could improve the seventh. It comes
up fully to my ideas of the apostle's meaning; and I have no objec-
tion to make to the exegesis of the sixth, but it is not so luminous as
the exegesis of the seventh. The only thing which I would like to
have added is a few observations on the meaning of the phrase
"buried with him in baptism," to show that it does not necessarily
relate to immersion. Readers will expect something of this kind.
If you live to execute this work, you may be contented to say, if
it should be the will of God, " Now lettest thou thy servant depart in
peace, etc." I do believe that it will do more to confirm the ortho-
dox faith of our church than any book which has been published for
a century. I must still exhort you, therefore, to labor at it.as much
and as fast as you can. Some measures ought to be taken to have
the printing commenced by the beginning of winter.
Yours affectionately, A. A.
TO DR. H. FROM DR. A. A.
My Dear Sir: The eighth chapter of Romans is, at the same time,
one of the most precious and difficult portions of Scripture.
Forty years ago I was led to study the first part of it from hearing
an Arminian preacher expound it very ingeniously on Arminian
principles. For some time I hesitated whether his exposition was not
correct, but after studying it intensely, as I travelled on my mission,
I came ultimately to the same views of its meaning as those which
you have given in your Commentary. And all subsequent examina-
tions have confirmed the opinions then adopted. But I can scarcely
designate a portion of Scripture in which all the expressions are so
susceptible of a double meaning.
On the very "vexed passage" about "the creature being subject to
vanity" you have also given my .opinion exactly. Dr. J. P. Wilson,
276 COMMENTARY ON ROMANS. [1835.
Dr. Green, and, I believe, Dr. Miller, held that by xriaig the body
should be understood. "The redemption of our body" they con-
sidered as expository of the whole passage. Perhaps you ought to
notice this interpretation, though I doubt whether it can be found in
any respectable commentator.
The only passage in which I have any difficulty in adopting your
explanation relates to the " witness of the Spirit," which you seem to
consider of the nature of the direct suggestion of a truth to the mind.
Now this would partake of the nature of inspiration, and lays a foun-
dation for enthusiasm. My opinion is that the witness is indirect by
the illumination of the mind through the word, thus filling it with
love and peace, and these graces, in present, conscious exercise, are
" the witness of the Spirit." Please to re-examine the comment on
this passage.
I am gratified exceedingly, and thankful to God, that you have
been enabled to go forward so expeditiously in this work. My opin-
ion of its value increases with the perusal of every new portion. As
soon as you have reached the twelfth chapter you ought to prepare a
prospectus and subscription paper. It will not be necessary for you
to run any risk in the publication. A sufficient number of subscribers
can soon be obtained to authorize the publication of a large edition.
It will possess an incalculable advantage over Stuart's and other
learned works, as it can be read by the plain, intelligent Christian,
who knows nothing of the original.
Please let me have the ninth chapter as soon as it is completed.
This will be easy after you have surmounted the difficulties of the
eighth, except verse 3d. *
I am affectionately yours, A. A.
DR. HODGE TO DR. A. ALEXANDER.
My Dear Sir: I send, agreeably to your request, the Commentary
on the ninth chapter, and a few verses of the tenth.
I cannot tell you how much your approbation cheers and encou-
rages me, and especially the coincidence of the Commentary with
your own views of the apostle's meaning. Fashioned as I have been
by your hands, you can indeed hardly be surprised at finding your
own opinions more or less correctly reflected from anything which I
may write.
I find, on reverting to the passage, that what is said of the "wit-
ness of the Spirit" is inaccurately expressed. I did not intend to
intimate that the Spirit conveyed any new truth to the mind, but
rather produced a new feeling. As when he " sheds abroad the love
JET. 43.] TRANSLATED INTO FRENCH. 2JJ
of God in the heart," he produces an intimate persuasion that the
soul is the object of divine favor. And when he bears witness to the
truth he produces a like persuasion that the gospel is of God. In the
case referred to in the eighth chapter, I suppose Paul meant to say
that the Spirit produced the conviction that God regards us as His
children. All these cases seemed to me to be analogous. All that I
meant to say was what I understood our Confession to say when it
refers our full persuasion and assurance of the truth " to the inward
work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in our
hearts." This seemed to me something different from the mere
judgment of the mind on the evidence afforded by the nature of its
feelings to the fact of the divine favor. It appeared to me that the
apostle, if the cvv in avufiaprvpel is to be urged, meant to distinguish
between the evidence which consists in filial feelings towards God
and the persuasion of the divine favor which the Spirit sweetly insin-
uates into the mind when those feelings are in exercise.
I should be glad to know whether you still think my views, as thus
explained, incorrect. For, if you do, the Commentary can easily be
still further modified so as to express the idea more generally, and
consequently in a way less liable to objection.
Should Providence permit me to get to the end of the ninth chap-
ter, I have thought it would be best to turn back to the beginning.
The plan of the work has been so much enlarged as I advanced that
the Commentary on the first three or four chapters must be re-written
in order to make the work uniform. When the Commentary on the
first eleven chapters is completed the printing might commence at
any time; the residue could, Providence permitting, be got ready
before it was required.
With filial respect and affection,
Yours, C. HODGE.
Early in 1841 this Commentary was published in France.
The translation was made by the Rev. Adolphe Monod of
Montauban, at the instance of the venerable Professor V. A.
Stapfer, who had made Mr. Hodge's acquaintance in Paris
in 1826, and had subsequently corresponded with him. The
means to meet the expense of the enterprise were collected
through the agency of Rev. Robert Baird, D. D., the emi-
nent agent in Europe of the Foreign Evangelical Society.
In his preface Dr. Monod said :
" I am authorized to say that Mr. Stapfer attaches the
278 TRANSLATED INTO FRENCH. [1841.
highest value to the Commentary of Dr. Hodge, and that
of all the works which have in our day been devoted to the
Epistle to the Romans, there is none which appears to him,
upon the whole, superior, nor perhaps equal to this.
" It possesses qualities that are among the most valuable
that can be desired in such a work, and which we have sel-
dom found elsewhere so combined and carried to such
extent. A pure and vigorous spirit ; a simple and precise
style ; an intelligent and clear exegesis ; a constant care to
dwell upon those points which embarrass the reader of the
Bible; a profound examination of all the great questions ;
substantial observations; solid and well-drawn inferences.
When we add that there is evident in every part a spirit
which is jealous for the divine doctrine and the divine glory,
a soul deeply pious and ripe in the experience of the Chris-
tian life ; in fine, an unction of mingled sweetness and
gravity, which would almost lead one to conjecture that
our Commentary was painfully written upon a bed of suf-
fering, our readers will understand the continued interest
with which we have read the work from beginning to end.
" Dr. Hodge belongs to the religious opinion known in
America by the name of the ' Old School.' His doctrine is
precisely that of our own churches, and it is exhibited in
the Commentary with remarkable distinctness and vigor. If
we may venture the inquiry, we would ask as to this point
whether the matter is not rather more precise and formal in
Dr. H.'s exposition, than in the Bible itself. We have
learned from this Holy Book to have some dread of for-
mulas that are too straitened, and of what Felix Neff, with
his usual originality calls ' squared doctrines.' Happy are
the authors who know how to preserve the proportions and
balance which the Holy Spirit has observed in the de-
velopment of the various topics of divine revelation."
The editor of the " London Patriot," in a notice of Barnes'
" Notes on the Romans," naively remarks : " Mr. Barnes
acknowledges his obligations to Calvin, Doddridge, Mac-
ACT. 42.] CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 2?$
knight, Rosenmuller, Tholuck, and Flatt. We regret that
he does not appear to have seen Dr. Hodge's admirable
Exposition of this Epistle, which would have been of more
use for his purpose than all the rest."
HIS CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.
In the early part of 1839, he published the first volume
of his " Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church
in the United States," and the second volume in the early
part of 1 840.^ This was for him the least natural, and most
laborious work he ever undertook.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Oct. 12, 1838.
My Dear Brother: I have before now read volumes to feel au-
thorized to make one assertion. I want to state in few words what
were the constituent materials and peculiar views of our church at
the beginning, and to do this requires a good deal of previous read-
ing. I am not the man for such business. My lameness is more in
my way now than it ever has been, as I have to depend on others to
make search for old things in my behalf.
Your brother, C. H.
The design and character of this work is stated in his
preface to the first volume, March, 1839.
" During the past summer, the Rev. Dr. Hoge, of Ohio,
wrote to one of his friends in Philadelphia, stating that a
work was greatly needed, which should give a distinct
account of the present controversies in our Church. He
conceived that in order to the proper exhibition of the sub-
ject, the documentary history of the formation of the first
Presbytery, of the Adopting Act, of the great Schism, of
the union of the two Synods, and of the formation of our
present constitution, should be clearly presented to the
public. The gentleman to whom this letter was addressed
submitted it to a meeting of clergymen and laymen, who
280 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. [1839.
all concurred in the opinion that such a work ought to be
prepared, and united in requesting the undersigned to
undertake the task. The plan was afterwards enlarged, and
the writer was led to undertake a general review of the
History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.
The design of this work is to exhibit the true character of
our Church ; to show on what principles it was founded
and governed; in other words, to exhibit historically its
constitution, both as to doctrine and' order. He has, there-
fore, ventured to call the work ' A Constitutional History
of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.' His
readers will not expect more than this title promises.
" Recent events have led to various speculations on the
origin and constitution of our Church. It has been said
that we owe our ecclesiastical existence to Congregational-
ists ; that the condition of ministerial communion among
us was assent to the essential doctrines of the Gospel ; and
that the Presbyterian form of government which our fathers
adopted was of a very mitigated character. . . . The writer
was, hence, led to inquire what foundation was laid for a
Presbyterian Church in the character of the early settlers
of our country. . . The next subject of investigation was
the actual character of our Church before the year 1729,
as far as it can be learned from its history and records.
The third chapter contains the review of our history from
1729 to 1741. As the act by which the Westminster Con-
fession of Faith was adopted by the Synod as their standard
of doctrine, was passed in 1729, this seemed to be the pro-
per place to exhibit in full the testimony furnished by the
records, not only as to the true interpretation of the act, but
as to the condition of ministerial communion in the Pres-
byterian Church.
" It is intended in a second volume to continue the his-
tory from 1741 to 1789. This will require an exhibition of
the causes of the great schism, an investigation of the doc-
trinal and constitutional questions involved in that contro-
JET. 42.] HIS CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 281
versy, and of the principle on which the Church was settled
at the time of the union of the two Synods."
It is believed that in the execution of this work Dr.
Hodge fully proved that the founders of our Church in the
United States intended to plant a true Presbyterian Church,
a genuine daughter of the Church of Scotland, and that the
terms of ministerial communion among us have been from
the beginning, and by the constitution of the Church con-
tinue to be, the real belief and honest profession that "the
system of Doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures," is the
one contained in the Westminster Confession of Faith and
Catechisms.
The following letters of Dr. A. Alexander to Dr. Hodge, '
and of Dr. Hodge to Dr. Henry A. Boardman, on the sub-
ject of disputed points falling within the period embraced
by this History will explain themselves.
DR. A. ALEXANDER TO DR. HODGE.
My Dear Sir : I do not know whether you expect any fuller expo-
sition of opinion from me after making your explanations. The truth
is, it is a matter in which I have no right to interfere otherwise than
by expressing my opinion. I have no responsibility in the matter ;
but yours is great, [you are writing a history which will probably
connect your name with the orthodox Presbyterian name as long as /
it lasts ; and you are not at liberty to depart one iota from what ap-
pears to you to be a correct statement of facts, and correct judgment
on them. If other persons take a different view of either that is no
reason you should change anything in deference to thernTT
I must, however, in candor declare that my own opinion, as ex-
pressed in a former note, remains unchanged. I object to the rule
of the Synod on ground which applies to them just as it does to our
Synods, namely, that the examination of candidates, with a view to
ordination, is properly a Presbyterial and not a Synodical act. I ad-
mit that the Synod, as then constituted, might, after consulting Pres-
byteries, determine what should be required of candidates, and on
what they should be examined, and might have censured the New
Brunswick Presbytery for disobeying such rules ; but it was, in my
judgment, improper for them to take upon themselves to make the
examination. On this principle, as the protestants argued on the oc-
282 HIS CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. [1840.
casion, they might usurp all the prerogatives and powers of the Pres-
byteries, and thus render them useless bodies. I never received the
doctrine " that a Synod is merely a larger Presbytery," and may do
whatever Presbyteries can. Their business is to see that Presbyteries
do their duty, and to attend to concerns which relate to the whole
body.
The year on which I was Moderator of the General Assembly this
principle was largely discussed, and in the first instance decided in
favor of the rights of Presbyteries ; but the Kentucky Synod came
forward with great zeal and power, and had a different opinion pro-
nounced next year. To this decision I never gave my assent, and I
believe that more than one half of the ministers then were of like
mind.
And I must remain of the opinion that when the schism took place,
any attempt at a regular course of discipline would have been per-
fectly futile and unwise. They might, and ought to have separated
with less heat and violence than was manifest, but it is evident to me
that a separation had become necessary.
The subject of disciplining an organized body is an extremely diffi-
cult thing. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, under
the influence of the high-church principles of Dr. Robertson, under-
took to discipline a Presbytery for resisting the exercise of patronage,
and when it came to the punishment they selected one man out of the
Presbytery and deposed him, not because he was worse than the rest,
or a prime leader, but for other reasons. This very man laid the
foundations of the relief Presbytery (now Synod). All that the ma-
jority could have done would have been to suspend the whole Pres-
bytery, which was the same (in effect ?) as what took place.
Yours, &c., A. ALEXANDER.
DR. HODGE TO DR. HENRY A. BOARDMAN.
PRINCETON, Jan. ist, 1840.
My Dear Sir: * * * * * As to the History, all my feelings are in
favor of your Board publishing it. It would be effectually done with-
out putting my friends, Dr. Mitchell and others, to any trouble ; and
I shall be gratified in doing something for the Board. My judgment,
however, is decidedly against the plan. As I must bear the respon-
sibility, I must feel perfectly free to write as my judgment and con-
science dictate. I know I should feel trammelled and uneasy if I was
always thinking that what I wrote was to come out with the sanction
of the Board. I have little doubt that the History will give more or
less offence to a great many of our friends. I mean that kind of of-
JET. 42.] HIS CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 283
fence which men feel when they see a different view of any subject
than their own presented. For example, the next chapter, which re-
lates to the Whitefieldian revival, I suppose will be considered by
many as very objectionable. This will be but a small matter if I only
say what is disliked ; but if your Board were to say it, it might be
very offensive to many of our own friends. So of the 5th chapter,
relating to the Schism, I am sure that many of our good old people
will think it dreadful. I had received the impression that all the Old
side were irreligious, unworthy men, and that all the New side were
excellent and fervently pious. This impression, among the older
ministers who received the traditionary accounts of that period, is so
strong as to take something of the character of the original party
feeling. jDr. Alexander, after -reading the manuscript, wrote me a
long letter, telling me what he had heard about the character of the
two parties when he was a young man, and how strong his feelings
still were upon the subject, and his conviction that the Old side were
a great deal worse and the New side a great deal better than I had
represented them. This letter gave me, in one view, a great deal of
uneasiness. I know that documents and books retain and transmit a
very imperfect view of the spirit of any age, and therefore felt that
my representation might be very far from the truth. But, at the same
time, I must go by those documents, and to take the traditionary
representations of those who had conversed with the actors in those
scenes, and who had all the feelings of the conflict, would make a
perfectly one-sided history.
I answered the Doctor's letter, stating how I viewed the matter, to
which he replied that he would not have me alter anything out of
deference to anybody that he had no responsibility, but that mine
was very great. I do not mean to give you the idea that the Doctor
thought the History very wicked, or that he would object to my pub-
lishing it ; but I do not believe at all that he would take the respon-
sibility of publishing it, or of sanctioning such a representation as I
have given of the violence and disorders of the zealous men of that
day. It would require the gift of prophecy for me to be able to state
what will be the character of the last volume, should I live to write
it. I no more knew beforehand what the character of the present
volume was to be than a stranger did. I indeed question very much
whether I shall have courage to undertake the labor of bringing
down the History to the present time. It may be too soon to write
the history of the last ten years.
All my friends here whom I have had the opportunity of consulting
agree with me that your Board ought not to undertake the publica-
tion. If any one chooses to attack and abuse me, what harm is it ?
284 HIS CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. [1840.
But to have your Board hauled up and abused is a very different
affair. You have a very difficult and delicate task to perform, and
will get abuse enough I doubt not. I think you ought, at least for a
while, to confine yourselves to books of known character, and by no
means to publish too many.
Yours very truly, C. H.
" The Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church
in the United States of America" was accordingly pub-
lished by Wm. S. Martien in 1839 anc * 1840. But it was
subsequently copyrighted and published by the Presbyterian
Board of Publication in 1851.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DISRUPTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (1834 TO
I8 3 8.)
THE HISTORICAL CONDITIONS OUT OF WHICH THE CONFLICT SPRANG. THE
SEVERAL PARTIES IN THE CHURCH. THE TRUE POSITION OF THE
" PRINCETON *' OR CONSERVATIVE '* PARTY." DR. HODGE'S OWN STATE-
MENT OF THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH HE AND HIS ASSOCIATES ACTED.
THE THOROUGH AGREEMENT OF ALL THE PRINCETON MEN AS TO PRIN-
CIPLES AND MEASURES. MISCONCEPTIONS CORRECTED. DR. HODGE'S
RELATION TO THE "ACT AND TESTIMONY." HIS LETTERS TO HIS
BROTHER AND TO DR. BOARDMAN.
WE are concerned here with the history of this great
struggle only so far as this is necessary to the under-
standing of the part taken by Dr. Hodge at that time. He
was a young man, with no influence resulting from past ex-
perience or achievement in church affairs, and for the greater
part of the time involved in the struggle excluded from
church courts and confined to his room and to his couch by
physical pain and weakness. Nevertheless, he was the most
active member of the " association of gentlemen " who edited
the Repertory, and the author of the articles which attracted
the chief attention and were the objects of the most hostile
criticism by the strong party men on both sides.
The Presbyterian Church in America was founded by
285
286 THE DISRUPTION.
Scotch and Scotch-Irish immigrants. The Congregational
Churches of New England were founded by English Inde-
pendents. They originally agreed in doctrine, but were
radically different in their .principles of organization and
polity, their traditions and their tendencies. The English
Independents settled the New England colonies during the
first half of the i/th century, the Scotch and Scotch-Irish
immigrants settled New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania
and Delaware in the last of the i/th and the first of the
1 8th centuries. Subsequently, for the most part, the Pres-
byterians moved westward and southward through Pennsyl-
vania, the Valley of Virginia and the Valley of the Ohio,
while the teeming population of New England moved west-
ward through the State of New York, northern Ohio and
the Valley of the great lakes.
The two streams mingled in northern Ohio and western
New York, and the exigencies of church extension in the
new settlements led to the " Plan of Union" contracted be-
tween the General Assembly and the Congregational Asso-
ciation of Connecticut in 1801. This plan was designed to
promote harmony and to combine the heterogeneous ele-
ments of the population in the new settlements in aggres-
sive church extension. It proposed to effect this end not by
forming a new and compromising form of church govern-
ment, but by providing for the practical working together
in the same congregations of ministers and people belong-
ing to both denominations. Congregational ministers were
to be pastors of Presbyterian churches, and Presbyterian
ministers pastors of Congregational churches, and Presby-
terian and Congregational communicants were to combine
in one church, appointing a standing committee instead of
a session to govern them and represent them in the Presby-
terian ecclesiastical courts. The effect of this was at the
same time to stop almost absolutely the multiplication of
Congregational churches, and rapidly to extend the area of
the Presbyterian church by the multiplication of Presby-
THE DISRUPTION. 287
teries and Synods, composed largely of imperfectly organ-
ized churches.
In the meantime the American Education Society, in
Boston, and the American Home Missionary Society, in
New York, sprang into the most active exercise of their
functions, equally within the spheres of the Presbyterian
and the Congregational churches. They were both purely
voluntary societies, subject to no ecclesiastical control, their
officers elected and their action directed by self-perpetuated
" Executive Committees." Their funds were drawn from
the New England churches, and their affairs were . con-
trolled, in the larger part, by Congregationalists. New
England, at this time, had in great part ceased to afford a
field for home missionary effort, but on the contrary was
full of energetic young men pressing into the ministry and
ready to be educated and marshalled and supported in the
field by the great voluntary societies above mentioned.
These young men, of course, were educated as Congrega-
tionalists, and were imbued with the religious and theo-
logical sentiments at that time prevalent in New England.
These sentiments may be classified as follows: (i) The old
Calvinism identical with the original and constitutional or-
thodoxy of the Presbyterian church. (2) That variation of
Calvinism styled Hopkinsianism, which, while maintaining
the essentials of Calvinism, denied the imputation of Adam's
sin, the absolute inability of the sinner to repent, and a
definite atonement. This type of doctrine, prevalent among
Congregationalists, while foreign to the traditions, and
uncongenial to the native Presbyterians, was yet never
regarded as so far injurious as to be a bar to ministerial
communion. (3) The heresies associated at that time with
the School of New Haven, which were far more radical,
imperiling, if not destroying, the church doctrines of
original sin, and vicarious atonement, etc., and which were
abhorred and resisted by the larger and sounder masses of
Congregationalists, as well as by Presbyterians.
288 THE DISRUPTION.
Thus it is evident that an immense and effective ma-
chinery was in operation for the rapid destruction of the in-
tegrity of the Presbyterian church, alike in its organic
form and in the system of doctrines professed and taught.
New England was the fountain ; young New England mis-
sionaries the stream bearing with them Congregational
church polity and New England theology ; the American
Education and the American Home Missionary Societies
the powerful engines; and the Presbyterian church the
depository into which these foreign and revolutionizing
streams were poured.
These were, in general, the unquestionable historical con-
ditions of that epoch*. It is evident that, without involving
any one's fault on either side, sooner or later these condi-
tions must precipitate a struggle for existence, and that the
"fittest" must survive. Either Presbyterianism in America
and Congregationalism outside of New England must alike
perish, issuing in some better third form, or in ecclesiastical
chaos, or they must separate and each recover its constitu-
tional integrity. Sooner or later the/ time must come when
the true Presbyterians must fight for the existence of their
inherited system and save it by constitutional means if they
can, by revolution if they must. The Old School party
among the Presbyterians of that day did fight for all Pres-
byterians of all time, New as well as Old, and for pure Con-
gregationalism as well. The event has vindicated them
beyond question as to their general purpose.
In a very few years after the disruption the New School
Presbyterians followed the same course. They, in like
manner, abrogated the " Plan of Union," formed and ex-
clusively patronized their own ecclesiastical boards, except
in the department of foreign missions, and came into the
Re-union in 1870 as thoroughly organized on exclusive
Presbyterian principles as the other party, and tolerating in
their terms of Ministerial Communion no variations from
the old orthodoxy, more extreme than that falling under
THE DISRUPTION. 289
the Hopkinsian or Edwardean variety, above referred to,
which none of the sober-minded among the Old School
had ever deliberately regarded as putting a man beyond the
pale. At the same time the Congregational church emerges
over the whole north-western country, as homogeneous as
in New England itself. Yet there is absolutely no evidence
that the same result would have been attained if the denomi-
national consciousness of the two rival parties had not been
aroused and intensified by the conflict and division of
1837-8.
On the other hand, this same result, while it vindicates
the general position and aim of the Old School party in the
disruption period, vindicates specifically the peculiar position
of the Princeton wing of that party. The subsequent
course of the New School, as a separate denomination,
clearly proves that in all essentials the majority of them
were sound Presbyterians, alike in principles of order and
in doctrine, the recognition of which fact in those days dis-
tinguished the "Princeton" or " Middle" party. There
were in those days four parties in the church: (i) Those
congregations and groups of congregations which were
imperfectly organized, and those ministers and people
who maintained the extreme type of error they styled
" Taylorism." These occasioned all the trouble. Without
them all the other parties could have coalesced together in
a sufficiently homogeneous Presbyterian church. (2) The
New School party as a body. These were in themselves
sound Presbyterians, although somewhat tinged with the
Hopkinsian quality of theology. Their peculiarity arose
from the fact that from position, antecedents and associa-
tions they were disposed to prevent the discipline of those
whose opinions departed further from the type of normal
Presbyterianism than their own, and to oppose the abroga-
tion of the " Plan of Union," and the re-organization, by force
of ecclesiastical authority, of the churches formed upon it ;
and to keep the church open to the operation of the Yolua-
19
THE DISRUPTION.
tary Societies, to the exclusion of those under ecclesiastical
control. (3) The "Princeton Party" or " Middle Men."
(4) The Old School party in Pennsylvania and part of the
.South, who, under the leadership of Drs. Green, R. J.
Breckinridge, George Junkin and others, were convinced
that the crisis was imminent, that the evils were so great as
to be intolerable, and who, therefore, pressed urgently the
prosecution of heresy, and demanded peremptorily either
the speedy abatement of these evils or the division of the
church.
te
The Princeton or Middle party was wholly Old School,
adhering in principle and affection to the original normal type
of doctrine and church polity. Of this there never was any
doubt on either side. They desired to have the " Plan of
Union" abrogated; to have the churches organized on that
basis re-organized or cut off by constitutional ecclesiastical
authority; to have all ministers holding and teaching the
graver errors then known as "Taylorism" tried and ex-
cluded from office ; to have new measures discouraged ;
and denominational Boards of Education, and of Missions,
Home and Foreign, substituted in the place of the Volun-
tary Societies, which were really the organs of the Congre-
gational churches. Hence, as Dr. Hodge said, their " feel-
ings were always, and their judgment generally, in harmony
with their Old School brethren and their measures of re-
form." But, on the other hand, they did not wish to see
the church divided either by the voluntary departure of the
extreme Old School wing, which for a long time appeared
imminent, or by the forcible exclusion of the great body of the
New School, which the Old School leaders at least appeared
to desire. The Princeton men protested against some of
the Old School measures, as, for instance, that : Hopkinsian
peculiarities, which should be tolerated, were indiscrimi-
nately confused with Taylorite errors, which must be
excluded ; that some of the measures were unconstitutional
and injurious, as the procedure by the Synod of Philadel-
THE DISRUPTION'.
291
phia to try the appeal of Dr. Junkin in the trial of Mr.
Barnes while the records of the inferior court were absent ;
and the use of the "Act and Testimony" as a test of loyalty
to Presbyterianism. They believed the measures' pursued
by the party men would divide the church, whereas the
exigency for such a violent expedient had not arrived. The
New School for several years had held sway in the General
Assembly, interrupted only in 1845, and regained in 1846.
If they had constituted the majority in the Assembly of
1847 the worst apprehension of the Princeton men would
have been realized by the secession of the most determined
of the Old School party without the succession and without
the property, and the Presbyterian church would have been
left predominantly New School, with a helpless Old School
minority. When the Old School party found themselves in
power in the General Assembly of 1837, the "Princeton
Men," as represented by Dr. Archibald Alexander, voted
for the abrogation of the " Plan of Union," for the estab-
lishment of ecclesiastical boards, and for the excision of the
Synod of Western Reserve. They regretted the peremp-
tory excision of the three Synods in western New York ?
yet passively acquiesced in the measure as one of " substan-
tial justice," but would have preferred the plan offered by
Dr. Cuyler, which summoned those Synods to purify them-
selves, and suspended their right to representation in the
General Assembly upon their obedience. The " Princeton
Men" regretted exceedingly the secession of the "New
School" division of the church in 1848, but rejoiced in the
assurance that neither they nor the Old School majority
were responsible for that division, which they (the Prince-
ton men) had always feared and had tried so loyally to pre-
vent.
Dr. Hodge says himself in his " Retrospect of the His-
tory of the Princeton Review," 1871, "In all the controver-
sies culminating in the division of the church in 1837-8, the
conductors of this Review were in entire sympathy with the
292
THE DISRUPTION.
Old School party. They sided with them as to the right ?
and under existing circumstances the duty, of the church
to conduct the work of education and foreign and domestic
missions by ecclesiastical boards instead of voluntary in- 1
dependent societies. They agreed with that party on all
doctrinal questions in dispute ; and as to the obligation
to enforce conformity to our Confession of Faith on the part
of ministers and teachers of theology under our jurisdiction.
They were so unfortunate, however, as to differ from many,
and apparently from a majority of their Old School
brethren, as to the wisdom of the measures adopted for
securing a common object. In our number for January,
1837, it is said : ' Our position we feel to be difficult and
delicate. On the one hand, we respect and love the great
mass of our Old School brethren ; we believe them to con-
stitute the bone and sinew of the Presbyterian church ; we
agree with them in doctrine ; we sympathize with them in
their disapprobation and distrust of the spirit and conduct
of the leaders of the opposite party; and we harmonize
with them in all the great leading principles of ecclesiastical
policy, though we differ from a portion of them, how large
or how small that portion may be we cannot tell, as to the
wisdom and propriety of some particular measures. They
^have the right to cherish and express their opinions, and to
endeavor to enforce them on others by argument and persua-
sion, and so have we. They, we verily believe, have no selfish
end in view. We are knowingly operating, under stress of
conscience, against all our own interests, so far as they are
not involved in the interests of the Church of God.'
"The FIRST point of difference related to the Act and
Testimony, and the measures therewith connected.
"Such departures from the standards of the church
in matters of doctrine and order ; such diversity of opinion
as to ecclesiastical boards and voluntary societies; such
alienation of feeling and agitating controversy had for
years so disturbed the peace and impaired the efficiency
THE DISRUPTION.
293
of the church as to produce a state of things which on all
sides was thought to be intolerable. With the view to re-
form these evils, and secure the peace and purity of the
church, a meeting of ministers and elders was held in Phil-
adelphia, May 26, 1834. At that meeting it was deter-
mined to issue an Act and Testimony, setting forth the
evils under which the church was laboring, and proposing
means of redress. This document was originally signed
by thirty-seven ministers and twenty-seven elders. It was
sent forth among the churches, and all the friends of sound
doctrine and of Presbyterian order were exhorted to sign it
' We recommend/ say the original signers, ' all ministers,
elders, Church-sessions, Presbyteries and Synods, who
approve of this Act and Testimony, to give their public
adherence thereto, in such manner as they shall prefer, and
communicate their names, and when a church court, a copy
of their adhering act.' It was further recommended * that
on the second Thursday of May, 1835, a Convention be
held in the city of Pittsburgh (where the General As-
sembly was to meet), to be composed of two delegates, a
minister and ruling elder from each Presbytery, or from
the minority of any Presbytery, who may concur in the
sentiments of the Act and Testimony, to deliberate and
consult on the present state of the church, and to adopt
such measures as may be best suited to restore her pros-
trated standards.'
" Many Old School men, as zealous as any others,
could not sign this document. They did not object to it as
a testimony against false doctrine; nor as a means for
arousing the attention of the church; nor as designed
to concentrate the energies of its sounder members for
the reform of existing evils; but, i. Because it contained
assertions as to matter of fact, and expressions of opinion
(not, however, as to matters of doctrine) in which they
could not conscientiously concur. 2. Because it operated
as a new, unauthorized and invidious test of orthodoxy and
294 THE DISRUPTION.
fidelity. Those who did not sign it were looked upon
as timid and recreant. The editor of the Presbyterian
(Aug. 21, 1834) said, 'We verily believe that every ortho-
dox minister and elder, who refuses his signature under
existing circumstances, will throw his weight into the
opposite scale, and strengthen the hopes and confirm the
confidence of those who aim to revolutionize the church.'
3. Because its obvious tendency, and as the event proved,
its actual effect, was to divide, instead of uniting, the
friends of orthodoxy and order. The document was never
signed by a moiety of the Old School body. 4. Because
the issuing a document of this kind, calling for the signa-
tures of all sound men, who, by their delegates, were
to meet in convention and prepare for further action, was an
extra-constitutional and revolutionary measure, which many
good and true men could not approve. They believed that
when evils exist in any organized community, civil or
ecclesiastical, redress should be sought in the regular exer-
cise of the constitution and laws, unless the evils be such as
justify revolution. 5. From the natural tendency of the
measures adopted, and from the open avowal of some of
the leaders in this movement, it was believed that if the
party represented by the Act and Testimony did not gain
ascendancy in the church, the result would be secession
and schism. There were, however, many who believed that
secession, under the circumstances, would be a violation
of principles and a breach of trust. They, therefore, stood
aloof and abstained from taking part in measures of which,
as it seemed to them, schism was the natural consequence, if
not the intention. They held that so long as the standards
of the church were unaltered, and its ministers were not
called upon to profess what they did not believe, or pre-
vented preaching what they believed to be true, or required
to do what their conscience condemned, to withdraw from
the church was the crime of schism, which the Scriptures so
expressly forbid. Moreover, they regarded the funds, the
THE DISRUPTION:
295
institutions and the influence of the church as a trust com-
mitted to their care, which they were not authorized to
throw up or to leave in the hands of those whom they
regarded as likely to abuse or pervert it. To abandon the
church whenever an adverse majority gained ascendancy
for a time in its administration, would lead to never-ending
divisions and incalculable evils. Many of the signers of the
Act and Testimony disclaimed any intention to secede from
the church ; but others, among whom was the venerable
Dr. Green, openly declared that such was their purpose-
Happily, the matter was not brought to that issue. The
reform of" the church was effected without that sacrifice.
Candid men, we think, will admit that the above-men-
tioned reasons are sufficient *to justify the course of those
who dissented from the Act and Testimony movement.
Their conduct, at least, can be accounted for on other
grounds than those of faint-heartedness or unfaithfulness.
" The SECOND point on which the Old School men were
divided, was the proper grounds of ecclesiastical discipline.
Our ministers and elders are required to adopt the Confes-
sion of Faith, as containing the system of doctrine taught
in the Holy Scriptures. No doctrine, therefore, inconsistent
with the integrity of that system is the proper ground
of discipline. It is not enough that the doctrine be
erroneous, or that it be dangerous in its tendency ; if it be
not subversive of one or more of the constituent elements
of the reformed faith, it is not incompatible with the honest
adoption of our Confession. It cannot be denied that ever
since the Reformation more or less diversity in the state-
ment and .explanation of the doctrines of Calvinism has
prevailed in the reformed churches. It is equally notorious
that for fifty or sixty years such diversities have existed and
been tolerated in our own church ; nay, that they still exist
and are avowed by Old School men. If a man holds that
all mankind, since the fall of Adam, and in consequence of
his sin, are born in a state of condemnation and sin, whether
296 THE DISR UP TION.
he accounts for that fact on the ground of immediate
or mediate imputation, or on the realistic theory, he was
regarded as within the integrity of the system. If he
admitted the sinner's inability, it was not considered as
a proper ground of discipline that he regarded that inability
as moral, instead of natural as well as moral. If he taught
that the work of Christ was a real satisfaction to the justice
of God, it was not made a breaking point whether he said
it was designed exclusively for the elect, or for all mankind,
etc., etc.
" We do not say that the diversities above referred to are
unimportant. We regard many of them as of great import-
ance. All we say is that they have existed and been toler-
ated in the purest Calvinistic churches our own among the
rest.
" But within the last forty years other doctrines came to
be avowed. Men came to teach that mankind are not born
in a state of sin and condemnation ; that no man is charge-
able with either guilt or sin until he deliberately violates the
known law of God ; that sinners have plenary ability to do
all God requires of them ; that regeneration is the sinner's
own act ; that God cannot certainly control the acts of free
agents so as to prevent all sin, or the present amount of sin
in a moral system ; that the work of Christ is no proper
satisfaction to divine justice, but simply symbolic or
didactic, designed to produce a moral impression on in-
telligent agents ; that justification is not judicial, but in-
volves a setting aside of the law, as when the Executive
remits the penalty incurred by a criminal. The doctrines
of this latter class were regarded as entirely inconsistent
with the 'system of doctrine' taught in our Confession
of Faith. In the General Assembly (O. S.) of 1868 a
protest was presented against the adoption of the plan
of union then before the churches, urging as an argument
against the union the alleged fact that such doctrines were
tolerated in the other branch of the Presbyterian church.
THE DISRUPTION. 297
The majority of the Assembly, in their answer to that pro-
test, denied that allegation. They pronounced it to be
incredible, on the ground that such doctrines were so obvi-
ously subversive of our whole system, that no church
professing to be Calvinistic could tolerate them within their
borders.
"When in 1830, and the years immediately following,
church discipline was invoked to arrest the progress of
error, the Presbytery of Philadelphia included among the
doctrines to be condemned those belonging to the first as
well as those belonging to the second of the classes above
mentioned. This was objected to by a large class of Old
School men, and by the conductors of this Review, among
their number. I. Because, if the errors in question do not
affect the integrity of the system, they were not the proper
grounds of discipline. One of these doctrines was ' that
faith is an act and not a principle.' But surely a man may
hold this opinion and yet be a Calvinist. The immediate
imputation of Adam's sin we regard as a very important
doctrine ; not so much on its own account as on account of
the principle of representative accountability on which it is
founded, which principle runs through the Bible, and is in-
volved in the vital doctrines of atonement and justification.
Nevertheless, it is notorious that the doctrine of immediate
imputation has not been considered by our church as essen-
tial to the integrity of the Calvinistic system.
" 2. It was considered unreasonable and unfair to con-
demn one man for errors which had been, and continued to
be tolerated in others.
" 3. This course was deemed unwise because it could not
fail to embarrass the administration of discipline and to
divide the friends of truth and order in the church. It was
impossible that they could be brought with unanimity to
concur in sustaining charges so heterogeneous, embracing
doctrinal statements with which only a small minority
of the church could agree. We are constrained to say,
298 THE DISRUPTION.
with great respect for the Presbytery of Philadelphia, that
the censures which that body pronounced in 1830 on the
sermon entitled ' The Way of Salvation/ contained doc-
trinal principles which we do not know a single minister in
the Presbyterian church who is willing to adopt. It makes
the penal character of the sufferings of Christ to depend on
their nature and intensity, and not on the design for which
they were inflicted. We think that any candid man will ad-
mit that those who disapproved of such a judicial judgment
did not deserve, on that account, to be deemed lacking in
fidelity or zeal for the truth.
'" We do not wish to intimate that the books on which
the Presbytery, and afterwards the Synod of Philadelphia,
founded their judicial action did not contain errors which
called for the exercise of discipline. We believe they did
contain propositions which, according to the unanimous
judgment of the Assembly' of 1868, any minister should be
required to retract as the condition of his remaining in con-
nection with the Presbyterian church. The complaint is
that matters were included in the charges which even the
friends of sound doctrine could not regard as proper
grounds of discipline.
" The THIRD point about which Old Schoolmen differed
was the wisdom of some of the acts of the Assembly
of 1837. When that Assembly met, it was found that the
Old School had a decided and determined majority. The
opportunity had occurred to rectify some of the abuses
which had so long and so justly been matters of com-
plaint. It was not to be expected or desired that the
opportunity should be lost. The abuse which was more
immediately under the .control of the Assembly was the
admission of Congregationalists as constituent members
of our church courts. This was as obviously unreasonable
and unconstitutional as the admission of British subjects to
sit as members of our State or National Legislature. To
put an end to this abuse, the Assembly adopted the follow-
THE DISRUPTION. 299
ing report of their committee : ' In regard to the relation
between the Presbyterian and Congregational churches, the
committee recommend the adoption of the following resolu-
tions :
"' I. That between these two branches of the American
church there ought, in the judgment of this Assembly, to be
maintained sentiments of mutual respect and esteem, and
for that purpose no reasonable effort should be omitted to
preserve a perfectly good understanding between these two
branches of the Church of Christ.
" ' 2. That it is expedient to continue the plan of friendly
intercourse between this church and the Congregational
churches as it now exists.
"'3. But as the 'Plan of Union' adopted for the new
settlements in 1801 was originally an unconstitutional act
on the part of that Assembly, these important standing
rules having never been submitted to the Presbyteries and
as they are totally destitute of authority, as proceeding from
the General Association of Connecticut, which is invested
with no power to legislate in such cases, and especially to
enact laws to regulate churches not within its limits ; and as
much confusion and irregularity has arisen from this unna-
tural and unconstitutional system of union, therefore, it
is resolved that the Act of the Assembly of 1801, en-
titled a ' Plan of Union ' be, and the same is hereby abro-
gated/
"These resolutions were carried by a vote of 143 yeas to
no nays. Dr. Archibald Alexander, and all the other
delegates from the Presbytery of New Brunswick, voted for
their adoption. .
" The question then arose, How was the above resolution
to be carried into effect ? In other words, How was the
Congregational element to be eliminated from our body ?
Three methods were proposed. First: To cite the judica-
tories, charged with this and other irregularities, to appear
at the bar of the next Assembly. This was actually adopted,
3OO THE DISRUPTION. [1837.
but afterwards abandoned as likely to be cumbersome and
interminable.
" The second method was that proposed by the Rev. Dr.
Cuyler, the substance of which was a direction to the judi-
catories embracing Congregational churches to require
them to become Presbyterially organized, or to withdraw
from our connection; and refusing to such judicatories the
privilege of being represented in the General Assembly
until this elimination of Congregationalism had been effected.
"The consideration of these resolutions was postponed
to await the report of a committee, consisting of five mem-
bers, from either side of the house, to consider the question
of the amicable separation of the church. That committee
reported that they unanimously agreed, 1st, That in the
present state of the church such a separation was desirable.
2d, They agreed as to the terms on which it should be ef-
fected ; but 3d, They disagreed as to the time when it
should be accomplished, and as to the legal succession.
The committee representing the majority insisted that the
separation should be accomplished at once, during the ses-
sions of that Assembly ; the committee on the part of the
minority insisted that it should be deferred for a year, by a
reference of the matter to the Presbyteries.
" On the failure of this attempt, the Assembly, instead of
taking up the resolutions of Dr. Cuyler, proceeded to effect
the separation from Congregationalism by its own authority.
This was done by what are called the 'Abscinding Acts.' It
was resolved, first, ' That by the operation of the abrogation
of the Plan of Union of 1801 the Synod of the Western Re-
serve is, and hereby is declared to be, no longer a part of
the Presbyterian church in the United States of America.'
"And subsequently it was resolved ' That in consequence
of the abrogation by this Assembly of the Plan of Union
of 1 80 1 between it and the General Association of Connect-
icut, as utterly unconstitutional, and therefore null and void
from the beginning, the Synods of Utica, Geneva and Gen-
1837.] THE DISRUPTION. 301
esee, which were formed and attached to this body under
and in execution of the said Plan of Union be, and are
hereby declared to be, out of the ecclesiastical connection
of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America,
and that they are not in form or in fact an integral portion
of said church.'
" It was stated on the floor of the Assembly that less
than one in four of the churches in the Synod of the West-
ern Reserve was Presbyterian. We do not see how any
one can censure the Assembly for refusing to recognize that
Synod as a Presbyterian body when three-fourths of the
churches of which it was composed were Congregational.
Dr. Alexander, who had voted for the abrogation of the
Plan of Union, felt free, therefore, to vote for the disowning
of the Synod of the Western Reserve as a constituent part
of the Presbyterian Church. For the resolution disowning
the three Synods in Western New York he could not vote.
" The grounds on which the majority of the conductors
of this Review dissented from the Act of the Assembly dis-
owning the three Synods of Utica, Geneva and Genesee
were: 1st, That it was not a legitimate consequence of the
abrogation of the Plan of Union that those Synods, with
all their Presbyteries and churches, were out of connection
with the Presbyterian Church in the United States, and
neither in form nor in fact an integral part of that church.
Even if originally formed on the Plan of Union, if they had
become, and so far as they had become, Presbyterian in
their organization, and had been duly recognized, they were
entitled to be regarded and treated as Presbyterian churches
and judicatories. This is all the constitution required. This
the Assembly itself admitted, as it promised to recognize
any of the constituent churches or judicatories of those
Synods, as soon as they reported themselves as constitu-
tionally organized. But if Presbyterial organization entitled
them to recognition it was a valid reason why they should
not be disowned.
3O2 THE DISRUPTION. [1837.
" 2. The presence of a few Congregationalists in a church
court did not destroy its character nor afford a reasonable
ground for refusing to recognize it as in connection with
the church. Committee men (i. e. Congregationalists) have
been allowed to sit as members of the General Assembly;
and so were the delegates from the several Associations in
New England. If their presence rendered the Assemblies
in which they sat unconstitutional bodies, then all the acts
of those bodies were null and void, and we have lost our
legal succession.
" It is to be remembered that the excision of the Synods
in question was not an act of discipline ; it was not founded
on the prevalence of error in doctrine, or of " new mea-
sures." This the Assembly expressly disclaims. In answer
to the protest of the commissioners from those Synods it is
said, ' There is no judicial process instituted.' ' Without
impeaching the character or standing of the brethren com-
posing those Synods, this Assembly, by a legislative act,
merely declares them, in consequence of the abrogation of
the Plan of Union of 1801, no longer a constituent part of
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church in the
United States.'
" The objection to this action is, that the presence of a
small minority of Congregationalists in a church court
did not so vitiate its character as to justify its being
disowned.
" 3. There were Presbyteries within the bounds of the
Synods of Albany and New Jersey composed in part
of Congregational churches, and yet the General Assembly
did not disown either those Synods or the delinquent Pres-
byteries. This was an admission that the presence of Con-
gregational members did not destroy the character of those
bodies as Presbyterian organizations.
" 4. The action of the Assembly in disowning the Synods
of Western New York was not necessary to secure the
reform of the church. That end would have been attained
1837.] THE DISRUPTION. 303
by the due operation of the abrogation of the Plan of Union.
The legitimate effects of that abrogation were : 1st, To pre-
vent the reception of any new churches formed upon that
plan. 2d, To render it obligatory on all the Presbyteries to
require the churches within their bounds to adopt an organ-
ization in accordance with our constitution, and to refuse to
allow the representatives of Congregational churches to sit
and act as elders. 3d, To justify, and it may be to render
it obligatory on future General Assemblies to refuse to
allow Presbyteries continuing their connection with Con-
gregationalism to be represented in those bodies. This
would have effectually accomplished the reform contem-
plated by the abrogation of the Plan of Union of 1801.
After having allowed for more than thirty years this union
of Congregationalists and Presbyterians in our church
courts, all that the Assembly had the right to do was to
require that such union should forthwith and thenceforth
cease. This was the ground taken by Dr. Alexander and
the majority of the conductors of this Review in 1837, an ^
on which the few of their number who still survive (in
1870) still stand.- What, however, was regarded as very
lukewarm Old-Schoolism in 1837 has now come to be
looked upon as obsolete and narrow-minded. The Assem-
bly of 1869, by a vote nearly unanimous, not only admitted
(the abrogation of the Plan of Union notwithstanding) that
Presbyteries do not forfeit their connection with the Pres-
byterian Church, although they include Congregational
churches, but authorized, as far as it could do so, their
being represented in the General Assembly for at least five
years to come."
It was suspected and has been since charged that the
gentlemen at Princeton were not perfectly at one with re-
gard to the various questions which emerged during the
contest, and that Dr. Hodge was responsible for separating
them from the more extreme Old School leaders. It is,
however, certain that they were cordially agreed on all
304 THE "PRINCETON MEN" HARMONIOUS. [1837.
points as far as any men of independent minds could be on
so wide a range of subjects. If there was any difference it
was that Dr. Hodge was more urgently impelled to speak
out his whole mind, while others at times counselled reti-
cence for prudential reasons. That they were at one is cer-
tain : from the public action of Dr. Miller in the General
Assembly of 1836, where he voted to sustain the appeal of
Mr. Barnes, and then to condemn the errors contained in
his book ; and the public action of Dr. Alexander in the
Assembly of 1837, where he voted to abrogate the Plan of
Union and to exscind the Synod of Western Reserve, but
voted against the exscision of the three Synods of Western
New York ; from the uniform assertions of Dr. Hodge to
the end of his life, confirmed by the assertions of Dr. James
W. Alexander, one of the actors in the scenes, in his
Memoirs of his Father, p. 480, and by the assertion of Rev.
Dr. Samuel Miller, Jr., in his Memoirs of his Father, p.
271; from the fact that the article entitled " The Present
State and Prospects of the Presbyterian Church" (Bib. Rep.
Jan., 1835,) is claimed alike by the representatives of Dr. A.
Alexander and Dr. Miller, and was certainly written by one
of them. This article is, at least, as decidedly and offen-
sively opposed to the extreme action of the Old School
leaders as anything written by Dr. Hodge.
The only point as to which it is known that the conduct-
ors of the Repertory differed among themselves was with
reference to the action of the Assembly of 1837 in ex-
scinding the three Synods of Western New York. They
habitually met in Dr. Hodge's study to discuss every
article of importance. With regard to this difference of
opinion, Dr. Hodge has left a clear statement, drawn up at
the time.
Note in Dr. His Journal. "July 19, 1837. The conductors
of the Repertory met a second time to decide on the article on
the Assembly. Drs. Miller and Breckinridge approved of
the action of the Assembly respecting the three (New York)
1837.] THE "PRINCETON MEN" HARMONIOUS. 305
Synods in toto* Prof. McLean and Dr. A. Alexander
thought it might be justified, although not on the grounds
upon which the Assembly placed it, and would have pre*
ferred Dr. Cuyler's plan (this plan was stated above). Pro-
fessors James W. Alexander, Dodd and Hodge disapproved
the Assembly's action, and would have preferred Dr. Cuy-
ler's plan, and they wished this idea to be expressed in the
Repertory. It was decided to leave out that portion of the
article (written by Dr. Hodge) containing this expression,
leaving it, as it was supposed, undecided how the conduct-
ors viewed the matter. To this course all ultimately
assented, except Dr. Hodge. He objected on the ground
that the impression it would make, as it now stands, would
be that the conductors decidedly sustained the measure in
question. Dr. Alexander, Prof. Dod, and ultimately Prof.
J. W. Alexander thought that such an inference could not
be fairly drawn from the language employed. The disap-
proval of the action of the Assembly in relation to the
third Presbytery of Philadelphia was sustained by all the
conductors, except Dr. Breckinridge. Profs. J. W. Alexan-
der, Dod and Hodge were afterwards strongly in favor of
inserting a note of explanation."
With reference to these questions Dr. Hodge wrote the
following letters to his brother :
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
Nov. 21, 1834.
My Dear Brother : As to church matters, I know not what to
think, .and you would find yourself in chaos were you to attempt an
analysis. The Act and Testimony is doing what was from the first
apprehended splitting the Old School portion of the church. How
far this will go it is hard to say. The Philadelphia men, Dr. Green,
&c., &c., are driving matters to an extremity, and if they succeed we
shall be ruined for the next ten or twenty years. That is if by their
ultraism a portion of the Old School party is broken off, it will leave
the remainder completely in the power of the New School men and
give them the command of our Seminaries, Boards and Education
20
306 ATTITUDE OF THE " PRINCETON MEN." [1837.
and Missions, &c., &c. I still hope this consummation will be
avoided. It was to guard against it, and to warn the Old School
party of the evil and danger of thus splitting the church that the
article on the Act and Testimony in the Repertory was written. It
has had the effect of making whole classes of signers declare that
they do not wish nor look for a schism in the church. But on the
other hand, the obvious tendency of the measure and the avowed
design of some of its authors are to that result. That article has
given prodigious offence to the Philadelphia men. The Synod passed
a vete which amounts to a formal declaration of want of confidence
in the Seminary. They propose transferring their patronage to
Pittsburgh, or to found a new institution. I do not believe this will
hurt anybody but themselves. No person here regrets as yet the
publication of our article. We all think it will do good on the whole.
As far as I know, the Synod of Philadelphia is the only one in the
whole church which is what we call ultra. It is the only one,
I am persuaded, which would have entertained for a moment the
proposition about a new seminary on the grounds then urged, and
therefore I feel a strong hope that they will find themselves in so
small a minority as to be induced to keep quiet.
Your brother,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, June u, 1837.
My Dear Brother : I have at once to prepare a history of the
doings of this momentous Assembly, in which the New School have
experienced a Waterloo defeat. Their only resource is now to the
law, which I suspect will give them small consolation. I think sub-
stantial justice has been done, though there may, in some cases,
have been some informality in the mode of doing it. I have little
doubt the public sentiment of the church and of other denominations
will sustain the proceedings of the Assembly as soon as they are
fairly understood. The simple truth is, that the church has tolerated
the Congregationalized portion of the body until its very existence
was in danger, and it has aroused and shaken them off. I presume
that the New School will form themselves into an American Presby-
terian Church, and we shall have two denominations. I am very
sorry the Assembly dissolved the third Presbytery of Philadelphia,
and that in an unconstitutional manner. It looks badly, and was
done by a very small vote.
Your brother, C. H.
1837.] ATTITUDE OF THE " PRINCETON MEN." 307
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, July 26, 1837.
My Dear Brother : Dod seems to have produced a great commo-
tion among the gentlemen of the Old School party in Philadelphia.
They sent a message up to entreat and expostulate, besides a multi-
tude of letters filled with lamentations and prophecies of coming
evil. These letters were, some of them, from very moderate men,
such as Mr. &c., &c. I presume Dod stated clearly enough how
the matter stood to the few persons he spoke to, but the accounts
were doubtless greatly magnified as they diffused themselves abroad.
I do not believe that what I wished to do would have done any harm
or have given any offence. The fact is that we are all agreed as to
all the principles involved in the questions before the Assembly, and
agreed also as to their application, except as to one case (the case of
the three Synods of Western New York). With regard to this some
were satisfied, and some were not (i. e. by the action of the Assem-
bly). The Repertory, speaking the language of all the conductors,
could not say anything which a portion of us could not assent to.
My difficulty was that I believed the article, as altered by the major-
ity of the conductors, did, at least impliedly, express approbation of
the act of the Assembly in reference to the three Synods. I had no
right to say that it should not do so, but I certainly had a right to say
that the majority should not make me say so. I therefore insisted on
stating in a note that some of the conductors, meaning Dod, J. W.
Alexander and myself, felt that we had not as yet a sufficient know-
ledge of the facts in the case to enable us to see the propriety of this
measure. This was resisted with great earnestness by some one or
two as likely to do great harm. It was, however, a point which I
could not yield, and which those who agreed with me were also un-
willing to give up, The note was finally thrown into a form by J. W.
Alexander, to which Breckinridge assented, and to which I agreed,
though with a good deal of reluctance. It is less explicit than I
wished it, and yet may be understood to mean more than even I
wanted to express, and it now speaks the language of the whole and
not of a part. After saying in the text that the summary plan of ex-
clusion was undoubtedly constitutional in its application to all those
Synods which could be clearly proved to be irregularly organized,
we add in a note, that as the facts in regard to the three Synods in
New York are in a constant process of disclosure, the full discussion
of this question is deferred to a future occasion.
I had two reasons for assenting to this. The first was that all I
wished was to satisfy my conscience, and not to be made to say
308 ATTITUDE OF THE " PRINCETON MEN." [1837.
what I did not believe. This note answers this purpose by saying
that though satisfied as to the principles, we must wait for more facts
before we can say anything as to their application. My second
reason was, that I really believe, or rather expect that facts will soon
be brought forward which will show the substantial justice of the
action of the Assembly. How far this evidence was before the As-
sembly I do not know, and therefore cannot say, how far they acted
in the dark. But if substantial justice has been done, that is the
main point.
I never had such a time in my life. On the one hand my own
views of duty and propriety and even expediency were clear and un-
wavering. On the other hand the opinion of almost all my
friends, and the vehement expostulations, appeals, and forebodings
of a good many of them. Dr. Alexander did just what he ought to
have done. He said he could not see the grounds of my scruples,
and thought the thing inexpedient, but gave his cheerful assent to
my saying in the note just what I pleased. You may depend upon
it it is very hard for a man to act upon his own opinion, when op-
posed not only to the opinion of those he has been accustomed to
reverence, but to the ardent expostulations and dreadful forebodings
of others. I believed, to be sure, it was all nonsense ; that no such
terrible consequences would follow. However, I feel thankful the
thing is arranged without producing a breach, and that I have still
a good conscience. Dod and Maclean both think that the note, as
it now stands, is a great deal worse for the Old School than what I
wanted to say. You will wonder when you see it, how little a matter
has kindled such a flame. The Repertory will not be made a party
concern I am persuaded. Its conductors would rather see it die.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
It was inevitable, under all the conditions of the case,
that the excited leaders of the Old School majority in these
conflicts should have been annoyed by the independent po-
sition of the " Princeton gentlemen " and those who agreed
with them. This annoyance naturally led to hard thoughts
and derogatory language. No Qne at any time doubted
their doctrinal soundness, but the entire class of men,
wherever resident, was called the " Princeton Party " in
order to belittle it. They were characterized as " moderates,"
"trembling brethren," "compromisers." They were sus-
pected of want of courage, if not of a supreme regard to
1837.] ATTITUDE OF THE " PRINCETON MEN." 309
their supposed temporal interests. Some New School men
held them as weakly succumbing to the will of the Old
School majority when, after protesting against the earlier
steps in the controversy, they afterwards consented to the
abrogation of the Plan of Union and the excision of the
Synods. Some of the Old School charitably excused them
on the ground that as secluded professors they were neces-
sarily less perfectly informed as to the actual condition
of affairs than active pastors.*
However natural these derogatory representations were
at the time, they were absurdly untrue. The accuracy and
wide extent of their knowledge of the state of the church,
and the wisdom of their judgment has been vindicated
abundantly by the events which, after thirty years, led to
re-union. That they were right in voting to abrogate the
Plan of Union a.nd establish denominational Boards has
been established by the action of the New School Assem-
bly itself while a separate denomination. That they were
right in resisting the confusing of the lesser with the graver
doctrinal errors, and in believing that the latter were not
prevalent among the majority of those acting in the New
School party, has been demonstrated in re-union and its
consequences. That they were eminently brave and disin-
terested is abundantly proved by the very fact complained
of, that instead of sheltering themselves in the mass of
either conflicting army, they chose to expose themselves to
the conspicuous and unsupported position of independent
*The Presbytery of Newton, "of the Synod of New Jersey, appointed a com-
mittee February, 1835, "to confer, by letter or otherwise, with the Professors
of the Theo. Sem. in Princeton " with regard to their stand against the Act and
Testimony. And in the autumn of 1836 " a company of gentlemen were desig-
nated by a large and respectable number of the Old School to proceed in a
noiseless and unobserved manner to wait on the Professors at the4r homes, to
reason and remonstrate with them, if possible, to concur with their brethren in
the public actions of the church." These gentlemen met in the study of Dr.
Hodge. Their appeals were respectfully heard, but little effect was ever attri-
buted to them.
310 ATTITUDE OF THE PRINCETON MEN." . [1837.
soldiers, following reason and conscience without regard to
the pleasure or displeasure of men. That they were not
inconsistent with their past convictions or pledges when
they finally consented to the abrogation of the Plan of
Union and the exscision of the Synod of Western Reserve
has been shown plainly above.
Dr. E. H. Gillett, in his account of these events, (vol.
ii., p. 496) sneeringly says: "The Princeton Review of
July of that year (1836) still pleaded for union. . . Only a
few weeks after the Review had denounced division, New
Brunswick Presbytery (to which all the Professors be-
longed) unanimously declared themselves unable to see any
prospect of good in the continued union of the discordant
parts of the church."
This inuendo is borrowed from "A Plea for Voluntary
Societies, and a Defense of the Decisions of the General
Assembly of 1836 against the Strictures of the Princeton
Reviewers, New York, 1837," in which the conductors of
the Repertory are charged with insincerity because their
Presbytery so ,soon made a deliverance inconsistent with
the spirit and professed aim of their article, and made it by
a vote reported to be unanimous. This might have been a
natural suspicion in the excitements of 1837, but it is an
inexcusable insinuation as coming from Dr. E. H. Gillett,
the professed historian of the Presbyterian Church in 1864.
The explanation was in his hand in an article in the Re-
pertory for January, 1837, reviewing "The Plea for Volun-
tary Societies," aforesaid : " Of the eight ministers resident
in Princeton only one of them was present at that meeting
of their Presbytery, or knew anything of the resolutions
until after they were passed. . . But we have still further to
remark, that the only one of their number ('Association of
Gentlemen in Princeton') who was present when these reso-
lutions were adopted exerted all his influence to have them
reduced to the standard which he and his friends had al-
ready adopted."
1834.] HIS RELATION TO THE "ACT AND TESTIMONY." 31 I
Out of the attitude assumed by the conductors of the
Repertory towards the Act and Testimony there sprang
a personal misunderstanding. In the month of May, 1834,
in the height of his physical affliction, Dr. Hodge stayed
for a few days with his friend, Professor Dod, at the house
of his brother, in Philadelphia. While there Dr. R. J.
Breckinridge, the author of the Act and Testimony, with
whom he was on terms of intimate friendship, called to see
him, and consulted him on the subject of the character
of the document he was preparing. From this it came to be
currently rumored that Dr. Hodge was one of the authors
of the Act and Testimony, and hence much painful surprise
was felt by many when his articles appeared in the Re-
pertory in October, 1834, and January, 1835, vigorously
criticising that document, and opposing the use to which it
was applied by its friends. In his 4< Plain Statement" in the
Presbyterian, April 16, 1835, Dr. R. J. Breckinridge affirms
" That Dr. Hodge dictated, with the aid of the manuscript
put into his hands by me, and drawn in part from Dr. Miller's
letters, then recently published, the very words and letters
now found under the head of ' Errors ' in the Act and Tes-
timony. . . And so far from his making any general objec-
tions, such as he has since reiterated, I left him, confidently
hoping that he would favor, if not actually sign, the Act and
Testimony." It was a question of "impression" and
" hopes," which must always depend largely upon subjec-
tive conditions of opinion and feeling and temperament.
Under all the circumstances, it is not wonderful that
Dr. Breckinridge should have misunderstood Dr. Hodge.
But that he did entirely misunderstand him, and hence that
this " Plain Statement" misrepresents him, is absolutely cer-
tain. Dr. Hodge, in his address to the " Christian Public,"
in the Presbyterian, April 30, 1835, says : " The facts of the
case, to the best of my recollection and belief, are briefly
these : During my short stay in Philadelphia, in May last, I
received a note from a friend that he would call upon me in
312 HIS RELATION TO THE " ACT AND TESTIMONY" [1834.
company with Dr. R. J. Breckinridge on important business,
but without any more special reference to the object of his
visit. At the hour appointed they came. The first annun-
ciation of their special object was in nearly these words:
' Brother Hodge, we want you to draw up a statement
of the doctrinal errors prevailing in the Presbyterian
Church.' I answered that this was work for a month ; that
I was incompetent to the task, it being out of my line, and
that I was to leave town the next morning for the sea-shore.
I was, of course, at this time entirely ignorant of the pur-
pose for which the statement was wanted. In order to
make known this purpose, and that I might understand
precisely what was desired of me, Mr. Breckinridge stated
that there had been a meeting on the preceding evening of
the minority of the General Assembly, and of some other
gentlemen, at which he was appointed the chairman of a
committee to draft an address to the churches. This ad-
dress he then read, and said he wished to introduce into it
a statement of the prevailing errors, and that it was in pre-
paration of this statement he desired my assistance. This
led to a conversation especially as to the class of errors
which it would be proper to notice. In this conversation
Professor Maclean, Mr. Breckinridge, his friend and myself,
all took part. It was agreed that the statement ought to
be confined to errors of the more important kind. After
this Mr. Breckinridge took his pen and with the aid of his
notes previously made, wrote down the several specifica-
tions in the form which, after mutual consultation, was
thought to be the best. In this point there was generally
a coincidence of views : as to one of the articles, however,
that respecting imputation, Mr. Breckinridge differed from
his friends, and wrote it down as it now stands, in opposi-
tion to their judgment. This was the whole of my agency
in the business. It was not only unsolicited on my part,
but was entirely unexpected ; it was performed as an office
of friendship, and it was neither different nor greater than I
I834-] HIS RELATION TO THE ACT AND TESTIMONY." 313
both could and would, under similar circumstances, per-
form at the present moment, and with my present views
and feelings respecting the Act and Testimony.
" To the best of my recollection, there was but one other
prominent topic of remark, and that was the article respect-
ing Elective Affinity bodies. To this I strongly objected
on the grounds afterwards urged in the Biblical Repertory"
Professor, now ex-President Maclean, wrote to the Pres-
byterian y April 17, 1835. "In the Presbyterian of last week
allusion is made by the Rev. R. J. Breckinridge that I was
present at the interview which took place between him and
Rev. Professor Hodge, on the subject of the Act and
Testimony. I feel constrained to let the readers of the
Presbyterian know that my impression with regard to the
views then entertained and expressed by Professor Hodge,
differs entirely from Dr. Breckinridge's. Both Professor
Hodge and myself expressed our apprehension that the
measures suggested were to say the least of doubtful ten-
dency, and that they might be productive of serious diffi-
culties. ... I recollect that after Mr. Breckinridge had
expressed his determination to have the document under
discussion sent forth, by the minority of the last Assembly
and their friends, as an official paper declarative of their
views and course of action, Professor Hodge observed that
if it were a settled point that the Act and Testimony was to
be issued, it was important that the statement should be
limited to serious and important errors, and that particular
care should be used in specifying these errors, so that the
same errors should not be presented in different forms, and
that those clearly related should be classed with each other.
" Mr. Breckinridge then avowed that his object in read-
ing the paper to Professor Hodge was to get his aid in
doing this very thing. Prof. Hodge consented to aid him,
not, as I understood the matter, that he would, upon these
alterations being made, be willing to give his countenance
to the measures proposed, but merely because he wished
3 1 4 THE NE W SCHO OL SE CESSION. [1838.
the Act and Testimony to be as free as possible from objec-
tion, and because he felt a disposition to aid a friend, as far
as he could do it conscientiously. Yours,
JOHN MACLEAN."
Also on the same day Professor Albert B. Dod wrote to
the Presbyterian.
" During the time that Dr. Hodge was in Philadelphia
last spring, I lodged at the same house with him. In the
evening of the same day on which the Rev. R. J. Breckin-
ridge called upon Dr. Hodge to consult him in relation to
the Act and Testimony, I had much conversation with
him on the subject of this interview, and of the character
and probable effects of the instrument. The opinions and
views which he then expressed were substantially the same
with those that have since been published in the Biblical
Repertory. I cannot be mistaken in my recollection of the
nature of his remarks, as they had a decided influence in
forming my own views of the Act and Testimony, and in
leading me .to decline, before leaving Philadelphia, to affix
my signature to it."
In consequence of the " Exscinding Acts " passed by the
General Assembly of 1837, the stated clerk, in making up
the roll of the members of the Assembly of 1838, omitted
the names of all the delegates from the Presbyteries com-
prised in the exscinded synods. Motions to recognize them
were declared by the Moderator, Rev. Dr. David Elliott, to
be out of order until after the Assembly was duly con-
stituted by the making out of the roll. Mr. John P. Cleve-
land, of the Presbytery of Detroit, then read a paper, of the
nature of a protest and declaration of the necessity of revo-
lutionary methods. In spite of being called to order by
the constitutionally presiding officer, he nominated Dr.
Beman to the chair. Dr. Beman took his station in the
aisle of the church, and put the motion whereby Drs. E.
Mason, and E. W. Gilbert were proposed for clerks, and
1838.] THE DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT. 315
Dr. S. Fisher for Moderator. These gentlemen, with their
sympathizers, then withdrew to the First Presbyterian
Church, where they formed the New School Assembly.
The trustees of the General Assembly had been incor-
porated under a charter from the Legislature of Pennsyl-
vania, approved March 28, 1/99. The funds entrusted to
their care had been raised in by far the largest part by the
adherents of the Old School party, and fully four-fifths
belonged to Princeton Theological Seminary. The New
School Assembly, on the assumption that they carried the
legal succession, necessarily chose new trustees in the place
of those of the existing body adhering to the other party.
Just as necessarily the existing members of the Board of
Trustees, holding that the other Assembly carried the true
succession, refused to recognize the new appointments of
the new Assembly. Hence the New School applicants
brought suit for the establishment of their rights as trustees,
and hence for the legal settlement of the question of suc-
cession from the historical line of General Assemblies,
before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
The trial was brought in the first instance before Judge
Rogers at Nisi Prius and a special jury, March 4, 1839.
Under the ruling of the judge the jury brought in a verdict
in favor of the New School trustees and Assembly. The
Old School trustees appealed to the Supreme Court in
Bane for a new trial, when the case was heard and decided
by all the supreme judges together. On May 8th, 1839,
Chief Justice Gibson, read a judgment in which all the
judges except Judge Rogers concurred, which reversed the
finding of the lower court. They affirm that " the apparent
injustice of the (exscinding) measures arises from the con-
templation of it as a judicial sentence pronounced against
parties who were never cited nor heard ; which it evidently
was not. Even as a legislative act, it may have been a
hard one, though certainly constitutional and strictly just"
" We hold that the Assembly which met in the First Pres-
31 6 CORRESPONDENCE ON THE SUBJECT. [1839.
byterian Church was not the legitimate successor of the
Assembly of 1837; and that the defendants (Old School
trustees,) are not guilty of the usurpation with which they
are charged."
This bare statement of facts is sufficient to explain the
following letters :
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, N. J., March 27, 1839.
My Dear Brother : As you may well suppose, the' decision of the
protracted law-suit against us has taken us altogether by surprise.
No one here considered such a result as more than possible. We
thought it probable the jury would not agree, and should not have
been astonished at an unfavorable verdict. But that the Judge should
be against us, and that with bitterness, never appeared as even pos-
sible. All our friends, legal and clerical, had perfect confidence in
our ultimate success up to the moment when the Judge pronounced
his opinion. Our opinion of the justice of our cause, of course, re-
mains unchanged. Whatever errors may have been committed in
1837, the assumption that the New School Assembly, organized in
1838, was regularly organized appears perfectly preposterous, and
therefore the Judge's decision is a mystery. I have long taken pains
to find out what disinterested and intelligent persons thought on this
subject, and I have never seen or heard of one who expressed a doubt
upon it.
I regard the decision as a very great calamity, and as a very severe
judgment of God, and bow to it accordingly. I firmly believe the
New School party, as a party, to be the promoters of error and dis-
order ; that the interests of religion are deeply involved and greatly
endangered by the weight of power and influence which this decision
will give them. God will doubtless bring good out of evil, as he will
make the success of the Unitarians in New England, and the Hicks-
ites in the Middle States, ultimately a blessing. His bringing good
out of evil is his great prerogative, but the evil still remains evil.
I have very great fears as to the result to the Old School party. If
they had cohesion enough to hang together, and act together with
vigor, they might soon recover from this blow. But there are so
many geographical and sectional causes of disunion that I am very
much afraid that if once deprived of the bond of a common and ven-
erated name, and of common property, we shall be split into insignifi-
cant fragments. We are, in the eye of the law, a secession from our
1839.] CORRESPONDENCE ON THE SUBJECT. 317
own church ; the New England men have succeeded in getting that
church to themselves.
A re-union appears out of the question ; and I can hardly conceive
of any arrangement by which the Seminary can be preserved should
the decision of Judge Rogers be confirmed by the Judges in bane. I
trust our leaders in Philadelphia will be preserved from rashness and
imprudence and all evil speaking. A dark cloud is hanging over us,
and our ways seem to be hedged up. It is very painful to think of
Princeton Seminary going to ruin ; for it must go to ruin in the hands
of New School men. They have a Seminary in New York, and can-
not possibly supply both with students. Still, the Lord reigns, and
He will do all things well.
Your brother, C. HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO DR. HENRY A. BOARDMAN.
PRINCETON, Feb. 28, 1839.
My Dear Sir: * * * * * * The important crisis in our church's
history is just at hand. Its importance constantly rises in my view.
The funds and institutions, though matters not to be slighted, are but
a portion of the great interests at stake, and to have these interests
committed to twelve men, taken up at random, is a very serious mat-
ter. It seems to be one of God's purposes in this dispensation to
make us feel that we are completely in His hands. The decision of
a jury in such matters is very little different from the casting of the
lot ; and I should feel nearly as I feel now if the great question at
issue were to be decided on Monday by the throwing of dice. I hope
this will make us all feel disposed to wait upon God, and earnestly
to plead with Him to plead our cause and sustain the right. And
should the cause be decided in our favor I trust there will not be one
word of exultation uttered from any quarter.
DR. HODGE TO DR. HENRY A. BOARDMAN.
PRINCETON, March 28, 1839.
My Dear Sir : * * * * I hope soon to get through with my revi-
sion of the Commentary on the Romans to prepare it for translation
into French, and will then go at my History. Perhaps it is now more
important than ever that the work should be done, if, as I hope may
be the case, it will tend to increase the respect and affection of Pres-
byterians for the church of their fathers. We shall need now every
bond to keep us together ; we must increase in mutual love and zeal
for the truth, and for the order of our church, and for its real useful-
ness. The danger is that if we lose our old name and standing and
31 8 CORRESPONDENCE ON THE SUBJECT. [1839.
common property we shall break into little fragments and cease to
have much power to do good.
I hope God may guide by his wisdom the brethren who are now to
decide on our course. The interests at stake are far too momentous
to be abandoned while there is any prospect of saving them. Tay-
lorism never received such a mighty impulse as when Judge Rogers
pronounced the New School Assembly the true General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church, and if that judgment is confirmed I shall
think God has sore judgments in store for our land. This unexpected
blow, after all our confident hopes, I trust will make us humble and
lead us to submit to God without murmuring at Him or complaining
of one another or of the opposite party.
If the Old School could hang together now and do their duty we
should, with God's blessing, soon recover from this severe stroke.
Let me hear soon what has been determined upon ; and if the
cause goes to the Judges in bane, when it is likely to be heard.
Yours affectionately, C. HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO DR. HENRY A. BOARDMAN.
PRINCETON, April 13, 1839.
My Dear Sir : I want to say a few things to you about the present
position and prospects of our church, in which, I presume, you and I
will not differ much.
There can be no doubt that the present is one of the most trying
periods in our whole history. It will try not only the principles but
the graces of the church. And our future prospects depend, under
God, very much upon the manner in which we shall now act. The
great object is to produce unanimity ; to prevent any such diversity
in counsels or measures as shall cause a division in our own ranks.
You do not appear to fear this as much as I do. I have heard, how-
ever, so many and such discordant expressions of confident opinions
and purposes that I shall regard it as a special indication of God's
power if the Old School party are led to act harmoniously and to keep
their ranks unbroken. This can be effected in no other way than by
humility and mutual concessions. No one man, and no few men,
ought to attempt to decide what course the church should pursue in
this emergency. We should remember that we are brethren, and
that no one has a right to dictate to others, but that subjection to our
brethren in the Lord is part of our ordination vows. As this is the
case, I think we ought to keep ourselves uncommitted and unpledged
until the meeting of the Assembly. It is impossible to know till then
what the church generally will think right, and the way ought to be left
1839-] CORRESPONDENCE ON THE SUBJECT. 3 I 9
open for it to take that course which the great body of the brethren shall
deem to be right. It is on this account that I regret to see our papers,
the Presbyterian and Watchman, pronounce so confidently what the
party will or will not do ; and the latter even denouncing beforehand
any who should advocate union with the opposite party even for an
hour. I doubt not there will be found a large portion of sound Old
School men who, on the supposition of an ultimate decision against
us, will be in favor of a temporary union of the two parties with a
view to such a separation as shall prevent litigation and secure our
property and legal standing. We have heard here that Messrs. Alex-
ander Henry, Bevan, Newkirk, Chauncey, Kane, Bayard, are all in
favor of this course. Mr. Musgrave is in favor of it ; and I was told
that a clergyman who was among his friends in Western Pennsyl-
vania, when the news of the decision arrived, said that was the gen-
eral feeling there. It will be found, also, I suspect, the general feel-
ing in New York. Now, what a spectacle shall we exhibit if we go
to denouncing each other ; if difference of opinion as to the best
means of attaining the same end be made a breaking point
among us.
My own opinion is that this plan will be found impracticable. It
obviously cannot be done at all unless there is a general unanimity
in favor of it. Of this I have very little expectation ; and therefore
think that those who would prefer it ought by all means to give way
to their brethren. Even if a considerable minority were opposed, it
could not be urged. Still, I think it unfortunate that it should be de-
cided and given out beforehand, that we can and will in no case and
for no purpose go back. This is the very position that the New
School papers are driving us by taunts and insults to take. We are
playing into their hands, therefore, by joining in this cry that the Old
School cannot go back. They do not want us back ; they ought to
feel that they are not quite secure from such visitation.
A second plan is to stand aloof and claim to be the true church.
This is beset with difficulties. We shall be seceders in the eye of the
law, in Pennsylvania at least, and all titles to church property will
be unsettled. In the second place, it will give rise, in all probability,
to protracted litigation in all parts of the country, to the great scan-
dal of the church and injury to religion ; and it will be voluntarily
throwing in the hands of the friends of error and disorder immense
advantages.
A third plan is a legal compromise. This seems to me so ob-
viously necessary and desirable for both parties that I do not believe
the mass of the New School could be brought by their leaders to op-
pose it. There may be legal difficulties in the way which I cannot
320 CORRESPONDENCE ON THE SUBJECT. [1839.
appreciate. It has occurred to me, however, that it might be effected
by some such plan as this : According to our present charter, the
General Assembly has two rights in relation to the Board of Trus-
tees first, to appoint its members ; and second, to control the appli-
cation of the funds. Why may not the charter be so altered as to
confer these rights on the two Assemblies ? Let each have nine
trustees in the Board, and each be authorized to direct the applica-
tion of the funds, which, according to mutual agreement, shall be
recognized as belonging to each. Such a contract could not be
broken when once made, and our funds would be entirely under our
own control. Neither party would then be in the position of seced-
ers, and all litigation would be prevented throughout the country.
The more I have thought of this plan the more does it appear
to be practicable and desirable. I wish you would consult Mr.
Chauncey and others on the subject. I have mentioned it to several
brethren, who seem to think it would be wise. Among others, I
talked with Dr. Nott about it, who was here yesterday, and who went
from here to Philadelphia. The Doctor, I suspect, feels that the
Philadelphia brethren have not as much confidence in him as he feels
he deserves. But I am convinced that his aims are right, and that
he could be of immense service to the church in adjusting our
present difficulties to the satisfaction of all parties, if they would but
confide in him.
We, of course, are looking forward with great anxiety to the result
of the argument next week.
Yours truly, C. HODGE.
JET AT. 4 J 9
CHAPTER IX.
FROM THE CHANGE OF HIS PROFESSORSHIP, MAY, 1840, TO
THE DEATH OF DR. ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER, OCTO-
BER, 1851.
HIS TRANSFER TO THE CHAIR OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY HIS METHOD AND
SUCCESS IN TEACHING THE Way of Life LETTERS FROM DR. A. ALEX-
ANDER, BISHOP JOHNS, LUDWIG AND OTTO VON GERLACH HIS ARTICLES
IN THE Princeton Review SLAVERY SUSTENTATION ROMISH BAPTISM
HIS LETTERS TO HIS BROTHER, AND FROM DRS. BIGGS AND JOHNS-
FRIENDSHIP AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM
DEATH OF PROFESSOR ALBERT B. DOD MARRIAGE AND DEPARTUEE
OF HIS CHILDREN DEATH OF HIS WIFE DISTURBED HEALTH DEATH
OF HIS SENIOR COLLEAGUES.
CHANGE OF PROFESSORSHIP.
AT the suggestion of Dr. A. Alexander and the Board of
Directors the General Assembly, in May, 1 840, made
a readjustment of the chairs in the Seminary, in view of the
advancing age of the Senior Professor. Dr. Alexander's
title continued thenceforth till his death Professor of Pas-
toral and Polemic Theology. Dr. Hodge was transferred
to the chair formerly occupied by his venerable teacher, Dr.
A. Alexander, and his title was made Professor of Exegetical
and Didactic Theology. And Dr. J. A. Alexander became
full and sole Professor of Oriental and Biblical Literature.
At the death of Dr. Alexander Polemic Theology was ad-
ded to the title of Prof. Hodge. In the meantime he re-
tained to the day of his death his exegetical lectures to the
Junior Class on the Pauline Epistles. While Dr. Addison
Alexander took beside the Old Testament, the historical
books, and the entire literature of t the New Testament.
21 321
322 CHANGE OF PROFESSORSHIP: [1840.
This change, which was one of the capital and most ad-
vantageous turning points of Dr. Hodge's life, was not only
not sought by him, but regarded at first with decided aver-
sion.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, May 11, 1840.
My Dear Brother : How did you hear so soon of my being made
Dr. Alexander's adjunct? The thing is not done yet, nor is it likely
to be done in a hurry. It must pass the Assembly unanimously, or
lie over for a year. That no one should object to it I should consider
well nigh miraculous. I have felt it to be my duty to be perfectly
quiet, and to make no intimation of my own wishes on the subject.
For two reasons First, because I do not think my wishes ought to
have anything to do with the business. I ought to be willing to do
just what the church bids me. The second reason is, that I would
not presume to put my wishes in opposition to those of Dr. Alexan-
der. I think he ought, so far as I am concerned, to be allowed to do
just as he pleases. To you, however, I may say in confidence, that I
would give five thousand dollars, if I had them, to be let off. The
new arrangement knocks all my plans in the head, and will increase
my official labors for years to come fourfold. You must not say this
to anybody, because, having given my consent to be disposed of as
they see fit, it would be unfair to raise any obstacle, either directly or
indirectly. I live in great hopes that it will fall through without any
agency of mine. And then I shall have a clear conscience as well
as a merry heart.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
This feeling is remarkable in consideration of the fact
that, from our point of view, his natural qualifications for
the attainment of eminent excellence and usefulness in the
new chair were far greater than any he possessed for the
attainment of the same rank in the old one. Yet, it was
surely not the least of the many singularly favorable provi-
dential adjustments of the conditions of his life that he
should have been required, by official duty, to exercise him-
self for twenty years in a department of theological study to
which his natural tastes did not dispose him. Thus, in a
way in which for him it was alone possible, he was led to
make acquisitions in the original languages of Scripture
yET. 42.] CHANGE OF PROFESSORSHIP. 323
and in the science and practice of Biblical exegesis, which
are professedly the basis of systematic theology, and yet
are the qualifications in which the vast majority of specula-
tive theologians have been more or less deficient. Conse-
quently, it is confidently believed that very few of the emi-
nent authors of our classical theological literature have
equalled the subject of this memoir in the consistency in
which they carried out their common principle of making
the faithful and natural interpretation of the inspired Word
the basis of all doctrinal induction, and in the Scriptural
form and spirit, as well as substance, of their systematic
writings.
For the first eight or nine years of his work in the new
department Dr. Hodge's method was such that he was
enabled to accomplish the best results of his life in class
instruction. Dr. Alexander continued to read his former
theological lectures to the classes until Dr. Hodge had his
course prepared. The first lectures the latter wrote were
those on the Church, which were delivered during the win-
ter of 1845-6. The first lectures forming parts of the
theological course proper were written on the topics of the
"Will" and the "Second Advent," and were read to' the
class the same year. In the meantime he met both the
Middle and Senior Classes twice a week each, Tuesday and
Thursday, or Wednesday and Friday afternoons respect-
ively. Before the first meeting of either class for the week
the Professor assigned a topic and a corresponding section
of Turrettine's Institutes of Theology in Latin for pre-
vious study. When they met the hour was occupied by a
thorough discussion of this subject in the form of question
and answer. In this form of discipline his chief excellence
as a teacher was brought into play. He questioned with
consummate skill, forcing the pupil to do his own thinking,
drawing him irresistibly to the conviction of the truth, or
overturning his false positions with an inevitable reductio ad
absurdum. As the truth was thus evolved, or as the Pro-
324 CHANGE OF PROFESSORSHIP. [1841.
fessor finally amended the result in his own words, the stu-
dents eagerly wrought to fix the whole in their note books.
At the same time the Professor gave them a list of questions
on the topic, numbering from twenty-five to forty, answers
to which, written out in full, were to be read to him at the t
meeting of the class nine days afterwards. These answers
were elaborated out of materials drawn from Turrettine,
and the notes taken in the class-room, and from any other
source rendered accessible by the Seminary library. The
highest enthusiasm was excited, and the most earnest dili-
gence. The students built up to a degree their own systems
of theology, and were vigorously exercised in criticism,
construction and expression. Many carried away from the
Seminary from two to six quarto volumes of manuscript
filled with the results of this exercise, which, having afforded
them the most profitable discipline in the past, continued to
supply them with digested and arranged material for
preaching which lasted during several of the early years of
their ministry.
About 1847-8 he began to lecture, at first in connection
with the questions and answers written by the pupils, and
afterwards without them. For years, although he re-wrote
his lectures several times, he was harassed with the inevit-
able experience of lecturers, in having his lectures system-
atically taken down by stenographers, and subsequently
copied from hand to hand and given back to him verbally
at recitation. Long afterwards, for the few years that he
taught after his " Systematic Theology " was published, his
teaching became much more satisfactory to himself, when
he used his work as his text-book and devoted the entire
time allotted to his class in the old effective exercise of
drill by questions and answers.
"THE WAY OF LIFE."
In 1841 the American Sunday School Union published
his "Way of Life." This is a duodecimo of 380 pages, in
JET. 43.] " THE WA Y OF LIFE." 325
which his design is to set clearly before the minds of edu-
cated youth the great truths involved in the Gospel method
of human salvation. The book is eminently luminous ; its
characteristic attribute is light suffused with love. The doc-
trines of Evangelical Protestantism are clearly and fully stated,
yet in non-technical language, and with such simplicity and
self-evidencing power that the compiler of these memoirs
has constantly advised his theological students to read the
"Way of Life" on the subjects of "Conviction of Sin," " Faith,"
'Justification," " The Sacraments and Profession of Religion,"
and "Holy Living" in connection with the discussion of
the same topics in the " Systematic Theology." It is so
richly and definitely theological that Dr. Archibald Alexan-
der, after reading the manuscript, while expressing his cor-
dial approbation of it, declared his conviction that the Pub-
lishing Committee of the Sunday School Union, consist-
ing of the representatives of all evangelical denominations,
could not agree in giving it their imprimatur. Yet, in fact,
no suspicion even was manifested, except by the representa-
tive of our then freshly antagonized New School brethren,
and his apprehensions were easily set at rest, and the book
was adopted unanimously. It was immediately reprinted
by the London Religious Tract Society, and was subse-
quently translated into Hindustani. Thirty-five thousand
copies have been circulated in America, and the author's
heart has been often filled with grateful joy from informa-
tion of its having been, in many specific instances, owned of
God in the conversion and edification of souls, alike in
America and in Europe and in Asia.
His own account of it is thus given in the Preface : " It is
one of the clearest principles of divine revelation that holi-
ness is the fruit of truth ; and it is one of the plainest infer-
ences from that principle that the exhibition of the truth is
the best means of promoting holiness. Christians regard
the Word of God as the only infallible teacher of those
truths which relate to the salvation of men. But are the
326 " THE WA Y OF LIFE." [1841.
Scriptures really a revelation from God ? If they are, what
doctrines do they teach ? And what influence should those
doctrines exert on our heart and life ?
" The Publishing Committee of the American Sunday
School Union have long felt the want of a book which
should give a plain answer to these questions, and be suit-
able to place in the hands of intelligent and educated young
persons, either to arouse their attention or to guide their
steps in the WAY OF LIFE."
The New England Puritan (March, 1842,) said of it:
" We know not where the evidence of the divine origin of
the Scriptures is presented in a way so well adapted to take
effect upon the mind. It wins while it convinces. Here,
in our opinion, is the sterling excellency of Dr. Hodge.
While his mind is endowed with such clearness that it can
throw a blaze of light upon any given subject, his heart is
impregnated with such benevolence towards his fellow-men
that almost every one who comes within the sphere of its
attraction becomes a willing convert to his opinions.
While he convinces the judgment, he carries captive the
will.
" But the evidence of the divine origin of the Scriptures
is not the best part of the volume. The author was most
at home on the doctrines, and there he is primus inter pares.
No one, we think, can read the volume under consideration
from the 53d to the 245th page almost two-thirds of the
whole work without coming to the conclusion that no-
where else within the same compass, out of the Sacred
Record, can he find so much to instruct and to satisfy his
mind and to edify his heart. The chapter on Justification
especially pleased us."
Yet, it is true that the expositions of Baptism and the
Lord's Supper, of the Nature and Necessity of the Public
Profession of Religion and of Holy Living are as exquisitely
executed and as precious as any other parts of the work.
>T. 43.] THE WA Y OF LIFE? 327
DR. ALEXANDER TO DR. HODGE.
May ii, 1841.
I have read the greater part of your manuscript and find nothing
from which I feel disposed to dissent. Indeed, your views of the
subjects treated correspond very exactly with those which I enter-
tain.
On the subject of faith, while there is a substantial agreement,
there may be some slight shades of difference. For example, I make
no difference between a saving and a justifying faith. I think that
you make a difference with Dr. Owen.
The chapters are entirely too long. It is of much importance that
in such a work the chapters should be of moderate length. The
first chapter ought undoubtedly to be divided into three. But even
where the same subject is continued, it is better to have it divided.
I find that in my own reading I am often turning to see how many
pages remain before the termination of the chapter.
As you have written the book for the Sunday School Union, it is
useless to offer any remarks on that subject, otherwise I would
strongly recommend the Board of Publication. It struck me as
doubtful whether the S. S. Union could publish all that you have
written without offence to some of their friends. For, to say nothing
of Arminians who patronize that Institution, there are few of the New
School ministers who believe in the imputation of Christ's active
obedience, which is made prominent in your book. I would not
have you, on any account, to alter a word for that reason, which
would be disloyal to the truth. This is the great defect of the Insti-
tution, that they cannot teach the whole truth, but only that part of it
in which all their patrons are agreed.
Yours, &c., A. ALEXANDER
BISHOP JOHNS TO DR. HODGE.
BALTIMORE, Feb. 15, 1842.
If I were to write to you, my dear Charles, as often and as much
as I muse about you, you would have to complain of the tax upon
your time and your purse. Fortunately for you, my musings end
where they begin, in my own mind and heart, and whilst they afford
me no small amount of pleasure, inflict nothing upon you. If you
desire to know how it comes to pass that they insist on expression
now, understand that you alone are answerable for it. I have been
reading your book, and it is not in me to refrain from communicat-
328 " THE WA Y OF LIFE." [1842.
ing the proud satisfaction with which I have perused it. Will you
believe it ? I was silly enough to feel all the while as if I had a hand
in it myself, and my enjoyment was increased by a fiction, which I
had no disposition to resist, that I was somehow honorably concerned
in the production. One thing, however, is certain, I shall use it as
freely as if it were all my own, and shall find it serviceable to my-
self in a way in which it cannot be a help to its author. I have sent
it out into my congregation with an unqualified endorsement, and
hope soon to find it in every family under my care. I am sure it will
be received with as much favor by the evangelical portion of our
communion as among your own people, and do great good where,
perhaps, you little anticipated it.
The fifth chapter I read with peculiar satisfaction. It is so simple,
so clear, so scriptural, I do not see how any one who bows to the au-
thority of the Word can except to a single sentence, or how a sinner,
conscious of his own guilt, can fail to acquiesce in it as indeed the
Way of Life. The succession of arguments is stated conclusively,
and the Biblical illustrations are most happily set forth and ap-
plied. * * * *
The passage from page 184 to the bottom of page 186 strikes me
as the best of all the good things in the book. It has furnished me
with a new form of presenting the subject to such as seek salvation,
and I hope to be able to employ it for the guidance and relief of anx-
ious minds.
I admire the calm dignity with which you have written from the
beginning to the end, yet with quite as much earnestness as is neces-
sary to rouse and retain the interest of the reader.
On the whole, those who don't know you personally will form a
very good opinion of you from this book, and to those who do, it will
disclose nothing to disturb such impression.
Now let me write a little about the Doctor (Hugh Hodge). I sup-
pose you know he has had my dear wife under his care ever since I
was with you in September last. * * Hugh received me with a
brother's interest, and has rendered us such services, and in such a
spirit, that, apart from early and long cherished affection, he has
bound me to himself by the strongest obligations.
Truly your brother, J. JOHNS.
The publication of the "Way of Life" was the occasion
of his receiving from his old friend, Ludwig von Gerlach,
then President-Justice of the province of Magdeburg, the
following letter :
^T. 49.] THE WA Y OF LIFE." 329
LUDWIG VON GERLACH TO DR. HODGE.
MAGDEBURG, August 8, 1847.
My Dear Sir : By these lines a friend wishes to be recalled to
your memory, who twenty years ago was connected with you in
Christian fellowship, and who has never met you since that time, nor
expects to meet you on this side of eternity. It is your tract " The
Way of Life," which has led me to call on you by this probably un-
expected letter; for during an official journey through the province
of my jurisdiction, I have read this work ; and my feeling of union
with you in faith and profession of the great fundamental truths of
religion, has by this reading, become so strong and so lively, that I
cannot forbear to express it, and to thank you for the spiritual bless-
ing you have conferred on me by this book. These feelings are the
more powerful on my mind on account of the difference of my
present tendency from that of your tract. For this very minor dif-
ference is shedding a brighter light on the essential unity, which our
blessed Saviour, by His grace, His word, and His Spirit, has estab-
lished between us ; and which, I trust, He will maintain through
time and eternity. The development of Germany, in a religious and
in a political respect, makes the Christians of our country to long
after catholicity, and perhaps after the essential truth of what you
would call " sacramental religion." It is not the way of salvation,
which is now the prominent subject of our minds, but rather the high
articles of the Divine Majesty, which occupied so much the primitive
Church, and about which there was no difference of opinion between
the contending parties of the i6th century. Being surrounded by
Atheists and Pantheists, we strive to establish a consciousness of the
essential unity of all Christians, Romanists not excepted ; and the
great fact of the whole Church being the body of Christ is foremost
in our minds. It will not do with us to take it for granted that the
Bible the "sacred volume," as the English-speaking Christians
call it is a whole (ein Ganzes) without inquiring how it came to be
such, for the New Testament no where exhibits the idea of the New
Testament as a book. And we cannot suppose, as you perhaps are
entitled to do, that our inquiries are standing vis-a-vis of this book,
and examining it as a whole. They oblige us to take higher ground,
and to develop the ideas of authority and of inspiration, etc., in order
to establish on firm ground the, for us, all important doctrine of the
Church. But all this shall only give you an idea of the feelings with
which I have thankfully perused your excellent tract, which exhibits
in a very clear way and with great force those blessed doctrines,
which constitute the true Way of Life, and in which it is delightful
33O " THE WA Y OF LIFE." [1842.
for me to think that you on that, and I on this side of the ocean so
heartily coincide. God grant that this coincidence be a pledge that
we shall be united for ever before the throne of grace.
You know that my brother Otto is now " Hof-prediger '' of our
king. I am president of the court of justice of this province. Dur-
ing the summer of 1844 I was in England, Scotland and Ireland,
chiefly to study the law-institutions of those countries. But even this
voyage has not prevented you, as you see, your being troubled by
the very bad English of this letter, since I have very little occasion
of speaking this language.
I remain, through the Lord's grace, your very thankful,
VON GERLACH.
P. S. I do not know if you are reading the Evangelische Kir-
chenzeitung. If you do you will find in the papers of June 1847, an
article on the " Indivisibility of the Church," from my pen, which
may give you some idea of the questions very important ones I
trust now occupying our German minds.
The chapter of your tract on baptism and the Lord's Supper is the
only one from which I must dissent on any essential point. Your
doctrine of the sacraments, as it seems to me, does not quite do
justice to the " objective content and import " of these ordinances,
but subjects them too much to the state of mind of the recipient,
whom they are destined to justify and to sanctify. It is not clear to
me, how, according to your doctrine, you can avoid rejecting pedo-
baptism. I hold the sacraments to be in their nature, the actual
means, not only signs and seals of grace, though the grace, by
man's sin may be converted into curse.
DR. OTTO VON GERLACH TO DR. HODGE.
PARIS, July 27, 1842.
My Dear Friend ': A long time has again elapsed since I last
wrote to you. Meanwhile I have passed four months in England,
"the country of your forefathers," as you remarked when leaving
Berlin. When there I was upon point of following my inmost desire
and visiting North America, and again, as I can truthfully say,
seeing you my friend, who has become so dear to me.
The bearer of this letter is your fellow-countryman, Mr. Prentiss,
from the State of Maine. He is one of the worthiest and most
estimable Americans I have ever met. He is acquainted with all
the particulars concerning my journey in England and will relate
them to you.
1842.] " THE WAY OF LIFE." 331
While in London I had many thoughts of you, and I also pur-
chased your " Way of Life!" In fourteen days I hope to be in
Berlin again. I am residing there now in very great activity, which
also yearly increases. Our king has not only introduced a general
tolerance, but he will also elevate the standard of the established
Church, in order that it may manifest its own wants. Advisory
synods have already arisen in a greater part of the land. It is un-
true that he wishes to introduce the English Episcopal Church, as is
urged against him especially in France. He has, indeed, a liking
for certain of its institutions, but not, however, for the organization as
a whole. Moreover, generally speaking, he will not introduce any-
thing into the Church by virtue of his kingly authority, but only
upon decision of the Church itself. That the bishopric in Jerusalem
should point toward this is therefore false. I disapprove of some
things in this organization so much that I can only regard the present
situation of our Church on the whole as most highly gratifying and
rich in blessings for which all Christians, who, like myself, are not
English Episcopalians, and do not wish to become so, ought to thank
God. On the whole I hope that the Christian life will progress, as
indeed the sorrowful condition of our great cities especially causes
terror. In this respect we can now learn much in England, for it is
truly wonderful how many churches have arisen there.
Indeed, if Puseyism should be more widely spread, a terrible crisis
might threaten the English Church, and I believe that this tendency,
although in a more moderate form, is spreading considerably. The-
ological learning is lacking very greatly in English evangelical
works, and therefore the people cannot withstand the evidently igno-
rant, but yet more influential and important men of the Puseyite
sect. I spent several days at Oxford in dispute with Dr. Pusey. He
is a very poor, weak man. How much would I have to say to you
in regard to all this. Yet I must draw my letter to a close.
Pray let me hear from you again as occasion may present itself.
In sincere love I remain, as ever,
Your friend,
OTTO VON GERLACH.
Though he subsequently received some letters from Tho-
luck, yet from this time his correspondence with his Chris-
tian German friends practically ceases. Time and distance,
and occupation with new scenes and persons made active
intercourse impossible. Yet the affection was immortal,
and in his very last days the photographs of Ludwig von
332 ARTICLES IN THE "PRINCETON REVIEW" [1840-51.
Gerlach, of Tholuck, and of Bishop Johns were around his
desk and kept in constant recognition, while those of many
friends of more recent acquisition were pushed aside for
them.
HIS ARTICLES IN THE "PRINCETON REVIEW."
During this decade he wrote no book except the " Way
of Life." But his pen was more active than at any other
period of his life in writing his lectures on the Church and
on Theology, his articles in the Princeton Review, and
innumerable letters in answer to applications made for his
opinion, or aid to others in forming their opinions on
all conceivable subjects.
His contributions to the Princeton Review during this
period were : 1 840 Presbyterianism in Virginia ; Dr.
Hill's American Presbyterianism ; New Jersey College
and President Davies ; The General Assembly ; Discourse
on Religion by Mr. Coit.
1841 Bishop Doane and the Oxford Tracts (with Prof.
J. A. A.).
1842 The Theological Opinions of President Davies
Milman's History of Christianity ; The General Assembly;
Rule of Faith.
1843 Rights of Ruling Elders ; The General Assembly.
1844 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
(with Prof. J. A. A.) ; Claims of the Free Church of Scot-
land ; The General Assembly ; Abolitionism.
1845 Beman on the Atonement ; Thornwell on the
Apocrypha ; SchafFs Protestantism ; The General As-
sembly.
1846 Theories of the Church; Is the Church of Rome
a part of the Visible Church ? The General Assembly ;
Neil's Lectures on Biblical History; The Religious State of
Germany ; The late Dr. John Breckinridge ; The Life and
Writings of Dr. Richards.
1 847 Finney's Lectures on Theology ; The Support of
JET. 38-46.] SLA VER Y. 233
the Clergy ; The General Assembly (with Dr. Hope) ; Bush-
nell on Christian Nurture.
1848 The Doctrine of the Reformed Church; The Gen-
eral Assembly; Dr. Spring on the Power of the Pulpit
(with Prof. J. A. A.).
1849 The American Board, Special Report of the Pru-
dential Committee; Bushnell's Discourses; The General
Assembly ; Emancipation.
1850 The Memoir of Walter M. Lowrie; The General
Assembly ; Prof. Park's Sermon.
1851 Civil Government; Remarks on the Princeton
Review ; The General Assembly ; Prof. Park and the
Princeton Review.
The most important of these may be classified as fol-
lows:
SLAVERY.
I. The articles " On Slavery/' April, 1836, and "On
Emancipation as accomplished in the West Indies," Oc-
tober, 1838, and "On Abolitionism," October, 1844, an d
" On Emancipation as proposed by Dr. R. J. Breckinridge
in Kentucky," October, 1849 form an important class. The
first and the last of these were included in a selection from
his articles, arid published in a volume in 1856, and again
in 1 879, under the title of " Essays and Reviews," by
Charles Hodge.
It was his most conspicuous and uniform characteristic,
all his life, and in every region of thought, to make the
inspired Word of God, and neither his intuitions, nor his
sentiments, nor the opinions of mankind, the absolute rule
of his thinking and of his convictions. Hence he was
equally out of sympathy with the pro-slavery men who re-
garded the institution divine and to be perpetuated as good
in itself, and with the "Abolitionists," who held the holding
of slaves to be a sin in itself, to be in every case visited
with Christian condemnation and ecclesiastical discipline.
334 SLAVERY. [1836-44-
He was, on the other hand, in hearty sympathy with the
many Southern Christians who strove to follow the will
of Christ under the providential conditions He had im-
posed upon them, and with the Colonization Society, and
with the noble efforts of Dr. R. J. Breckinridge and his co-
adjutors in the work of emancipation in Kentucky. This
position he maintained, in all respects unchanged, to his
dying day. His own explanation of his position on these
delicate points is given in his " Retrospect of the History
of the Princeton Review" written in 1871 : "The conduct-
ors of this Review have always endeavored to adhere faith-
fully to the principle that the Scriptures are the only infal-
lible rule of faith and practice. Therefore, when any matter,
either of doctrine or morals, came under discussion, the
question with them was, ' What saith the Lord ?' Nothing
that the Bible pronounces true can be false ; nothing that it
declares to be false can be true ; nothing is obligatory on
the conscience but what it enjoins ; nothing can be sin but
what it condemns. If, therefore, the Scriptures under the
Old Dispensation permitted men to hold slaves, and if the
New Testament nowhere condemns slave-holding, but pre-
scribes the relative duties of masters and slaves, then to
pronounce slave-holding to be in itself sinful is contrary to
the Scriptures. In like manner, if the Bible nowhere con-
demns the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, if our
Lord himself drank wine, then to say that all use of intox-
icating liquor as a beverage is sin, is only one of the many
forms of the infidelity of benevolence. It is as much con-
trary to our allegiance to the Bible to make our own notions
of right or wrong the rule of duty as to make our own rea-
son the rule of faith.
" It is well known that both slavery and intemperance
Were matters of national importance, and awakened earnest
and continued controversy. As to slavery, so far as the
North was concerned, it was universally regarded as an evil,
which ought in some way to be brought to an end. The
MT. 38-46.] SLA VER Y. 335
difference of opinion related to the means by which that
end was to be accomplished. The Abolitionists, so called,
maintained that all slave-holding, as inconsistent with the
inalienable rights of man and with the law of love, is
sinful ; and, therefore, that immediate and universal emanci-
pation was an imperative duty. Another necessary conse-
quence of the assumption that ' slave-holding is a heinous
crime against God and man,' is that no slave-holder could
properly be admitted to Christian fellowship. As the people
of God, under the Old Dispensation, were allowed by law to
purchase slaves, and to hold those of heathen origin in per-
petual bondage; as slavery existed among the Romans,
Greeks and Jews during the apostolic age; as neither
Christ nor his apostles denounced slave-holding as a crime,
nor taught that emancipation was an imperative and imme-
diate duty; and as, beyond doubt, the apostles admitted slave-
holders to the communion of the Christian Church, the con-
ductors of this Review, from first to last, maintained that the
doctrine that slave-holding is in itself a crime, is anti-scrip-
tural, and subversive of the authority of the Word of God.
" The principles maintained in the articles above named
are, (i) That slavery is, as defined by Paley, 'An obligation
to labor for the benefit of the master, without the contract
or consent of the servant.' It involves the deprivation
of personal liberty, obligation of service at the discretion
of another, and the transferable character of the authority
and claim of service of the master. (2) The slave, accord-
ing to this definition, is the property of his master. But
property is merely the right of possession and use. The
rights therein involved differ according to the nature of the
thing possessed. A man has the right of property in his
wife, his children, in his houses and land, his cattle and ser-
vants. Property in a horse does not involve the right to
treat it as a log of wood ; and property in man does not in-
volve the right to use him as a brute. He can be used only
as a rational, moral and immortal creature can, according to
336 SLAVERY. [1836-44.
divine law, be rightfully used. All the rights conceded to
him by the Word of God must be faithfully regarded. (3)
The master, therefore, is bound to provide for the intellec-
tual and moral education of the slave. Every human being
has the right to be taught to read the Word of God, and
learn the way of salvation for himself. Secondly, the mas-
ter is bound to respect the conjugal rights of his slaves; and
this forbids the separation of husbands and wives. Thirdly,
he is bound to respect their parental rights, and this pre-
vents the separation of parents and their minor children.
Fourthly, he is bound to give them a fair compensation for
their labor, which supposes the right on the part of the
slave to hold property. Any laws inconsistent with these
principles are unscriptural and unjust, and ought to be im-
mediately abrogated. (4) The consequences of acting on
k these principles would be the speedy and peaceful abroga-
tion of slavery, the gradual elevation of the slaves to all the
rights of free citizens. This is the ground taken in the art-
icle of 1836. In the conclusion of that article it is said:
' It may be objected that if the slaves are allowed so to im-
prove as to become free men, the next step in their progress
is that they will become citizens. We admit that it is so.
The feudal serf first became a tenant, then a proprietor in-
vested with political power. This is the natural progress of
political society, and it should be allowed freely to expand
itself, or it will work its own destruction.'
" The great popular mistake on this subject a mistake
which produced incalculable evil was confounding slave-
holding with slave laws. Because a despotic monarch may
make unjust and cruel laws, in order to keep his people in
a state of degradation, that his power may be secured and
rendered permanent, it does not follow that an absolute
monarchy is 'a heinous crime in the sight of God and man.'
In like manner, because the laws of a slave-holding State
may be unscriptural and wicked, it does not follow that
slave-holding is itself sinful."
MT. 47.] BE MAN ON THE ATONEMENT. 337
II. The articles on the " Rule of Faith," " Beman on the
Atonement," " Bushnell on Christian Culture," and " Profes-
sor Park's Sermon, entitled ' The Theology of the Intellect
and that of the Feelings/ " all of them attracted general at-
tention, and built up his reputation as a sound theologian
and an effective controversialist. They were all reprinted in
America and Great Britain in the volumes entitled " Prince-
ton Essays" and " Essays and Reviews."
The article in review of Beman on the Atonement was
published in Scotland under the title " The Orthodox
Doctrine regarding the Atonement vindicated by Charles
Hodge, D. D., &c.," with a Recommendatory Preface by
the Rev. Dr. Cunningham, Prof. McCrie, Drs. Candlish and
Symington.
In the Free Church Magazine, 1846, there is a notice of
that volume by Dr. W. M. Hetherington, as follows : " It
would be difficult to mention another treatise of the same
size in which so much useful information will be found,
both in regard to the nature and to the extent of the Atone-
ment. Dr. Hodge is already most favorably known in this
country by some theological works as remarkable for the
profound learning they indicate as for the dignified simpli-
city with which themes of sacred learning are discussed in
them. One prevailing feature of his writings is the evidence
they constantly supply that his orthodoxy is not merely a
passive impression, but the attainment of a mind vigorously
exercised in the search of truth. . This treatise gives a
lucid summary of the most important points bearing on
present controversies respecting the Atonement, is written
in a strain of calm power and dignity, and successfully com-
bats the sophistries through which so many authors attempt
to refute the old and orthodox doctrine, not by fair argu-
ments against it, but by an utter caricature of the doctrine
itself."
III. His article on the " Claims of the Free Church
of Scotland" was written in the spring of 1844, just after
22
338 SUSTENTATION. [1847.
the first two visits of Dr. Wm. Cunningham to his house.
It was regarded by that eminent Free-churchman himself
as a faithful exposition of the principles of that body, and as
an efficient plea for its moral and material support. Upon
his return to Scotland Dr. Cunningham read copious ex-
tracts from this article, in connection with his report to the
General Assembly. The moderator, Dr. Gordon, in thank-
ing Dr. Cunningham and his colleagues in the commission
said among other things : " I think he (Dr. C.) has pro-
duced in the extracts which he has read from the living
American divine, who, of all others of whom I have read, I
do most honor and esteem, evidence that the feeling which
he (Dr. C.) has awakened by the simple exposition of our
principles is already working for good in America itself."
IV. His article on "Civil Government" and the trans-
cendently important principles he held as to the relation of
the Church to the State, and of the State to the Christian
Religion, will be more appropriately discussed when we
come to his articles on the state of the country and of the
Church, written during the civil war.
V. His article on the "Theories of the Church," and
that on the " Rights of Ruling Elders," form pa/t of a
series covering the entire department of ecclesiology, which,
although written and delivered as lectures to his Seminary
classes during the decade embraced in this chapter, were
nevertheless, for the most part, not published until ten
years afterwards, when they led to considerable discussion
and to the exhibition of much diversity of opinion.
SUSTENTATION.
VI. The article on the " Support of the Clergy," July,
1847, was a review of "An Earnest Appeal" to the Free
Church of Scotland on the subject of " Economics," by
Thomas Chalmers, D. D. At the same time Dr. Hodge
made his sermon as Moderator at the opening of the Gen-
eral Assembly at Richmond, an earnest appeal to the
^T. 49-] SUSTENTATION. 339
American Church in behalf of the great principles fought
for by Dr. Chalmers in Scotland, and subsequently by Dr.
McCosh and Dr. Jacobus by means of the " Sustentation
Scheme" in America. Dr. Hodge is thus proved to have
been the first and the most persistent advocate of this most
necessary reform in our ecclesiastical administration. Nine-
teen years afterwards, in an article on " The Sustentation
Fund," January, 1866, he reiterates this plea with increased
force of argument and intensity of conviction. He defines
a "Sustentation Fund" to be "A sum raised by annual
contributions to carry out the two principles, first, that
every minister of the gospel, devoted to his work, is enti-
tled, by the command of Christ, to a competent support;
and secondly, that the obligation to furnish that support
rests upon the Church as a whole. That is, that the
Church, in her organic unity, is bound to provide an ade-
quate support for every man whom she ordains to the min-
istry, and who is qualified and willing to devote himself to
her service. The soundness of these principles we have en-
deavored to establish." These principles he always held to
be not only true, but of the greatest practical importance,
and that their practical execution was especially demanded
by the conditions of the American Presbyterian Church.
He sympathized with all his heart with the gallant struggle
to carry those principles into action by Dr. Jacobus and the
Sustentation Committee, and he lamented the failure of that
enterprise as a great ecclesiastical disaster.
VII. In his articles on the General Assembly, the most
important subjects of permanent interest discussed were the
" Validity of the Baptism of the Roman Catholic Church,"
the " Quorum," and " Elder Questions," and the " Marriage
of a Man with the Sister of his deceased Wife." The
"Quorum" and "Elder Questions" will fall properly under
the consideration of his articles on the Church and its offi-
cers, which is reserved for a future page. As to the mar-
riage of a man with the sister of his deceased wife, he ar-
340 ROMISH BAPTISM. [1845.
gued, both on the floor of the Assemblies of 1842 and 1847,
and in his articles on the Assembly for 1842, 1843 and 1847,
that such marriages are forbidden in Scripture, and there-
fore unlawful for Christians, to be forbidden and made the
occasion of discipline by the church courts; but, on the
other hand r that they are not invalid, and that the parties to
them should not be separated and might, after a period of
suspension, be restored to the communion of the church.
ROMISH BAPTISM.
The General Assembly which met at Cincinnati, Ohio,
May 1845, suddenly fulminated by a vote of one hundred
and sixty-nine to eight, non liquet eight, the new and anti-
Protestant doctrine that baptism administered by a Roman
Catholic priest was not Christian Baptism. Dr. Hodge
always lamented this as a great blunder, as well as an un-
true decision of injurious consequence. In his article on
" The General Assembly" for that year, and in his article
"Is the Church of Rome part of the visible Church?'*
published April, 1846, he vigorously combated that de-
cision. He held that the papacy, the institution, not the
person, is anti-Christ,* and that the order and teaching of
the Romish Church is in many respects corrupted and
overlaid by false and soul-destroying abuses and errors.
Yet he held and believed that he proved (i) that the great
body of people constituting the Roman Catholic Church do
profess the essentials of the true Christian religion, whereby
many of them bear the image of Christ, and are participants
of His salvation. (2) Hence that that community, how-
ever corrupt is a part of the visible Church on earth, the
field with the wheat mixed with tares. (3) That the
essentials as to " matter" and " form " of Christian Baptism
are observed by the Catholic Priest, when he administers
that sacrament. (4) And hence it was to be recognized by
* Systematic Theology, Vol. iii. pp. 812-823..
^ET. 48.] ROMISH BAPTISM. 341
all loyal to the great Head of the whole Church as Chris-
tian Baptism. (5) That the Reformers and great Protestant
theologians had universally and uniformly held and prac-
tically recognized Romish Baptism to be Christian Baptism,
irregular and deformed by superstitions, but still valid.
(6) That this truly Protestant position had been held by
the great body of the Protestant Churches to the present
time.
He was the author of the Answer to the invitation ad-
dressed by Pius IX., in his Encyclical to all Protestants
" to return to the one only fold," on the occasion of the
Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, held in Rome, 1869
70. This response, signed officially by Drs. M. W. Jacobus
and P. H. Fowler, the Moderators of the two General As-
semblies of 1869, was certainly surpassed as to lofty dignity,
knowledge, charity, steadfast and ecumenical orthodoxy,
and power by none, and equaled by very few of the many
answers on that occasion addressed by Protestants to the
Head of the Catholic world.
On the occasion of writing this address to the Pope he
received the following letter from Dr. William Adams, now
President of Union Theological Seminary, New York :
DR. WM. ADAMS TO DR. HODGE.
NEW YORK, June i7th, 1869.
My Dear Dr. Hodge : I have received from Dr. Musgrave the
manuscript of your reply to the Pope. It is admirable every ivay. I
see not how it could be improved. You were right in judging that
objurgation was impertinent to the occasion. Every thing is put in
the simple, pointed, dignified manner becoming a Christian scholar
and theologian.
You may be sure that you have done an excellent service in con-
senting to prepare this paper. It will do good at home, in other
churches besides that of Rome, and I beg you to accept my sincere
thanks as one of the Nominating Committee. ******
With cordial esteem,
Your friend and brother,
WILLIAM ADAMS.
342 ROMISH BAPTISM. [1846.
In August, 1872, he was asked by letter his opinion as to
the propriety of granting tracts of land along a railroad for
the purpose of building Roman Catholic churches. He
answered : " Others say that inasmuch as the Roman Catho-
lic Church teaches truth enough to save the souls of men
(of which I have no doubt) ; inasmuch as it proclaims the
divine authority of the Scriptures, the obligation of the
decalogue, and the retributions of eternity ; and inasmuch
as it calls upon men to worship God the Father, Son and
Spirit, it is unspeakably better than no church at all. And_,
therefore, when the choice is between that and none, it is
wise and right to encourage the establishment of churches
under the control of Catholic priests. For myself, I take
this view. The principle cannot be carried out that no
church is to be encouraged which teaches error."*
He closes his argument in the Princeton Review, April,
1846 : " It is said we give up too much to the Papists if we
admit Romanists to be in the church. To this we answer
Every false position is a weak position. The cause
of truth suffers in no way more than from identifying it
with error, which is always done when its friends advocate
it on false principles. When one says we favor intemper-
ance unless we say that the use of intoxicating liquors
is sinful ; another, that we favor slavery unless we say
slave-holding is a sin ; and a third, that we favor Popery
unless we say the Church of Rome is no church, they all,
as it seems to us, make the same mistake ancl greatly injure
the cause in which they are engaged. They give the adver-
sary an advantage over them, and they fail to enlist the
strength of their own side. It is a great mistake to sup-
pose that Popery is aided by admitting what truth it does
include. What gives it its power, what constitutes its pecu-
liarly dangerous character, is that it is not pure infidelity, it
is not the entire rejection of the gospel, but truth sur-
rounded by enticing and destructive error."
* Presbyterian, August loth, 1872.
MT. 48.] MODERA TOR. 343
There is no more characteristic passage to be found in
his whole writings. And in these opinions he agreed with
all his brethren in Princeton, with the Reformers, the great
theologians of the past and the Scotch theologians of to-
day.
MODERATOR OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
He was a member for the first time of the General As-
sembly of 1842, having been hitherto prevented from attend-
ing by his lameness. He was again sent as a delegate to
the General Assembly which met in the loth Presbyterian
Church, Philadelphia, May, 1846, when he was elected
Moderator. He attended as a commissioner the next As-
sembly in Richmond, May, 1847, and opened its sessions
with a sermon in which he advocated the erection of a
Board of Sustentation for the more uniform and systematic
support of the clergy.
HIS LETTERS TO HIS BROTHER.
LHis letters to his brother during this period, from 1840
to 1851, continued frequent and regular, and were filled
with all the details of family life. All he thinks and feels,
all his anxieties with respect to his children or the church
or the country, all the symptoms of the children's suc-
cessive sicknesses, all the events which marked the stages
of their mental or physical growth are minutely recorded.
TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, March 13, 1840.
My Dear Brother : My remark about my horrible poverty, in my
last, was not intended as a hint. When very bad off, I shall go be-
yond hinting. 'It is true, I had not a cent in the world, nor have had
for some time^i But then here is the Bank ; and what is a Bank
worth but to let people overdraw ? Ours is good-natured enough to
let us suck out fives and tens through a straw ; a check for a hundred
or two they might endorse " No Funds ! " but they would hardly in-
sult a gentleman for five dollars. Still, this is ugly business, and I
feel much better since I received your hundred dollars, for which,
344 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER. [1840-51.
therefore, I am much obliged to you. I will give you an order on my
publisher for payment. You surely need not open your eyes at a
poor author ; for when was an author otherwise than poor, unless he
wrote novels.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
TO THE SAME.
PRINCETON, April 28, 1840.
M (a daughter visiting her uncle) tells me that you laughed
much at my sending her two dollars. I can remember the time, old
fellow, when the sight of two dollars would have made you laugh
with a very different emotion. You do not know what it is to be a
Presbyterian Abbe, with seven children. Only think of seven
mouths, seven pair of feet, seven empty heads, and worse than all
seven pairs of knees and elbows. Don't take this for a begging let-
ter ; for Friday is the first of May, when I expect to be as rich as
Croesus for a week.
Your brother, C. H.
TO THE SAME.
PRINCETON, June 18, 1841.
My Dear Brother: [The conduct of the House of Representatives,
in Washington, is enough to put one out of conceit with Republican-
ism. The Southern members act like a set of big boys, and the
Northern ones are just as foolish. The fuss they make about the
right of petition is just as unreasonable as the commotion about abo-
lition. It has always, however, been so. Commotion, noise, non-
sense, and at times violence are the price of liberty, and on the
whole are better than the stagnation of despotism?] Wise is the beau
ideal of Southern gasconade.
Your brother, C. H.
TO THE SAME.
PRINCETON, Sept. 17, 1841.
My Dear Brother: I thank you for sending the papers at this un-
precedented crisis in our affairs. It seems to me there can be but
one opinion either as to the President's conduct, or as to the duty of
the Whigs. Mr. Ewing's letter contains irresistible evidence of its
truth, and is confirmed by all kinds of collateral evidence. Assum-
ing the truth of its statements,|^Jr. Tyler is not only a weak, but a
dishonorable and dishonest man.] Now that this humiliating fact has
been disclosed, people begin tolook at his past history. And the
^ET. 43-1 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER. 345
singular fact, which had escaped notice, that not one of the Virginia
delegates at the Harrisburg Convention voted for his nomination to
the Vice-Presidency shows that they knew more about him than
others did. Still, it is probable that it was not until his head was
turned by his being made President that his principles were found to
be too weak to stand the temptations of that exalted station. Dr.
Benjamin Rice told me that he remembers when he (Tyler) became
Governor of Virginia, people lifted up their hands and said " Think
of John Tyler being Governor of Virginia ! " His messages, espe-
cially the first veto, show him to be a man of inferior mind, and his
conduct to his Cabinet and his party show him to be mean and dis-
honest.
[it seems to me that if the Whigs would only act on moral instead
of party principles, it would be a great blessing to the country and
the best course for themselves.] Let them give the President a fair
hearing and every opportunity of clearing himself from the over-
whelming charges of Mr. Ewing. If he can do it, then all is well.
If he cannot, then let them say to him, "We are done with you.
Not one of our party will accept or retain office under you. We will
do what we can for the country, but we will not condescend to serve
under you." If the other party would pick him out of the gutter
let them do it. But I do not believe they would. On the con-
trary, I believe he would be forced to resign in less than six months.
Thinking that this is the plain course of duty, I feel greatly morti-
fied at the conduct of Mr. Webster. I am glad he retains his place
for the time being, but his reasons for doing so condemn him. His
saying that there was no sufficient reason for the resignation of the
Cabinet, and by implication that his colleagues did wrong in giving
up their places, shows that his state of mind on the whole subject is
entirely different from that of his friends. I have sufficient con-
fidence in the moral feelings of the community to be confident
that if Mr. Webster joins himself with Tyler he will sink with him.
The load of infamy which attaches to the latter is enough to weigh
down all that associate themselves with his fortunes. I cannot have
any respect for any man who accepts a place in the new Cabinet ;
and shall be astonished if Mr. Legare or Judge Maclean accept their
appointments.
As to the charge against Mr. Ewing, of revealing Cabinet secrets,
it seems to me to be entirely unfounded. The obligation to secrecy
cannot extend to all cases. It is limited by the nature of the object
for which that secrecy is enjoined. If a President should be plotting
treason, his Cabinet are bound to disclose it. And if it is necessary
to the vindication of the character of a Minister to relate what passed
346 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER [1844.
in the Cabinet, I am not sure that he has not a right to do it. But
Mr. Ewing does not need the advantage of either of these grounds
of defence. Mr. Tyler commissioned him and Mr. Webster to com-
municate his views to Mr. Sergeant, and to Mr. Berrien and others.
Mr. Ewing, therefore, has revealed no secret ; the main facts were
communicated by the President's message. This seems to be a full
vindication, without resorting to the example of the President
himself, through whom Cabinet secrets are said to have found
their way to Bennett's Herald ! Taking it altogether, the whole
affair is the most extraordinary event in our history, and the issue, I
fear, depends very much on Webster. If he separates himself from
the Whigs, who will and ought to repudiate the President, on
him will rest the responsibility of the schism in the Whig party.
And the result will probably be defeat to them with certain dis-
appointment and disgrace to him.
^Here is a letter of real politics, which, when connected with morals
and the character and interests of the country, is a subject second
only to religion in importance77
Your brother, C. H.
TO THE SAME.
PRINCETON, Dec. 15, 1844.
My Dear Brother : You ask me for a dish of politics. I could
only give you a plate of picked bones. [The Whig party seems to
have made a great mistake ; either they have not patriotism enough
to give up personal objects for the general good, or, what is probably
the case, they have not been able to identify themselves with the
masses. In this country the Democratic party must always be the
strongest, and it is only on extraordinary occasions, and for a short
period, that the Whig, the Conservative, the Federal, or by whatever
name the mass of the intelligence and property of the country may
be called, can get the upper han d/* Such an occasion occurred
in 1840. The fruits of that triumph were lost mainly by the treachery
of Tyler, partly by the passion and selfishness of the Whigs. I am
afraid, when they found that Tyler was unfaithful, they determined
to make his administration as unpopular and as disastrous as possi-
ble. If the country, at the end of his term, is prosperous, there will
be no crying necessity for a change of policy, and for Mr. Clay ; but
it everything is going to ruin, as under Van Buren, then a change
will be demanded. I fear this is the ground of their opposition to
the Tariff, which passed by a bare majority, and especially of their
refusal to adopt the exchequer bill of Tyler (i. <?., of Webster).
It seems evident that an addition of $15,000,000 to our currency, in
. 46.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER.
347
the form of paper of equal value in all parts of the country, would
be an inestimable benefit. But the Whigs refuse, and by doing so
will break their own heads.
Your brother, C. H.
TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, March 26, 1844.
My Dear Brother : The papers make a great stir about Texas. I
cannot believe it is possible to get two-thirds of the Senate to vote for
the annexation. Should such a thing happen, it would be a great
crime and a great calamity ; but I think the North ought to submit.
We have agreed that any treaty made by two-thirds of the Senate
shall be the law of the land, and we ought to abide by the contract.
After the annexation of Louisiana and Florida, the constitutional
question must be considered fixed. The cases are not alike ; but
they are not essentially different.
I rejoice greatly that O'Connell has been convicted. If the law and
justice would fully sustain the sentence, I think it would be a great
good to give him a life estate in Australia.
Your affectionate brother,
CHARLES HODGE.
TO THE SAME.
PRINCETON, April 4, 1844.
My Dear Brother : There is, financially speaking, always a shal-
low spot with me during the month of April. If my salary is paid, I
can generally get over it ; if it is not, I am very apt to stick fast. As
not the half of the salary due the ist of February last has been paid,
I am in the latter predicament just now. I must either submit to the
mortification of begging time &c., or to that of borrowing from
you. The latter, though something, is much the less trial of the two.
I have yet to learn the art of paying without being paid. All this
is a prelude to my saying that I wish you to lend me a coupla
of hundred dollars, or one, if convenient. If you have it not
on hand, say so. For it is not a case of necessity, but of feeling. I
must pay certain calls which have already come in ; but I can, on an
emergency, get the money from the Bank, but that I, of course, do
not like.
Your brother, C. H.
348 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER. [1844.
TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, April 22d, 1844.
My Dear Brother : I told you some time ago, in reply to what
you said about Mr. Barnes' pamphlet " The Position of the Evan-
gelical Party in the Episcopal Church," that, judging from the ex-
tracts which I had seen, I disapproved of its whole design and ten-
dency. Since then I have read it, and my first impression has been
confirmed. [7 wrote a notice, of a few pages length, of it in the Re-
pertory, which has the full concurrence of all the gentlemen here,
and which I hope you will read. That notice, I am sorry to say, has
given immeasurable offence to the ultra-Presbyterians of Philadel-
phia, and if you see the Presbyterian you will see two columns and a
half of a reply to itTJ I am very sorry for this, as it evinces a very
unnatural state of mind in the Philadelphia brethren. What the no-
tice says they would all have said six months ago. And if a man
whose feelings are so strongly Presbyterian as Dr. Miller approves
of it, it is very plain that it is only a morbid state of mind that leads
to this outcry. Mr. Hope, poor fellow, has, as he writes me, been al-
most persecuted to death for it already.
Your brother, C. H.
TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, May 28, 1844.
My Dear Brother : I have just been reading Bishop Hughes'
smart, but not very prelatical letter to the Mayor of New York. He
confounds two very different things : opposition to foreigners, as for-
eigners, governing the country, and opposition to Papists, as Papists.
It is true that most of these objectionable foreigners are Papists, but
the opposition to them is as foreigners. It is also true that they are
mostly Irish, but the opposition is not to them as Irish. I think this
whole struggle will do good, and that a majority of all parties will
soon unite in calling for an alteration of our naturalization laws.
Bishop Hughes artfully represents the American party as leagued to
deny liberty of conscience, and to infringe on the rights of a particu-
lar class of citizens. J3ut what right have the paupers of Europe to
be citizens of America ? We must take care of ourselves, or we shall
have all our affairs under the control of the mob of foreigners who
swarm our cities}
We are all well as usual ; nearly through the pangs of house-clean-
ing. It is with difficulty I have kept the invasion of tubs and buckets
out of the study.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
^ET. 46.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER. 349
TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, June 20, 1844.
My Dear Brother : We returned day before yesterday from the
North, having had a very pleasant journey of two weeks and five
days. We went first to Newburgh, where we spent Saturday, Sun-
day and part of Monday. Thence to Netherwood (the residence of
James Lenox, Esq.,), where I remained till Wednesday, when I went
to Poughkeepsie to attend the Synod (Dutch Reformed), as a dele-
gate from the General Assembly, leaving Sarah, who was in bed with
a sick head-ache. At the close of the week I returned to Nether-
wood and remained until Tuesday, and then, agreeably to an invita-
tion from the Rosevelts , took Sarah to Poughkeepsie and spent that
day there.
The country up the North river greatly exceeded our expectations,
and Sarah was greatly delighted. Newburgh has a beautiful situa-
tion, and the views in the neighborhood are extensive and pictu-
resque in a high degree. Mr. Lenox's situation, Netherwood, is very
delightful and very highly improved. He is a man of very uncom-
mon taste. His brother-in-law has a cottage on his place ; another
brother-in-law, Mr. Sheefe, owns the next seat up the river, and Mr.
Sheefe's mother the one above that. The four families are so near
and so united as to form a compact society for themselves. Pough-
keepsie also surpassed our expectations. The view from College
Hill is one of the finest in all that region of country.
It is impossible that people could be kinder than we found them
everywhere, at Newburgh, Netherwood, Poughkeepsie, Albany and
New Haven. Your brother, C. H.
TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Dec. 16, 1844.
My Dear Brother : I believe that we have not exchanged lamen-
tations over the result of the election. I feel more for Mr. Clay than
for the country. For I presume the general policy of the Govern-
ment will be substantially the same under Mr. Polk. [Mr. Clay, how-
ever, has finally lost the great object of his natural ambition, and
lost it by the votes of foreigners and Catholics, aliens and enemies
really of the country. Jn New York, the silly Abolitionists decided
the State, and that again decided the countryj The course which
Tyler and Calhoun have been pursuing is so extreme that I hope it
will lead to a split in their own ranks and induce the Northern and
Western Democrats to unite in putting them effectually down.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
350 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER. [1847.
TO THE SAME.
PRINCETON, April 17, 1846.
My Dear Brother : I felt really alarmed at the speech of John
Quincy Adams in the House, declaring his opinion not only that our
title to Oregon was good to 54.40, but that we ought not to compro-
mise on 49. Now, as he and every President since Jefferson has
offered that compromise, it does appear to me a piece of pure wick-
edness to refuse to accept that offer now ; to refuse to accede to our
own terms, and that with the certainty that war must be the conse-
quence of such refusal. Great Britain has not the power to give up
the country beyond 49. The public sentiment of the nation and of
the world would be so against it that it could not be done, any more
than we could give up the country south of the Columbia, which
England has offered over and over as the boundary. I greatly fear
that, unless Providence over-rule the folly of our rulers, we are des-
tined to the miseries of a wicked war.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
TO THE SAME.
PRINCETON, Dec. 25, 1846.
My Dear Brother: Give the love and gratulations appropriate to
this season from all our circle to all yours. We are getting to be
pretty old men, though we do not know it, and, I suppose, really en-
joy life in the consciousness of useful and conscious exertion more
than when we were younger. The kinds and sources of pleasure
change as we advance in life, but the maturer are always of the
higher grade, and therefore few men would be willing to go back and
live life over again ; they would rather live onward and continue to
grow in knowledge and in the power to do good. It is a great thing
to be content to be less than others, provided we do our best. Self-
depreciation is a more amiable, but scarcely a less hurtful failing than
self-exaltation, or rather self-glorification.
Your brother C. H.
TO THE SAME.
PRINCETON, Dec. 29, 1847.
My Dear Brother: It is true, I am fifty years old, and that the
meridian of life is past. The years that remain must be few and less
fitted for exertion or usefulness. On the review of such a period, a
painful feeling of having accomplished so little, of having acquired
so much less than we see we might and ought to have done, is, per-
WET. 49.] CORRESPONDENCE. 351
haps, stronger even than the feeling of gratitude for all the goodness
and forbearance of God. I feel that almost all the usefulness of my
life is to be crowded into the coming ten years, should I live so long.
If I am to accomplish anything it must be within that period, and yet
how much reason is there to fear that, should they be granted, they
will slip by much as any preceding ten years have done.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
FROM PROFESSOR BIGGS TO DR. HODGE.
CINCINNATI, Jan. 7, 1847.
My Dear Doctor Charles : You had almost forgotten, I suppose,
that the little man whom you first knew in the blue frock coat in
Nassau Hall is still among the living. Once in a while I hear some--
thing of your own dear self, and then I feel a stirring up of things
of bygone days such as watching from the window of No. 18 your
movement down the campus, cross the road and down the lane, to
the white house with the little white fence in front, opposite to which
lived the far-famed Sam Plum. Charley, d'ye mind the days we
spent in the white house together ? (Mrs. Bache's). Oh ! ho ! what
times have passed o'er us since then ! But, indeed, they have been
times of mercy, such as my most sanguine hopes could not have im-
agined. Here I am an old man, grey-headed, with nose spectacle
bestrid, and a house full of men and women children ! What is still
more wonderful, I am just about as fit for service as ever. * * * *
I preach in the vicinity of my old stamping grounds, Lane Semi-
nary, where I have as part of my audience some of the students
from the Seminary, with several others from the families belonging
to the Seminary Church. This looks a little like bearding the lion
in his own den. It is rather amusing as I pass out on Sabbath
morning from the city to meet Dr. Beecher coming in to supply the
" ist Orthodox Congregational Society of Cincinnati," and some-
times Prof. Stowe.
You remember our old redoubtable Vice-President Slack ! I have
the felicity of seeing his ex-ship quite often. He has what he calls
his Gothic mansion on one of the most elevated points about our
city, very conspicuous indeed, most romantically difficult of access.
He is pretty much after the old stamp, except as time has corrugated
his squatty face. He sojourns on the heights in elevated retirement.
He is a good old man, nevertheless, and loves to recount his Prince-
ton glories.
Our old friend, Wm. M. Atkinson, spent a few days with us
352 DR. WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM. [1844.
recently. We had quite a refreshing time of it. He is a huge body
of divinity, beats me some twenty or thirty pounds.
Your affectionate brother,
THOS. J. BIGGS.
Bishop Johns wrote to " Charley " about the same time :
" Biggs Thomas J. ! ! What would I not give to have
you both here at once ! But I suppose that is out of the
question." And again, in April of the next year, he
writes : " I received a full and affectionate letter from Biggs.
I am afraid he will not live long. This sudden revival
of early feeling is ominous."
FRIENDSHIP AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. WILLIAM
CUNNINGHAM.
In December, 1843, Doctor Hodge formed one of the
most signal friendships of his life. The Rev. William Cun-
ningham, D. D., afterwards Principal of the New College,
Edinburgh, visited America at the head of a delegation of
the Free Church of Scotland. He was then thirty-eight
years of age, at the fullness of all his powers, recognized
everywhere as beyond question the greatest logician, po-
lemic and theologian among the leaders of the second
heroic age of the Church of Christ in Scotland. He always
recognized Charles Hodge, then just forty-six years old, as
occupying precisely that position in the American Presby-
terian Church of this age. The meeting and the rapid
friendship generated between two men having so much in
common, meeting for the first time and for a brief season,
was very beautiful to witness and very memorable. A
Princeton witness of that first meeting, quoted by Dr.
Rainy in his life of Cunningham, wrote at the time : " You
know Brother Hodge is one of the most reserved of men,
nor is a first acquaintance with him generally very assuring
or attractive to strangers. But I remarked with what
warmth and cordiality he met Dr. Cunningham, as if he had
met an old friend from whom he had been long separated.
JET. 46.] DR. WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM.
And it was so with Cunningham, too. The two greatest
theologians of the age were at once friends and brothers.
They seemed at once to read and know each the other's
great and noble mind."
After Dr. Cunningham's lamented death, just eighteen
years afterwards, Dr. Hodge wrote as follows : " He was
twice (it was really three times) at Princeton, and on both
occasions made my house his home. He was a man you
knew well as soon, as you knew him at all. He revealed
himself at once, and secured at once the confidence and
love of those in whom he felt confidence. I do not recol-
lect of ever having met any one to whom I was so much
drawn, and for whom I entertained so high a respect and so
warm a regard as I did for him, on such a short acquaint-
ance. . . His visit was one of those sunny spots on which,
whenever I look back on my life, my eyes rest with de-
light."
Dr. Cunningham wrote to his wife at this time : "As I
have not much public business till next week I have come
out to spend a few days in Princeton. I have had great
pleasure in the society of the theological professors here,
who are all men eminent for their talents and learning, and
are known in Britain by their writings. I am staying with
Dr. Hodge, a very admirable and interesting man, whose
[wife is a great grand-daughter of Dr. Franklin.": The
compiler of these Memoirs was repeatedly assured in Scot-
land that his father's pre-eminent position in the respect and
confidence of the Scotch Presbyterian Churches dates from
the period of Dr. Cunningham's return from his visit to
America, and that it was characteristic of Dr. C. to give free
expression to his high estimate of him as a man and a theo-
logian. Dr. Rainy affirms in his " Life of William Cunning-
ham, D. D.," p. 462, that the great Scotchman "felt for Dr.
Hodge, of Princeton, a very great regard as a man, and in
his theological opinions generally a greater confidence than
in those of any (other) divine now living."
23
354 DR - WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM. [1844.
I can well remember those memorable days, the pleased
excitement of our father, as he lay back upon his easy chair
listening to Dr. Cunningham as he strode gesticulating
through the study with his long arms laying down the
principles and narrating the story of the great Free-Church A J
Exodusjor when our father walked with him in the larger
parlor, or once or twice, when the February sun shone clear
in the paths around the house, laying down the principles
and narrating the story of the igreat controversies, as to
slavery, New England theology and voluntary societies^ in
which his own part had been not insignificant.
DR. HODGE TO DR. CUNNINGHAM.
PRINCETON, March 2ist, 1844.
.... Dr. Burns preached a delightful sermon in our chapel last
evening. I believe we are all disposed to let him abuse us and our
domestic institutions as much as he pleases, if he will only preach the
gospel as purely and spiritually as he did last night.
I cherish the recollections of your visit with great pleasure and feel
an interest in your success and welfare which is constantly increasing
as my knowledge of you and your cause increases.
I should be much gratified to hear from you at any time. As Dr.
Miller has insisted on your going to his house when you again visit
Princeton, I feel at liberty to beg that you will send to me any of your
brethren who may join your deputation, should they come thus far
south.
With great affection and respect,
Your friend and brother,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO DR. CUNNINGHAM.
PRINCETON, March 30, 1844.
My Dear Sir: We have had 500 extra copies of the article on
" The Claims of the Free Church" struck off. I send you a copy by
this mail. If, after reading it, you think it likely to be useful, I will
place at your disposal any portion of the 500 you wish. I can send
them to Mr. Carter in New York, to abide your order.
I was greatly interested in the copies of the Witness which you left
with me. I think he has most effectually answered the Record, and
1 regret that we were misled into saying what we did in our January
&T. 46.] CORRESPONDENCE. 355
number by the last named paper. Professor A. Alexander wishes me
to subscribe to the Witness, and begs me to inquire of you how pay-
ment for it can most conveniently be made. Is there anybody in this
country authorized to receive payment on its behalf, and who would
order it for him ?
I should be very glad to hear from you and learn how you get
along among the "Yankees." I do not use the word in Mrs.
Hodge's sense of the term. I know if they get their eyes open they
will put us Old School Presbyterians to shame. I sincerely hope they
may.
The whole family join in the assurance of kind remembrance.
Affectionately and respectfully,
C. HODGE.
DR. CUNNINGHAM TO DR. HODGE.
BOSTON, 9th April, 1844.
My Dear Sir : I have received your two letters, and am much
obliged to you for the accompanying papers. I am grieved to be
under the necessity of informing you that, in consequence of letters
which I received from Scotland by the last steamer, urging me most
strenuously to be present at our own General Assembly^ I have. felt it
to be my duty to resolve on leaving this country on the ist of May,
and that, of course, I must leave Dr. Burns to go to Canada alone,
and Mr. Lewis and Mr. Chalmers to attend your General Assembly.
I greatly fear that I shall not be able to visit Princeton again. I in-
tend to visit New Haven or Hartford on Sabbath next, Albany on the
2 ist, then make a run to Niagara, get to New York on Saturday the
27th, and leave it for Boston on the 29th. So far as my own personal
feelings and inclinations are concerned I would have been most happy
to have spent two months more in this country, where I have been
received with so much kindness and seen so much to interest and to
gratify. I felt quite dull the other day after having taken my berth
in the steamer, although I was going home. I will not soon forget the
kindness I have received and the gratification I have experienced ;
and the time I have spent in your society at Princeton will always
occupy a prominent place in my recollection of America.
I will henceforth consider myself entitled to call you my friend, and
will be most happy to have occasional correspondence with you. I
will consider it my duty to begin this correspondence and write to
you soon after reaching home. I have read with great pleasure your
article for the Repertory, and would like very much to see it circu-
lated for the benefit of our cause. I would like very much to have a
356 CORRESPONDENCE. [ 1 844.
parcel of the articles addressed to me at Albany, to the care of Dr.
Sprague. and I would like to have st>me of them to take home with
me, as I am sure they will be read with great interest by my brethren.
I fear that in other respects I must request you to take the trouble of
disposing of them in the way you yourself may think best fitted to '
promote the object in view, except I would like a small parcel of them
addressed to Mr. Chalmers, care of the Rev. Mr. Blagden, Old South
Church, Boston.
The cause has been taken up cordially here by the Congregation-
alists and the Baptists. I don't know what may be the result in a
pecuniary point of view, but as I have not heard of any very large
subscriptions from individuals, I fear the sum total will not come to a
great deal.
Give kindest regards to Mrs. Hodge and all the members of your
family, to Dr. Miller, to Dr. Alexander and his sons, and believe me,
my dear sir, Very sincerely yours,
WM. CUNNINGHAM.
In order that the allusions to the Abolitionists in this
correspondence may be understood, it must be recollected
that Dr. Hodge and the great mass of the American Christ-
ians with whom Dr. Cunningham came in contact, were not
pro-slavery men, "but held, as Dr. R. J. Breckinridge told
Dr. Cunningham in a letter, dated Nov., 1844: "(i) That
slavery is a great evil, and ought to be somehow and some-
time brought to an end. (2) That it is not a sin, in the
proper sense of the word, and, therefore, cannot be a proper
ground of expulsion from the Church." " On the other
hand," says Dr. Rainy, in his ' Life of Wm. Cunningham,'
p. 221, " some of the American Abolitionists (' technically so
called/ as Dr. Breckinridge says,) seeing some likelihood
of troubled waters, came across to fish in them. That party
included, as is very well known, a number of persons who
were not particular in their choice of weapons. They villi-
fied the Free Church as. associating with slave-holders for
the sake of pecuniary gain, and raised the cry of ' Send
back the money.' As their antecedents became known and
their methods of warfare observed, they lost their influence
and vanished again."
VET. 46.] CORRESPONDENCE. 357
DR. CUNNINGHAM TO DR. HODGE.
EDINBURGH, i5th of July, 1844.
My Dear Sir: I arrived safely in Edinburgh on the i6th of May
and found my wife and children in the enjoyment of good health,
and the affairs of the Free Church in a very flourishing condition.
We have had a very interesting and gratifying meeting of the Assem-
bly. We are now delivered wholly from the unpleasant contentions
with unchristian men, in which we had been so long engaged, and
are, I think I may say, devoting ourselves with united energy and
zeal to the improvement of the important facilities for the promotion
of true religion, with which in providence we are favored.
I regretted that I had not an opportunity of revising the Witness'
report of the statement I made about my visit to America. Report-
ing here is not nearly so perfect as in London, and the report of what
I said is neither very accurate nor complete.
I succeeded in preventing our Assembly from doing anything on
the subject of slavery, except appointing a committee to consider it,
and I shall do what I can to get them to do as little as possible. I
suppose I must submit to being branded by the Abolitionists as hav-
ing been corrupted by the money and hospitality of slave-holders.
I most earnestly wish, however, that the churches of the United
States could be stirred up to do something more than they have been
doing of late years in regard to slavery, at least to the extent of seek-
ing the abolition of what all condemn, such as the prohibition of in-
struction and the separation of families, for, although we generally
profess here to hold anti-slavery principles, I believe that it is these
atrocious slave laws and their immediate practical results that chiefly
excite our indignation, not only against those who practice them, but
against all who may be supposed to connive at or tolerate them. I
would fain hope that the proceedings of the Methodist Conference in
regard to Bishop Andrews, which I have just read in the Presbyterian,
indicate a growing sense of the necessity of the churches bestirring
themselves in this matter. Dr. Burns has, since his return, been lec-
turing in different parts of the country upon his visit to America, and
upon the whole has not, I understand, been guilty of any very great
indiscretion. He has usually introduced the subject of slavery, and
told some stories of church members being sold, the husband sepa-
rated from the wife, and the mother from her children. I will con-
tinue to do what I can to preserve peace, as I am satisfied that no-
thing we can do will have any beneficial effect, and because I cannot
see that there rests upon us any obligation to testify upon the subject
irrespective of a testimony being likely to do good.
358 CORRESPONDENCE. [1844.
By the kindness of a friend I have got the use of a very comfort-
able and beautifully situated country house, nine miles to the south
of Edinburgh, where I expect to have three months of uninterrupted
study to prepare for the labors of our Theological Seminary in No-
vember. I would fain hope that the decisive votes in your Assembly
will put an end to your contentions about the Elder question, and
leave you at leisure to prosecute the important objects you have taken
up in regard to churches and schools.
Just before leaving America I received a few copies from home of
a book for young people, called ' Witnesses for the Truth," and I
sent one to Mrs. Hodge through Mr. Carter, which I hope she has re-
ceived.
The Duke of Sutherland has yielded to the force of public opinion
and gives us sites, and the Duke of Buccleugh, under the pretence
that he thought the Lord's Supper would be desecrated by being ad-
ministered in the public road, offered to the people of Canonbie per-
mission to meet in a field on the occasion of the communion, which
was last Lord's Day. We think he will scarcely venture to drive them
back to the road again.
No part of my statement gave more satisfaction to'the General As-
sembly than the extracts I read to them from your article.
W. C.
I would like very much to hear from you when you have a little
leisure. Any thing addressed to me at Edinburgh will reach me. I
will ever retain a grateful sense of the kindness I received from you,
and a lively recollection of the pleasure I enjoyed in your society-
Be so good as to present my kind remembrances to Mrs. Hodge and
the young people, to Dr. Miller, to Dr. Alexander and his sons, to
Dr. Carnahan, Rice and Maclean, and Messrs. Henry and Dod, and
believe me to be sincerely and affectionately yours,
WM. CUNNINGHAM.
DR. HODGE TO DR. CUNNINGHAM.
PRINCETON, Sept. 13, 1844.
My Dear Sir : All your Princeton friends were very happy to hear
of your safe return to your native land and of the cordial welcome
everywhere extended to you. We have rejoiced in the abundant
manifestations of the divine favor granted to the Free Church during
the past year, and in the inviting prospect of usefulness which is
spread out before her.
Here there is little new or interesting. I am afraid that little will
be done in behalf of the Free Church in virtue of the recommenda-
^ET. 46.] CORRESPONDENCE. 359
tion of our last Assembly. It was a mistake merely to pass resolu-
tions expressing sympathy with your body and urging congregations
which had not done anything to make a collection in aid of your
funds. If a particular day had been appointed, and all the churches,
without any distinction, whether they had done anything or not,
called upon to make a collection on that day, I think something bet-
ter might have come of it. However, you have a better dependence
than the distant and feeble churches of America.
We shall be happy to make the arrangements which you suggest
with regard to periodicals, etc.
We have all felt a good deal agrieved by the articles in the Witness
on American Slavery. It is very evident that they were not written
by the editor of that paper ; but we are surprised at his publishing
them. They are unjust, inaccurate, injurious to the American
churches, and of evil tendency in all respects. If the Abolitionists
of Great Britain wish to do us any good, let them first define what
slavery is, making due discrimination between slave-holding and the
varying laws by which, in different countries, slave-holding is regu-
lated. And then let them prove that slave-holding, not the slave laws
of this or that State, but slave-holding, is contrary to the Word of
God. It cannot do us any good to tell us that it is wrong to be cruel,
to be unjust, to separate husbands and wives, parents and children,
or to keep servants in ignorance. Our churches do not sanction any
of these things, though our laws often do. Instead of really arguing
the question, and affecting the conscience through the understanding,
such men as the writers in the Witness take up reports of this or that
case of cruelty, and hold it up as an indication of the character of
whole classes of men in this country. They might, of course, as well
cite passages from the reports of the commissioners on your mines to
show the character of the Free Church of Scotland.
I know, my dear sir, how much superior you are to all such things,
and I would not write thus to you if I did not know that you are well
aware of the respect which we all have for your principles and con-
duct in reference to this subject. But I really feel concerned for the
effect such articles are likely to produce. It is the want of sense, as
much as the want of justice, manifested in such effusions and in the
proceedings of some of your emancipation societies that tries our
patience. I see Dr. Burns is very desirous, in his anti-slavery
speeches, to bring to his support " his respected friend, Dr. Cunning-
ham," as much as possible ; and to represent himself and you as
standing on the same ground on this subject. In the estimation of
good people here, there are few things less alike than Dr. Burns and
"his respected friend," and it will require hard pulling to get them
360 CORRESPONDENCE. [1845.
together. I hope you have seen in the New York Observer a notice
of the article in the Witness. That notice is from the pen of Dr.
James W. Alexander, who lived many years in Virginia.
I hope you will often write to me, or to some of your friends in
Princeton. We shall never forget the pleasure we derived from your
visit. Will you present my regards to Dr. Gordon, to whom I look
up with the deepest respect. I once (1828) had the pleasure of hear-
ing him preach, but had not the advantage of an introduction to him
during my short visit to Scotland.
I see by the Witness that you are down on the Erastians with a
heavy hand. They will think you have let your hair grow during
your visit to America. All your friends here, including all the mem-
bers of my family, unite in assurances of affection and respect.
Your friend and brother,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO DR. CUNNINGHAM.
PRINCETON, Jan. 29th, 1845.
My Dear Sir : ... I thank you sincerely for the number of the
North British Review containing the article on the United States.
All your friends in America feel under obligations to you for that
manly defence, and all the more that they see you suffer for it. I
notice with pain the pecking of the Record, which is noticeable only
as revealing the animus of the editor. High-churchmen are accused
of loving the Church more than Christ or Christians, and the Record
really seems to love aristocracy more than men. It can see no
good, or rejoice in nothing good, where there are not kings and no-
bles. I have never noticed an expression of satisfaction at the evi-
dence of the power of the Gospel in this country, but a uniform dis-
position to rejoice in all our infirmities and vices. * * * * *
I rejoice to see that your New College meets with so much favor.
We all cherish the recollection of your visit as something we can
never let die out of our minds. I hope you will brighten the chain
occasionally by letting us hear from you. Mrs. Hodge and my chil-
dren beg that you will not forget them. * * *
Very sincerely your friend and brother,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. CUNNINGHAM TO DR. HODGE.
EDINBURGH, 26th April, 1845.
My Dear Sir : I have to thank you for two letters, and to apolo-
gize for not answering them sooner. For the last six months I have
JET. 47.] CORRESPONDENCE. 361
been occupied very thoroughly with the duties of a first session in our
Theological Seminary. I had made very little written preparation
before the beginning of the session, as for nearly five months I have,
besides other duties, to compose each week three lectures of fifty
minutes each. The session, however, is now over, and we have a
vacation of six months. I sent you lately two numbers of the Wit-
ness containing a report of a discussion in our Presbytery on "Amer-
ican Slavery," which has, I think, put down "Abolitionism" in its
technical sense, so far as the Free Church is concerned. *****
I read with much interest the article on "Abolitionism" in the
Repertory. It contained some important truths, which, in this
country, when judging of the American churches, we are far
too apt to overlook. But I am not satisfied of the soundness
of some of its principles. I cannot see how any human being can
justly and validly lose his own personal, natural right to control his
time and labor, unless the element either of his own consent or of penal
infliction for a crime proven be brought in. I cannot but think that
every man is entitled to escape from slavery if he can, an idea decidedly
confirmed by the decisions of the Mosaic Law about runaway slaves,
and as the master's right and the slave's obligation must be correla-
tive, it would seem that the slave's right to run away disproves the
master's right to retain him in slavery. But I have no doubt that
where slavery exists and is established by law, individuals may inno-
cently occupy the position of slave-holders, because in the actual cir-
cumstances in which the community and they themselves and the
slaves are placed the greatest benefit which it may be in their power
to confer may be to purchase a slave and to exercise to some extent
the power which the law may give them over him. And it is very
certain that no power on earth is entitled, in the face of Apostolic
practice, to prescribe it as a law to the Church of Christ that they
shall not admit slave-holders to ordinances or even to office in the
Church. I think too much stress has been laid on both sides on a
specific answer to the question " Is slave-holding sinful ?" With the
views I entertain upon the subject I could answer this question either
affirmatively or negatively, cum distinctione, according as it might be
explained and applied. There is surely a class of cases which are
intermediate between things indifferent and those which are in their
own nature, and in all their circumstances, morally right or wrong.
The country is involved in a great excitement at present in conse-
quence of Sir Robert Peel's resolution to endow permanently the
College at Maynooth for the educating Popish priests. He adverted
the other night in the House of Commons to the possibility of a war
with the United States as a reason for reconciliating the Irish Papists.
362 CORRESPONDENCE. [ 1 846.
Let us hope and pray that the Lord may avert so fearful a
calamity.
We have suffered a great loss in our Theological Seminary by the
death of Dr. Welsh, at the age of fifty-one. He was Professor
of Church History, and a man very highly esteemed and respected
among us. He had published the first volume of a church history,
which, however, is by no means a fair specimen of what the work
was to have been had he been spared to complete it. His death will
probably lead to some remodelling of our arrangements in the Sem-
inary, and it is not altogether unlikely that I may be appointed to
succeed him; not, however, as Professor of Church History, but of
Historical and Polemic Theology. Dr. Chalmers continues to enjoy
good health, though he does not now take much part in the manage-
ment of the ordinary business of the church. His strength is failing
a good deal, and he is very anxious now to retire from public life and
active duties. He is not likely to continue to take the regular
charge of a class in the Seminary for more than one or two years
longer.
I am going to visit Sutherland for a fortnight before the Assembly.
The Duke of Sutherland, as I anticipated when in America, was
shamed into giving sites for our churches ; but he resolved, since we
had carried off the whole adult population, to try to bring back the
young men to the establishment, and has refused to give us sites for
Free Church schools. The people won't send their children to the
establishment schools, and there are no others in that part of the
country. As he made 24,000 pass a winter without churches, he has
made their children pass two without school-houses. But he seems
now to feel that he must yield on this point, too ; and I expect to be
able to report to the Assembly that the matter has been adjusted.
It will always give me the greatest pleasure to hear from you. I
will write again (D. V.) after the Assembly. Give my kindest re-
membrance to Mrs. Hodge and the members of your family, and to
your colleagues, and believe me to be, my dear sir,
Sincerely and affectionately yours, WM. CUNNINGHAM.
DR. HODGE TO DR. CUNNINGHAM.
PRINCETON, January, 1846.
My Dear Sir: If my negligence in writing to you entails on me
the penalty of not hearing from you I am severely though justly pun-
ished. I beg you, however, not to let justice grow into severity and
lead you to keep silence even after I have performed my epistolary
duty. If writing is a disagreeable work to you, consider that reading
is very agreeable to us.
JET. 48.] CORRESPONDENCE. 363
Since I last wrote two things have occurred in our Church, the one
a public and the other a more personal affair, which have been pecu-
liarly interesting to me. The former is the decision of our General
Assembly, pronouncing baptism as administered in the Romish
Church to be invalid. This decision took us all very much by sur-
prise. I think a decided majority of our ministers, over fifty years
of age, are opposed to the decision, and a large proportion of our
more intelligent laymen. All the brethren connected with the Col-
lege and Theological Seminary are in opposition, and if the Reper-
tory still reaches you, you may have noticed in the number for July,
1845, an argument against the decision. * * * I beg you to let me
know your own views and what you take to be the sentiment of your
church as to the decision of our Assembly.
The other and more private event to which I alluded is the death
of Mr. Dod, Professor of Mathematics in our College. I suspect you
hardly saw enough of him to get an insight into the man. He was
one of the most highly gifted of our ministers ; the best public de-
bater, I think, in our church, and one of the best of our controver-
sial writers. I greatly relied upon him in all times of emergency.
He died on the 2oth of November, after a week's illness. His
death-bed experience was very remarkable. He had for some years
been so absorbed in literary and professional pursuits that he ap-
peared less before the public as a minister and a religious man than
his friends wished ; and there was a latitude of remark and a freedom
in speculation in which he was apt to indulge which produced an im-
pression as to his Christian character which was not altogether fav-
orable. His intimate friends, however, never doubted his piety, and
when he came to die, which in his case was a slow process, contin-
uing from Tuesday evening until Thursday afternoon, he evidenced a
calm, intelligent, Scriptural faith, without any emotional excitement,
which filled every one about him with surprise. He was just as com-
pletely Albert B. Dod, in all his intellectual and social peculiarities,
in his cheerfulness, even playfulness, in his clear and strong discri-
minating sense, as when in perfect health. I had often known
of men's dying in peace or in triumph, but to see a man dying cheer-
fully in the full possession of his intellect, in calm, unexcited confi-
dence in Christ as his God and Saviour, was to me a perfectly novel
sight. His death is the greatest loss I have ever sustained in the
death of friends.
I learn by letter just received from the Rev. Thomas McCrie,
of Edinburgh, that some friends there think of republishing the Re-
view of Beman on the Atonement, published in the Repertory, for
January, 1845, * n mv answer to his letter I ventured to suggest some
\
364 DEA TH OF PR OFESSOR D OD. [ 1 845 .
reasons for thinking it better that the Review should appear without
a name. You know a man can talk very "big" when he is speak-
ing behind a curtain, and in the name of a whole class of men the Old
School party for instance when he would feel rather foolish if the cur-
tain were suddenly drawn up, and only one little fellow seen standing
there. This, however, is only a personal affair. I am willing you
should do what you think is most likely to be useful. At all events,
leave out the compliment to Dr. Cox in the last paragraph, about his
<ro0m and yvua^, which none but an American can understand.
Mrs. Hodge and the whole family unite in begging you not to for-
get them. Your friends in America have a great hankering after
you, and despite of the claims of the Free Church, would be glad to
get you permanently among us. The good people in this country
have such a notion of Lord Palmerston's pugnacity that they are all
rejoicing at the return of Sir Robert Peel to power. Can a greater
sin be imagined than England and America going to war about Ore-
gon ? I question whether Dr. Chalmers even knows where Oregon is.
Your affectionate friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
DEATH OF PROFESSOR ALBERT B. DOD.
On the 2Oth of November, 1845, the subject of this
Memoir met one of the chief bereavements of his life. Pro-
fessor Albert B. Dod had married his cousin, Miss Caroline
S. Bayard and was, with the exception of his brother and
Bishop Johns, the most intimate friend he ever had. As
narrated above, Professor Dod spent several evenings every
week in his friend's study, where he formed by far the most
brilliant and inspiring of the remarkable set of conversa-
tionalists who met there constantly for the discussion of all
questions of interest to educated men. Nine years after his
death Dr. Hodge wrote an account of him for Dr. Sprague's
Annals, affirming : " I have not yet ceased to mourn his de-
parture as a personal loss."
He describes him as : " Rather above the ordinary stan-
dard in height, somewhat inclined to stoop ; rather square-
shouldered; but active and graceful in his movements and
carriage. His head was unusually large; his forehead
broad, but not high; his eyebrows massive and projecting;
^ET. 47.] DEATH OF PROFESSOR DOD. 365
his eyes hazel, brilliant and deep-seated ; his countenance
intellectual and pleasing. His disposition was very cheerful
and amiable, which rendered him with his extraordinary
conversational powers, particularly agreeable as a com-
panion. His reputation as a talker threatened at one time
to eclipse his fame in higher departments. But this was
only the sparkling of a really deep and rapidly moving
stream.
" He had a taste for literature and the fine arts, and con-
siderable fertility of imagination, and was, I think, dis-
posed to estimate these gifts at a higher value than his more
solid mental qualities. To me, it always appeared that his
understanding, his power of clear and quick discernment,
of analysis and lucid statement, and of logical deduction,
was the leading power of his mind, to which his reputation
and usefulness were mainly due.
" It was that gave him his success and power as a teacher.
There was nothing that he could not make plain. He de-
lighted in unfolding the rationale of all the processes of his
department, and to elevate his pupils to the study of the
philosophy of every subject which he taught.
" To this clearness and discrimination of mind is also to
be referred his fondness for metaphysics, and his skill in
the discussion of subjects connected with that department.
Those of his writings which excited general attention are
on topics of this character. His mind was ever on the alert,
and teeming with thought and suggestions. It was a com-
mon thing for him when he entered my study, to say :
' I was thinking, as I came along, of such and such a ques-
tion,' announcing some problem in mental or moral science.
Indeed, I do not know that I ever was acquainted with a
man, who so constantly suggested important topics of con-
versation, or kept the minds of his friends more on a stretch.
His consciousness of power in debate, no doubt, contributed
to the formation of this habit, for the pleasure of discussion
was in his case so great, fhat he would often start paradox-
366 DEATH OF PROFESSOR DOD. [1845.
ical opinions, either for the sake of surprising his hearers,
or exercising his skill in defending them. The talent to
which I have referred,' was conspicuously displayed in all
public assemblies. Had his life been spared, I doubt not,
he would have established for himself the reputation of one
of the ablest debaters in our church.
" His best and most effective sermons are distinguished
by the same character of mind. His voice was melodious
and his delivery free and untrammelled by his notes, which
were generally written out in full. Though his preaching
in the latter years of his life was generally addressed more
to the understanding than to the affections, yet he had great
emotional power, and could, when roused himself, control
in an uncommon degree the feelings of his audience.
"I regarded him as one of the most gifted men of our
church. His having chosen an academical, instead of a
pastoral career, kept him in a measure aloof from our eccle-
siastical courts, and turned his attention to science rather
than to theology. But I have a strong conviction that he had
in him rich stores of undeveloped resources (he was only 41),
which, had it pleased God to prolong his life, would have
rendered him one of the most eminent and useful ministers
of our church."
As described above in Dr. Hodge's letter to Dr. Cun-
ningham, Prof. Dod's death-bed experience was very remark-
able. All his peculiar intellectual and social traits and habits
were in full play to the last. When unexpectedly and
instantly brought face to face with death, he took up every
question of pressing personal interest and settled them in
their order. First, his family, of wife and seven little children,
unprovided for. These he committed to God in an act of
absolute faith, which the heavenly Father has not disap-
pointed. And this matter remained thus permanently dis-
posed of. Then he took up the relation of his own soul to
God. "As soon as the object of faith was presented to him
in the free, full and explicit declarations of Scripture, he
JET. 49.] DEPARTURE OF HIS CHILDREN. 367
seized it with a clearness and strength which left no doubt
in his own mind whether he had faith or not. As promise
after promise was repeated to him, he said with emotion :
' I thank you for that/ ' God bless you for that.' ' I know
myself to be nothing and less than nothing, and God all in
all. And Christ precious. I know no other God but him.'
The text was then repeated : ' Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Son of God, is born of God.' 'Thank you
for that,' he replied, and attempted to raise his friend's hand
to his lips."
That friend was Dr. Hodge, who remained with him all
the long period of his death struggle, and who wrote an
account of it which he read at the funeral, and which was
subsequently printed in a pamphlet. It was at this funeral
that Dr. Hodge made one of his few but nevertheless in-
tensely characteristic bursts of eloquence, described by Dr.
Paxton in the last chapter of this book.
MARRIAGE AND DEPARTURE OF HIS CHILDREN.
Two years after this, in the late summer and autumn of
1847, Dr. Hodge's immediate family began to have its first
experience of the inevitable separations which await us all.
Up to this time there had been no parting. Neither parent,
nor either of the eight children had died. Their education
also in school and college had been conducted together and
at home. [But now at once the eldest son went to India as
a Missionary, and the eldest daughter went to Danville,
Kentucky, as the wife of the Rey^ Wm. M. Scott, Professor
of Ancient Languages in Centre College, and afterwards
Professor of Biblical Literature and Exegesis in the Theo-
logical Seminary at Chicago.
Such an experience makes an epoch in any family, leaving
it changed forever. Our family was never completely
regathered on earth again, for before the son returned from
India, the Mother was making the beginnings of the home
in heaven. The parting was the occasion of the utter pour-
368 DEPARTURE OF HIS CHILDREN. [1847.
ing forth of the treasures of love of both parents' hearts.
To us these are unspeakably precious, but they are too
sacred to be given here. From this time for years our
Father's letters to his brother had but one burden, his
children and their welfare, and then the memory and the
virtues and the love of their sainted Mother. He writes to
his brother, September I4th, 1847, "To marry a daughter I
find to be a very different thing from marrying a son. It is
a complete sacrifice of self to the good of your child, and it
is right it should be so, but it is most peculiarly painful.
How little we know of anything but by experience. Whoever
sympathizes with parents on the marriage of a daughter?
Men congratulate me, when I can hardly help feeling they
do it in designed mockery. Still we had M . for two and
twenty years, and that is a good deal, and though she is not
now, and never again can be to us what she once was, she
is still our precious child. I trust we shall be happy in her
happiness."
His never failing friend, Bishop Johns, wrote to him,
Richmond, April i/th, 1848. "We rejoice with you in the
intelligence of A.'s safe arrival and in his health and com-
fort in his new field. Distance, dear Charles, is a small con-
sideration. To have a child so devoted and employed should
overtop all else. And to have a daughter wedded to a
faithful minister of the gospel, who will be her guide to
heaven, as well as her affectionate companion by the way,
is a privilege with which the heart of a Christian parent
may well be contented. Forget oceans and miles in your
gratitude. All unite in most affectionate regards to you
and yours. In the beginning yet of our friendship, yours
truly. J. Johns." Is not that beautiful ? They were past
fifty years old, and in the twenty-eighth year of their minis-
try, " and in the beginning yet of their friendship I"
JET. 52.] DEATH OF HIS WIFE. 369
THE DEATH OF HIS WIFE.
During the summer of 1849 Mrs. Hodge had visited her
daughter in Kentucky, and had returned in September, as
her husband reported to his brother "wonderfully well,
fatter and stronger than before her journey, and in excellent
spirits." She became ill however later in the same month
with a disease which, in the judgment of her physicians,
while involving crises of imminent danger, yet upon the
whole admitted a strong expectation of ultimate recovery.
His beloved brother visited their home as frequently as pos-
sible during the first week of December, and contributed
much to prolong life, and to sustain hope. The bereaved hus-
band left this minute in his record book. " On Tuesday, the
1 8th of December, in the afternoon, she sank so low that we
feared she could not live until sundown. She was sweetly
humble and resigned. I asked her, Do you love the Lord
Jesus ? She said : ' I hope so.' I asked, do you trust in
him ? ' Entirely.' Is he precious to you ? ' Very.' She
afterwards often answered the same questions by saying :
' Inexpressibly.' ' He is my all in all.' She expressed the
greatest penitence and self-condemnation in view of herself
and life, but the most peaceful confidence whenever she
thought of the blessed Saviour.*** Afterwards, towards the
end of that week and the beginning of the next, she im-
proved. During these days she frequently requested me to
pray with her, and was never weary of the repetition of
hymns, especially of the hymns " How sweet the name of
Jesus sounds," and "Jesus, lover of my soul." But Monday
night, at another violent crisis in her complaint, she began
to sink, and about half past four o'clock on Christmas
morning she softly and sweetly fell asleep in Jesus. She
evinced throughout the most perfect composure and resig-
nation. She said she knew she was dying. Spoke of her
children, said she could not see them now and added : ' I
give them to God.' She responded in full appropriating
faith to the promises of Scripture repeated in her hearing,
24
370 DEATH OF HIS WIFE. [1849.
and over and over again expressed her full and entire con-
fidence in Christ, and her overwhelming sense of his value
and of the love of God in the gift of his dear Son.
" Her death was calm, peaceful and holy. She was full
of humility, faith and grateful, admiring love to God. Her
children, save the eldest, were all about her. They all were
renewedly given by her to God, and around her sacred re-
mains they all knelt in consecrating prayer to God."
! She had lived with her husband, his joy and crown,
twenty-seven years and a half. She had borne for him
eight children, three daughters and five sons, all of whom,
by God's singular mercy, lived to mature age, and have
been gathered with their parents into the number of those
who profess Christ]
The sorrowing husband caused this inscription to be
graven on her tomb :
SARAH BACHE,
WIFE OF
REV. CHARLES HODGE,
DEPARTED THIS LIFE,
DECEMBER 25TH, 1849,
AGED 51 YEARS.
AN HUMBLE WORSHIPPER OF CHRIST,
SHE LIVED IN LOVE AND
DIED IN FAITH.
TRUTHFUL WOMAN, DELIGHTFUL COMPANION,
ARDENT FRIEND, DEVOTED WIFE.
SELF-SACRIFICING MOTHER,
WE LAY YOU GENTLY HERE, OUR BEST BELOVED,
TO GATHER STRENGTH AND BEAUTY
FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD.
A GRAIN OF WHEAT IS NOT QUICKENED EXCEPT IT DIE.
This is indeed the outpouring of a bereaved husband's
heart. But it is all true. And now, when, after twenty-
/ET.52.] DEATH OF HIS WIFE. 371
nine years, we, their children, lay our father by our mother's
side and read this inscription on her tomb, we all say
"Amen ! "
BISHOP JOHNS WRITES TO HIM.
WILLIAMSBURGH, March 19, 1850.
My Dear Charles: If all the letters which I have penned in
thought had been forwarded you would know how much you have
been in my mind. Yes, both sleeping and waking, I have been with
you not, indeed, as you now are ; for it requires an effort to realize
that your house is not as I always, except at my last brief visit, joyed
to find it but as enlivened and cheered by the presence of the
blessed one who has from the first been so identified with us that it
seems impossible for me to think of either of you without seeing
both. I am so willing to allow the illusion which the happy associa-
tion of many past years produces, that I can scarcely bring myself to
the conviction that my dear Charles is bereaved, and alone in his
desolate home, and that I am no more to receive the cordial greeting
and gaze on the bright countenance of SARAH. That one sentence
in your letter, " since their blessed mother entered heaven," pressed
for a while the truth upon my consciousness, and in my strong sym-
pathies for my afflicted brother I found the experience of the time ot
my own like visitation very vividly renewed. Yes, dear Charles,
they are together "in heaven," and may we but be successful in
training to a meetness for the same mansions the precious children
they have left us, the hour is not far off when we shall rather think
of their sainted mothers as there than encounter the struggle of leav-
ing them on earth. My solicitude for the spiritual welfare of my
children increases as my opportunities of being useful to them short-
en, and this anxiety is, of course, more intense in the case of those
who thus far have given no indications of the new birth into right-
eousness. Nothing seems so strongly to stir up my feelings in prayer
as the effort to intercede for them with God. But a few days before
the receipt of your letter I was, I think, more than usually engaged
in this way with tenderness toward them, but I fear small faith and
hope. Is my almost "extremity" to prove "God's opportunity?"
How wishfully I wait for further intelligence ! Oh, for more of that
"great faith in the baptismal dedication of children, and of that be-
lieving prayer," of which you speak ! The confidence is authorized,
and in exercise, how great the comfort !
I have written to my dear boy (in Princeton College) the overflow-
ings of my heart for counsel. Should he be sufficiently interested to
372 DEATH OF HIS WIFE. [1850.
desire it, I have commended him to you as to a father, and it is to
me cause of great thankfulness to know that he is so near one who
will " naturally care for his state," and truly show him the way of
salvation.
Do let me hear from you, for I shall be anxious to learn something
of the good work which I trust the Lord has begun in the College.
How the tidings carry me back, as well they may, with gratitude and
praise to the never-to-be-forgotten scenes of our own College course
there. But for the gracious dispensation of those days, giving effect
to parental instruction and example, what and where should / have
been. Bless the Lord, O my soul !
I need not say, my dear Charles, that all here join me in love to
you and yours. J. JOHNS.
After this many months were almost absorbed by this
great sorrow. In every way he gave it full course, dwell-
ing upon it in his imagination, and indulging unrestrained
the physical expression of it. He wrote to his brother on
the 1 2th of November, 1850, the anniversary of his (the
brother's) marriage in New York :
"This is the 1 2th of November. During my days of
happiness the anniversary of my marriage generally passed
without special notice ; every day was as the day of our
espousals. But now that day is invested with sacred inter-
est. As you are still happy, and pressed forward with the
full tide of life, you may let this day pass with scarcely
more than a few ejaculations of thanks to God for his good-
ness. It is now one of my anniversaries. I know the his-
tory of my Sarah for this day twenty-two years ago, and
can recall her appearance as she then was distinctly before
me. The night before we spent in New Brunswick. In the
morning we went to New York in the steamboat. We put
up at Bunker's. I know the room we occupied. I know
where Sarah sat at dinner, and what she ate. In the after-
noon Miss Boyd came to aid her in dressing. I can see
her as she sat by Margaret (his brother's bride) on the sofa
in the evening, and how she smiled when I called her ' old
Mrs. Hodge.' It is thus I can recall her by associating her
JET. 53.] DEATH OF HIS WIFE. 373
with particular times and places. The general recollection
is painfully vague ; these definite associations are poignantly
vivid. And yet I assiduously cultivate them as part of the
homage due her memory. No human being can tell, prior
to experience, what it is to lose out of a family its head and
heart, the source at once of its light and love."
In December, 1850, his brother lost, by a rapid and un-
controllable disease, his third son, James Bayard, a beauti-
ful and beloved Christian youth of seventeen years. After
his return to Princeton from the funeral Dr. Hodge wrote :
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Dec. 16, 1850.
My Dear Brother : You were kind in writing to me when God's
hand had touched the apple of my eye, and you expressed what were
no doubt wise and pious sentiments, but I felt you did not and could
not understand the case, and that such counsels had but little power
over a broken heart. I do not feel disposed, therefore, to say any-
thing of the kind to you and sister Margaret.
There is no help in such afflictions but in God. He alone can
reach the heart. Earthly friends speak only to the outward ear.
Their sympathy, I know, by experience, is consoling and gratifying.
It is viewed as a tribute to the departed, an acknowledgment of the
greatness of our loss, and is therefore to be valued and cherished.
That sympathy you have from a very large circle, and prayers con-
stant, numerous and fervent are going up to God in your behalf, and
in behalf of your dear children. It was never meant that we should
not sorrow after the most cherished objects of our affection. Our
duty is to take care that we " sorrow after a godly sort," for " the sor-
row of the world," such sorrow as the world or worldly people have,
" worketh death." Pious sorrow, that is, sorrow mingled with pious
feeling, with resignation, confidence in God, hope in his mercy and
love, is every way healthful to the soul ; while melancholy is irrelig-
ious, and is a cancer to true peace and spiritual health. The great
means of having our sorrow kept pure is to keep near to God, to feel
assured of his love, that he orders all things well, and will make even
our afflictions work out for us a far more exceeding and an eternal
weight of glory.
Christ is our God. When we speak of keeping near to God, we
mean God in Christ, and God as reconciled and made propitious to
374 CORRESPONDENCE. [1850.
us by his blood. And Christ is near to us, and dwells in us, and
shows us His love, and works all grace in us by the Holy Spirit. The
doctrine of the Trinity is not a mere speculative doctrine, it is an es-
sential part of the Christian's practical faith, the truth on which he
daily lives. If, therefore, God will graciously give you and Margaret
the Holy Ghost, He will thereby give you Himself, and open to you
the infinite sources of peace and consolation that are to be found in
Him. To give our grief this pious character, I think it must be
expressed, not hidden or kept in one's own bosom. At least, it seems
to me much more consistent with Christian feeling to give proper ex-
pression to our sorrow, and to talk of those whom God has taken to
heaven, than to cast the pall of silence over all that concerns them.
I was, therefore, truly rejoiced to find that dear M. had the heart
to talk freely of Bayard. As he cannot be forgotten, so he ought not
to be remembered merely in silence. He and his death and his pre-
sent blessedness can bear to be talked about among those who loved
him and still long to manifest their affection for his memory.
I began this letter with the intention of saying nothing that could
be considered like counsel, but I fear I have run into this mistake-
We cannot tell how what we say will affect the exquisite sensibilities
of a bereaved heart, and therefore must hope that what we write will
be taken as an expression of love, though it may be, as such expres-
sions often are, more or less painful.
Your affectionate brother,
CHARLES.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, May 28, 1850.
My Dear Brother : I am sorry to hear that your fears respecting
Mrs. Chauncey have proved so well founded. I feel f6r him, but there
is no help but in God. If God comforts him he will be comforted,
but vain are all human comforters. I will try to write to him, but my
experience teaches me not how to write, but that letters of condo-
lence, though not without their value, are powerless. I have re-
ceived many and value them highly, not merely as expressions of
kind feeling towards myself, but far more as evidence of regard for
my blessed Sarah. Still, I have never read any of them a second
time.
I feel also for you. I know how much you suffer from the loss of
patients, not only from sympathy, but from a feeling of responsibility.
You should remember, however, that it is appointed unto all men
once to die, and that no degree of skill, and no assiduity of attention,
MT. 50.] DISTURBED HEALTH. 375
can avert the shaft of death. You have great consolations, as well as
great trials. How often are you the means of saving life ! How often
do patients and friends look up to you as their greatest benefactor !
You cannot have this exquisite satisfaction without paying the tribute
of occasional sorrow when all your efforts fail.
Your brother, C. H.
DISTURBED HEALTH.
During this period, and for some years later, Dr. Hodge's
health continued in an uncomfortable, though hardly in a
precarious condition. In the summer of 1848 he met with
an accident which proved to be the starting point of a long
sequence of disturbances in his nervous and circulatory
systems. His letter to his brother on the occasion will ex-
plain the case :
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, July I4th, 1848 Friday.
My Dear Brother : I had made my arrangements to preach on
Sunday next at Netherwood (Mr. Lenox's place), and therefore was
to leave home last evening for New York, so as to be able to take the
morning boat up the North river for to-day. They had tea at six
o'clock that I might be ready for the cars. While we were all at
table something was said to produce a laugh, just as I had my cup at
my mouth, and some of the tea got into my larynx, producing a vio-
lent fit of coughing. I rose to leave the table, and took a step or two
towards the door, and then I remember nothing until I saw the fam-
ily around me in alarm raising me from the floor. They say I stag-
gered to the wall, and fell, striking my head against the sofa. I re-
member nothing of the staggering or falling, or of the blow. The
unconsciousness was only for a moment, for as they raised me to a
sitting posture I spoke, and asked what had happened. I was aware
I was coming out of unconsciousness, and had forgotten the anteced-
ents. They told me I had choked, and then it all came back. They
were all a good deal alarmed, and begged me not to leave home.
The hack was at the door, and the whole occurrence seeming per-
fectly intelligible, the spasm of the larynx producing suffocation, and
that momentary congestion, I determined to go, taking Wistar with
me to New York for company. When, however, I got to the depot I
felt unwell and determined to return.
We sent for Dr. Schanck. He took the same view of the matter
376 DISTURBED HEALTH. [1848.
that I had done, and advised, what I had already ordered, a hot bath
for the feet and cold water for the head. I thought he would have
taken a little blood, and think it would have been better had he done
so. I felt no inconvenience through the night, beyond a slight
headache and a heaviness about the chest, inducing frequent sigh-
ing. I feel well this morning, except this little headache.
I am not free from concern about this dispensation, as I think it
shows a great tenderness about the brain. I never could bear to
have my head jarred, nor exposed to heat, especially in the back
part of it. I arn not certain, however, the difficulty is not in the chest,
as I so frequently feel oppression there.
I am so well that I expect to leave home at noon, so as to take the
night boat up the river. The Lord our Saviour reigns, and we are in
his hands, and not a hair of our heads can perish without his notice.
Your brother, CHARLES HODGE.
Again he writes to his brother, as soon as he returns to
Princeton, on Wednesday, the igth of July:
My Dear Brother : As Dr. Schanck advised my going up the
North river, I left home on Friday morning, and reached Hampton,
five miles above Newburgh, about half-past nine that evening. I had
a very pleasant journey, and the fresh evening air on the river I
thought did me good. I reached Mr. Lenox's the next morning
about eight o'clock. My head has been gradually improving. On
Saturday it ached constantly on the back or top, and I had a good
deal of new nervous feeling not giddiness but feeble {nervation, so
that my step was unsteady, and at times I experienced the initial sen-
sation of fainting. I kept quiet and did not attempt to preach on
Sunday. Monday I felt better. I left Netherwood about noon yes-
terday, in the day boat, stayed last night in New York, and reached
home at noon to-day. I find that writing a few short letters is as
much as my head will bear.
I found your kind letter awaiting my return, and shall be careful to
follow your directions.
Your brother, C. H.
The nervous disturbance occasioned by this accident was
subsequently confirmed and aggravated by the severe and
protracted emotional excitement he went through during
the year, which followed the death of his wife^l This effect
was doubtless dependent upon the fullness of his habit
MT. 5 1 .] CORRESPONDENCE. 377
of body, the constitutional changes, incident to his time
of life, and the long confinement which had resulted
from his lameness. For years he suffered from fulness and
dizziness of the head, and constant restlessness. He was
frequently bled and otherwise depleted, and necessarily lived
far more in the open air than at any other period of his life.
Consequently from 1848 to about 1855 or '56 was his least
productive period, so much so that it then often seemed as if
he might fail to gather the complete harvest of his previous
labors. It was now that he formed the habit of seeking
recreation and of amusing the hours of his necessary rest
by a moderate reading of novels, and by playing backgam-
mon, and in the summer season croquet on the lawn before
his study windows.
DR. CHARLES HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Jan. 25, 1849.
My Dear Brother ; Were it not for what you say I should feel a
good deal concerned about my head. That there has been a great
change since my attack last summer there is no doubt. And some-
times the disturbance and pain are so great that I can do nothing.
Often, after three or four hours' work, I am obliged to put by every-
thing and go into the open air. All this is new and strange for me.
I have been relieved in a measure by observing that the pain was
partly external at times that is, the scalp on the top of my head is
tender to the touch. It may all be neuralgia, but it unfits me for the
labor I could once sustain.
Your brother, C. H.
TO THE SAME.
PRINCETON, June 18, 1851.
My Dear Brother: This is my wedding day. This day, and not
far from this hour, twenty-nine years ago, my blessed Sarah gave me
her hand in pledge of life-long love and devotion. That pledge she
sacredly redeemed. ' For twenty-seven years God spared us to each
other, and no man had ever more reason than I have had to rejoice
in the unwavering affection of a most superior woman .j My feelings
now are in some respects very different from what they were this time
last year, but in others they remain unchanged. No day has inter-
378 DEATH OF HIS SENIOR COLLEAGUES. ' [1850.
vened that I have not often and literally shed tears to her memory ;
no week has passed that I have not been twice or oftener to her
grave. And yet I think of her now with less of that dreadful sense
of bereavement which then oppressed my spirit. I turn my heart to-
wards her with much of the same feeling with which a Romanist, who
stops short of idolatry, looks up to his patron saintJ No one can
know, prior to experience, the mystery of those affections which are
interwoven with the whole tissue of our lives, and whose objects God
has exalted to heaven.
Your affectionate brother, C. H.
DEATH OF HIS SENIOR COLLEAGUES.
And now, within less than two years of one another, Dr.
Hodge's two senior Colleagues were removed, leaving him
to occupy the position of senior professor, with its attend-
ant dignity and responsibility for twenty-seven years. Dr.
Miller died January 7th, 1850, and Dr. Alexander died Oc-
tober 22d, 1851.
It is natural that every institution which has attained to
a history should possess away back in its past, if not a
heroic, at least a golden age, when the remote forefathers
dwelt in a world of love and purity, not known to their de-
generate sons. But the holy character and mutual love of
the first three professors of Princeton Theological Seminary
is not a myth, nor is it certified to us only by a dim tradi-
tion. Many of their cotemporaries have left their written
testimony, and many of us, their children and pupils, survive
to testify of what we have known ourselves. For many
years I witnessed, as a member of one of their families,
their going in and out together, and since then I have had
a wide experience of professors and of pastors, and I am
certain, I have never seen any three who together approached
these three in absolute singleness of mind, in simplicity
and godly sincerity, in utter unselfishness and devotion to
the common cause, each in honor preferring one another.
Truth and candor was the atmosphere they breathed,
loyalty, brave and sweet, was the spirit of their lives.
Dr. Alexander bore testimony to Dr. Miller, that he had
^ET. 52.] DEATH OF HIS SENIOR COLLEAGUES. 379
" never known a man more entirely free from vainglory,
envy and jealousy." His students regarded him as the most
perfect illustration of the Christian graces they had ever
seen. Dr. Hodge often narrated how, ' In the summer of
1819, Dr. Alexander delivered to the then Senior class a
lecture, which so impressed his pupils, that Dr. William
Nevins said to his classmates that it was a shame they
should enjoy such instructions and do nothing to secure
the same advantage for others. He, therefore, proposed
that we should endeavor to found a scholarship, to be called
'The Scholarship of the Class of 1819.' To this the class
assented, and a committee was appointed to inform the
Professors of our purpose. When the committee waited on
Dr. Miller, Nevins with his characteristic naive frankness
told him the whole story, and dwelt on the enthusiasm
cherished by the students for Dr. Alexander. Dr. Miller
having heard him through, expressed his pleasure in view
of what the class had done, and then lifted his hand and
said, ' My young friend, I solemly believe that Dr. Alexan-
der is the greatest man who walks the earth !' When we
left the Doctor's study, Nevins said to his associates on the
Committee, ' Well, if Dr. Alexander be the greatest, Dr.
Miller is surely the holiest that walks the earth ! ' We were
boys then ; but this incident serves to show how Dr. Miller
was regarded by his pupils." Dr. Hodge also says of Dr.
Miller "Some men are good in one respect and not in
another. Dr. Miller was thoroughly good ; good in every
respect, because he was good in principle. . . . The fact
that for over thirty years he was intimately associated with
colleagues to whom he never said an unkind word or ex-
hibited an unkind feeling, is proof enough of his habitual
self-control."
In the last year of his life Dr. Miller wrote a letter to Dr.
Henry A. Boardman of Philadelphia, which ought never to
be read except through tears. Its existence is a proof of
the singular favor with which God regarded the old Prince-
380 DEATH OF HIS SENIOR COLLEAGUES. [1850.
ton. We preserve it, and again and again we publish it as
an inestimable record of God's goodness to our Fathers,
and of the religious character of the heritage they have
left us.
DR. MILLER TO REV. H. A. BOARDMAN, D. D.
PRINCETON, Feb. 28, 1849.
I thank you, my dear brother, for the kind expressions which you
employ on the prospect of my retiring from office. I am, indeed,
nearly worn out. Far advanced in my eightieth year, I have outlived
all my relatives, and all my own expectations, and am compassed
about with so many infirmities that I am persuaded a longer continu-
ance in office would be in no respect just, either to the Seminary or
myself. Yet, in looking forward to retirement from official labor, and
especially to that day which is near at hand, when I must " put off
this tabernacle," I desire to bless God for the humble hope which I
am permitted to entertain, that I have so good a home to go to, where
there will be no more infirmity, and especially no more sin ; but per-
fect union and conformity to Him who, though He was rich, for our
sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich.
I desire to unite with you, my dear brother, in thanksgiving to the
great Head of the Church, that our beloved Seminary has been made
so useful to our Zion, by training so large a portion of the ministry
under the same teachers ; and I hope I have some sincere gratitude
that I have been permitted to occupy a place, and take some humble
part in this hallowed work. But I can truly say that the sentiment
which most strongly and prominently occupies my mind is that of
thankfulness that the Lord has been pleased to unite me with col-
leagues so wise, so faithful, so much superior to myself, and so emi-
nently adapted to be a blessing to the Church. I consider it as one
of the greatest blessings of my life to be united with such men, and
pre-eminently with my senior colleague, whose wisdom, prudence,
learning and peculiar piety have served as an aid and guide to my-
self, as well as to others. I desire to leave it on record, for the eye
of intimate friendship, that in my own estimation my union with
these beloved men has been the means of adding to my own respect-
ability and my own usefulness far more than I could ever, humanly
speaking, have attained, either alone or in association with almost
any other men. I desire especially to feel thankful that I ever saw
the face of my venerated senior colleague. He has been for thirty-
six years, to me a counsellor, a guide, a prop and a stay, under God,
JET. 52.] DEATH OF HIS SENIO.R COLLEAGUES. 381
to a degree which it would not be easy for -me to estimate or acknow-
ledge.
[The union in our Faculty has been complete. And the solid basis
of the whole has been a perfect agreement on the part of all of us in
an honest subscription to our doctrinal formularies. There has been
no discrepance no pulling in different directions."!
Hoping to see you in a few days, I am, my dear sir, your friend
and brother in Christian bonds,
SAMUEL MILLER.
In his article on the Memoir of Dr. A. Alexander, in the
January No. of the Princeton Review for 1855, Dr. Hodge
says : " Having incidentally mentioned the name of Dr.
Miller, we may be permitted to pause and in a sentence pay
our humble tribute to that sainted man. He could be ap-
preciated only by those who knew him intimately, who saw
him day by day, and year in and year out, in all circum-
stances suited to try and to reveal the true character. We
have never heard any one who enjoyed such means of
knowing him, speak of him otherwise than as one of the
holiest of men. May the writer be further pardoned for ob-
truding himself for a moment, so far as to say, that during
twenty-nine years of intimate official association with these
two venerated men, he never saw the slightest discourtesy,
unkindness nor acerbity manifested by the one towards the
other ; and that he never heard a disparaging remark from
the one in reference to the other. Thank God, Princeton
Seminary has a history! The past is safe. The memory
of the two eminent men who were its first professors,
and who gave it character, rest over it as a halo, and men
will tread its halls for their sake with something of the
feeling with which they visit the tombs of the good and
the great." '
That Dr. Hodge was worthy by the endowments of Pro-
vidence, and by the gifts of grace of his place in that circle
of the first three professors, and to be associated with the
colleagues he ardently loved and venerated, will be shown
hereafter by the testimony of those surviving colleagues,
382 DEA TH OF HIS SENIOR COLLEA G UES. [1851.
who so long delighted in him as their friend and academic
head.
The relation which Dr. Hodge sustained to Dr. Archibald
Alexander has been plainly disclosed in the foregoing me-
moranda. He was noticed as a school-boy, and made a
companion of rides and of distant journeys. He was chosen
as an assistant, and for two years made an inmate of the
family. He was chosen as a colleague, and habitually and
intimately consulted and counseled in all the public and
private interests of either. He was chosen to be his suc-
cessor in the chair of Didactic Theology. And now, when
the aged saint came to die, his disciple and successor was
summoned (October I2th, 1851), to his side. Dr. Alexan-
der held out his hand and called him his son. In another
interview he transferred to him the account book of the
scholarships, and told him what he wished to be done in
respect to them, and handed him a white bone walking-
stick, carved and presented to him by one of the chiefs of
the Sandwich Islands, and said, " You must hand this to
your successor in office, that it may be handed down as a
kind of symbol of orthodoxy." When he dismissed him
from the first interview he said, " Now my dear son, farewell."
I saw my father when he returned from that interview,
standing in his study in an agony of weeping, exclaiming,
"It is all past, the glory of our Seminary has departed."
At the funeral he walked with the sons, claiming to be a
true son also.j
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Oct. 15, 1851.
My Dear Brother : We begin to be very much concerned about
our dear venerated Doctor Alexander. Four weeks ago he was
seized with a debilitating sickness, and although the violence of the
attack has abated, his stomach seems to be giving out, his appetite is
gone, so that food is unpleasant to him, and he is very feeble,
should he live to April he will be eighty years old. Last week he
drove out several times, and I thought he was getting well. On Sun-
MT. 53.] DEATH OF HIS SENIOR COLLEAGUES. 383
day afternoon he sent for me. I found him lying on the sofa in his
study, and when I came near to him he put out his hand and said,
" My dear son, I have a few things to say to you, to which I wish you
to listen without making any reply." He then went on to say " that
those around him thought he was improving, but his own strong per-
suasion was that his end was drawing nigh ; that he was going just
as Mr. Samuel Bayard went, from utter failure of the stomach ; that
he had thought much on the subject and had arrived at the conclu-
sion that it was best for him to leave the world now. He had done
his work. After eighty he had never known a man to be useful, and
he did not think it desirable for him to live and drag on a few years
more a burden to himself and others." He said, " I wish you to
know my views of my case now, and I want to speak to you while I
have strength. I consider it one of my greatest blessings that I have
been able to bring you forward, and now, my dear son, farewell.
You will not see me again." I was, as you may suppose, greatly
humbled and affected by this address from the man to whom I owe
so much. I sank on my knees by him and kissed his hand. He told
me to pray. I did so for a few sentences. He said, with emphasis,
"Amen," and again giving me his hand said, " farewell."
This is for your eye alone. Burn this letter. I should be deeply
mortified that this record of the parental tenderness and partiality of
the old gentleman should ever be seen. It is forty years next spring
since I first, as a boy, attracted his notice. , He has ever since acted
to me as a father, and God has given me grace to love and revere
him as a child would such a father. I believe I have never offended
him, or hurt his feelings. I cannot prevent this solemn interview
having a very strong impression upon my feelings as to the prospect
of his recovery, though I know he is often disposed to take gloomy
views.
Every thing is covered with gloom here now. It is a sad season
of the year the hour of desolation is drawing near again, and the
prospect of L the patriarchal head of our Church and Seminary] being
taken away makes us feel very sad. The nearest circle to Dr. Alex-
ander is his family, the next the Seminary, the next his thousand
living former pupils, and next the ministers and members of the
Church. Jle is the centre of all, and the same feeling, decreasing
of course according to its diffusion, pervades the whole. ]
Your brother, CHARLES HODGE. .
CHAPTER X.
FROM THE DEATH OF DR. ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER, 1851, TO
THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR, 1 86 1.
A. MEMBER OF THE BOARDS OF THE CHURCH TRUSTEE OF THE COLLEGE
OF NEW JERSEY METHODS OF TEACHING SECOND MARRIAGE CORRES-
PONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER, POLITICS DANCING AND CARD PLAYING
THE BAPTISM OF THE INFANTS OF NON-PROFESSORSCOMMENTARIES
ARTICLES IN THE Princeton Review (l) ON THE GENERAL ASSEMBLIES
THE RELATION OF THE BOARD OF MISSIONS TO THE PRESBYTERIES
THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF OUR BOARDS COMMISSIONS THE ADOPTION
OF THE CONFESSION OF FAITH RELIGIOUS EDUCATION, AND THE RELI-
GIOUS AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES (II.)
FREE AGENCY, INSPIRATION, ETC. (ill.) PRESBYTERIAN LITURGIES ( IV.)
"THE Princeton Review AND COUSIN'S PHILOSOPHY" (V.) REVIEW OF
BISHOP M'ILVAINEON THE CHURCH (vi.) HIS ARTICLES ON THE CHURCH
AND ELDER QUESTION CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. WM. CUNNINGHAM
AND BISHOP JOHNS THE DEATH OF DRS. JAMES W. AND JOSEPH A. ALEX-
ANDER LETTER OF DR. R. L. DABNEY ELECTION OF HIS SON, C. W.
HODGE, AS PROFESSOR OF N. T. LITERATURE, ETC. HIS GREAT DEBATE
WITH DR. THORNWELL IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF l86l.
DURING these years Dr. Hodge was active in the public
counsels of the church. He became a member of the
Board of Foreign Missions in 1846; and in 1868 he was
elected President of that Board to succeed Dr. Spring, and
acted as such until the reconstruction of the Boards, conse-
quent upon the Reunion of the Presbyterian Church in 1870.
Dr. Ellinwood writes, "We regard your father as one of the
very ablest and most earnest supporters of the cause of
Foreign Missions we ever had in the Presbyterian Church."
He preached the sermon before the Board in the Church on
384
&T. 53-] TR USTEE OF PRINCE TON COLLE GE. 385
University Place on Sabbath evening, May /th, 1848, on
Matt. 28: 19, 20, on "the teaching office of the Church."
It was afterwards published in the Report of that year, and
was considered as a signal exposition of the fundamental
principles on which Christian missions should be conducted.
He was a member of the Board of Domestic Missions from
about 1840 to 1870.
He also acted as a member of the Board of Education,
from 1 86 1, and as President of it from 1862 to the Recon-
struction of the Board consequent on Reunion. He was
made one of the Vice-Presidents of the Presbyterian His-
torical Society in May 1852, and a Trustee of Princeton
College in the place of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller, de-
ceased in 1850.
TRUSTEE OF PRINCETON COLLEGE.
His work as a Trustee in the College, often taxed all
the energies of his heart and will. Professor Lyman H.
Atwater, D.D., writes of Dr. Hodge that "he took a
foremost rank in the Board from the first, and wielded a
commanding influence in its proceedings. His efforts were
especially directed to filling vacancies in the professors'
chairs with able incumbents and to increasing the corps of
instructors as rapidly as funds for the purpose could be pro-
cured, and in maintaining a due proportion in the relative
strength of the different departments, especially in main-
taining the importance of the languages and the humanities
in competition with the pressure of the physical sciences."
His Co-trustee, Dr. Win. M. Paxton writes, "Considering
the fact of Dr. Hodge's antecedents and associations, it is no
wonder, that as a Trustee of the College for the long period
of twenty-seven years, he should feel his whole life bound
up in the interests of that institution. During the last twelve
years, it has been my privilege to be associated with him as
a member of that Board, and it was a pleasure to observe
the fatherly I might perhaps say the Patriarchal interest
25
386 TRUSTEE OF PRINCETON COLLEGE. [1850.
he manifested in everything connected with the prosperity
of the College. He understood its history, the questions
of policy connected with its management, its dangers and
the conditions of its prosperity as the younger members of
the Board could not. Hence he was always listened to with
the profoundest attention, and his judgment in many cases
of difficulty had great weight in deciding the action of the
Board. There were two points about which he manifested
special solicitude. The 1st was the maintenance of the religions
character of the College. It was founded for religious pur-
poses. It was sustained by the prayers, activities and con-
tributions of God's people as an institution for Christian
education, and especially for the training of young men for
the Christian Ministry. It has enjoyed throughout its
history the blessing of God, in numerous and powerful
revivals, and in the character and influence of the ministers
and devout laymen educated in her halls. Dr. Hodge fre-
quently referred to these facts and insisted that they never
should be lost sight of in the settlement of any question
of policy. He urged it upon the Board that they should
make the religious character of the College the first great
aim of its administration.
" He appeared to apprehend as a definite possibility the
operation of causes by which this seat of learning might
be perverted from the purpose to which it had been con-
secrated by so many prayers.
" 2d. The other point which interested the mind of Dr.
Hodge was the maintenance of a high grade of scholarship
in the College. He had a dread of a little as well as of
an unsanctified learning. The completion of his own edu-
cation in Germany furnished him with the standard of the
higher culture attained in the European universities. Hence
he was anxious to advance prudently, but as rapidly as
possible the standard of learning in our colleges as a pre-
paration for all the diversified enterprises of American life.
" But he especially desired to provide a remedy for the
-ST. 53.] METHODS OF TEACHING. 38?
deficient classical culture, which has hitherto been so pain-
fully prevalent among the graduates of our Colleges,
who seek to enter the learned professions. His own ex-
perience as a theological professor had discovered to him
how many of the candidates for our ministry have great
difficulty in reading the Greek of the New Testament and
the simple Latin of Turretine's Institutes. I am glad to be
able to express his views upon this subject, because it is one
of the vital points connected with our present educational
systems. If the furor for scientific courses and the study of
the modern languages is to displace the study of the classics
then we must look for a great change in the mental culture
of the coming age. The purpose of education is to
develop mental power. I believe that the experience of the
past has shown that the best mental development is attained
by the study of the classics and mathematics. Each of these
studies has its peculiar influence, and it requires the balance
of the two to produce the kind of development and culture
in which grace, strength and efficiency are conjoined. We
ought not to be too ready to forsake the methods of our
fathers, for ' there were giants in those days.' "
METHODS OF TEACHING.
During these years Dr. Hodge matured his methods of
instruction. His exegetical exercises with the Junior classes
continued throughout his life to be very much what they
were before his change of professorship. Through successive
years he accomplished the exposition of all the Pauline
Epistles, except those to Timothy and Titus, but going most
frequently over the doctrinal portions of Romans, I. Corin-
thians, Galatians and Ephesians. An account of the main
characteristics of his exegetical teaching will be given in a
subsequent chapter by one of his ablest and most accom-
plished pupils. At the period at which the present chapter
commences, his theological lectures were fully written out,
and were habitually read by him in a quiet manner. From
388 METHODS OF TEACHING. [1853.
year to year they were rewritten, being thoroughly recast,
and much enriched and extended, but his method of teach-
ing for many years continued unchanged. The lecture was
delivered on a topic on one day, and at another within the
same week, the entire hour was devoted to his matchless
cross-examination. He soon gave up in despair, his former
most excellent method of requiring all to make up systems
of theology for themselves in the form of written answers to
questions covering the entire course, because by this time
each student was possessed of a written copy of the lectures
before they were read, and copied to the professor's ques-
tions answers in his own words. Hence often the method
became irksome alike to him and to his classes, for they
sat reading with their eyes for the most part the same sen-
tences they heard read from the desk. He often proposed
to print his lectures that he might use them as a text-book,
but was restrained by the counsel of his most trusted ad-
visers among the Directors of the Seminary, who feared
that if these lectures were given to the public, they would in
ceasing to be the peculiar attribute of this Seminary, cease
also to attract students to its classes. But in his last years,
when his " Systematic Theology" was the common property
of the Church, and it was made the text-book in Princeton,
as it was also in several other theological schools, he felt as
if set free, and his power as a teacher greatly increased. His
great skill as a teacher found its fullest play in the exercise
of his gift for questioning, and by that means of compelling
the student to think, and to refute himself if wrong, or to
develop his own thought into completeness if right. He
always maintained that the true method of teaching didactic
theology, involves the use of the text-book, the living
teacher, practice in writing, and an active drill in verbal
questions and debates.
The following paper originating from some of his most in-
telligent students, and his own letter in response to a request
to him by the Rev. Wm. S. Plumer, D.D., for suggestions
JET. 55.] METHODS OF TEACHING. 389
as to the method of conducting the instruction of classes in
his branch, will explain themselves in the light of what I
have just said.
PRINCETON THEOL. SEM., Feb. 19, 1853.
PROF. CHARLES HODGE.
Dear Sir : The different classes of the Seminary, in meetings
held during the present week, resolved to request of you a Syllabus
of your Lectures on Theology, to be printed for the use of the stu-
dents ; and appointed committees to convey to you their request.
We, the members of those committees, would respectfully submit the
following as some of the reasons suggested as giving urgency and
propriety to such requests.
1. From the amount of matter and the condensed form of your
lectures, notes taken in the class-room afford a very inadequate and
unsatisfactory guide in the prosecution of our studies in theology.
Most of your students, satisfied of this, have been constrained to re-
sort to the use of manuscript copies of your lectures.
2. These manuscript copies present to our minds several objec-
tionable features. Copied by students, the manual labor is injurious
to health and eyesight, and consumes important time that should be
given to study and investigation. Transcribed by copyists, the ex-
pense places them beyond the reach of the great majority of the stu-
dents. Besides, they are the occasion of various abuses. Professing
to be exact copies, they lead to the neglect of investigation and of
the study of collateral works, so important in itself and so often re-
commended by our Professor. Carried by students to different parts
of the country, they tend, by their many errors, to create misappre-
hension as to the doctrines taught in this Seminary, a result which
we, in common with our Professors, greatly deprecate.
3. A printed Syllabus, besides promoting original research and
compelling more close and vigorous study, seems to us the proper
corrective of such evils. Moreover, printed and not published, it
can scarcely seem liable to objection, as the premature publication
of a System of Theology ; but even this objection seems to be met
by the consideration that it would avert the danger of a surreptitious
publication from imperfect copies already so widely circulated.
Such, sir, are some of the reasons which have induced this expres-
sion of a desire presented now with entire unanimity, and (we feel
assured) entertained for years by the students and graduates of the
Seminary.
Hoping that this communication may not fail of its end, and trust-
METHODS OF TEACHING. [1854.
ing that in presenting it we may not appear presumptuous, or as ex-
ceeding the propriety of our position,
We remain, with very great respect,
Truly yours,
JOHN E. DAVIDSON,
JAMES M. PLATT ist Class,
THOMAS R. MARKHAM,
E. D. JUNKIN 2d Class.
E. KEMPSHALL,
P. A. STUDDIFORD 30? Class.
DR. HODGE TO REV. WM. S. PLUMER, D. D.
PRINCETON, N. J., July 25, 1854,
r Rev. and Dear Brother : I sincerely rejoice that Providence has
opened for you a field of labor so congenial to your tastes, and
which promises so much for your future usefulness and comfort.
I fear I shall not be able to make any suggestions such as you re-
fer to in your letter of the 2oth inst., which will be of much value to
you. It may be the best thing I can do simply to recite my experi-
ence, or the course which I pursued, when called to teach theology.
For some years after I was assigned to the theological chair, Dr.
Alexander continued to give his lectures, and I was simply the cate-
chist. That is, I catechised the class on the several subjects without
reference to the Doctor's lectures. He was often lecturing on one
subject while I was examining upon another. The two courses of in-
struction were therefore independent of each other.
The method I adopted in preparing for these exercises was to read
everything I could command on the subject in hand, making notes
of each author. From these notes I prepared a logical analysis of
the topic under consideration, and that analysis was my guide in ex-
amining the class. Of course all such examinations called for ex-
planations and remarks as we went along.
When the whole department was thrown upon me I endeavored to
unite the advantages of the three methods of lectures, catechetical
examination i*nd writing. I lectured regularly on the whole course,
spent the next day of meeting the class in questioning them on the
subject of the preceding lecture, and gave out a list of questions in
writing, to which I urged them to write answers in extenso. I still
think this a good plan, if it could be carried out as it was here for
several years. The practical difficulties which have gradually ac-
cumulated are these, which very much impair its value :
First, The students taking notes of the lectures have come, in a
^T.56.] METHODS OF TEACHING. 391
succession of years, to have almost complete copies of them. I am
subjected, therefore, to the embarrassment of reading lectures, copies
of which many members of the class hold in their hands. This I find
a great bore. How the difficulty is to be avoided I do not know. It
is the same in other Seminaries.
Secondly, The students, instead of writing answers to the questions
given to them, after studying and reflecting for themselves, in most
cases simply transcribe the copies of the lectures which are handed
down to them by the preceding classes.
The result is that the interest in the lectures and in the written ex-
ercise has greatly decreased, while that in the oral questioning re-
mains. For several years no one has come to the lecture who could
help it ; whereas the room is commonly crowded at the oral exami-
nations. I am at a loss how to get over this difficulty.
The two defects of my system of instruction of which I am most
sensible are, first, that the students are not rendered familiar with
proof texts, so as to quote and recite them readily when called upon.
I believe they have a real Scriptural foundation for their faith, but
this they get rather by reading whole books of Scripture in their
connection than by getting proof texts by heart.
The second deficiency I had in mind is the lack of information as
to theological works. I frequently lecture on a subject, question the
class, and give out written questions and mention no author what-
ever. It does not, somehow, come in my way, and when done, it is
done of set purpose.
Your question as to what books I have found most useful I really
know not how to answer. I have read, generally, everything I could
on each topic, orthodox and heterodox, and got what good I could
from each. Turretine's Institutes I regard as incomparably the best
book as a whole on systematic theology, but on the subjects of the
attributes of God, Trinity, sin, atonement, grace, etc., the books, you
know, are endless, and I have no such estimate of particular treatises
as to lead me to point them out as especially important. At least,
you need nothing of the kind from me.
With sincere desire for your usefulness, success and happiness, I
am, very truly, your friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
HIS SECOND MARRIAGE.
On the eighth of July, 1852, he contracted his second
marriage with Mrs. Mary Hunter Stockton, widow of the
late Lieutenant Samuel Witham Stockton, of the United
392 HIS SECOND MARRIAGE. [1852.
States Navy, and sister of Major General David Hunter and
of Dr. Lewis B. Hunter, of the United States Army and Navy.
This noble Christian lady supported and brightened all his
later life, and assiduously attended him with her tender
ministrations until his eyes closed in death. She has been
an admirable mother to his children, and head of his house-
hold, uniting the family and completing the education and
training of its younger members in a manner their own
mother would not have desired to excel. She survived him
for twenty months, presiding in his place in the large fam-
ily circle, preserving with us the traditions and associations
sacred to his memory, the object of the affection and grati-
tude of all their children. Left by his death as a stricken
deer, she had no desire to live. Through much pain, yet
with unwavering faith, she went to rejoin him on the early
morning of February 28th, 1880.
On the occasion of their marriage Dr. Hodge wrote to
his dearest friend, Bishop Johns :
DR. HODGE TO BISHOP JOHNS.
PRINCETON, August 27, 1852.
My Dear Johns : You would not have heard of my marriage from
others before hearing of it from me had I known where to address
you. It was only a month or two before the event that I could bring
myself to inform my own children of my purpose. Other friends I
intended to inform afterwards. I do not know that you remember
Mary Hunter, the constant companion of Caroline Bayard (now Mrs.
Dod). I have known her by sight since she was fifteen years old.
For the last six or seven years she was a sister to Sarah, and therefore
to me. She was familiarly known and greatly loved by all my chil-
dren, who were almost as much at home in her house as in my own.
She has come into my family as an old friend, every heart already
her own, and we all feel her presence as a token and assurance of
God's favor.
I told her what kind of a man you were, and she said, " Well, as
I don't know him, I can't love him desperately yet ; as soon as I see
him I'll do my best." Her best is very good, indeed ; so you may be
sure of an affectionate greeting from her, as well as from your old
friend, when you pay your promised visit. Dear John, do not let that
JET. 54.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER. 393
visit be only for a day. Old friendship deserves more than that, and
remember I spent ten days with you in Richmond as meek as a
mouse, never answering to all your sharp things out of deference to
your wife. It will greatly add to our pleasure if Mrs. Johns will come
with you, and the girls also. Hope deferred, &c.
I have already made the acquaintance of Mr. Peterkin, and have
heard him preach. He has made an exceedingly pleasant impression
on his church and on the community. Every one speaks well of him,
and his people seem disposed to receive him with confidence and af-
fection. There are some High-church persons among them who
think he is below the mark in some things; but even they speak
highly of him as a man and preacher.
Your affectionate friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER.
During these years he continued to keep up his weekly
correspondence with his brother. In the latter years of this
period, from about 1856, his letters began sensibly to de-
crease in frequency and length, until some years before the
death of his brother, in February, 1873, they had ceased to
be regular, and became occasional. The cause of this was,
in part, increasing infirmity, resulting from advancing age
on both sides, but especially the increasing defect of his
brother's vision, which resulted in blindness so far entire as
to prevent all reading or writing more than ten years before
his decease. The following are given as specimens of this
correspondence and of his political opinions :
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, July 8, 1850.
My Dear Brother ; * *###* \ hear you are a Fillmore man.
That is better than going for Buchanan. I am for Fremont. Not
for the man, but for the platform. I would not vote for my father if
he endorsed the Cincinnati resolutions ; and Fillmore has committed
himself to worse nullification than South Carolina ever dreamt of. He
has drawn a broader line between the North and South than was ever
drawn before, and exalted the 300,000 slave-holders into an equiva-
lent of the 20,000,000 of the free men, entitled to an equal share in
the government of the country. I think the great danger to the
394 LOUIS NAPOLEON AND KOSSUTH. 1851.
country^ and to the cause of justice and good government is from the
divisions and concessions of the North. If Ohio had done to Ken-
tucky what Missouri has done to Kansas, the South would have risen
as one man and redressed the grievance. And if the North had risen
as one man and told the South that Kansas should have justice, we
should have had no difficulty.
Your brother, C. H.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Dec. 29, 1851.
My Dear Brother : ****** My view of the character of
Louis Napoleon is not altered by recent events. He is a name and
an instrument which able military men use for their own aggrandize-
ment. The army in all ages has an esprit du corps which makes
them a distinct class from the people, and when they are addressed
as the elite of the nation, and invited by their official head to become
the ruling power, it is rare indeed that they refuse, France seems to
me like a great bear led about by a soldier and ridden by a monkey,
if it be not wrong to speak thus of rulers. What is to come of all
this God only knows. The choice for Europe just now seems to be
military despotism or socialistic anarchy, and, therefore, it is not won-
derful that so many are willing to choose the former. Hungary
seems to present the only prospect of rational liberty, because the
Hungarians are a religious people, and their leaders are professed
Christians. I am filled with admiration for Kossuth, and cannot but
hope that God means him to be a great instrument for good. So far
from regretting his coming to this country, I think his visit to Eng-
land and America is likely to prove a turning point in the history of
the world. He appears to be chosen and fitted to impress certain
truths, before indistinctly recognized, as living principles in the minds
of the people, which must hereafter control public policy. I think
his principle of non-intervention, and the right of all nations to pre-
vent the violation of that principle, is so obviously true, and so
beneficent, that it will command universal consent. In our case the
question is not as to our right to intervene to prevent the aggression
of Russia ; nor as to our duty to do so if we can do it effectively, but
simply as to our power. A protest would do little, a war not much
more. We are too far off. But if by union with other nations we could
so intervene as to make our intervention effectual, then I think the
path, both of policy and duty, would be plain.
You affectionate brother, C. H.
/ET. 54.] KOSSUTH, AND LOUIS NAPOLEON. 395
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Feb. 16, 1852.
My Dear Brother: * * * * * I feel provoked at the way Z
talks of Kossuth. It is just as absurd and arrogant to call him a
humbug, as it would be to call Newton an idiot, or Raphael a dauber.
Z should remember other men have eyes and ears and sense as
well as he. Kossuth is beyond question one of the greatest men of
the age, whatever may be thought of his history or of his principles.
And as to his principles, I do not believe there is one good and sen-
sible man in a hundred who doubts their soundness. The great
mistake is that people do not distinguish between the principles
themselves and their application. It may be very unwise for us as a
nation to interfere as he would have us do, but the right and duty to
interfere in certain cases, when it can be done effectually and safely,
is just as plain as that it is the right and duty of one man to interfere
to prevent another man murdering his neighbor. There is in the
February number of Dr. Van Rensselaer's " Presbyterian Magazine."
an article on '\Kossuth and his Mission" which I think takes the right
ground.
As to Louis Napoleon, I am not prophet enough to say what is to
happen. He has on his side four of the six classes into which the
French population is divided : the army, the priesthood, the peas-
antry (who are governed by the priesthood), and the capitalists or
business men. These constitute the vast majority of the people, and
by the instinct of self-preservation cling to despotism as the necessary
condition of order. The only class against him is that of professional
men (lawyers, doctors, politicians) and the mechanics or working
men of the towns. It is so clear to me that liberty can exist only on
the foundation of intelligence and religion, that I have no hope for
France, where the intelligent part of the population have no religion
and the religious part no intelligence. It seems, however, almost
incredible that such a nation can submit to be so insulted, abused,
and down-trodden by such a pretender as Louis Napoleon.
Your brother,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, April 14, 1852.
My Dear Brother: Six weeks does indeed seem a long period of
non-intercourse between you and me. It did not use to be so. But
circumstances, habits, and powers alter even when, as doubtless is
true in our case, the affections remain unchanged. It is painful, how-
396 DANCING AND CARD-PLAYING. . [1854.
ever, that we should thus drift asunder as we grow older. I have been
rejoiced several times to hear that you were and looked better than
usual this winter, notwithstanding its length and severity.
You see from the papers that Senator Choate has been making a
great speech in Trenton on the India rubber case. James Alexander
told me that he met Chief Justice Green of Trenton the other day,
who told him that Choate was a great Princeton man that he thought
the Princeton Review the greatest quarterly review in the country ! ! ;
and Princeton the great conservative influence, &c., &c. What do
you think of that ? I did not know that our rays penetrated so far
into the hyperborean regions.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, March 15, 1854.
My Dear Brother : On Sunday evening I went to Church for the
first time in some months.* When near home I struck my foot
against a stone and fell with great force on my lame limb. The jar
was considerable, and has made the limb tender and painful, very
much as it used to be. I rode out yesterday, but found the motion
gave me the same kind of pain I used to suffer. I cannot now walk
about the house without occasioning more pain than walking two
miles occasioned before the fall. I am afraid the socket of the hip
joint received a concussion which has made it irritable, though the
blow and bruise were presumably below the knee.
I feel somewhat concerned lest this accident may throw me back
to my former state of lameness, though I hope it may be only a tem-
porary inconvenience. I am, however, for the present as lame as I
was in '43. I propose keeping as quiet as possible for a while, and to
use cold water and rubbing. Last night I pushed the hydropathic
system to the extent of wrapping my limb in a wet towel and then in
flannel. It did no harm that I could perceive. It made the limb
red, the pores of the skin seemed dilated and raised, and a little rub-
bing was more effective than a good deal before.
I shall be really sorry to be again laid up. I trust this may not be.
Dr. Duff has again disappointed us. He is not to come for a month.
This makes it doubtful whether we shall see him at all.
DANCING AND CARD-PLAYING.
An old pupil, the Rev. Wm. C ., had consulted him
on a case of discipline likely to come up on appeal to the
* Sabbath morning and afternoon he worshipped in the Seminary, Chapel and
Oratory.
^T. 55-] DANCING AND CARD PLAYING. 397
General Assembly, involving the question of dancing and
worldly amusements. As his former letter to the Rev. Mr.
C . had been misunderstood and hence misrepresented,
Dr. Hodge wrote again and very explicitly:
DR. HODGE TO REV. WM. C .
PRINCETON, April ist, 1853.
Dear Sir : * * * I very much regret that the matter is coming
up. It is a very serious matter to transfer a local difficulty and agita-
tion to the whole Church. If this controversy has done harm in your
neighborhood, it will do harm in a much larger theatre. There are
the same elements of disagreement in the Assembly that exist in your
Presbytery.
Again, it is very doubtful how the Assembly will decide. The
question does not come up in the abstract, but in the concrete. It is
not a principle to be decided, but a given case with all its circum-
stances. The Assembly is a very uncertain place for such discussions
and decisions.
And once more, if I understand your letter, you are on very differ-
ent ground from that which I meant to assume in my former letter to
you, and from what would be sustained by the general sentiment of
the Church in this part of the country. It is one thing to state gen-
eral principles as to things indifferent and as to the power of the
Church in reference to such matters, and a very different thing to de-
cide upon the propriety or impropriety of indulging in such things.
Dancing, card-playing and wine-drinking all belong to the same
class. They are not in their essential nature sinful. But there may
be a kind of dancing, a kind of card-playing and a kind of wine
drinking in their nature evil ; and when not evil in themselves it may
be very wrong for professors of religion to indulge in them. They
are all so associated with frivolity and worldliness that no minister or
church member in this part of the country can countenance them in
any form without injuring his influence* and the cause of religion. I
have never allowed my children to learn to dance, or to attend
dances, or to be present where it was going on. I have directed
them to leave the company and return home if it was unexpectedly
introduced. But I understand that you have advocated the propriety
of Church members dancing, and have even remained present where
it was going on. This could not be done with impunity by any min-
ister here any more than his playing cards or countenancing card-
playing by his presence.
398 INFANTS OF NON-COMMUNICANTS. [1843.
I think, therefore, if the case comes up before the Assembly, how-
ever irregular or unwise may have been the action of the session, the
decision will not be in accordance with your wishes.
I hope you will excuse my expressing myself so plainly on this sub-
ject, but as my name has been mixed up in this business, and my for-
mer letter to you quoted in reference to it, it is proper that you should
understand exactly how I regard the whole subject.
Very sincerely your friend,
C. HODGE.
THE BAPTISM OF THE INFANT CHILDREN OF NON-
PROFESSORS.
A fellow-citizen and friendly neighbor applied to him to
baptize his children in a case in which neither parent was a
communicating member of the church, at the time when
the Rev. Benjamin H. Rice, D.D., was pastor of the con-
gregation. He refused, and in the following letter fully
stated his views of duty in such a case.
DR. HODGE TO MR. B .
PRINCETON, N. J., April 4, 1843.
My Dear Sir : Your request that I should baptize your children
presented a question of duty which I felt to be so important that I
have delayed longer than would otherwise have been excusable in
giving you an answer. On the one hand, the desire that you and
Mrs. B express, of having your children recognized as members
of the Christian Church, is not only natural but worthy of respect.
On the other hand, the obligations which parents assume in present-
ing their children for baptism are of the most serious nature. From
the nature of the case, the parent professes faith in Christ ; he pro-
fesses to believe all the doctrines which Christ taught, especially all
those which are particularly brought to view in that ordinance viz. :
the fallen state of man, his need of pardon and sanctification, the
suitableness and sufficiency of the provision made in the gospel
through the merit and Spirit of Christ for our salvation, and the right
which Christ has to our confidence and obedience. Besides this, it
results from the nature of the ordinance in question that the parent not
only professes his faith in Christ, but promises to live in obedience to all
his commands. This is included in professing himself to be a Christ-
ian ; and the Bible as well as our own reason teaches that all who par-
take of the ordinances of the Christian Church do thereby profess to be
ALT. 45.] INFANTS OF NON-CGMMUNICANTS. 399
Christians, just as those who offered a Jewish sacrifice in the temple
professed the Jewish religion. While, therefore, the desire to have
our children baptized is natural and proper, we ought to feel that the
profession and promises that we of necessity make when we present
them to God are so solemn and comprehensive that they cannot be
properly made unless we are sincere in our faith, and determined, by
the grace of God, to be faithful to our engagements. I make these
remarks not only because I wish you to feel that you, as parents,
would incur before God and his Church very serious responsibilities
in having your children baptized, but also that no minister could, in
this view of the case, conscientiously administer the ordinance unless
the parents (or one of them) were prepared intelligently to make the
profession and incur the responsibility which it necessarily involves.
What the minister is bound to consider as a profession entitling the
parent to have his children baptized is, as you know, a question on
which the ministers of our Church are much divided. I doubt not
the majority take the same view of the case as Dr. Rice. I feel, how-
ever, that I am precluded by a previous consideration from the right
of deciding that question for myself, or at least acting on that deci-
sion. I do not stand in the relation of pastor to this people ; Dr.
Rice does ; he has been made the overseer of this flock ; I have not.
He, therefore, is responsible for the administration of the word and
ordinances to this people, and other ministers have no right to inter-
fere with his charge. I feel, therefore that I have no right to comply
with your request. I am sure, therefore, you will readily excuse me,
which you would do the more readily if you knew the pain it has
given me to come to this decision.
I cannot conclude this letter without begging you and Mrs. B
not to let this matter rest here. The benefits and blessings connected
with infant baptism are so great that no parent has the right to debar
his children from them. We are bound to give our children to God
in the way which He has appointed, and to secure for them the bless-
ings of that covenant which He has formed with His people. We are
therefore bound, as we desire the salvation of our children, to do
whatever on our part is necessary to secure for them, according to the
rules of His church, the great benefit of being devoted to God by the
ordinance of baptism.
May I ask you to show this letter to Mrs. B , for whom I enter-
tain the sincerest respect, that she may see that I decline a compli-
ance with your request only from a sense of duty, and that I consider
this a question which neither she nor you can safely allow to rest as
it now is. Very sincerely your friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
4OO COMMENTARIES AND ARTICLES. [1851-60.
COMMENTARIES.
In. the early part of this decade, Dr. Hodge, together
with Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander, formed a plan for the
joint production of a critical Commentary of the whole New
Testament, based on the Greek Text, in a series of volumes
of an approximately uniform sizej
^Dr. Hodge published his Commentary on Ephesians in
1856, that on First Corinthians in 1857, and that on Second
Corinthians in 1859?}
ARTICLES IN THE PRINCETON REVIEW.
Besides these volumes he wrote during this decade the
following articles in the Princeton Review.
1852. .The General Assembly.
1853. [Idea of the Church. The General Assembly.
Visibility of the Church]
1854. Beecher's Great Conflict' Dr. SchafFs Apostolic
Church. The Church of England on Presbyterian Orders.
The Education Question^ The General Assembly.
1855. Memoir of Dr. Archibald Alexander. ^Bishop
M'llvaine on the Church^ Presbyterian Liturgies. The
General Assembly.
1856. The Church Review on the Permanency of the
Apostolic Office. The Princeton Review & Cousin's Philo-
sophy. The General Assembly of 1856. The Church, its
Perpetuity.
1857. Free Agency. The General Assembly. The
American Bible Society and its New Standard. Inspiration.
1858. The Church. Membership of Infants. The Ge-
neral Assembly. Adoption of the Confession of Faith.
The Revised Book of Discipline.
1859. The Unity of Mankind. Demission of the Minis-
try. The peneral Assembly. Sunday Laws.
1860. What is Christianity ] The First and Second
Adam. The General Assembly. Presbyterianism.
AT. 53-62.] BOARD OF DOMESTIC MISSIONS. 401
This list of bare titles shows that he was now at the very
summit of his life, making the most effective demonstration
of his powers, and pouring forth the richest fruits of his
labors as a student and thinker. The list is so rich in
volume and variety that space is available only for a very
cursory notice of those articles which possess special or
most permanent significance.
I. The Articles on the annual General Assemblies con-
tain matters of various and paramount interest. Dr. Hodge
was himself a member of the Assemblies of 1854 in Buffalo
and of 1 860 in Rochester, and took a prominent part in the
debates of both of them. He has left in these articles for-
cible expression of his opinion on the following among
other subjects.
1. In the General Assembly of 1853, there were two
questions debated as to the Board of Domestic Missions.
(a) The relation of the Board to the Presbyteries, and
(b) Whether the Board is only a Missionary and not also a
Sustentation organization. Dr. Hodge maintained as to the
first question, that the Board and not the Presbytery is to
be judge in every case as to its own ability to grant the aid
asked, and on the other hand the Presbytery and not the
Board is the only judge in every case whether the particular
church concerned deserves the aid sought He also main-
tained as to the second question that it is anti-scriptural, inex-
pedient, and contrary to historical fact to hold that the
Presbyterian Board of Home Missions is only a missionary
organization, that on all these grounds it is proved to be
also the organ of the church for sustaining weak churches,
and that practically it is the prerogative of the Presbytery
and not of the Board to decide whether the particular weak
church deserves any longer to receive aid or not.
THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF OUR CHURCH BOARDS.
2. In the Assemblies of 1854 and 1860. There were great
debates on the question whether the Boards as then or-
26
402 CONSTITUTIONALITY OF OUR "BOARDS^ [1851-60.
ganized were consistent with the principles of New Testa-
ment Presbyterianism. Dr. Thornwell and others argued
the negative, and Dr. Hodge and others the affirmative.
The principles maintained on both sides are reported by
Dr. Hodge in his Article on Tresbyterianism' in the Prince-
ton Review, July, 1860. "The theory, as propounded by
Dr. Thornwell in his first speech, was understood to embrace
the following principles : (i). That the form of government
for the church, and its modes of action, are prescribed in
the word of God, not merely as to its general principles, but
in all its details, as completely as the system of faith or the
moral law ; and therefore everything for which we cannot
produce a ' Thus saith the Lord/ is unscriptural and un-
lawful.
"(2). Consequently the church has no more right to
create a new office, organ, or organization for the exercise
of her prerogatives or the execution of her prescribed work,
than she has to create a new article of faith or to add a new
command to the Decalogue.
"(3). That the church cannot delegate her powers. She
must exercise them herself, and through officers and organs
prescribed in the Scriptures. She has no more right to act
by a vicar, than Congress has to delegate its legislative
power, or a Christian to pray by proxy.
"(4). That all executive, legislative and judicial power in
the Church is in the hands of the clergy, that is, of pres-
byters, who have the same ordination and office, although
differing in functions.
" 5. That all power in the Church is joint and not several.
That is, it can be exercised only by church courts, and not
in any case by individual officers.
" In opposition to this general scheme the ' Brother
from Princeton ' propounded the following general prin-
ciples.
"(i). That all the attributes and prerogatives of the
church arise from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and
JET. 53-62.] CONSTITUTIONALITY OF OUR "BOARDS." 403
consequently where He dwells, there are those attributes
and prerogatives.
"(2). That as the Spirit dwells not in the clergy only,
but in the people of God, all power is in sensu primo, in the
people.
"(3). That in the exercise of these prerogatives, the
church is to be governed by principles laid down in the
word of God, which determine, within certain limits, her
officers and modes of organization ; but that beyond those
prescribed principles and in fidelity to them, the church has
a wide discretion in the choice of methods, organs and
agencies.
" (4). That the fundamental principles of our Presbyterian
system are first, the parity of our clergy ; second, the right
of the people to a substantive part in the government of the
church ; third, the unity of the church, in such sense that a
small part is subject to a larger, and a larger to the whole."
If every thing relating to the government and action of
the church is laid down in detail in the word of God, so
that it is unlawful to employ any organs or agencies not
therein enjoined ; then the Boards are clearly unlawful ; if it
is not so, the having them or not having them is a matter
of expediency.
Dr. Hodge proceeded to prove that their continuance
was expedient, because they did not differ in principle, but
only in the accident of numbers from Committees, and be-
cause they were in fact established, had worked well, and
in some form not radically different from that in existence,
they were practically essential to the work of a church so
large and so circumstanced as our own. The Assembly of
1860, the last one in which the Northern and Southern Old
School Church acted together, decided in favor of the
ground advocated by Dr. Hodge, by a majority of 234
to 56.
404 COMMISSIONS. [1854-5.
COMMISSIONS.
3. The question of the constitutional right of our ecclesi-
astical courts to appoint corhmissions to try and decide
judicial cases was debated in the Assemblies of 1854 and
1855. It was argued against the right that no court, civil
or ecclesiastical, can delegate its powers. Dr. Hodge argued
earnestly for the right, because: "There is no delegation of
powers involved in the appointment of a commission. A
quorum of a Presbytery is the Presbytery; a quorum of a
Synod is the Synod; and a'quorum of the Assembly is the
Assembly. In like manner, inasmuch as a commission
must embrace at least a quorum of the appointing body, a
commission is not of the nature of a committee with pow-
ers, but it is the appointing body itself, adjourned to meet at
a certain time and place, for the transaction of a specific
business with the understanding expressed or implied that
while the whole body may convene, certain members are
required to attend. * * * It is well known that our
ecclesiastical courts have often appointed such bodies, and
that the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland an-
nually appoints a commission, to which all unfinished busi-
ness is referred. * * * It is, therefore, a mere question
of expediency. Something must be done to relieve the As-
sembly of the pressure of judicial business. The appoint-
ment of a commission is a long tried and approved method
of relief, and we hope it will be ultimately adopted, not
only by the Assembly, but by Synods and Presbyteries."
AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY.
4. Tn 1 847 it had been brought to the notice of the Board
of Managers of the American Bible Society that there ex-
isted a great number of " discrepancies between our differ-
ent editions of the English Bible ; also between our editions
and those issued by the British and Foreign Bible Society."
Hence the Board of Managers, in 1848, directed the Com-
mittee oni Versions to. collate copies of all the standard
JET. 59.] AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY. 405
editions for the purpose of correcting the discrepancies al-
leged to exist, relating principally to " orthography, capital
letters, words in italics, and punctuation." The Committee
on Versions, however, transcended in practice these perfectly
legitimate and wise directions of the Board of Managers,
and made changes affecting the sense of the text, and es-
pecially sweeping changes in the headings of chapters, on
the ground that they were no part of the inspired Word of
God. This work of the committee was practically accepted
by the Board, and large editions of the altered Bibles were
printed and put in circulation. When this was realized by
the Christian public, such general alarm and indignation was
expressed that the Bible Society receded from their hastily
and only half- designedly assumed position, and peace and
confidence was restored. The General Assemblies of 1857
and '8 considered the matter. A strong condemnatory reso-
lution, presented by Dr. R. J. Breckinridge, was passed
unanimously by the General Assembly of 1 858. Dr. Hodge
argued with great energy on the same side, in his articles on
" The General Assembly" in the Princeton Review for July,
1857 and 1858, and on "The American Bible Society and
its New Standard Edition of the English Version," July,
1857. The principles upon which this earnest opposition
was urged were (a) The Bible Society, as the agent of the
Churches, is the mere publisher and not the editor of the
version, with discretionary powers, (b) According to the
sense of the contracting parties, the Bible Society was en-
trusted by the Churches with the duty of publishing the
standard edition of King James' version, as printed in 1811,
as then furnished with headings, marginal notes and refer-
ences. "The contract, therefore, to circulate the Scriptures,
without notes or comments, must be understood to mean
without any other notes or comments than those already in-
corporated in the standard editions of the English Bible."
In this sense it was understood and acquiesced in by all
Protestant denominations. Thus, while the Board had the
406 SUBSCRIPTION TO THE CONFESSION. [1858.
right and duty of ascertaining the standard, the assumption
of the right to change it in any particular was unwarranted
and most dangerous, and must be prevented from exercise at
once, without regard to the character of the changes actual-
ly proposed. While " the fact that these changes (actually
made), in almost all instances, eliminated the evangelical
element from these headings, tended greatly to increase dis-
satisfaction and alarm."
SUBSCRIPTION TO THE CONFESSION.
5. In the General Assembly of 1858, the Rev. Dr. R. J.
Breckinridge offered a resolution directing the Board of
Publication to nominate men subsequently to be appointed
to work under the direction of future Assemblies in prepar-
ing a Church Commentary on the whole Bible, adopting the
standard King James version, in the sense of the constant
faith of the Word of God, as that is briefly set forth in the
standard of the Westminster Assembly. This was referred
to the next Assembly, and finally abandoned.
Dr. Hodge exposed the weakness of the scheme very
freely. He argued (a) That it was unprecedented, and
would be destructive of all liberty for any Church to pro-
vide an authoritative explanation of all the Scriptures in
detail, (b) That the men do not exist who are competent
for such a task, (c) That while the Confession of Faith is
the rule controlling among us ministerial communion, it has
never been made the rule for the interpretation of Scripture,
(d) Even as to the Confession of Faith agreement is not
perfect. " We could not hold together a week if we made
the adoption of all its professions a condition of ministerial
communion." " Who is to tell us the Church's sense of the
Confession? It is notorious that as to that point we are
not agreed. In the second place, even as to the points in
which the sense of the Confession is plain, there is want of
entire concurrence in its reception, and what is the main
point, there is no such thing as the sense of the West-
^T.6o.] SUBSCRIPTION TO THE CONFESSION. 407
minster Confession as to the true interpretation of thous-
ands of passages of Scripture. The standard is an imagin-
ary one. What does the Confession teach of the dark say-
ings of Hosea, &c.?"
These paragraphs made a great sensation, and the old
school newspapers generally condemned them as teaching
the loose view that the standards were subscribed by the
intrants to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church only for
substance of doctrine. That is, in the sense of evangelical
Christianity in general. Dr. Hodge, therefore, published
an article on the " Adoption of the Confession of Faith," in
the October number of the Princeton Review, of the same
year, in which he defends what he said in July, and fully
states his whole position on the subject of creed subscrip-
tion. The difficulty with the statements just quoted is that
they present only that one-half of the subject which was
related to the question then in debate. In the October
article he maintains (a) That subscription binds in the sense
of the animus imponentis i. e., not the mind of the mode-
rator, or Presbytery ordaining the candidate, but the mind
or intention of the whole denomination, (b) That to the ques-
tion, What does the Presbyterian Church understand the
candidate to profess when he " receives and adopts the Con-
fession of Faith of this Church as containing the system of
doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures?" three answers
have been given. First That "system of doctrine " means
"substance of doctrine." Second That he who affirms it
adopts every proposition contained in the Confession as
part of his own faith. Each of these answers he discards
for different reasons. Third That the phrase " system of
doctrine" is to be intelligently and honestly taken in its
fixed historical sense. It presupposes belief in all those
truths which are common to all Christians, and those com-
mon to all evangelical Protestants, and embraces in addi-
tion all those special doctrines by which the Reformed or
Calvinistic Churches are distinguished from the Lutherans
408 REVISED BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. [1858.
and Arminians and other Protestants. This system is well
known, and easily ascertainable ; it is clearly taught in the
Confession, and is professed by all who adopt this as the
standard of their faith.
6. The General Assembly of 1857 appointed a committee,
of which Dr. Thornwell was chairman and Dr. Hodge a
member, to revise the Book of Discipline. Dr. Hodge at-
tended to all the meetings of this committee, and wrote his
views extensively as to the changes proposed, in an article
published in the Princeton Review, entitled " The Revised
Book of Discipline," October, 1858. He regarded the
changes in general as wisely made, and objected only to the
change in the affirmations made with regard to the relation
of the baptized members of the Church to its discipline.
He accepted the language adopted on that subject as sus-
ceptible of a good sense, but preferred the language of the
old book. He referred the coldness with which the work
of the committee was received to a strong aversion to
change on the part of the Church, and expressed his belief
that ''the time is not distant when a verdict will be rendered
with great unanimity in favor of the majority of the altera-
tions proposed by the Committee of Revision."
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND THE RELATION OF THE
STATE TO RELIGION.
7. The late admirable Dr. Van Rensselaer, when Secre-
tary of the Board of Education, attempted to introduce a
permanent system of parochial and presbyterial schools and
synodical academies. This was met by a violent opposition
from two opposite quarters. First, Dr. Thornwell and
those who agreed with him that the Church's commission
confines it to the preaching of the gospel, in the technical
sense of that word, of course objected that the Church had
no right to give secular education even to her own children.
Secondly, The rationalistic and infidel supporters of a
MT. 58.] RELATION OF THE STATE TO RELIGION. 409
purely secular education opposed it as fanatical and as in-
terfering with the system of State schools.
Dr. Hodge earnestly advocated the system in his Articles
on the "General Assembly" for 1854 and 1856, and in
an Article entitled the " Education Question " July, 1854.
He there maintains with great force of conviction the
following principles, (a) The absolute necessity of popular
education, (b) That this education should be religious ; that
religion should be a regular part of the course of instruction
in all our non-professional educational institutions. The
new doctrine that secular education should be entirely
separated from religion he declared to be first "a virtual
renunciation of allegiance to God, as destructive to society,
and as certainly involving the final overthrow of the whole
system of public education;" and second, absolutely imprac-
ticable, since true or false doctrines as to God and his
relation to us and the world must go along with all know-
ledge ; and third, destructive, because the attempt to exclude
religion must tend to teach atheism either sceptical, virtual,
or practical, (c). That the doctrine that our state schools
must teach no religion, because the state has no religious
character, he pronounces to be false as a fact, and absurd as
an opinion. " Christianity is the common and supreme law
of the land from the necessity of the case, because it is the
religion of those who constitute the country." " Our real
statesmen, our highest judges, our chief magistrates and
founders of government and the ornaments of our country,
have with one voice and in various forms acknowledged that
Christianity is the law of the land." It is a matter of history,
and a matter of fact as to the existing state of the law, of the
institutions, customs, and convictions of the vast majority
of the people, (d.) That if the people are to be educated,
the state must teach ; if the state teaches at all, she must
teach religion ; if she teaches religion, it must under the
past and present state of facts teach Protestant Christianity.
(*), The responsibility of providing education for the people
41 RELATION OF THE STATE TO RELIGION. [1869.
rests, co-ordinately upon parents, the state and the church.
As to the right and obligation of the Church to teach, it
evidently springs from its nature. It was originally com-
missioned "to disciple all nations, baptizing them, teaching
them." This has from the beginning been the uniform
faith and practice of the Church of all denominations and
ages, and the more conspicuously in the periods of her
greatest spiritual enlightenment and faithfulness, (f) "That
in the existing state of our country the Church can no more
resign the work of education exclusively to the state, than
the state can leave it exclusively to parents or the Church.
The work cannot be accomplished, in the way she is bound
to see it accomplished, without her efficient co-operation."
( g ) " That in the performance of this great duty, the
Church cannot rely on the separate agency of her members,
but is bound to act collectively, or in her organized capacity."
In answer to a letter of inquiry addressed to him by the
Rev. Morris Sutphen, D.D., of New York, Dr. Hodge wrote
the following letter on this subject, April loth, 1869.
DR. HODGE TO REV. MORRIS SUTPHEN, D. D.
PRINCETON, N. J., April 10, 1869.
My Dear Sir: I am not aware that my views have undergone
any change on the education question. I still believe that the Church
is bound to see to it that all within her influence, especially her own
children, have a religious education ; to which end parish or church
schools are indispensable. 2. What is the duty of Presbyterians is
the duty of other denominations or churches. 3. That in such a het-
erogeneous and liberty-abusing population as we have in this coun-
try, church schools cannot reach the masses sufficiently, and there-
fore State schools are a necessity. 4. That church or denominational
schools are entitled to a share of the school fund of the State, pro-
portioned to the number of children they educate ; the State having
the right to see that its standard of secular education is come up to.
And, to finish my creed, 5. I would let none but the educated in
the schools established and approved by the State vote.
I do not remember anything I have written on this subject. I had
forgotten the address of 1847, to which you refer.
Your friend, &c., CHARLES HODGE.
SET. 61.] RELATION OF THE STATE TO RELIGION. 41 1
When a society was formed and memorials signed in
order to move the Houses of Congress to send down the
following clause to the States as an amendment to the Con-
stitution of the United States : " Humbly acknowledging
Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in
civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Ruler among
the nations, and His revealed will as of supreme authority, in
order to constitute a Christian government, &c., &c." : Dr.
Hodge, on every proper occasion, signified his approval, and
publicly subscribed his name to the following sentence. :
" We cordially approve of the object of the foregoing me-
morial, and desire to do all that we lawfully can to pro-
mote it."
FREE AGENCY, INSPIRATION, ETC., ETC.
II. His Articles on " Free Agency," " Inspiration," "the
Church membership of infants " and " Demission of the
Ministry " are all in his most effective style of theological
discussion, and have been repeated and expanded, but
hardly excelled in the corresponding chapters of his Syste-
matic Theology. Dr. McGufifey, late professor of meta-
physics in the University of Virginia, told the writer that
he regarded the former 'of this list as a most clear and able
exposition of its subject, and habitually referred his classes
to it. It was written in the first instance as a lecture, and
was as such the very first lecture he read to his classes,
when commencing to lecture in the department of Didactic
Theology.
In his article, " Demission of the Ministry," he earnestly
argued the right and the propriety of providing a way of
honorable retreat for the many honest Christian men who
have become ministers while destitute of the qualifications
for usefulness and success. The growing number of these
nominal ministers out of office, and often completely secula-
rized in character and reputation, and their frequent predo-
minance in our church courts, is coming to be recognised
412 PRESS YTERIAN L ITUR GIES. [1856.
as the greatest evil and danger in our American Presbyte-
rianism.
PRESBYTERIAN LITURGIES.
III. In the Article on "Presbyterian Liturgies," July,
1855, he expresses the following opinions, (i). That the use
of Liturgies is neither a peculiarity nor a natural adjunct of
Episcopacy. "They were introduced into all Protestant
Churches at the time of the Reformation, and in the greater
number of them they continue to the present day." (2). He
exhibits the reasons which justified Presbyterians in resisting
the imposition of the English Prayer Book, which have led
in Scotland and America to the general disuse of Liturgies
altogether. (3). He declares it to be his opinion, that their
total neglect has been injurious, especially in the imperfect
and diverse manners in which the sacraments and the special
rites of the church, such as marriage, ordination, burial, &c.,
are performed. (4). "These two conditions being supposed,
first that the book should be compiled and not written ;
and second, that its use should be optional we are strongly
of opinion, that it would answer a most important end."
IV. The article entitled, " Princeton Review and Cousin's
Philosophy," April, 1856, should be read by every one de-
siring to see all the sides of Dr. Hodge's character. Profes-
sors Dod and James W. Alexander had together written
the article on Transcendendalism in 1839. It attracted great
admiration, and was several times reprinted by parties entirely
disconnected with Princeton, both in New England and
Great Britain.
In 1856, Caleb S: Henry, D. D., the translator of the
Lectures of Cousin on Locke, one of the works reviewed
in that article, in the preface to his " Elements of Psycho-
logy" fills many pages with coarse vituperation, and impu-
tation of the basest motives against the authors, one of
whom, Dr. Hodge's intimate friend, had been eleven years
dead. Dr. H. is often said to have been like the apostle
JET. 58.] BISHOP ATIL VAINE ON THE CHURCH. 413
John : if any one will read this vindication of the memory
of his dead friend, they will nevertheless see that like his
Saviour he knew how to address the " Fools and blind" and
the " Generation of vipers/'
BISHOP M ILVAINE ON THE CHURCH.
V. In the April number of the Review for 1855
Dr. Hodge had prepared a short article under the title of
" Bishop Mcllvaine on the Church," to show that his old
friend and classmate, although a decided Episcopalian, held
the same evangelical and Protestant doctrine of the
"Church" as he himself had taught, and which many of his
Old school and New-school Presbyterian "brethren in the
ignorance of their reactionary zeal" denounced as too low-
church, and as virtually giving away of everything to the
Independents.
In May, 185 5, he delivered the first annual address before
the Presbyterian Historical Society, in which he laid down
the essential general principles of Presbyterian Church or-
ganization. In October, of the same year, the Church Re-
view and Register, a high-church quarterly review of New
Haven, reviewed that lecture, and set over against it an argu-
ment purporting to come from the pen of Bishop Mcllvaine,
maintaining the permanency of the Apostolic office. In
his January number of the Princeton Review, Dr. Hodge
answered and refuted this argument in an article entitled
" The Church Review on the Permanency of the Apostolic
Office." In April, 1854, he published an article entitled
"The Church of England and Presbyterian Orders" in which
he exhibits the historical argument of the Rev. Wm. Goode,
in support of the position that the founders and great theo-
logians of the Church of England while maintaining the
expediency or even the divine right of Episcopacy, had
never considered it essential to the being of the Church.
The following interesting correspondence sprang up on
414 BISHOP M'lLVAlNE ON THE CHURCH. [1855.
the occasion of his response to Bishop Mcllvaine's argu-
ment in favor of the perpetuity of the Apostolic office.
DR. HODGE TO BISHOP M'lLVAlNE.
PRINCETON, Dec. 18, 1855.
Dear Charles : I address you in this affectionate college style not
only because my heart dictates it, but also because I fear, if I did not
do so now, I may not be able to do it at all. It may be that the Janu-
ary number of the Princeton Review may indispose you to recognize
me as your old friend, though I hope not.
In May last I was called upon to deliver an address before the
Presbyterian Historical Society on the question, What is Presbyterian-
ism ? a copy of which I send you. That address was made the
subject of criticism in the Church Review, New Haven, Conn. The
Reviewer instead of discussing the argument in the address, re publish-
ed in extenso your sermon on the permanency of the Apostolic office ;
which he called upon me to examine. I have made the attempt to
examine your argument, and have endeavored to treat you as a friend
and advocate of evangelical truth, while I treated your argument as
a Presbyterian. I really and honestly think there is nothing in my
review of your sermon which ought to lessen our personal friendship.
But as things seem so differently when viewed from different positions,
you may think otherwise. I should be exceedingly pained should
this be the case, for much as I feel pained and aggrieved at the posi-
tions assumed in your sermon, I feel nothing but affection and
respect towards you. Indeed I cannot but hope you will regard my
review as I do, a mere act of self-defence. Granting all I say, you
are untouched in your ministerial and even your episcopal standing.
But granting what you say, I am no minister, and if a Christian, am in
a state of rebellion against one who has a divine right to my submis-
sion to him as the bishop of New Jersey. It is not reasonable to expect
that Presbyterians can silently submit to these claims of Episcopacy.
So long as they emanated only from professed Anglicans or High-
Church-men, I, for one, cared little about them. But when I found
to my surprise that they had been advocated by one of your high
character as an evangelical Christian, I felt bound, when specially by
name called upon, to say what I have said in reference to the whole
matter.
I hope you will feel toward me while reading my review, as I felt
toward you after reading your sermon.
Affectionately your friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
ALT. 58.] BISHOP M IL VAINE ON THE CHURCH. 41
BISHOP M ILVAINE TO DR. HODGE.
CINCINNATI, Dec. 22, 1855.
My Dear Charles : I have just received your kind and affectionate
letter of the i8th, and am much obliged to you for such kind desire
and pains to prevent any evil influence on our long established friend-
ship from a review of my sermon, which I doubt not your sense of
duty has prompted. And by the way, I a little suspect that a part of
the animus of the re-print in the Church Review was to bring me into
such relations with my Presbyterian brethren and friends as would
wean me from my affectionate feelings towards all of them who love
Christ as my brethren, and especially towards some of whom I have
the superadded regard as dear friends.
I cannot say my dear Charles, what I shall feel when I read the
review, but believing you would aim only at the truth and not at me,
I will hope and expect so to receive it, that love shall not be the suf-
ferer, however other feelings may be. From what you say I infer
that you have not understood my mind in the sermon, but have inter-
preted the bearing on non-Episcopal ministers and churches as I do
not. I do not perceive that the sermon contains anything in advance
of the usual low-church doctrine prevailing in our Church. It teaches
Apostolical Succession, just as I understand real Presbyterians to teach
it, namely, that a certainpart of the authority committed to the
Apostles was intended to continue in the ministry to the end of the
world, and, has continued such for example as the power of ordina-
tion. The difference between the Episcopalian and the Presbyterian
being that the latter hold the descent to have been in the line of Pres-
byters, the former in the line of diocesan Bishops. The Apostolical
succession is held in my opinion as much in one Church as the other
the difference between the so holding and high-churchmanship in
both, being when it is not held in such a sense as to exclude by the
inferences drawn from it all other ministers than its own from validity
and reality, nor other Churches from being real Churches of Christ
whatever it may think of their defective conformity to the Apostolic
pattern. Such Apostolic succession is vastly removed from that of
Romanism and Puseyism, which not only makes a ministry so de-
scended, essential to the being of the Church, and essential to the
reality of all sacraments, but makes the communication of saving
grace essentially dependent on the sacraments of that succession
and thus it is the exclusive succession of the gifts of the Spirit as
well as of a certain office.
My sermon was written in '39, some sixteen years ago. How far I
should now enter into all its details I cannot say, for it is very long
41 6 BISHOP M'lLVAINE ON THE CHURCH. [1855.
since I have given my mind to that line of subject. But when I
preached it, as. ever since, I considered it as a simple maintenance
of an alleged fact, with a studied abstinence from all attack or reflec-
tion on other churches, and as leaving me at full liberty to believe in
and acknowledge other churches as real churches, and their ministers
as real ministers of Christ, often greatly blessed of the Spirit. I did
not consider, nor do I now, Episcopal ordination essential to the being
of the ministry or sacraments, any more than to the Church, though I
do consider it essential to the full order and model of the primitive
church. So you think of Presbyterian ordination.
While I thus vindicate the position of the sermon, I do not mean to
intimate that under present feelings I should take such a track of
thought again on a similar occasion. It is one thing to maintain cer-
tain doctrines, and another to give them a certain relative position.
My mind is so off from the externalism of the Church, in the higher
estimate of the invisible and eternal, so much more on the everlasting
ties of the Church Catholic, than upon the temporary and distinctive
(features ?) of the Church Episcopal, that I sometimes fear I am too
much losing sight of the one in the mountain shadow of the other.
Farewell Charles. Let us be one in Christ, How soon the seen and
temporal 'will have passed to us and the unseen and eternal be our all.
In Christ no condemnation. It is faith not orders or ministers that
place us in Christ. May that uniting grace abound in us more and
more ; then we shall have a place in the Father's house where all in
Christ of whatever name or form of religion on earth shall be the one
household of love and peace and holiness made perfect.
Yours very affectionately,
CHARLES P. M'ILVAINE.
P. S. I wish you would read my sermon on the " Church of Christ
in its essential being," the third in my volume " The Truth and Life."
As the volume was noticed in the Princeton Review, I suppose it is
within your reach. I do not know how much you have seen of the
sermon copied in the Church Review, as I do not know how much of
it they copied the merely argumentative part on Episcopacy, or
more. I have therefore hunted up an old copy and send it, hoping
you will read it enough to see that I preached on that occasion on
something else than outward order. Please observe the note on page
1 5 and the lines marked on page 28.
JET. 58.] BISHOP M'lL VAINE ON THE CHURCH. 41 7
DR. HODGE TO BISHOP M'lLVAINE.
PRINCETON, Dec. 29, 1855.
My Dear Charles : Your letter touched me so, I wished my re-
view in Guinea. The Church Review said, " We give the argu-
ment of the sermon, notes and all, without alteration. Even the
italics are preserved." I find they began with page 10 of the pamph-
let and ended with page 27, omitting the introduction and-conclusion.
So far as the argument is concerned they gave all they professed to
do, but as far as the impression of the sermon goes, it was of course
one-sided.
I very much regret that it did not occur to me to omit all reference
to you as author of the sermon and review it as an argument of the
Church Review, as the Editor so fully and strongly adopted it. Still
I hope no harm will be done. It has not in the least diminished my
affection for you, nor my high estimate of your services in the cause
of our common Master. I was taken by surprise to find that you had
written in favor of the permanence of the Apostolic office, and had
endeavored to prove that bishops are the official successors of the
Apostles, i. e. that they are Apostles. I knew that this is the alpha
and omega of the Romish system, that no man could hold to the per-
petuity of the Apostleship, in the ordinary sense of the term, without
destroying the ground under his feet as a Protestant. I think so still.
I think there is no hope for us, for you or for me, for Episcopalians
or for Presbyterians, if the perpetuity of the Apostleship be con-
ceded. I know that some have used that language, meaning that the
office of ministry is perpetual, and others, as you have done, mean-
ing that prelacy is perpetual. But this cannot help the matter. Let
it once be granted that the Apostleship is permanent, then Rome can
prove, what nine-tenths of Christians have always believed, viz : the
Apostleship in its essential nature includes infallibility and supreme
authority. If you have a perpetual Apostleship, you have according
to the common judgment of Christendom an infallible Church.
You are therefore just as much interested as I am in proving that
the Apostleship is not permanent. Dear Charles, I beg you to forgive
me in advance if there is anything in my review which wounds your
feelings. Of you I have spoken in the terms which you would expect.
Of the arguments for the perpetuity of the Apostolic office, I have
spoken as you would yourself speak of the divine right of the patri-
archs and popes. I believe the argument for the latter is much
stronger from Scripture than for the former, and I believe further that
if the doctrines of your sermon can be established it is all over with
Protestantism and Evangelical religion. You say beautifully and
27
41 8 ARTICLES ON THE CHURCH AND ELDERSHIP. [1843-60.
truly in your letter that you are far more interested in what is spiritual
and internal than in what is external. This question, however, touches
the very heart of the gospel, and therefore I am sure you will excuse
the zeal with which I have written.
Your sermon on the " Being of the Church," I have not only read,
but made the subject of review, and the occasion of setting myself
right with some of my Presbyterian brethren, who thought that the
articles which I had printed on the Idea of the Church were unsound
because they made too little of the external Church. I hope you will
receive the copy of my address sent with my former letter, for it will
enable you to understand the ground I occupy.
With all my old confidence and affection,
Very truly yours, CHARLES HODGE.
LECTURES AND ARTICLES ON THE CHURCH AND
ELDERSHIP.
VI. In 1845 and '6, in consequence of the declining
health of his venerable colleague, Dr. Miller, Dr. Hodge
began to prepare his lectures on the nature and constitution
and officers of the Christian Church. Some of the most
important of these were published as articles, from time to
time, in the Princeton Review. His whole mind on these
subjects has been fully set forth in the articles on the Gen-
eral Assemblies of different years, on the " Rights of Ruling
Elders," 1843; "Theories of the Church," 1846; "Idea of
the Church," and "Visibility of the Church," 1853; "The
Church its Perpetuity," 1856; and " Presbyterianism," 1860.
These articles attracted a vast deal of attention and hostile
criticism both in this country and Scotland, with respect to
the positions assumed on two points. These are, first, as
to the extent and minuteness of the binding directions for
church organization and government set down in the Word
of God and second, as to the nature of the office of Ruling
Elder.
As to the first point, he taught the following principles :
1st The Church of Christ, to which all the promises of
Scripture belong is, in its essential nature not a visible or-
ganized society of men, but the whole body of the elect,
^ET. 45-62.] THE CHURCH.
who exist either in heaven or on earth, or who are to
come into existence in the future. 2d That the visible
church which exists as an organized society on earth is not
a different body from the above, but is the same body as far
as at any part of the world's history its members may be
recognized as such by one another. And that the marks
by which the members of this body are to be recognised,
and on the ground of which they and their children are
to be presumed to be members, and treated as such by all
other Christians, are competent knowledge and credible pro-
fession of the true faith, and a corresponding life. 3d
That it is the duty of all communities of such mutually re-
cognised members of the true spiritual church to form or-
ganized societies, with constitutions, officers, laws and sac-
raments. 4th That the New Testament does not prescribe
in detail any precise form of church organization, nor can
any existing ecclesiastical organization claim divine author-
ity for the particular form or elements of its constitution.
5th But the New Testament does teach by precept and
example certain general principles of church organization,
and these are universally and perpetually binding on all
Christian communities jure divino. These are: (i) "The
right of the people to take part in the government of the
church. Hence the divine right of the office of Ruling
Elders, who appear in all church courts as representatives
of the people. (2) The appointment and perpetual continu-
ance of Presbyters as ministers of the Word and sacra-
ments, with authority to rule, teach and ordain, as the high-
est permanent officers of the Church. (3) The unity of the
Church, or the subjection of a smaller to a larger part, and
of a larger part to the whole/' Presbyterian, April 21,
1855. That within the limits of these principles Christ had
left his Church free to do His work under the guidance of
His providence and Spirit, in the manner found to be most
effective under the changing conditions of time and place.
The second point of his doctrine which was criticised re-
42O THE OFFICE OF RULING ELDER. [1843-60.
lated to the nature of the office of Ruling Elders. He
taught in this respect (i) That Christ committed the gov-
ernment of the Church to the people or communicants
themselves, in connection with the Presbyters or preachers
and pastors. (2) That the people generally exercised their
power through representatives chosen by themselves, and
that these " representatives of the people " are our Ruling
Elders. (3) This view of the office establishes it as jure
divino, and exalts its honor and usefulness. (4) That it is
everywhere asserted and assumed in our standards and in
those of the Mother Church of Scotland. (5) That the
rival theory of the nature of the office, which made the
ministers and elders one order, is subversive of Presbyter-
ianism. It provides for no representation of the lay ele-
ment. The right of a minister to preach and rule is inher-
ent in his office. In all ages of the world the clergy have
formed a class by themselves. The rival view is latent
Episcopacy, making one presbyter the permanent president
over his colleagues of the session, endowed with the supreme
power of administering the sacraments. Our form of gov-
ernment groups elders and deacons together, provides for
the ordination of the minister by the laying on of hands of
the Presbytery, and on the other hand directs that a single
minister shall set apart an elder or deacon indifferently to
either office, by the proposition of a list of questions, by the
vote of the people to be represented, and by prayer.
These views, as they were gradually unfolded, were,
doubtless, misapprehended by many, and were certainly
violently attacked and misrepresented in the newspapers
and some of the church courts of that time. It would,
however, seem that they have been substantially accepted
as spund by the church at large, from the overwhelming
vote on his side on occasion of his great debate with Dr.
Thornwell on the Boards of the Church, in the General As-
sembly, in Rochester, 1860; from the publication and con-
tinued circulation by the Presbyterian Board of Publication
AT. 57.] RULING ELDERS. 42 1
of his address on "What is Presbyterianism ?" of 1855, and
its republication with emphatic approbation by the strictest
Presbyterians of Scotland; and from the reception recently
given to the volume on " Church Polity."
DR. HODGE TO DR. JOHN HALL.
PRINCETON, June 20, 1851.
My Dear Sir : I do not know that I can point you to the law in
the book which contemplates just such a case as that presented in
your letter, but I think the principles which regulate it are perfectly
plain.
An elder is a representative of the people of some particular con-
gregation, selected and appointed by them to act in their behalf in
some judicatory of the church. He can act as such representative
only when duly elected for that purpose. He has no power over any
congregation except in virtue of their delegation of it to him. If he
is divested of it by resignation, deposition, or dismission, he cannot
resume it again any more than a Governor of a State could resume
his office, after resignation or dismissal. If Governor Fort should
resign his office to go to England and become a subject of Queen
Victoria, not even a Philadelphia lawyer would have the face to
maintain he could on his return (before his term would have expired)
resume the chair again.
The sense in which the office of ruling elder is said to be perpetual
is, that after the church has once ascertained to her satisfaction that
a man possesses the requisite gifts for that office, and has solemnly
testified to that fact by his ordination, there is no need of ever repeat-
ing that service. The man is declared to belong to the class of
elders, i. e. of those to whom the Spirit has given the gift of ruling,
and from whom any congregation may select their rulers. The
reason why this public sanction to the possession of the necessary
gift is required, is because the whole church is one. A congrega-
tional church may select whom it pleases for deacons or elders, be-
cause their functions do not extend beyond the limits of the congre-
gation. But with us an elder in a particular church may be a mem-
ber of Presbytery, Synod or General Assembly, rule over the whole
church, and therefore the whole has the right to prescribe the quali-
fications for the office, and the mode in which their possession in any
case shall be ascertained and authenticated ; and when this has once
been done, the church is satisfied, the man is always an elder ; any
congregation may call him to exercise that office over them. But he
cannot exercise it without such call, any more than a minister can
42 2 FRESB YTERIAN PRINCIPLES. [1855.
act as pastor of a given congregation without a call. If you" were to
resign your present post, turn Episcopalian, and then come back to
Trenton, who would say you could without re-election have a right
to resume your office ? I suspect if your head was not so full of law*
before the gospel had a chance to enter it, you never could have had
any doubt upon such a case. You see the advantage of having only
one profession. You men of two trainings always see double.
Your friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO H. A. BOARDMAN.
PRINCETON, April 13, 1855.
My Dear Sir: The only objections which I ever heard against the
doctrine of the Church as presented in the Repertory are : I . That
it left the visible church without authority, its organization being alto-
gether discretionary, so that we had no jus divinum ground for any
part of our system. In other words, that we held Stillingfleet's doc-
trine "Government of God, the form of man." This was the idea
presented in 's published letter ; this is the objection I heard from
here, and from other quarters. And Professor Green has just
told me that this was the only form in which he had ever heard the
objection. To this, therefore, I directed my explanation, and showed
that our doctrine as to the nature of the Church did not suppose its
organization to be undetermined or indifferent, and that for myself
I fully believed that the discretion of the Church as to its organization
was limited to details, the essential principles relating to it being pre-
ceptively enjoyed. I did not go further because I was not aware
that the objection went further, and because there is not the least
shadow of ground for the objection in any other form.
In my lectures I endeavored to prove : i. That there is no form
of church organization laid down in Scripture as essential to the be-
ing of the Church against Papists and the High-Church party of
England.
2. There is no plan of church organization prescribed in all its de-
tails, so as to leave the church no discretion in the matter against
the Seceders and Brownists and some High-Church Presbyterians.
3. That there are certain principles relating to the organization of
the church which were obligatory as matters of divine precept, as e.
g. (i) The right of the people to take part in the government of the
church, and hence the divine right of the office of ruling elders as
the representatives of the people. (2) The appointment of Presby-
* Dr. Hall was in the first instance trained for the bar.
^T.57-] PRESBYTERIAN PRINCIPLES. 423
ters as rulers, teachers and ordainers, as the highest permanent office
in the church against the claims of prelacy, asserting the parity of
the ministry. (3) That the church is one, and therefore each part is
subject to the larger part and to the whole. Hence the right of re-
view and control, the right of appeal and the authority of church
courts as laid down in the Westminster Confession. This is against
the Brownists and Independents and Congregationalists.
It would have been very easy to include this statement in the article
just published ("Bishop Mcllvaine on the Church") had I been
aware of the nature of the objections made to the former articles.
This only shows the impropriety of attacking a man in the dark,
making general charges of error without letting him know what the
errors are. These principles, however, have been so often and in so
many ways presented in the Repertory, and some of them in the
pamphlet signed " Geneva," which you had such a hand in getting
printed, that I cannot feel called on to assert them anew. I do not
think it would be becoming in me to come out with them now. It
seems like answering publicly charges unnecessarily as they have
never been publicly made.
2. The only other objection is the one referring to the relation of
infants to the church, which I hope has been sufficiently met.
Thanking you for your kindness in this whole matter, I am
Affectionately yours,
CHARLES HODGE.
P. S. Since writing the above letter, it has occurred to me that the
accompanying paper might be printed as a note to the paragraph on
p. 355, in the event of the republication of the article.
I perhaps know less about the state of feeling on this subject than
others. I have heard of objections from various quarters, but on the
other hand I have received such strong expressions of approbation
of the articles from many unexpected sources, that I have not been
led to suppose that there were any extensive misgivings on the sub-
ject. If there are it might be well to reprint the article in the last
number as a pamphlet with the note.
THE SAME TO THE SAME.
PRINCETON, April 20, 1858.
My Dear Sir: I see the Presbyterian contains your note and my
answer. I think I am done now. I have said all I have to say, and
those who are not satisfied must seek satisfaction from other sources.
* * * It is humiliating to find that doctrines and views which are
presented in almost every system of Protestant theology and in every
424 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CUNNINGHAM. [1860.
work against Popery should through sheer ignorance, and a kind of
instinct of High-Churchism the working of what Bunyan calls "the
Pope in the belly" be denied by Presbyterians and they think
they are thereby serving the truth ! Your friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. WM. CUNNINGHAM.
In the Witness, of Edinburgh, February 29th, 1860, in
the absence and without the knowledge of the editor, an
article entitled the "True Idea of the Church," in which J.
A. Wylie expresses his contempt for the articles on the
church by Charles Hodge, republished in Scotland, with a
preface by Dr. Wm. Hanna.
The same paper, on the 3d of March, contained a letter
from Principal William Cunningham.
To the Editor of the Witness.
EDINBURGH, 2901 Feb., 1860.
Dear Sir: I hope you will allow me to record in your columns a
protest against the style and tone exhibited in an article in to-day's
Witness, with reference to Dr. Hodge, of Princeton. Most people, I
presume, are aware that he is one of the ablest and most influential
expounders and defenders of Calvinism in the present day, and ad-
mirably accomplished in almost every department of theological lit-
erature. There is no* living man entitled to treat him in the very pe-
culiar style in which the author of the article referred to has thought
proper to indulge. When he alleges that Dr. Hodge " wanders in
darkness, and never for five minutes on end keeps clear of contra-
diction," that " in his pamphlet the contradictions are more numer-
ous than the pages," &c., &c., he is propounding what is simply ab-
surd so absurd, indeed, as to be incredible. I indicate no opinion
as to the subject of controversy which the article discusses.
I remain yours truly, *
WM. CUNNINGHAM
In his letter dated Edinburgh July, 1 844, a part of which
has been already given, Dr. Cunningham had said, " I re-
ceived the pamphlet on the Eldership, and am much obliged
* Extracted from the Witness by Alex. M. Sutherland, Student, New College,
Edinburgh.
XT. 54-] CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CUNNINGHAM. 425
to you for it. I have never been able to make up my mind
fully as to the precise grounds on which the office and
functions of the ruling elder ought to be maintained and
defended. For some time before I went to America I had
come to lean pretty strongly to the view that all ecclesias-
tical office-bearers were presbyters, and that there were suf-
ficiently clear indications in Scripture that there were two
distinct classes of those presbyters, viz. ministers and ruling
elders ; though not insensible to the difficulty attaching to
this theory from the consideration that it fairly implies that
wherever presbyters or bishops are spoken of in Scripture
ruling elders are included. I have been a good deal shaken
in my attachment to this theory by the views I have heard
from you, but I have not yet been able to abandon it
entirely. If I am spared till next summer I must examine
it with more care."
DR. CUNNINGHAM TO DR. HODGE.
EDINBURGH, Oct. 16, 1852.
My Dear Dr. Hodge: * * * I have noticed with much interest
what you have been doing and suffering of late years in domestic,
official and literary matters. The removal of your two venerable
colleagues was well fitted to produce solemn reflection, and must
have occasioned to you no little anxiety. I am glad to think that the
arrangements ultimately made in the Seminary in consequence of
Dr. Miller's death, were such as you approved and desired, and I
would fain hope that those which have resulted from Dr. Alexander's
death may turn out equally satisfactory.
We have been much interested in and pleased with the way in
which you have been fighting the battles of the faith against Drs.
Bushnell and Park. It seems to be still as necessary now as ever to
be contending for the great truths, that the Bible is fitted and intend-
ed to be a rule of faith, and that it really means what it says ; for it
is really at bottom against these fundamental principles, these prin-
cipia theologica, that the views of Bushnell and Park are directed. I
have been a good deal struck of late with the importance of giving
prominence in the training of candidates for the ministry, especially
under the head of the History of Dogma, to the illustration of the
fairness and rationality of the process by which the right use of the
426 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CUNNINGHAM. [1852.
Bible has produced, and of course still sa-nctions, the substance of the
common orthodox formula employed in the statement of the funda-
mental doctrines of Christian theology. This appears to me of much
importance for guarding young men against some of the influences
which are in this present day most apt to mislead them.
We continue to enjoy in the Free church a large measure of out-
ward prosperity, and we are improving, I think, to some extent, the
opportunities of usefulness which the Lord has set before us. The
chief difficulties that have sprung up among us, and that still threaten
somewhat our peace and usefulness, are connected with our arrange-
ments about theological education. There had grown up among
many of our brethren, through the latent influence, I fear, of a class
of motives of a somewhat low and unworthy description, a desire to
multiply theological seminaries beyond what, as it seemed to me, our
circumstances and means require or admit of, and to the manifest
detriment of theological education. This has led to some very un-
pleasant and somewhat dangerous discussions, and is likely, I fear,
to lead to more. I sometimes feel perplexed as to the course I ought
to pursue in the matter. I have hitherto been able to prevent any
actual step being taken in the way of college extension, as we call it,
but I do not see very clearly how long and how far the opposition to
it ought to be carried. One painful and dangerous feature of the
case is that while many of the ministers are in favor of college ex-
tension, the eldership, except where mere local feelings come into
operation, are generally opposed to it.
We had some fear that we should be called upon to preach, as Dr.
Erskine, who succeeded Dr. Witherspoon as leader of the evangelical
party of the Church of Scotland, did about eighty years ago, upon
the question, " Shall we go to war with our American brethren?"
But it is to be hoped that all danger of a result so disastrous as a war
between the United States and Britain is overpast. There are not a
few amongst us who have serious apprehensions of a continental
crusade against Protestantism and freedom. And if Britain should
be compelled in self-defence to fight against Popery and arbitrary
power, we would confidently expect the sympathy and assistance of
the United States. It has been alleged that Lord Palmerston had re-
solved, if he had continued in office, that in the event of the foreign
troops not being soon withdrawn from the States of the Church, he
would have taken possession of Sicily and established a constitu-
tional government there. And I do not regard it as a thing very un-
likely, or very much to be deprecated, that we may see a combined
British and American fleet sweeping the Mediterranean, protecting
Sardinia and liberating all the rest of Italy.
^rr. 59-] DR. CUNNINGHAM'S REVIEW. 427
I made a tour, lately, of a month on the Continent, visiting the
principal towns of Holland and Belgium, the Rhine as far as Stras-
burgh, and Paris. My colleague, Dr. Buchanan, was with me, and
we enjoyed it vastly. But on my return I found my youngest child
a girl of 1 8 months dead, though not buried, and another child a
boy of 6 years dying. The boy lived five days after my return, and
his whole deportment was of a kind fitted to encourage the hope that
the Lord was graciously dealing with his soul to prepare him for
heaven. It has been a very painful trial, but I trust we have been
enabled to say, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;
blessed be the name of the Lord."
I am glad to see that your vacation has been extended to sixteen
weeks. Would you not think of visiting the Old World again, and
giving a few weeks to Scotland ? There are many here who would
rejoice to see your face in the flesh. There are few things that would
afford me more pleasure. I hope you will forgive my negligence and
procrastination and write to me soon.
Present my kindest regards to the members of your family, to your
colleagues in the Seminary and College, so far' as I know them, and
believe me to be, my dear Dr. Hodge,
Your affectionate friend,
WM. CUNNINGHAM.
In July, 1857, Dr. Cunningham published in the British
and Foreign Evangelical Review an elaborate review of the
volume entitled " Essays and Reviews," by Charles Hodge,
published that year by Robert Carter & Brothers. In con-
nection with an analysis and estimate of the contents of the
volume, Dr. Cunningham says : " Our readers are well
aware that Dr. Hodge is the senior Professor at Princeton,
the oldest and most important theological seminary of the
Old-School Presbyterian Church in the United States a
Church which constitutes the most numerous and the most
influential Presbyterian body in the world. He was chiefly
known in this country by his Commentary on Paul's Epis-
tle to the Romans, until some of his articles in the Prince-
ton Review were republished among us. The recent publi-
cation of his Commentaries on the Epistle to the Ephesians
and on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and the collec-
tion into one volume of his leading Essays and Reviews,
428 DR. CUNNINGHAM'S REVIEW. [1857.
have made him well known in this country, and have done
much to promote the diffusion of sound theology. He is
now recognized by general consent as one of the very first
theologians of the present day. He has a very fine com-
bination of the different qualities that go to constitute a
great theologian, both as to mental capacities and endow-
ments, and as to acquired knowledge and habits. His tal-
ents and attainments seem to fit him equally for the critical
and exact interpretation of Scriptural statements, and for
the didactic and polemic exposition of leading doctrines.
He seems to be about equally at home in the writings of
the great systematic divines of the seventeenth century and
in those of the most distinguished continental divines of
the present day. While solid ability and extensive erudi-
tion are the most obvious and fundamental characteristics
of his writings, he exhibits also a play of fancy and a power
of sarcasm, which, though rarely indulged, and kept much
under restraint, do contribute not a little to make them more
interesting and more effective.
"But it is more important to advert to the place which Dr.
Hodge occupies, and the services which he has rendered as
an expounder and defender of theological doctrine. And
here the substance of what we have to say is, that he has
rendered invaluable services to the cause of sound Christian
doctrine by the talent and erudition, the manliness and the
effectiveness, the moderation and the firmness, with which
he has maintained and defended the Calvinistic system of
theology against the assaults of every description of op-
ponents.
" * * * We regret that we have not space to quote any
portion of the article upon the question, ' Is the Church of
Rome a part of the Visible Church?" About ten or twelve
years ago, the General Assembly of the Old-School Pres-
byterian Church decided that the Church of Rome is not
a part of the visible Church; that consequently Romish
baptism is invalid, and that converts from the Church of
^T. 59.] DR. CUNNINGHAM'S REVIEW. 429
Rome ought to be rebaptized. Dr. Hodge and his col-
leagues at Princeton did not approve of this decision, but
adhered to the opposite view, which had been held by the
Reformers, and by the great body of Protestant divines ever
since the Reformation. The grounds of their opposition
to the deliverance of the General Assembly are set forth in
this article. It is characterized by its author's usual ability
and thorough knowledge of the subject, and, we are per-
suaded, fully establishes its leading position. It is to be re-
gretted that the General Assembly of so respectable and
influential a body should have ventured to give such a de-
liverance, in opposition to the whole Protestant Churches,
and to their own most distinguished divines.
"We have room now only to express our profound re-
spect and admiration for Dr. Hodge as a theologian, cur
deep sense of the magnitude of the services he has ren-
dered to the Church of Christ and the cause of sound doc-
trine, and our earnest desire and hope that he may be long
spared to discharge the important public duties to which in
providence he has been called, and for the efficient perform-
ance of which he has been so richly furnished by the Head
of the Church."
Dr. Wm. Walker, of Dysart, Scotland, sends me the fol-
lowing through my good friend, Dr. Robt. Watts, of Belfast :
" By the way, I can give you an anecdote, whose authen-
ticity I can vouch for, because the man himself told me.
" One of our students, an accomplished fellow, took it
into his head that he would like to go to Princeton. But
he was anxious not on that account to lose a year. So he
consulted Cunningham, putting to him the question, whether
he thought a session there would count.
" 'COUNT!' said Cunningham, taking a snuff and speaking
in that curious falsetto voice which he sometimes used
when he wanted to be emphatic. 'Of course it would.
My only difficulty is this : whether a session there under
Hodge should not count TWO.'"
43 O DR. HODGE'S RESPONSE, [1857.
" DR. HODGE TO DR. CUNNINGHAM.
PRINCETON, August 24, 1857.
My Dear Sir: I am very much in your debt for your letter, your
address and your review. I have no means of payment, and must
compound and pay only a shilling in the pound. I rejoice very
much in the success with which you have opposed the course of the
North British Review. Mr. Isaac Taylor has evidently got out of
his depth. It is often the case that a man of genius and general
learning makes shipwreck when he enters on purely professional
subjects, the logical relations of which he has never studied. He never
could have written as he did had he seen how entirely subversive of
the authority of the Bible his views on inspiration and other matters
necessarily were. Dr. Chalmers' fame is part of the heritage of
Presbyterianism, and your vindication of his memory is a service for
which all Presbyterians must feel grateful.
The degree of Doctor in Divinity was conferred in June last by the
College of New Jersey on Professor Lorimer, and announced in our
papers. I presume President MacLean communicated officially with
Dr. Lorimer on the subject. He promised to do so, and therefore I
did not think it necessary to trouble either him or Dr. McCrie with a
separate letter. It was owing to an oversight on my part that the de-
gree was not conferred at a previous meeting of the Board in De-
cember.
I do not know what to say, my dear sir, in reference to your friend-
ly exaggeration of the merits of my essays. If your review shall
have the effect of commending the views which they advocate to the
favorable regard of our younger theologians, I shall rejoice. I have
had but one object in my professional career and as a writer, and
that is to state and to vindicate the doctrines of the Reformed Church.
I have never advanced a new idea, and have never aimed to im-
prove on the doctrines of our fathers. Having become satisfied that
the system of doctrines taught in the symbols of the Reformed
Churches is taught in the Bible, I have endeavored to sustain it, and
am willing to believe even where I cannot understand. I wish to ex-
press the special gratification I have derived from your approbation
of the views expressed in the articles on the Church. I feel this the
more because many of our brethren in this country have expressed
great dissatisfaction with those articles. I am persuaded, however,
that they contain nothing more than the common Protestant doctrine
on the subject. I have a course of lectures in the rough on the na-
ture, attributes, prerogatives and organization of the church, and it
has been a favorite object with me to prepare them for the press. But
MT. 56.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH BISHOP JOHNS. 43 1
I do not see any immediate prospect of my being able to do so, as
they must be entirely rewritten and enlarged.
I am ashamed to send you a letter all about myself; but if you will
pay me by writing me one equally egotistical I will forgive myself.
My summer vacation, which I hoped to turn to good account in
writing, has been broken up by my having to leave home repeatedly
to attend a sick daughter-in-law, with whom Mrs. Hodge has been
obliged to spend the whole summer.
With great respect and affection, your friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
CORRESPONDENCE WITH BISHOP JOHNS.
BISHOP JOHNS TO DR. HODGE.
RICHMOND, Jan. 23, 1849.
Dear Charles: * * * * * * But that notice of the "Apostolical
Constitutions"!* Part of it is too funny. Have you read it? I
thought I would have shaken out of my chair as I ran my eyes over
the writer's demonstration that of all others Presbyterianism comes
nearest the platform exhibited in said Constitutions ! Well if the
honest soul finds the model up there, it would be a pity to deprive
him of the satisfaction, and indeed the process is so amusingly down-
right, that I could hardly help slapping the good fellow on the back,
and exclaiming ' Well done, my hearty ! ' I hope for my sake
" he has a few more of the same sort left."
I have not cut the leaves of the VI article,f and don't think I shall.
They say I am too favorably inclined toward that kind already, and
I have no idea of coming under further suspicion. I shall read no
more on that side till I get hold of your book,t which if the duration
of pregnancy be any indication of the bulk of the thing to be born,
will certainly be as much as I can stagger under for the rest of my
days. Yours truly,
J. JOHNS.
DR. HODGE TO BISHOP JOHNS.
PRINCETON, Jan. 17, 1854.
My Dear John : I knew an excellent man, a pastor of a Presby-
terian Church, who, whenever he was conscious of having neglected
* An article entitled "Apostolical Constitutions." Princeton Review.
f Review of Dr. Miller's " Manual of Presbytery." January, 1849.
\ A book on " The Church'' which Dr. Hodge began but never completed.
432 CORRESPONDENCE WITH BISHOP JOHNS. [1854.
his duty and gone into the pulpit without preparation, took to scold-
ing the people. You are one of the same sort. Your conscience has
been upbraiding you all this time for your shameful neglect of me last
fall, when you were weeks and months within two hours ride, and
never came near me ; and now you relieve yourself by a good scold.
I hope you feel better ; and as it is very unpleasant, as you know, to
be mad at oneself, I trust you will behave better another time. I
inquired of you when that sham trial was going on from every stray
Episcopalian I could meet, sent messages to you, provided the messen-
ger should fall in with you, but I did not know where to address you.
I knew you did not stay in Camden, and I knew not where you staid
in New York. And when I heard you had at last gone home without
stopping, I was so mad I could hardly have spoken to you in the
street.
I am glad you are going to resign the Presidency.* One office is
enough. You will never find relief, however, until you get back to
primitive episcopacy, when a diocese was no larger than a parish. An
ancient province, half as large as Virginia, then had 300 bishops. I
wish they could make you bishop of Alexandria, (Va)., and be done
with it ; and then you could stay at home like an honest man.
I am glad, too, to hear that your boys are settled to their own and
your satisfaction. Give my love to Nancy and ask her to come and
make us a visit, and try the effect of a northern winter. I do not be-
lieve in Williamsburg, and rejoice you are going to leave it.
What a dreadful scene of protracted suffering the wreck of the San
Francisco must have exhibited. The Doctor's (his brother) brother-
in-law, Mr. Woolsey Aspinwall, was one of the passengers. He is
threatened with a pulmonary complaint and was going to Valparaiso
for his health. He was one of those taken off by the Kilby, and was
for two weeks aboard that vessel, crowded beyond measure, without
a change of clothes, with scarcely anything to eat, and little water,
and all the time in imminent peril. He is now in New York dread-
fully exhausted, but likely to do well.
I sympathize with you in your building troubles. Get a good book
(as I am told it is) written by a very foolish man, Prof. F , the
phrenologist, on octagon houses. I have seen some plans of his
which were striking, not only from their effect, but for the wonderful
facilities and roominess, which that form allows of, at a moderate
expense. Nutman of Philadelphia furnished R. S., my next neigh-
bor, a plan of a Gothic cottage, which cost some $14000, and has liter-
ally two parlors and two chambers, and no more, except a square
* Of William and Mary's College, Va.
JKt. 57.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH BISHOP JOHNS. 433
room of eight by ten feet over the entry. This house, where I live, has
four rooms on the first floor and five on the second, three finished
rooms in the attic, besides three finished rooms in the basement, and
cost less than $5000 thirty years ago. Build either an octagon or a
square house, and eschew anything pointed unless you mean to build
a palace.
Mrs. Hodge and myself will (D. V.) return your and Mrs. Johns'
visit right off when we get it. How can we do it before we get it ?
Answer that !
With much love to all about you, yours as young as ever while
writing to you. God bless you, dear John.
CHARLES HODGE.
BISHOP JOHNS TO DR. HODGE.
MALVERN, August 3ist, 1855.
Dear Charles : I did not recognize the hand-writing on the envel-
ope. Perhaps this was owing to the diminution of visual discernment
which comes with the infirmities of age, or from want of practice
arising from lack of opportunity , which I deprecate. When I stripped
the pamphlet, Nannie was sitting by me, and as soon as she saw the
title on its cover, "What is Presbyterianism ? "* she exclaimed,
" How uninteresting ! " We both supposed it to be a new issue from
the Protestant Episcopal Sunday School Union, and probably like
the " Presbyterian in search of the Church," the parthian production
from some deserter from your own ranks. Under this impression it
was very near going unread, and unopened to add to the pile reserv-
ed for the fire. Happily it was rescued by the curling of the cover,
as I held it in my hand disclosing the entry on the blank leaf, a line
more precious to me than all the valuable publications of the Presby-
terian Board, this pamphlet itself included. I cannot describe to you
the sudden revulsion produced by this discovery. I will not say that I
read the essay through without taking breath, but certainly I allowed
nothing to interfere till I finished its perusal, for I was prepared to
find that under your skilful showing the subject of the treatise could
present attractions not commonly apprehended. And now if we were
only together, how I should like to hold the picture in my hand and
answer you by my simple comments. As the great gratification of
being with you is denied me, I must briefly report my impressions,
just to indicate how far an honest Prelatist and a conscientious Pres-
byterian may agree. And to begin at the end:
* Delivered before the Presbyterian Historical Society, and published by the
Board of Publication.
28
434 CORRESPONDENCE WITH BISHOP JOHNS. [1855.
1. Your condemnation of Congregationalist is quite to our mind.
2. Your advocacy of the " rights of the people with subjection to
legitimate authority," is our doctrine out and out, though in the
arrangements for the exercise of the popular element, we differ, yet
that element pervades our ecclesiastical system from the appointment
of parish officers and ministers, up to canonical enactments, and to
the consecration of bishops. Nothing is done without the concur-
rence of the Laity. On this point we adopt your great principle, but
cannot acquiesce in your exclusive claims.
3. In your opinion with regard to the limitations of the Apostolic
office to the Apostles themselves, that it was not to be perpetual in
the Church, this as you are aware was the view of the leading divines
of the Church of England down to the days of Laud, and in the
standards of that Church there is not a line to sustain what you con-
trovert so ably. Those who maintain the contrary are alone respon-
sible for their error.
4. I do not think you have distinguished as clearly as I wished
you had done between the Church of England and the Anglican
party in that Church. Common readers would be apt to regard them
as one and the same, and to impute to the body, the sentiments of a
faction. Have you made the faction the body, and the Church a
scarcely observable caudal appendage ?
5. With regard to exclusive claims you will not forget that as far as
Protestants are concerned, Cartwright & Co., are entitled to the dis-
covery. It was expressly combated by Hooker and others, see
" Goode's Vindication."
6. That the Apostolic office was not permanent does not prove that
they did not appoint an order in the Church properly Episcopal. For
although it would not be easy to prove that they did so from Scripture
alone, yet connected with ancient authors, on whose testimony as to
facts we all rely, and which it seems impossible to dispose of on any
other theory, the fact was so, see " Litton on the Church."
7. It strikes me that our Presbyterian brethren have fallen into the
Romish error of suppressing what was an Apostolic order, then split-
ting another to supply its place ; abolishing the Episcopate proper,
and then dividing the office of Presbyter. On this point of the
Ruling-Eldership, I was struck with the adroitness of the essay.
8. What have you done with the office usually styled the Dea-
conate ?
But you are tired, and my paper only leaves room to say that my
daughters join me in most affectionate regards to your family and
self. With unchanged and unchangeable love, your brother,
J. JOHNS.
JET. 61.] DEATH OF DR. J. W. ALEXANDER. 435
THE DEATHS OF DR. JAMES AND JOSEPH A. ALEXANDER.
He suffered the great sorrow, in which a wide public
sympathized, occasioned by the quickly succeeding deaths
of his life-long and intimate friends, the illustrious brothers,
Drs. James W. and Joseph Addison Alexander. The
elder brother died on the 3ist of July, 1859, at the Red
Sweet Springs in the mountains of his native Virginia.
His biographical memorial is principally the two volumes
of letters, the record of his correspondence of forty years
with his bosom friend, the Rev. John Hall, D. D., of Tren-
ton, N. J. With reference to the publication of these
remarkable volumes the following letters of Dr. Hodge
to Dr. John Hall remain.
PRINCETON, Sept. 28, 1859.
My Dear Sir : There is, I presume, no difference of opinion
among the friends of our beloved friend, Dr. J. W. Alexander, that
some work commemorative of the man and his character should be
prepared. There is, I think, just as little difference in judgment that
you and you only are the proper person to perform this sacred duty.
I need not state the reasons of this judgment. Your life-long inti-
mate association with him, and your possession of the fullest record
of his thought and feelings, are enough to determine this point. His
brother Addison tells me that you have written to urge him to under-
take this task. I sincerely believe that he cannot do it. You know
as well as I do that what is painful to him in the way of mental or
literary effort, becomes impossible. His feelings are in such a state
that I am persuaded he could not turn his mind to this work. It
would be like busying himself for months about the funeral of his
brother. It is best for him and his usefulness to have his mind occu-
pied with other things. I do trust, therefore, that you will yield to
the judgment and wishes of those most interested and best qualified
to judge, and consent to begin the work without delay. This is a
point I think of much importance. Whatever is done should be
done at once. The interest, the usefulness and success of any book
which may be written would be the greater the sooner it is in the
hands of the public.
The only, real question in this matter, is, what kind of work should
be prepared ? As to this point Dr. Addison Alexander and myself
fully agree. It ought not to be a memoir of his life ; not a biography.
436 DEATH OF DR. J. W. ALEXANDER. [1860.
The materials for such a work are too few ; and to make a biography
in name while the letters are relied upon to give interest and import-
ance to the work, is, I think, sure to fail ; for it will be neither one
thing nor the other. What would be most interesting, most instruc-
tive, most useful and most truly an exhibition of the man, would be
a volume or volumes containing your correspondence with him from
beginning to end, your letters and his. This would be a unique
work. It would be a literary, a theological, a religious and a conver-
sational history of the past forty years. Your letters are as important
in such a work as his, and needed for the explanation of his. You
could give your name or not. I would give it. But you might entitle
the book "The correspondence of Dr. J. W. A. and one of
his Friends from 1 8 to 18 ." These letters are yours. You
only can revise them. You only can say what should and what
should not be published. Do give this suggestion a favorable hear-
ing. It is entitled to serious consideration. No mere feeling of re-
luctance to bringing your own letters before the public should lead
you to deprive the world of a work which would be of such peculiar
interest and value. Your affectionate friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
THE SAME TO THE SAME.
PRINCETON, Jan. iyth, 1860.
My Dear Sir : I had entirely lost sight of the fact that Dr. James
Alexander was ever the Editor of the Princeton Review, or that after
1 829 it ever had an Editor. It was conducted by an association of gen-
tlemen in Princeton and its vicinity from 1829 until after the death of
Dr. Archibald Alexander. That imprint continued to be used until
1840, when, although the association continued, reference to it was
not made on the title page. Dr Addison tells me he knows that his
brother acted as editor in 1830, and thinks he continued to do so
when he went to Philadelphia.
The sixty page article on Transcendentalism was written by Drs.
James and Dod the former writing the first thirty pages, a survey
of the German aspect of the case, and the latter the critique on Cousin.
The article on the Modern Form of Infidelity, relating to the discus-
sion between Ripley and Norton, was written by me. The whole of
the Transcendental article and a good part of the other were printed
in a pamphlet, under the auspices of Professor Norton. I have seen
the pamphlet but have not now a> copy of it.
Why do you strike out the playful parts of his letters ?
Your friend, CHARLES HODGE.
You are .too free with your stamps. Does Uncle Sam supply you ?
JRT. 62.] DEATH OF DR. J. A. ALEXANDER. 437
On Saturday afternoon, the 28th of January, 1860, his
life-long friend and most eminent colleague, Dr. Joseph
Addison Alexander, died. In consideration of Dr. Alex-
ander's unparalleled learning and genius, of the fact that he
was cut off in the flower of his days in his 52d year, at
the very beginning of what promised to be a harvest pro-
portionate to his extraordinary season of preparatory culti-
vation, and the fact that the event was, to the apprehension
of his friends, very sudden, his death was the most disas-
trous blow the institutions of Princeton ever experienced.
In a letter to the writer, Dr. Hodge declared that, with the
exception of the death of his wife, the death of Professor
Alexander was the greatest sorrow of his life.
On the afternoon of the Sabbath which succeeded, he
broke down from excess of emotion while attempting to
read the words, "Let not your heart be troubled," and
transferred the reading to Dr. Green. Afterwards he spoke
at length of his friend, concluding thus : " In all my inter-
course with men, though it has been limited, both in this
country and Europe, I never met with one having such a
combination of wonderful gifts. The grace of God most to
be admired was that, though of necessity perfectly familiar
with all the forms of error held by the enemies of the
truth, and especially the most insidious one of criticism,
he had a most simple, child-like faith in the Scriptures, and
the deepest reverence for the Word of God. Above all,
his crowning glory was his spirituality and devoted piety.
We cannot properly estimate our loss till we think of what
he was, and what he would have been, for he was only fifty-
two years old, and the next ten years is the best period of
such a man's life."
He wrote to Dr. John C. Backus, of Baltimore, January
30, 1860:
" The public papers will have informed you of the dread-
ful blow which has fallen on us, by which we are almost
overwhelmed. You cannot tell how we feel. It is awful.
438 DEATH OF DR. J. A. ALEXANDER. [1860.
All our treasure seems suddenly sunk in the bosom of the
sea. Do pray for us, and for the Seminary. We have lost
the greatest and one of the best men I ever knew."
DR. THORNWELL TO DR. HODGE.
THEOL. SEMINARY, Feb. 16, 1860.
My Dear Brother : I cannot describe to you the interest with
which I have read your letter, nor the thoroughness of the sympathy
with which I have entered into your case. My heart bled for you
from the very beginning, for I knew precisely how you felt under the
severe bereavement. My own mind was so greatly shocked that
for successive days and nights I could think of nothing but the irre-
parable loss which the church had sustained. It was not my good
fortune to be personally known to the deceased ; but I admired his
genius, his learning, his piety and eloquence. I was proud of him as
a product of the Presbyterian Church in America, and he had not a
friend on earth who felt a heartier satisfaction in the growing brill-
iancy of his name. His commentaries on Acts and Mark I regarded
as models, as nearly perfection in their kind as human skill could
make them, and I have been in the habit, not only of recommend-
ing them, but of insisting on my classes procuring and studying them.
Then his modesty was equal to his worth. So free from vanity, from
ostentation, from parade and pretensions.
But my dear brother, God reigns. Let us rejoice that we have
this bright and beautiful light so long among us. It was given in
grace, and it was removed not without wisdom and mercy. We must
all soon follow. I feel the ties constantly snapping which bind me
to earth. Many of the friends and companions of my youth are
going ; darling objects of domestic affection have been, one by one,
removed ; cherished schemes have been blasted, fond hopes crushed,
the world has lost its charms, and I stand like a pilgrim with my staff
in my hand ready to depart when the Master shall give the word. I
feel that all is vanity but Christ and His Kingdom, The dead are
the blessed ones. We are the ones to be pitied. My brother, pray
for me that I may be faithful. To be found in Christ a loving, thriv-
ing member, that is all I ask, all that I desire.
I have written currente calamo just as I feel. Excuse my freedom.
Make my kindest regards to Dr. McGill. The Lord bless you all !
Most truly,
J. H. THORNWELL.
^2T. 62.] CHOICE OF PROFESSORS. 439
CHOICE OF A NEW PROFESSOR.
This supreme loss occasioned the necessity for a consid-
erable change in the faculty. No one man could fill Dr.
Alexander's place. The different plans discussed by the
Directors, and proposed for reference to the impending
General Assembly, are stated in the following letter:
DR. HODGE TO DR. JOHN C. BACKUS.
PRINCETON, March 5, 1860.
My Dear Sir: I have had it in mind to write to you respecting
our affairs in the Seminary, but have been too much occupied. I
ought to begin by stating that the transfer of the department of Ec-
clesiastical History from Dr. Alexander to Dr. McGill was submitted
to most reluctantly by all concerned. It was necessary because the
former had got into such a state of mind that he could no longer lec-
ture on that subject. It was foreseen that it would overburden Dr.
McGill or necessitate neglect of some of his other duties. One of the
conditions therefore to be answered in our future arrangements is to
relieve him. He has now Pastoral Theology, Homiletics and Church
Government and Ecclesiastical History. This is altogether too much
especially considering two things, (i) That from disposition and
necessity he is led to devote much time to our external affairs. In
doing this he is of very great service to the institution. It, however,
is a great burden. He tells me that often he has not two hours of the
day to himself. (2) From the bent of his mind he devotes his
strength very much to the students in preaching and writing sermons.
Here again his services are of great value, but this leaves little time
or effort comparatively for the other departments.
Another condition to be met in our plans, is to provide for the full
development of the New Testament department. This Dr. Alexan-
der had chosen for the field on which to bestow his immense talents
and resources. It almost breaks my heart to think that he is lost to
the Church just as he was beginning with new vigor to consecrate him-
self to that work. It cannot be left neglected. That department
must be filled. Dr. Green cannot touch it. He is fully occupied
with the Old Testament, its language, literature, history, criticism,
introduction and interpretation. Surely this is enough for any man.
I cannot enter on that work. I have much in my own field which I
am obliged to neglect.
The question is, how are these two great objects to be provided for ?
(i.) The first plan proposed was to get a man of established
44O CHOICE OF PROFESSORS. [1860.
reputation, capable of filling the New Testament chair, and at the
same time of taking ecclesiastical history off of Dr. McGill's hands.
To this it was objected that no such man disengaged or available
could be found.
(2.) The second plan was that proposed by Dr. Murray, to let the
New Testament department go and to allow Dr. McGill to keep
Ecclesiastical History and the Church, and to get an experienced
pastor to take the practical department. To this there are two great
objections. First of leaving N. T. chair, one of the most important,
unprovided for, and, secondly, it takes Dr. McGill from that field in
which he is evidently doing most good.
(3.) The third plan was to get a young man, not less than thirty,
however, or at least old enough to have his character well tested, and
put him in Dr. Addison's place to grow up to it, as Dr. Green was
placed at 27 or 28 in the Old Testament department ; and as I was
taken still younger and brought along. To this Dr. McGill decidedly
objected ; first, because we need " a celebrity " at once to hold us up,
and, secondly, because it would not afford him the desired relief.
(4.) The fourth plan is to try and get two men, one to fill the New
Testament chair, who may be a young man, and the other a man of
established reputation to take Ecclesiastical History and Ecclesiology.
In this fourth plan all the Professors cordially acquiesce, and so do
our friends as far as consulted.
The two objections to it are, (i), That other Seminaries have only
four Professors. This I do not think will have any weight with the
Assembly seeing our necessities demand the increase. (2). The
great objection is the expense. This would be fatal unless it could
be obviated. Our friends in New York assure us this shall not stand
in the way of the plan. Now my dear sir, do you, one of our wisest
and best friends, do you approve of this plan ? And if so, who do
you think would be the desirable man. The names of Dr. Dabney
and Dr. Palmer have both been named for the chair of Church
History, &c. I suppose the latter would not and perhaps ought
not to leave New Orleans. The former may also be beyond our
reach.
Perhaps I ought to mention that Wistar (his son) has been named
for the N. T. chair as the young man, provided we can get a man
of established notoriety for the other. This suggestion you will
readily believe did not come from me. I do not know who first made
it. It has received favor from several independent sources. I should
greatly deprecate it, if he is not in fact, and in the estimation of those
who have an opportunity of judging, the proper person. Wistar him-
self, I know, would greatly object, first because he regards himself as
*T. 62.] CHOICE OF PROFESSORS. 441
unfit, and, secondly because he would prefer to get along without
being called upon to make so much exertion.
I hope you will write me soon on this subject, and aid us by your
prayers and counsel.
Your affectionate friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, April 4, 1860.
My Dear Brother :\ am driven almost to death by demands on
my pen ; letters remain unanswered and correspondents neglected.
The plan on which the friends of the Seminary have decided to
propose to the Assembly, is to have two new professors, one a man
of established reputation for the historical department, the other a
younger man for the New Testament department. The Directors
will probably recommend, either officially or indirectly (they doubt
their right to nominate), Dr. Dabney, of Virginia, for the former,
and Wistar for the latter post. It is doubtful whether the Assembly
will consent to our having five professors. It is feared that the
friends of the other Seminaries will oppose it. Provision, however,
is made for the salary of the fifth professor, so that no demand for
the increased expense will be made on the churches. Should the
plan be adopted, there is still, of course, the uncertainty of an elec-
tion in a body of 200 members. The principle, however, is so gen-
erally recognized to allow the friends of the several Seminaries to
select their own professors, that the probability is that anybody will
be elected whom our Board of Directors recommend.
Wistar is dreadfully mad about it, and hates the whole thing. I
have had nothing to do with the matter except to express the opinion
when asked that he had the talents and learning which the post de-
manded to as promising a degree as any young man I know. Dr.
Leighton Wilson, Drs. Boardman, Jones, Backus, McElroy, Mr.
Lenox, and others, had their minds turned to Wistar, and they have
brought the matter to its present position. I have heard of no dis-
sent among the Directors.
The bell is ringing. Love to all.
Your brother,
CHARLES HODGE.
The eyes of all the friends of Princeton were now eagerly
turned to Dr. Robert L. Dabney, of Prince Edward, Vir-
ginia, who had already acquired the well-deserved reputa-
442 CHOICE OF PROFESSORS. [1860.
tion of being one of the very ablest teachers of theology
which the American church had ever produced. It was
the earnest desire of Dr. Hodge that Princeton should be
strengthened by so powerful a reinforcement, and he did his
best to present the claims of the position before Dr. Dab-
ney in the most favorable light. The latter, however, after
giving the proposition a candid and prayerful consideration,
decided in the negative.
DR. DABNEY TO DR. HODGE.
UNION SEM., VA., April loth, 1860.
Rev. and Dear Sir: * * * Let me say, then, that I am led to
it (his negative decision) by no affectionate clamor against my re-
moval on the part of good brethren here. * * * The true ques-
tion you have correctly stated. It is : In which position shall I be
likely to effect most for Christ and his church ? And I cannot avoid
the conviction, that so far as my fallible judgment can decide, the
post of superior usefulness for me is here. My reasons for this con-
clusion are briefly summed up in this statement, that by going away
I shall inflict an almost fatal injury upon a minor interest of the
church, in order to render a very non-essential assistance to a major
interest of the same church. * * *.
" I would request you to communicate to your friends so much of
the above as may be necessary to clear me from the appearance of
inattention or discourtesy towards their request. That request I feel
to be kind and flattering to me far above my deserts. I, therefore,
beg that you will communicate to your friends and accept for your-
self my gratitude for your favorable opinion, and for the generous
manner of its expression.
I remain, with affectionate respect,
Your friend and brother,
R. L. DABNEY.
Dr. Dabney, therefore, being inaccessible, the Assembly
of that year, at the instance of the Directors of Princeton
Seminary, assigned Dr. McGill to the chair of Ecclesiasti-
cal History, and elected Rev. Dr. B. M. Palmer, of New
Orleans, to the chair of Practical Theology, and Rev. Cas-
par Wistar Hodge to the chair of New Testament Literature
and Exegesis. As Dr. Palmer declined, the General As-
^ T - 62-] CHOICE OF PROFESSORS. 443
sembly of the next year assigned Dr. McGill to the chair
of Church Government and the Composition and Delivery
of Sermons, and elected Dr. James C. Moffat Professor of
Church History.
When the matter of granting Princeton a fifth professor
was before the Assembly, Dr. Hodge spoke as follows:
" Mr. Moderator, there is no indelicacy in my addressing
the Assembly on this subject. We are seeking no personal
object. We have full confidence in the members of this
house. As this is a court of Jesus Christ, it must be as-
sumed to be governed by His Spirit. Its members, I doubt
not, will act not from personal or sectional motives, but
from considerations they can present before the eyes of their
Divine Master.
" Princeton claims no superiority. We cheerfully admit
that all our Seminaries stand on the same level, and should
be treated on precisely the same principles. And, there-
fore, whenever any Seminary appears here by its authorized
representatives, and says that it cannot discharge its duties
to the church without additional aid, not a friend of Prince-
ton will hesitate to vote that it should be granted.
"There are two things, indeed, which give Princeton a
special hold on the feelings of the Church. The one is
that she is Alma Mater of some two thousand five hundred
preachers of the gospel. That is her crown. As it is im-
possible that a son should fail to look with tenderness and
respect on the face of his mother, so it is impossible that
the Alumni of Princeton should not regard that institution
with peculiar affection. A matron surrounded by her chil-
dren grown to maturity, and filling stations of usefulness,
must be the object of feelings which a blooming maiden
cannot excite. The maiden may be more attractive and
more promising, but she is not the mother of children. The
other thing is that Princeton is on the frontier of our
church. Our other Seminaries are safe in the interior. We
stand on the borders in near proximity to the great institu-
444 CHOICE OF PROFESSORS. [1860,
tions, Andover and Union Seminary in New York. Unless
Princeton is able to stand erect by the side of these Semi-
naries, and present equal facilities for a thorough theological
training, we shall lose our young men; our most promising
students will be educated outside of our church. This
would be a calamity not to Princeton only but to the church
at large.
" But, Mr. Moderator, this is not the main ground on
which we rest her application for a fifth professor. We are
unable without additional assistance properly to cultivate
the field assigned to us. Princeton has been prostrated in
the dust. We come to you to beg you to raise us up. In
the death of Joseph Addison Alexander we have lost our
great glory and defense.
"Permit me, Mr. Moderator, to express my own indi-
vidual convictions. I regard Dr. Josepk Addison Alex-
ander as incomparably the greatest man I ever knew as
incomparably the greatest man our church has ever pro-
duced. His intellect was majestic not only in its greatness
but in its harmonious proportions. No faculty was in ex-
cess, and none was in defect. His understanding, imagi-
nation and memory were alike wonderful. Everything was
equally easy to him. Nothing he ever did seemed to re-
veal half his power. His attainments in classical, oriental
and modern languages and literature were almost unexam-
pled. His stores of biblical, historical and antiquarian
knowledge seemed inexhaustible. To all these talents and
attainments were added great force of character, power over
the minds of men, and a peculiar facility in imparting know-
ledge. His thorough orthodoxy, his fervent piety, humility,
faithfulness in the discharge of his duties, and reverence for
the Word of God, consecrated all his other gifts. His com-
plete mastery of every form of modern infidelity enabled
him to vindicate the Scriptures as with authority. He
glorified the Word of God in the sight of his pupils beyond
what any man I ever saw had the power of doing. Prince-
^ T - 6 2.] CHOICE OF PROFESSORS. 445
ton is not what it was, and can never expect to be what it
has been. You cannot fill his place. The only compensa-
tion for such a loss is the presence of the Spirit of God.
" The department of N. T. Literature and Biblical Greek,
to which this extraordinary man consecrated his life, and
which he felt called for all his time and efforts, is vacant.
You must put some one into it, to do what he can.
" But when you have done that, Dr. McGill remains bur-
dened with the duties of two complete departments, the
Pastoral and Historical. This is more than the most robust
man can bear. Justice to him and to the Institution there-
fore requires that a fifth professor should be appointed to
share his duties."
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
ROCHESTER, May 30, 1860.
My Dear Brother: We have a very pleasant meeting of the As-
sembly, and if we may believe all we hear the meeting has made a
very salutary impression on this community. There has been no
agitation. North and South have mingled without a jar. Southern
men here say that they could not believe that in the heart of fanati-
cal Western New York they should be so received and treated, and
that the doings of the Assembly will do more to harmonize and quiet
the country than anything which has occurred for five years. They
say they intend to publish this sentiment in the papers when they get
home. On the other hand, strong anti-slavery men residing here
say they had purposely attended the preaching of the Southern
members, and that they all preached one thing, and only one, Christ
and him crucified. They say these Southern preachers are the best
they ever heard.
Mary came with me. We have had a very pleasant time in this
hotel the Osburn House with Dr. Boardman and wife, Dr. Thorn-
well, Dr. Adger and family, Dr. Spring, and several other members
of the Assembly. The weather has been delightful, and the climate
as good as it is in Princeton.
The election for Professors in Princeton was made yesterday after-
noon. Dr. Palmer was chosen Professor in the new chair (part of
Dr. McGill's), that of Pastoral Theology and Rhetoric, and Wistar
Professor of the New Testament Literature and Biblical Greek. Each
had all the votes cast. The most gratifying testimony was born to
446 DEBATE ON THE BOARDS OF THE CHURCH. [1860.
Wistar by his old classmates and co-presbyters and from other sources.
The number of votes (244) cast show that the election was cordial ;
for had the members been indifferent or opposed they would not
have voted as they did.
We are of course very thankful, and hope God means it all for
good. Wistar is older than I was, and than Dr. Addison was or
than Dr. Green was, at the time of our respective elections.
Love to Margaret and the boys.
Your brother,
CHARLES HODGE.
HIS GREAT DEBATE ON THE BOARDS OF THE CHURCH.
This Debate on the subject of the Boards of the Church,
and virtually upon the fundamental question of the liberty
of the Church to adjust herself to providentially determined
conditions, in response to Dr. Thornwell, was probably
the most signal forensic effort of his life. Though very
prominent as a writer on ecclesiastical principles, he never
could be regarded as a practical ecclesiastic. His powers
were those of the thinker, and writer, and speaker, not
those of executive tact and skill. Clear and far-seeing, as
he was in thought, he was not adroit in management, nor
subtile in his combinations. He produced whatever effects
he did, simply by the clearness of his views, the frankness
of his statements, the earnestness of his appeals, and the
weight of his character.
A writer styling himself " a looker-on in Vienna," gives
this account of that debate in the Presbyterian for May 23d,
1860. " Messrs. Editors. I write you not from the shadow
of the Vatican, but from the bosom of the great, perhaps
the greatest General Assembly ever held in these United
States.* * Here I see laymen who have graced the Halls of
our National Legislature.* * * Here I find Dr. Thornwell,
a representative man from the South, a person of small sta-
ture, eagle eyed a John Randolph head in more senses
than one. He has a well-earned and distinguished reputa-
tion as a writer, debater and preacher. He laid out his
*rr. 62.] DEBATE ON THE BOARDS OF THE CHURCH. 447
strength this morning in a powerful exhibition of his theory
for a change in the organization of our Boards. He is clear,
earnest, impassioned. He held his audience enchained. His
voice is deep and guttural, mellow and impressive, his
gestures natural and forcible. The spirit he evinced was so
kind, so gentlemanly and Christian, that all his opponents
praised him.
" Dr. Hodge appeared on the stage immediately after the
conclusion of Dr. Thornwell's speech. As he looked over
the Assembly, he saw perhaps more than half of the
ministry of this great body who once had sat at his feet as
learners. Such heard, with an interest and emotion, you
may readily imagine, this one remaining representative of
that cherished and honored band of Professors in Princeton
Seminary, whose names and praises too, are so widely
known in all our churches. If any man is posted in the
history of our church, in the nature of its polity, and in the
teachings of the Holy Spirit in relation to its duties and
prerogatives, it is Dr. Charles Hodge. His speech of forty
minutes told on the General Assembly with tremendous
power so much so that after Dr. Krebs had gained the
floor, Dr. Spring moved that the question should then be
taken. But Dr. Adger and others protested."
The position assumed by Dr. Thornwell is stated above,
page 402. The argument of Dr. Hodge, as stated by him-
self Princeton Review, 1860, p. 566, concludes as follows.
" The grand objection urged against this new theory, the
one which showed it to be not only inconsistent and im-
practicable but intolerable, was, that it is, in plain English,
nothing more than a device for clothing human opinions
with divine authority. The law of God was made to forbid
not only what it says, but what may be inferred from. it. We
grant that what a man infers from the words of God binds
his own conscience. But the trouble is that he insists that it
shall bind mine also. We begged to be excused. One man
infers one thing, another a different thing from the Bible.
448 DEBATE ON THE BOARDS OF THE CHURCH. [1860.
The same man infers one thing to-day, and another thing
to-morrow. Must the Church bow her neck to all these
burdens ? She would soon be more trammeled than the
church in the wilderness, with this infinite difference, the
church of old was measurably restricted by fetters which
God himself imposed ; the plan now is to bind with fetters
which human logic forges. This she will never submit to.
"Dr. Thornwell told us that the Puritans rebelled against
the doctrine that what is not forbidden in Scripture is allow-
able. It was against the theory of liberty of discretion, he
said, our fathers raised their voices and their arms. We
always had a different idea of the matter. We supposed
that it was in resistance to this very doctrine of inferences
they poured out their blood like water. In their time, men
inferred from Romans, xiii. I, (' Let every soul be subject
unto the higher powers. Whosoever resisteth the power
resisteth the ordinance of God ; and they that resist shall
receive to themselves damnation' ), the doctrine of passive
submission. From the declaration and command of Christ
' The Pharisees sit in Moses' seat ; all therefore whatsoever
they bid you observe, that observe and do,' they inferred the
right of the Church to make laws to bind the conscience-
On this ground tories and high-churchmen sought to im-
pose on the church .their trumpery vestments and their
equally frivolous logical deductions. It was fetters forged
from inferences our fathers broke, and we, their children, will
never suffer them to be rewelded.
"There is as much difference between the extreme doc-
trine of divine right, this idea that every thing is forbidden
which is not commanded, and the doctrine of the Puritans,
as there is between this free exultant Church of ours, and
the mummied mediaeval forms of Christianity. We have
no fear on this subject. The doctrine need only be clearly
propounded to be rejected."
CHAPTER XL
FROM 1 86 1, AND THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR,
TO IS/2, AND THE CELEBRATION OF DR. HODGE*S
SEMI-CENTENNIAL.
HIS APPEARANCE AND HEALTH HIS OCCUPATIONS AND RECREATION THE
COMPOSITION OF HIS "SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY ' THE SABBATH AFTER-
NOON CONFERENCES THE CIVIL WAR: CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS
BROTHER THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN : CORRESPONDENCE WITH
HIS BROTHER LETTER TO DR. ROBERT WATTS ON THE "WITNESS OF
THE SPIRIT.'' THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO POLITICAL QUES-
TIONS, AND THE MERITS OF THE ACTUAL DECISIONS BY THE GENERAL
ASSEMBLY (O. S.) OF QUESTIONS GROWING OUT OF THE WAR. THE CASE
OF THE REV. S. B. M'PHEETERS, D.D. THE REUNION OF THE OLD AND
NEW SCHOOL PRESBYTERIANS. THE NATIONAL PRESBYTERIAN CONVEN-
TION, PHILADELPHIA, NOV. 1867.
HE entered upon this period a hale and vigorous man, in
the fulness of all his powers intellectual and physical,
elderly, yet in perfect preservation, and he closed it an old man
of seventy-four years, already showing the stealthy progress of
decay. The light color of his hair rendered less conspicuous
the first sprinkling of frost, and his vigorous constitution
and regular habits rendered his carriage, bearing and whole
appearance unusually youthful. The peacefulness and sweet-
ness of his disposition contributed to the same appearance
of perpetual youth. His countenance, which had always
been handsome, became beautiful as he grew older, radiant
with the peace and love and hope which had now come to
be the perpetual mood of his spirit. His health for the
most part was excellent and uniform. He suffered from a
29 449
450 HEALTH AND HABITS. [1861-72.
decided though not dangerous attack of typhoid fever from
February 26, to March 13, 1859; from inflammation of the
bowels January and February, 1865, and from a very alarm-
ing attack of fever from January 28, to March 2, 1871. As
he grew older his general nerve force grew less and less
capable of resisting depressing influences. He wept easily,
and often much against his will. He was easily exhausted
by the effort involved in public speaking, and by all
draughts upon his emotions?] Although under ordinary
conditions his health was apparently perfect, as a sound yet
heavily laden boat floats well in smooth water, yet he sank
easily and rapidly upon slight occasions of nervous shock
or physical derangement, as the same boat fills and sinks
when the water is agitated. Especially was he readily and
often alarmingly exhausted by severe heat. Hence it came
to pass that while he spent the month of May of each year
(from 1866 to 1878) or a good part of it with his brother-
in-law, General David Hunter, in the city of Washington, he
spent the months of July and August always at some cool
watering place. His journal shows that in the later sum-
mer of 1862 he was at: Rhineland, on the upper coast of
Long Island, and at Altoona, Pittsburg, Cresson, Lancaster
and Saratoga. In 1863 he went to Rhineland in July and
to Saratoga in August. In 1864 he spent August at Hunt-
ingdon, Long Island. In 1865 he spent July and the first
of August at Saybrookpoint, Connecticut. LFrom the sum-
mer of 1 867 to the end of his life he spent with his wife, and
often others of his family, the midsummer, generally all of
July and August, at Narragansett Pier, Rhode Islano!^ In
all these places he carried with him the atmosphere of
Christian love and devotion. He formed delightful ac-
quaintanceships and some permanent friendships. He con-
ducted religious services, and assisted in forming permanent
religious institutions. And by these systematic refresh-
ments he so preserved the tone of his physical system
that he was enabled to bear his best fruit in old age.
. 69-75.] HIS S YS TEMA TIC THE OLOGY. 451
. HIS SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
During all these years he was working continuously and
at least as hard as his health justified, for besides twenty-six
of his most influential articles in the Princeton Review he
wrote during this period his great work on "Systematic
Theology," of two thousand two hundred large octavo
pages.? The preparation of the first part of this vast
work, treating on the foundations of Natural Theology,
and its relation to materialism and other antitheistic theories,
scientific and philosophical and traditional, exacted of him
a great amount of special reading and reflection. And the
body of the work on the great common-places of Christian
Theology are not copies of his past lectures, but are fresh
compositions in which his views are recast and all the
harvest of his past studies are gathered. The original
manuscript, just as it passed from his hand, has been re-
covered from the printers, and bound in several volumes is
preserved in the Seminary Library. It discovers for the
most part that the composition was as free and easy as the
style is clear, as it is remarkably free from all evidences of
arrested or embarrassed thought in erasures and interline-
ations. It was written entirely with one dilapidated gold
pen, whose flexible side and divergent nibs long ago
rendered it incapable of use in any other hand than his
own. No one now knows certainly when the rewriting of
this work commenced. It was probably projected and in
some way commenced as early as 1864. But it was pro-
bably not grappled with very earnestly before 1867. The
manuscript of the first volume was sent to Houghton & Co.,
the printers, December 2/th, 1870, and the manuscript of
the last volume was completed October 8th, 1872. \Hence
it was, with exceptions too small to be worthy of mention,
all written since he past the end of his sixty-ninth yean)
His correspondence continued, as it had been for many
years, immense in volume and very burdensome. From his
452 CORRESPONDENCE AND RELAXATION. [1861-72.
former pupils and others, ministers and laymen, in all parts
of the country, questions were submitted to him and long
and laborious answers were expected. Some of these required
and frankly suggested wide special research, as he had the
advantage, denied to the questioners, of access to large
public libraries. The questions submitted covered the whole
ground of doctrine, exegesis, experience, and ecclesiastical
law. He conscientiously and laboriously responded to these
appeals to the best of his ability, writing often answers
covering several sheets. If these could now all be collected
and classified, they would probably constitute a treasury of
wisdom, equal both in value and in volume to all his other
writings together. His letters to his brother, at this period,
contain many such passages as the following, constantly
recurring. " I am driven almost to death by demands on my
pen ; letters remain unanswered and correspondents ne-
glected, &c."
At the same time the requirements of advancing life led
him more and more to seek refreshment of strength in
relaxation. In December, 1856, he bought a beautifully
situated farm on the Millstone river, three miles from his
residence, and placed it for some years in the charge of one
of his sons. He visited it in all possible weather during
that son's occupancy, once a day, planning and superintend-
ing its draining and cultivation with the most unflagging in-
terest. In summer weather during these years also he played
croquet in the lawn before his front door ; in the evenings of
both summer and winter he played back-gammon. He en-
tered into both these games with the most profound interest,
contesting every inch, and debating every mooted point,
with all the seriousness belonging of right to the most im-
portant matters, delighting to win, yet always submitting to
the fates of war with the utmost sweetness of temper. From
this time also we begin to have noticed that he was willing
to rest his mind as well as his body by reading on due occa-
sions the novels which the younger members of his family
. 64-75.] THE SABBATH AFTERNOON CONFERENCE.
453
placed within his reach. He had always been an intensely
interested observer of public events, and had entertained
very positive opinions upon political questions. He was
fundamentally an old Federalist, then a Whig, then a Re-
publican of the Conservative wing. From the beginning of
the war, this interest in public affairs was naturally very
much intensified, and for many years he eagerly read every
day all the newspapers he could conveniently reach.
THE SABBATH AFTERNOON CONFERENCE.
After the death of Dr. Archibald Alexander, Dr. Hodge
became and continued to the end of his life the great attrac-
tion and power in the Sunday afternoon religious con-
ferences of the professors and students. The prominence
and effectiveness of this weekly exercise was unquestionably
for the last half century a grand special characteristic of
Princeton Seminary. During these past years it was in
many respects the most remarkable and memorable exercise
in the entire Seminary course. They were held every Sab-
bath afternoon by the professors and students for the dis-
cussion and practical enforcement of questions relating to
experimental religion and the duties of the Christian life.
The members of all the successive classes will bear testi-
mony to the unique character and singular preciousness of
those Sabbath afternoon Conferences in that sacred old
Oratory, whose walls are still eloquent to them with imper-
ishable associations. Here the venerable professors appeared
rather as friends and pastors than as instructors. The dry
and cold attributes of scientific theology moving in the
sphere of the intellect, gave place to the warmth of personal
religious experience, and to the spiritual light of divinely
illuminated intuition. Here in the most effective manner
they sought to build up Christian men rather than form ac-
complished scholars and to instruct them in the wisest
methods of conducting their future work of saving souls and
edifying the Church of Christ.
454 THE SABBATH AFTERNOON CONFERENCE. [1861-72.
The text or topic for consideration was announced at the
preceding meeting. The professors presided in turn, and
were called upon to speak in the inverse order of seniority,
the professor presiding for the day coming last. For many
years the discussion was opened by remarks volunteered by
the students, but in later times, the entire hour has been
occupied by the professors.
The historical character of this remarkable service is of
course derived from the peerless endowments, intellectual
and spiritual, of the first three professors in the institution.
Men so different, yet together constituting such a singular
completeness of excellence by the combination of their
complementary graces.
Dr. Miller, the model Christian gentleman, and typical
divine, whose original, generous and genial nature had been
transfigured by the long indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and
whose outward manner had evidently been conformed by
long self-training to the highest models, would have been
the first to attract the eye and to impress the ear of the
stranger. His long and active life had furnished him with
rich stores of experience of men as well as a vast volume
of learning derived from books. All this he poured forth
with a deliberate and stately copiousness, in a manner serene
and dignified, yet full of impressive force and tender unction.
His adoring sense of the majesty of God, and of the serious-
ness of human life, of the reality and solemnity of divine
things, and of the obligations attending the Christian pro-
fession, and above all attending the office of the Christian
ministry, gave form and color to all he said. His instruc-
tions were always wise and practical, and were characteristi-
cally illustrated from an inexhaustible fund of apt and often
witty, but always dignified anecdote, drawn from all litera-
ture, sacred and profane, and from his own extensive inter-
course with men as a pastor and as a citizen.
Dr. Archibald Alexander, incomparably the greatest, as
he was the first of that illustrious family, though neither
yET. 64-75.] THE SABBATH AFTERNOON CONFERENCE. 455
more learned, nor more holy than his older colleague, was
far more original. He was modelled upon nothing, but
every thing in him and about him to the last detail of
thought, or glance, or inflexion, or gesture was immediately
determined by spontaneous forces working straight outward
from within. It was this entire absence of self-consciousness,
this absolute simplicity of thought, emotion and expres-
sion, and its spontaneous directness to its point, added to
his other natural and gracious endowments, which gave this .
great teacher his singular pre-eminence. His intellect was
intuitive rather than logical. Although he exhibited flashes
of acute analysis, as sharp and rapid as a Damascus blade,
yet he did not characteristically excel in broad views of
truth in their relations, nor in lengthened processes of con-
secutive thought. He was eminently quick in his observa-
tion, and penetrating in his insight, accurately noting facts
and reading characters in rapid glances. He held in his
retentive memory the spoils of a vast and widely selected
reading. All the treasures of divine wisdom and grace, which
the Holy Ghost communicates to life-long students of the
Word, when to high intellect is added all the simplicity and
docility of a little child irradiated his soul and made it
luminous to others. All the secrets of the human heart
and its various experiences under the discipline of the natural
conscience and of the word and Spirit of God were known
to him, and he possessed the finest skill in interpreting
and in treating, with acute precision, the states and frames
of all who sought his counsel or listened to his instructions.
Dr. Theodore D. Woolsey, ex-president of Yale College, at
Dr. Hodge's semi-centennial, said that "Dr. Alexander
should be called the Shakespeare of the Christian heart, be-
cause of his wonderful knowledge of it in all its morbid
and healthful exercises."
This utter simplicity, this all-penetrating insight, accom-
panied with a wonderful spontaneousness of thought, ima-
gination and speech were personal attributes, inseparable
456 THE SABBA TH AFTER NO ON CONFERENCE. [1861-72.
from his presence and manner, and incapable of being
transmitted to the printed page. During his later years,
when urged to put the results of his studies and reflec-
tions in the permanent form of writing, he often said,
"No, if I have any talent, it is to talk sitting in my chair."
And however much he may have been mistaken in failing
to recognise the value of his writings to the Church, there
is no doubt that his gifts as a talker on the themes of Chris-
tian experience were without parallel among his contempo-
raries. He, more than any man of his generation, appeared
to those who heard him to be endued with the knowledge,
and clothed with the authority of a prophet sent immedi-
ately from God. He was to us the highest peak of the
mountains, on whose pure head the heavens, beyond the
common horizon, pour the wealth of their iridescent ra-
diance.
In his early and middle life he had been an orator en-
dowed with singular powers of dramatic representation. In
his old age he was always calm and quiet, but such was his
intense sense of the reality of the subjects on which he dis-
coursed, that often, as he spoke of angels, of heaven, of the
beatific vision of saints, of Christ and of his second coming
and judgment, his hearers felt that their eyes also were
opened to discern the presence of things unseen and eter-
nal. Every Wednesday evening Dr. Alexander presided at
the public prayers in the Oratory. The instant the students
were in their seats he came in rapidly, his cloak hanging
often diagonally from his bent shoulders, his head inclined
as in revery, yet flashing sudden glances on either side
with piercing eyes, which seemed to penetrate all the se-
crets of those upon whom they fell. He sat down with his
back to the windows, and his right side to the students, sit-
ting low almost hidden by the desk. Drawing the large
Bible down before him, he seemed to lose at once all sense
of human audience, and to pass alone into the presence of
God. As he read, and mused and ejaculated the utterances
MT. 64-75.] THE SABBATH AFTERNOON CONFERENCE. 457
of all the holy exercises of his soul upon the Divine Word,
a solemn hush fell upon us, and we felt not as those who
listen to a teacher, but as those who are admitted to ap-
proach, with the shoes from off their feet, to gaze in and
listen through an opened window to the mysterious work-
ings of a sanctified soul under the immediate revelations of
the Holy Ghost.
Dr. Hodge was by a whole generation younger than
these venerable fathers. Hence during the first years of
his professorship his part in these Sabbath afternoon con-
ferences, although regularly discharged, was less prominent
than theirs. During the long period, however, from about
1848 to his death in 1878, he was recognized by all as the
central sun which gave light and heat to the entire service.
(As all acquainted with his life-work know, Dr. Hodge's
distinguishing attributes were great tenderness and strength
of emotion, and the power of exciting it in others; an
habitual adoring love for Christ, and absolute submission
of mind and will to his word; \ a chivalrous disposition to
maintain against all odds, and with unvarying self-consist-
ency through all the years of a long life, the truth as he
saw it crystalline clearness of thought and expression, and
an unsurpassed logical power of analysis and of grasping
and exhibiting all truths in their relations. Dr. Alexander
once said to a friend that the mental constitution of Dr.
Hodge was more than that of any man he knew like that
of John Calvin, without his severity. As he sat in the
Conference he spoke freely, without paper, in language and
with illustration spontaneously suggested at the moment.
To the hearer the entire exercises appeared extempo-
raneous. The matter presented was a clear analysis of the
scriptural passage, or theme, doctrinal or practical, chosen
for the occasion. An exhaustive statement and clear illus-
tration of the question. An exhibition of the evidence of
the doctrine and of the grounds and reasons, methods, con-
ditions and limits of the experience or duty. A develop-
458 THE SABBATH AFTERNOON CONFERENCE. [1861-75.
ment of each doctrine on the side of experience and prac-
tice; a demonstration of the practical character of all doc-
trine and of the doctrinal basis of all genuine religious ex-
perience and practice.
As to its manner, the entire discourse was in the highest
degree earnest, fervent and tender to tears; full of convic-
tion and full of love. While the temporary impression
made upon most hearers was less remarkable than that pro-
duced by Dr. Alexander in his happiest moods, all the stu-
dents, and especially those who were diligent in taking
notes, felt that they took away with them from Dr. Hodge
a far larger mass of coherent thought for permanent use
than from any of the rest. The reason for this is abund-
antly evident when the drawers of his study are opened, and
the large accumulation of careful preparations for this ex-
ercise are examined. He prepared and wrote out a careful
analysis or skeleton of every Conference discourse. Al-
though designed to meet no eye but his own, these analyses
are fully written out, and are verbally complete in all their
articulations. They cover every variety of subject relating
to Christian doctrine and personal experience, and church
life and work. And although his audience was completely
changed every three years, it appears that he seldom used
the same preparations twice, but prepared, even after he had
passed his 8oth year, a new paper for each Conference, often
Constructing analyses of the same theme several times. This
was his method of mental preparation. He habitually
thought with his pen in his hand. He prepared his analysis
of his subject before he wrote his sermon, or lecture, or
article, or chapter of his books. He also made written
analyses of the important books he read.
Dr. Prime wrote in the Observer, June 27, 1878: "Far
above his fame as a champion of the truth, was and is his
glory that he gloried in the Cross of Christ. He was a
child-like, humble, praying, believing, hoping Christian. In
the Oratory on Sunday afternoons his spiritual ' talks ' to
.ET. 64-75.] THE SABBATH AFTERNOON CONFERENCE. 459
the students were like streams of the water of life flowing
by the throne ! The pathos of his voice, his words, his
tears, his prayers were irresistibly affecting. Then he com-
muned with God and his children. How the hearts of his
disciples burned within them as he opened unto them the
Scriptures! Beyond the lecture-room and the pulpit, the
memory of those holy hours will remain with them who
sat with him in heavenly places."
One of his favorite pupils* has brought him before us at
this service, in a sketch as beautiful as it is life-like :
" No triumph of his with tongue or pen ever so thrilled
and moved human hearts as did his utterances at the Sab-
bath afternoon conferences in the Seminary Oratory, which
will live in the immortal memory of every Princeton stu-
dent. A subject would be given out on the Sunday before,
generally some one which involved practical, experimental,
spiritual religion such as Christian fidelity, love of God's
word, prayer, the Lord's Supper, the great commission.
After brief opening services by the students, the Professors
spoke in turn; but Dr. Hodge's was the voice which all
waited to hear. Sitting quietly in his chair, with a simple
ease which seemed born of the moment, but was really the
fruit of careful preparation, even with the pen, he would
pour out a tide of thought and feeling which moved and
melted all solemn, searching, touching, tender his eye
sometimes kindling and his voice swelling or trembling
with the force of sacred emotion, while thought and lan-
guage at times rose to a grandeur which held us spell-
bound. Few went away from those consecrated meetings
without feeling in their hearts that there was nothing good
and pure and noble in Christian character which he who
would be a worthy minister of Christ ought not to covet
for his own."
|His public work, during this most prominent and influen-
tial period of his life, related to three great questions : The
* William Irvin, D. D., of Troy, N. Y.
460 THE CIVIL WAR. [1861-65.
civil war, and the duty of Christian citizens in relation to it.
The relation of the Church to political questions, and the
merits of the actual decisions of the General Assembly (O.
S.) upon questions growing out of the war. And third,
the proposed reunion of the two branches of the Presby-
terian ChurchT]
THE CIVIL WAR.
On this all-absorbing subject he wrote the following
articles: "The State of the Country," January, 1861. "The
Church and the Country," April, 1861. "England and Ame-
rica," January, 1862. "The War," January, 1862. "President
Lincoln," July, 1865. Several of these were reprinted and
widely circulated in pamphlet form, and were regarded as of
great merit and practical value by prominent statesmen.
He has given his own account of these publications in a
subsequent article reviewing the course of the Princeton
Review in relation to "The State of the Country," October,
1865, and in his ^Retrospect of the History of the Prince-
ton Review" in the Index Volume, 1871.1 In the latter he
says : " The Princeton Review has as freely as any other
journal, and with the same right, neither more nor less, said
what it felt bound to say on Secession, on the Rebellion, on
the duty of loyalty and the support of the Government; on
Slavery and Emancipation; on the power and authority of
Church courts within the limits of the constitution, and on
the principles which should govern our action in the great
work of reconstruction, both in the Church and State.
"We have looked over the several articles in this journal
published during the war, and we find in them nothing
which we wish to retract. We are humbly thankful that
our voice, however feeble, has throughout been on the side
of the Union and the Government, and against the whole
course of those who endeavored to dissever the one and
overthrow the other. There is no journal in the land can
present a fairer record of patriotism and loyalty. It is true,
as the Presbyterian Banner, of Pittsburgh, in an excellent
^T.63-6;.] THE CIVIL WAR. 461
editorial printed in December, 1862, states (at least by im-
plication) that among the supporters of the Union and the
Government there are two parties, a radical and a national
party. On this subject it wisely taught 'that the people
must be united. A platform broad enough for all loyal
people to stand upon, must be adopted. The Radicals can-
not carry their principles through. It is utter folly in them
to think so. They have not the numbers. The people will
not go with them. And the Republicans cannot, as a party,
so wage the battle as to triumph. They have the reins of
government, but only half the people, a power far too weak.
Neither could the Democrats on party principles succeed.
There must be union; and to have union we must adopt
broad, noble, national principles.' This is the ground on
which we have always stood. Party politics, as such, have
had no place in this Review. Radical principles and mea-"
sures are alien to its character and spirit. It has advocated
the national cause on national principles, as a great moral
and religious duty."
In his ''Retrospect/' 1871, he says: " The first article
having reference to our national difficulties was written be-
fore the secession of South Carolina, but did not appear in
print until after that event, viz: January, 1861. The article
is entitled ' The State of the Country.' It began by saying
\There are periods in the history of every nation when its
destiny for ages may be determined by the events of an
hour. There are occasions when political questions rise
into the sphere of morals and religion; when the rule for
political action is to be sought, not in considerations of state
policy, but in the Word of God. On such occasions the
distinction between secular and religious journals are oblit-
erated.'.^ It is on this ground that we, as conductors of a
Theological Review, felt justified on entering upon the dis-
cussion of questions involving our national life. In taking
this course we were sustained by the example of the whole
religious press of the country, South as well as North.
462 THE CIVIL WAR. [1861-65.
" The design of the article in question was, in the first
place, to consider the complaints of the South against the
North, which we endeavored to show were either altogether
unfounded, or did not furnish any justification for the disso-
lution of the national union; and, in the second place, to
prove that secession was not a constitutional mode of re-
dressing evils, whether real or imaginary. That article was
received at the South, to our surprise, with universal con-
demnation, expressed in terms of unmeasured severity. At
the North it was pronounced ' moderate, fair and reason-
able/ except by the Abolitionists, who rivalled their South-
ern brethren in their denunciations."
DR, HODGE TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SOUTHERN PRESBY-
TERIAN."
PRINCETON, Jan. 3d, 1861.
My Dear Sir: I received last evening a copy of the Southern
Presbyterian, tor Dec. 29th, 1860, containing a notice headed " The
Princeton Review on the State of the Country." The article in the
Review thus denominated, you characterize as " an unfortunate, one-
sided and lamentable attack upon the South." I think, my dear
sir, that it will promote the cause of truth and brotherly love which
we both have at heart, if you will permit the Editor of the Review to
state to your readers in few words the design of the article on which
you pronounce so unfavorable a judgment.
It was intended to produce two effects within the limited range of
its influence ; first, to convince the South that the mass of Northern
people are not abolitionists or hostile to the rights and interests of
the South ; and second, to convince the North that the course adopt-
ed by the abolitionists is unjust and unscriptural. You say that the
writer of the article in question "affirms that the aggressions or
grievances of "which the South complains have no real existence."
The article, however, says that the South has "just grounds of com-
plaint, and that the existing exasperation towards the North is
neither unnatural nor unaccountable." It says that "the spirit, lan-
guage and conduct of the abolitionists is an intolerable grievance."
It says that " tampering with slaves is a great crime. That it is a
grievance that would justify almost any available means of redress."
It admits that all opposition to the restoration of fugitive slaves,
whether by individuals, by mobs or legislative enactments, is im-
JET. 63-67.] THE CIVIL WAR. 463
moral, and that the South has a right to complain of all such oppo-
sition. It admits that the territories are the common property of the
country, and that the South has the same rights to them that the
North has, and it calls for an equal division of these territories on
the plan of the Missouri compromise. The article does not deny the
reality of the grievances complained of, but it denies that those griev-
ances are justly chargeable on the people of the North. It endeav-
ors to prove, by a simple process of arithmetic, that the abolitionists
against whom these charges justly lie, are comparatively a mere
handful of the people of the North. Southern men and ministers of
the highest eminence pronounce the abolition party to be not only
Antichristian but atheistic, to be perjured and instinct with the spirit
of the French revolutionists, and then the North is pronounced to be
thoroughly abolitionized. We know this to be untrue. We know
this to be a false judgment pronounced upon thousands and hun-
dreds of thousands of pious, God-fearing people. We hold it, there-
fore, to be a solemn duty to all concerned to show that such judg-
ment is altogether unfounded, in fact. Such is the main design of
the article in question. Whatever may be thought of its execution,
the design must of necessity commend itself to every good man. If
Southern men knew the North as we know it, they would no more
think of secession than they would of suicide. We have done what
we could out of a pure conscience to convince the South that we are
not hostile to its rights and interests. If our Southern brethren take
this in evil part we shall deeply regret it, but cannot repent of what
has the full assent of our reason and conscience.
* * * It nowhere advocates coercion in the present crisis. It
deprecates all appeal to force, and urges acquiescence in the recom-
mendation of a convention of the States, that disunion, if it must
come, may at least be peaceably effected.
Your friend and fellow-servant,
EDITOR OF THE " PRINCETON REVIEW,"
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Dec. 13, 1860.
I am thoroughly disgusted with the poltroonery of Northern men.
If they would take moderate and just ground, and take it firmly, and
not go down on their knees, and call themselves the sole wrong-
doers, there would be some hope. Your brother,
C. H.
464 THE CIVIL WAR. [1861-65.
DR. HODGE TO DR. BOARDMAN.
PRINCETON, Dec. 16, 1860.
My Dear Sir : * * * * My own mind is decided for the publi-
cation of the article. If it is to do any good it is to be done now. I
have no idea of- producing the slightest effect on disunionists. But
there are many conservative men at the South who wish to have
their hands strengthened, to whom it will be a matter of importance to
have it proved that the whole North is not abolitionized, and that the
mass of the people are true friends to the constitutional rights of the
South. Besides the Republicans need to be moderated. Mr. , a
leading Republican of this State, expressed himself warmly against
all concession, but after reading my article, wrote to me that "he
thought it took the true ground, and that it was right and best to con-
ciliate.
I fully believe that the truth mildly spoken will always and every-
where do good, and I feel impelled to follow my own strong conviction
of duty, and speak out what I solemnly believe to be the truth ; the
more especially, because, the country is about being plunged into
unknown evils, mainly because the truth is not known.
Yours truly, C. H.
DR. HODGE TO DR. J. C. BACKUS.
NEW YORK, Dec. 28, 1860.
My Dear Sir : * * * I greatly rejoice to hear that my article
seems to you likely to do good. Since I came here I have heard, a
good deal about it, which confirms my own hopes.
There were two things in your letter which astonished me. first,
That you supposed that I had changed my ground on the slavery
question within the last ten or fourteen years. I cannot conceive
how you got that impression. Within a few years past I re-printed
the article on Slavery, (with my own name), printed first in 1836,
which was circulated by southern men all over the South. And in
the commentary on the Ephesians precisely the same, doctrine is
taught, which Southern men freely endorsed. I have not changed an
inch, but I have not gone on with the extreme men of the Calhoun
school. I utterly dissent from the doctrine of Dr. Palmer's sermon.
The second thing that surprised me was that you should think that
my article would render the Republicans more uncompromising and
defiant. It condemns the principles and spirit of abolition ; it calls for
the faithful execution of the fugitive slave law ; it represents all per-
sonal liberty laws designed to interfere with the restoration of fugitives
immoral ; it urges the restoration of the Missouri Compromise, which
JET. 63-67.] THE CIVIL WAR. 465
the conservative men North and South are calling for, and which the
extreme Republicans resist. (\ know that it has induced some lead-
ing Republicans to be willing to take moderate ground and to meet
the South half-wayT] Indeed my great hope of the pamphlet doing
good is that it will correct public sentiment at the North.
Your friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO DR. BOARDMAN.
PRINCETON, Jan. lyth, 1861.
My Dear Sir : I have already written to the Southern Presbyterian,
Columbia, S. C., and to the Central Presbyterian, Va., letters which
will appear in the next issues of those papers. In these letters I have
said everything in the way of explanation that can be said. I have
no doubt that good will come of it. I am not surprised at the recep-
tion my article has received at the South. The first impression will
give way to serious consideration, except with those who will be
satisfied with nothing but unmitigated abuse and condemnation of
the North. I believe the article will do good at the South. A south-
ern planter has, I understand, ordered a thousand copies of it. A
letter received from Dr. Smith of Danville Seminary says it is doing
good there. A gentleman born at the South told me he knew there
were thousands of men there who would heartily respond to its senti-
ments.
We must not, however, forget that there is a North as well as a
South. If I am to believe a tenth of what I hear, I never wrote any-
thing for the Review likely to do the Seminary and all concerned
greater service. Letters have come from Democrats, (Douglas and
Breckinridge) as well as Republicans giving that assurance in the
strongest terms. I received last night a letter from Judge Elmer, a
Democrat in Maine, thanking me for having written the article.
Horace Binney and Daniel Lord are among the men who have ex-
pressed their approbation. Brethren at the West write that it has
done more than they can well express to sustain the Old School cause
and strengthen confidence in Princeton. Its influence against aboli-
tionism and the uncompromising spirit of party leaders is everywhere
recognized. I cannot, therefore, regret its publication.
You see that the secessionists everywhere resist submitting the
question to the people. They can pack a convention, but they fear
a vote direct from the polls. A gentleman from Alabama, himself
a secessionist, told me to-day that had the question there been referred
to the people it would be rejected by a great majority. He said not
one man in a hundred in Alabama either expected or wished the
30
466 THE CIVIL WAR. [1861-65.
State to remain out of the Union. They go out to compromise. The
North, 1 am sure, would gladly accept the propositions of the border-
states committee, which Mr. Crittenden himself acceded to. Mr.
Crittenden's compromise which calls on the General Government to
establish slavery everywhere south of 36.30 is what Henry Clay
said no power on earth could force him to vote for. I still hope that
God will deliver us.
Sincerely your friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. . HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Feb. 18, 1861.
My Dear Brother : * * * * My article has been very extensively
abused at the South, but there ha. been no attempt to answer it,
except by " a Pennsylvania elder " (Judge or Judge ). Prof.
Bledsoe's piece I have only looked at. He devotes his strength to
the Missouri Compromise, which I have nothing to do with. I simply
mentioned the fact of its abrogation as offending the conscience of
the North, and as one of the political antecedents of our present
troubles. No part of the argument turns on that point. The real
question is, whether slavery is a municipal (or local) institution, or
whether it is a national one founded on the common law of property,
or on the constitution. This is the point to which the " Elder " ad-
dresses himself. He censures me as a clergyman for writing on such
subjects. I would venture anything that I could pick out blindfold
500 clergymen who could refute his argument to the satisfaction of
any honest jury. The idea, however, which he insists upon has
taken hold of the Southern mind. The people at the South have
come to believe that the Constitution guarantees the protection of
slavery in all the Territories, and, therefore, that any Congressional
law forbidding its introduction is unconstitutional and a gross violation
of their rights. This is the sole justification of secession as urged by
Dr. Thornwell in his article on the state of the country, re-printed in
last New York Observer. He says the adoption of the principle that
Congress can prohibit slavery in the Territories is the abrogation of
the Constitution, and even renders disunion a necessity. There
never was a greater perversion of historical truth. The very opposite
is true, &c. (The remainder of this letter is lost),
Dr. Hodge says in his article on the " Princeton Review
on the State of the Country and of the Church," Oct. 1865,
speaking of his article on the "State of the Country," Jan. f
MT. 63-67.] THE CIVIL WAR. 467
1 86 1, " No article ever printed in this journal from the pen of
its editor ever excited greater attention. It was reprinted
at length in several of the religious papers of the widest
circulation in the country. It was published in pamphlet
form and distributed in thousands, by the friends of the Union
and of the North, and it was sent abroad as representing
the views of the supporters of the government. It was bit-
terly condemned and stigmatized by three classes of men.
First and principally, at the South. The writer was there
stigmatized as ' an Abolitionist ' and ' Black Republican.'
In the second place, it was severely criticised by men at the
North who agreed with the South in principle and sympa-
thized with it in feeling. Thirdly, as might be expected, we
incurred anew the condemnation of men belonging to the
radical party, of which Garrison and Wendell Phillips are
the principal representatives."
He proceeds in his "Retrospect" in 1871: "In April
of the same year (1861) appeared another article on
' The Church and the Country.' Secession was then an
accomplished fact, and the war with all its uncertainties was
about to commence. The article was designed as a plea
for the unity of the Church, even in the event of the disso-
lution of the national union. The two great sources of
apprehension that the political troubles of the country
would lead to a division of the Presbyterian Church, were
the alienation of feeling on the part of our Southern bre-
thren, and the new, unscriptural, and anti-Christian senti-
ment which leading men among them avowed on the sub-
ject of slavery. Instead of regarding it as merely allowable
under certain circumstances, they had come to advocate it
as a good; as the best organization of labor; as to be
conserved, extended and perpetuated. They also main-
tained that slavery was founded on natural, and not on muni-
cipal law; that it did not depend on the lex loci, and therefore
that slaveholders had the right to carry their slaves and to
retain them, as such, wherever they could carry any other
468 THE CIVIL WAR. [1861-65.
kind of property, provided the holding of that kind ot
property was not specially forbidden by the sovereignty
into which they went. On this ground it is claimed that
slavery went of right into all the territories of the United
States; that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery
in the territories, but was bound to protect property in
slaves as well as any other kind of property. The assertion
of the right of Congress to prohibit slavery in a territory in
which it was the local legislature, was declared to be a
' thorough and radical revolution ; it proposes new and ex-
traordinary terms of union. The old Government is as
completely abolished as if the people of the United States
had met in convention and repealed the constitution/*
How new this astounding doctrine was is plain from the
fact that the act of Congress prohibiting slavery north of
latitude 36 30 was, as Mr. Benton tells us, the wish of the
South, sustained by the united voice of Mr. Monroe's cabi-
net (including John C. Calhoun and William H. Crawford),
the united voices of the Southern senators, and a majority
of the Southern representatives^
" It is to the refutation of the extreme views just men-
tioned that the article in question is principally devoted.
"In 1862 an article appeared entitled, 'England and
America.' The Christian public in this country were very
slow to believe that England sided with the South in our
recent struggle. This was so unexpected, so unreasonable,
so contrary to the professed principles of both government
and people, that Americans could not believe it until the
conviction was forced upon them. The whole secular press
of that country, whether metropolitan, provincial or co-
lonial, with few exceptions, were as vituperative and denun-
ciatory of the North, as the Southern papers themselves.
The same is true, scarcely with the same number of excep-
tions, of the religious press, whether controlled by Episco-
*Dr. Thornwell on " State of the Country," p. 26.
f Thirty Years in the Senate, vol. I. p. &.
AT. 63-67.] THE CIVIL WAR, 469
palians, Presbyterians, or Congregationalists. This is a
fact for which we have never seen or heard any satisfactory
explanation. The article in question was written as a protest
against this unrighteous judgment. It was designed to show
that the rebellion was made in the interest of slavery. This
was proved by the fact that the grievance complained of
had almost exclusive reference to that institution. Those
grievances were the denunciations of abolitionists ; the ob-
structions thrown in the way of the restoration of fugitive
slaves ; the refusal to admit slaveholding in the free territories;
the election of an anti-slavery president, and the like. It
was proved by official declarations of public bodies ; by the
avowals of the leading politicians of the South; by the
appeals of the Southern press to slaveholders to sustain a
war made for their special interests. That English anti-
slavery Christians should sustain a rebellion made to con-
serve, perpetuate, and extend slavery, was a moral pheno-
menon that astonished the Christian world. In the second
place, the article was designed to show that even with
regard to slavery the South had no serious grounds for
complaint : that the abolitionists, who denounced all slave-
holders as criminal, were a small minority of the people of
the North; that the general government, on which alone
rested the obligation of executing the fugitive-slave law, so
far from being remiss in the discharge of that duty, had
erred in the opposite extreme ; and that in refusing to
sanction slavery in the free territories, Congress had acted
on the principles not only of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe,
Lowndes, and of all the great representative men of the
South, but of the civilized world. Judge McLean, in the
Supreme Court of the United States, said from the bench
that the great principle decided by Lords Mansfield and
Stowell, against which there is no dissenting authority, was
' that a slave is not property beyond the operation of the
territorial law which makes him such.' He further said, the
Supreme Court of the United States has decided that
47O THE CIVIL WAR. [1861-65.
* slavery is a mere municipal regulation, founded on and
limited to the range of territorial law.' Judge Curtis of the
same Court said, ' Slavery being contrary to natural right
is created only by municipal law. This is not only plain in
itself, and agreed to by all writers on the subject, but it is
inferable from the Constitution, and has been explicitly
declared by this Court.' He further said, 'I am not ac-
quainted with any case or any writer questioning the cor-
rectness of this doctrine.' It was the practical assertion of
this doctrine which men at the South said worked a repeal
of the Constitution, and absolved them from all allegiance
to the national government. That England should desire
the success of a rebellion having such an object, and sus-
tained by such reasons, was a grief and a marvel to the
Christian world.
"The article on 'The War/ January 7, 1863, was written
during the gloomiest period of the struggle. The South,
although inferior in point of numbers, had many advan-
tages. They operated near their resources ; they were
united; their laboring population being slaves were not
combatants, but carried on the work of production, while
the population were at liberty to take the field. The North
labored under the disadvantage of operating at a great dis-
tance from their resources, and over a territory a thousand
miles in extent, and the people were far from being united.
A large party was opposed to the war from the beginning.
A still larger portion of the people were opposed to the
administration, and did all they could to prevent its suc-
cess. Many who at the commencement of the struggle
sided heartily with the national government, had become
alienated and hostile on account of the measures which had
been adopted. The design of the article was to promote
harmony among the people of the North. There could be
no hope of such harmonious action unless the conscience of
the people was on the side of the government. 'There
never was a time/ the writer said, ' when the public con-
M'*. 63-67.] THE CIVIL WAR. 471
science was more disturbed, or when it was more necessary
that moral principles in their bearing on national conduct
should be clearly presented.' It was then urged that the
great principle, that the moral law, or, the will of God,
however revealed, binds nations as well as individuals,
should be the rule of public action. The dictum of Coke,
one of the greatest legal authorities, ' That any act of Par-
liament which conflicts with the law of God is null and
void,' should be written in letters of gold in every legisla-
tive hall and in every court of justice in the country.
" On this principle the article urged that the legitimate,
the avowed object of the war, viz., the preservation of the
union, should be religiously adhered to ; and that the war
itself should be conducted in strict observance of recog-
nised military law. The two great subjects on which pub-
lic sentiment was dangerously divided, were the right of
the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, and his
authority as commander-in-chief, and as a war measure, to
decree the emancipation of the slaves. The article took the
ground that both these rights belonged to the President
during times of war, and for military ends, i. e. for the pre-
servation of the country, and for the suppression of rebel-
lion."
CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER.
His letters to his brother during these memorable years
contain many interesting expressions of opinions on pass-
ing events.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
WASHINGTON, July 24, 1861.
My Dear Brother: As I am here at headquarters, you may think
I ought to give you some definite information as to the disastrous
battle of the 2ist (the battle of Bull Run). Accounts of facts, how-
ever, and opinions as to the causes of those facts, are as discordant
here as elsewhere. Some throw the blame on the volunteers ; others
on the original plan ; others on the bad management of McDowell ;
others on the inefficiency and want of courage of the officers.
472 BATTLE OF BULL RUN. [1861.
First, as to the plan and purpose of the expedition, Gen. Scott, as
I hear from the best authority, endeavors to wash his hands of the
whole business. He says that for the first time in his life he was a
coward and yielded to the pressure of politicians in the Cabinet, in
Congress, and to popular clamor ; that he disapproved of the whole
thing from beginning to end. This will be admitted by no one to be
the slightest justification ; besides, the object of the expedition was,
even in the judgment of all concerned, a feasible and important one.
That object, as Col. Hunter told me just before he started, was not to
assail Manassas Junction, or to drive Beauregard from that position,
but to threaten his rear and force him either to retreat or to come out
and give battle on equal terms. Instead of this, however, either
from a change of plan on the ground, or from error in its execution,
there was a direct assault on the outworks of Manassas Junction,
and an effort made to drive the enemy from that position. I heard
it said beforehand that it would be as preposterous to assail Beaure-
gard in a position which he had employed forty (?) days in strength-
ening as it would have been in him to assail our intrenchment on
the other side of the Potomac. The force sent was sufficient to cope
with Beauregard on the open field, but totally inadequate either to
assail his intrenchments or to fight him and Johnston combined.
The thing actually attempted was to do both. It was known before
the battle that Johnston had arrived at the Junction, and yet the as-
sault of the position was made. That it succeeded as far as it did is
wonderful, and shows conclusively the superiority of our troops to
their opponents. We fought from morning till night double our
number, who had every advantage of position and covered batteries,
driving the enemy in that time several miles. Until the panic seized
our troops, every one thought the day was ours.
Now as to the question why we failed at last, the answer may be
found in what has been said. More was attempted than could be ac-
complished with the resources at command. This may be a sufficient
answer to the question. But it is openly said that there was great
mismanagement in handling the troops. In the first place, they were
exhausted by a long march before they came into action. The sev-
eral divisions started from Centerville at 2 o'clock, A. M. Two of
them had but three or four miles to go before getting into position.
Col. Hunter's division, which was to make the principal attack, had
twelve miles to march through the woods and over difficult ground.
He was on the road from 2 A. M. to n. His men were tired out.
Some of the soldiers who have been here three months told me that
that march was the hardest day's work they had performed since
they came to Washington. In that state of exhaustion they came
*T. 63.] BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 473
under fire, and were called upon to assail battery after battery, and
charge regiment after regiment, and they did it successfully from
II to near 5 p. M. Bringing his men into action in such a state of
exhaustion was not Col. Hunter's fault. It was the service assigned
to him in the programme of the battle.
In the second place, it is said that there was great delay on the part
of Tyler's division. He had but two or three miles to go, and was
expected to commence the fight by 6 o'clock in the morning, and
draw attention to that part of the field, while in point of fact the real
battle was begun by Hunter's division at 1 1 A. M. There were sev-
eral shots fired from 6 o'clock onward by the large rifle gun in Ty-
ler's division, to feel the position of the enemy, and wake them up ;
but there was no real fighting there until 1 1 o'clock. So I hear it
said by men on the ground.
In the third place, what appears to me the greatest proof of mis-
management in the whole affair, is that not one-half our men were
brought into action. The reserve, consisting of seven New Jersey
regiments, under Gen. Runyan, were not called up until the stampede
began and the day was lost. Mrs. Howland tells me that her hus-
band informed her that eight regiments of Miles' division, to which
Mr. Howland was attached, stood watching a ford, the whole day
idle. They had a little skirmish of their own in the afternoon, but
they received no order from morning until the order of retreat at the
close of the day. Besides this, Blenker's brigade, including the Ger-
man Turners, the Garibaldi, and other choice regiments, were not
brought into action. And yet the retreat was covered by the regu-
lars, cavalry and infantry. Miles was idiotically drunk the whole
day, and was incapable of doing anything. But how McDowell
could leave so many of his men unemployed, it is hard to under-
stand. He may have thought the day was his own without the as-
sistance of the idle troops, but those troops should have been in po-
sition to meet any emergency. The day was won to all appearance.
This is the unanimous testimony of all on the ground, civilians as
well as military men. The panic was probably on one part of the
field where the battle had been actually fought out by the sudden ap-
pearance of large reinforcements to the enemy, and a successful
charge of cavalry on one regiment, which was broken and put to
flight, and thus created a panic in the exhausted troops around them.
This did not extend to all the army. The division of Miles' to which
Mr. Howland belonged had nothing to do, retired in perfect order
and got back to Alexandria without losing a gun or musket or soiling
their hands.
I am very much pained to hear how the regular officers are di
474 BATTLE OF BULL RUN. [1861.
posed to speak of the volunteers. There were doubtless some regi-
ments which behaved badly, but whatever fighting was done, was
done by the artillery and the volunteers, and the loss fell principally
upon them. That loss is very much less, however, than was at first
supposed. The 7ist New York, said to have been cut to pieces, lost
only about 20 in killed ; and so in many other cases the reports prove
equally exaggerated.
Col. Hunter's wound is more serious than it at first appeared, but
he is doing well, and will be about in a few days. He must have had
his head turned to the right, and a fragment of a shell cut the muscle
just under the right ear, and divided some small arteries. Dr. Wood,
the second medical officer in rank in the army, lives next door to us,
and was here when the Colonel arrived. He told me afterwards that
in all his experience he never saw a man so near death as the
Colonel was when he fainted and sank on the floor of the entry.
His pulse could not be felt for some time, his hands and feet were
cold, and it was some hours before it was safe to raise his head. His
wound bled the whole day. He lay in his carriage from 12 to near
5 P. M., and then when he started to return they got involved in the
stream of soldiers, wagons and artillery, and had literally to fight
their way through. This, of course, agitated him, and caused him
to make more or less exertion. Mercifully he had a few friends
around besides Sam, who gradually got a dozen troopers to surround
the carriage and get it out of the press.
Col. Hunter is not responsible for anything said in this letter. The
views are my own gathered, from many different sources. You may
tell Wistar that Sam says that Fanny is the greatest little fighting
horse going. She wagged her tail when a shell burst over, or a can-
non ball passed under her nose. He rode her all over the field in
the midst of shot and shell for hours, the admiration of all be-'
holders. The Col. says Sam. took it as great fun, and seemed per-
fectly at home, exciting and encouraging the troops as though he
had been used to it all his life. It is a great mercy the Col. was
wounded so early in the day. He says he and Sam would certainly
have been both killed had they continued all day in the advance,
exposed as they were all the time before he was disabled. When the
Col. was shot he sent Sam to tell Colonel Porter that the command of
the division fell on him. Sam had to ride all over the field in every
direction for an hour before he could find Col. Porter, and then was
almost as long in finding the place to which his uncle had been taken.
God has been most merciful to us in this great trial.
63-67.] THE CIVIL WAR. 475
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Jan. 9, 1862.
My Dear Brother: This letter is about myself. The pain in my
chest, of which I spoke to you, instead of being occasional and shoot-
ing, has of late been constant, quiet and aching, (not severe). It is
produced or increased by any prolonged exertion of any kind, men-
tal, emotional or bodily. At times it is attended by increased action
of the pulse both as to frequency and force, and then I feel queer, a
little disposed to nausea, and a little to fainting. Twice I have had
to give up and go to bed. All this is, I suppose, what you call nervous.
Nevertheless it is dispiriting not to be able to work. Dr. Alexander,
although all his life dyspeptic and hypochondriac was as able to work
at 80 as he was at 40.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
RHINELAND, (north shore of Long Island,) July 15, 1862.
My Dear Brother : Much to our regret we leave here to-morrow
morning. If I was not obliged to be in Pittsburgh on the 22d,
we should much prefer remaining where we are until the close
of the month. Here we have pure salt air, beautiful scenery,
kind friends, abundance to eat and drink, delightful bathing, and a
large library, and nothing to do. These are all the necessary condi-
tions of recuperation. This house stands directly north and south on
an eminence. To the north is the^Sound with the Connecticut shore
in the distance, on the west the broad inlet into Huntington harbor ;
and to the south the harbor itself and the village two miles distant,
on the opposite shore. Mary says that I am better than I have been
for a year. Certain it is that we are both getting awfully fat.
It is useless to speculate on our national affairs. Everything shows
the great advantages of a military despotism in time of war over a
republic, in the unity of plan and control, and in command over the
resources of a country. It is clear that six millions of people by con-
scription can be made to furnish more men than twenty millions by
volunteers. I fear we shall after all be out-numbered on every im-
portant battle-field, especially if our affairs are to be left in the hands
of Mr. Stanton. It was suggested that Gen. Halleck was to be made
Secretary of War. This would be a grand move. But the radical
Republicans, I fear, are too strong to allow Mr. Lincoln to act accord-
ing to his own judgment in this matter. I still have full confidence
that God is on our side, and that He will bring us safe, and I trust
purified, out of all our troubles.
476 THE CIVIL WAR. [1861-65.
We hope to be in Princeton before the first week of August is past,
unless we are induced to linger longer at Altoona or Cresson.
May all good rest on you and yours, my dear brother.
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Dec. 7, 1862.
My Dear Brother: * * * Gen. Halleck labors hard but to lit-
tle purpose to throw the responsibility of the disastrous Pope cam-
paign on McClellan. This must ultimately recoil on himself. The
disastrous results of his management are enough to appall him.
Your brother, O. H.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Dec. 24, 1862.
My Dear Brother: When President Lincoln and Mr. Stanton, by
their mismanagement, had got everything into confusion, the country
hoped that the appointment of Gen. Halleck to the chief command
of the army would secure intelligent control of our vast resources
and lead to a speedy and happy end of our great struggle. He has
proved an utter failure. Nothing but disaster has followed his mea-
sures, until at last the country is apparently on the brink of ruin.
" Oh that my enemy had written a book ! " was the shrewd exclama-
tion of an ancient patriarch. Halleck has written official letters and
reports, and has thereby placed himself upon a pillory from which
he will never be able to descend. He staked his own reputation and
the interest and honor of the country on the removal of McClellan
from the Peninsula. All the disasters which McClellan predicted
as the consequences of that movement have been realized. Thou-
sands of lives have been sacrificed, millions of money have been
squandered, the whole summer wasted, the prestige of our arms de-
stroyed, the country disgraced, and foreign nations emboldened in
their hostility. Burdened with the responsibility of these tremend-
ous consequences of his mismanagement, he most ungenerously and
unjustly endeavored to throw the blame on McClellan, and finally
succeeds in driving him from the command of an army which he
had created and saved, and which was enthusiastically devoted to
him. This was done in opposition to the judgment of two-thirds of
the people in the country. It may be safely said that the whole
Democratic party as represented in the recent elections, and at least
one-half of the Republican party, regard McClellan (as Burnside
;ET.63-67.] THE CIVIL WAR, 477
does) as the only man competent to the command of that great
army. This also is the judgment not only of the Prince de Joinville,
but a Prussian officer of rank in the service of the Confederates has
recently published in Germany an account of the battles before Rich-
mond, in which he gives McClellan credit for consummate ability,
and attributes his failure to take Richmond to the fact that McDowell
did not co-operate with him.
It can hardly now be considered an open question that in the mat-
ters between Halleck and McClellan the former was fatally wrong.
In \htfirst place, common-sense would seem to teach that it was ab-
surd to remove an army of eighty or ninety thousand men from a
strong position within twenty miles of Richmond two hundred miles
by water in order to march them back over a difficult route of 60 or
80 miles by land to the same place. In the second place, the reasons
assigned for this strange movement show Halleck's incompetency.
McClellan demanded 35,000 reinforcements. Halleck said the Gov-
ernment could only give him 20,000. For the sake of the difference
of 15,000, he undertook to order the transfer of McClellan's whole
command, although the country was raising 300,000 new troops at
the rate of several thousands a day. His great reason, however,
was the military principle that columns of attack should be within
supporting distance, consequently it was a false position to have the
enemy between McClellan's army and an army moving from Fred-
ericksburgh. It is a sure mark of an ordinary mind to be governed
by general maxims, without the power to see when and how their ap-
plication is modified by circumstances. No one, I suppose, now
doubts that if McClellan had been suitably reinforced at Harrison's
Landing, Lee never would have dared to leave Richmond to attack
Pope or McDowell.
It is not, however, so much the blunders of Halleck, disastrous
as they have been, as the animus he displays, which have forfeited
for him the respect and confidence of the people. His charges
against McClellan are so evidently unjust and selfish in their motives
that they reveal the character of the man. He complains of his de-
lay to leave Harrison's Landing, and contrasts it with the prompt-
ness with which Burnside obeyed the order to evacuate New Port
News. Burnside had no incumbrances. He had nothing to do but
to strike his tents and embark. McClellan had immense siege artil-
lery in position along miles of intrenchments, and vast accumula-
tions of munitions and commissary stores, with innumerable wagons
and horses. It required ten days of incessant labor night and day
to get these things aboard the transports ready for a start. Besides,
Lee did not move an inch from Richmond until McClellan was ac-
478 THE CIVIL WAR. [1861-65.
tually on march for Fortress Monroe. Had the delay been two
weeks it could not have altered the matter the least. He censured
McClellan for moving only six miles a day in Maryland, when he
had the army to reorganize, everything to accumulate on his way,
and when as it was he kept so much in advance of his ammunition
train that his artillery at Antietam had to fire blank cartridges for the
last two hours of the battle. He himself took fifty-four days to
march a victorious army from Pittsburgh Landing to Corinth, about
20 miles, and then delayed an attack until Beauregard, and his whole
army, and all he had, had escaped. This may have been right, but
it shows that Halleck is not the man to sneer at delays. The Na-
tional Intelligencer calls him " the prince of cunctators in the field,
but a Prince Rupert when sitting in the War Department." Such
was his anxiety to vindicate himself and to injure McClellan that he
published his plans and principles to the world, and thereby informed
Gen. Lee that he had no reason to fear an assault on Richmond from
Suffolk, but might accumulate his whole force to resist the one attack
from Fredericksburgh. This seemed incredible, and therefore many
believed that his report was designed as a blind, and that the move-
ment on Fredericksburgh was only a feint, while the real attack was
to be made by Banks on the south of the James River. No one can
read the testimony given before the Senate's Committee without be-
ing painfully impressed with the incompetency of all concerned in
the movement on Fredericksburgh. Halleck washes his hands of
the whole thing, as though he was not commander-in-chief. Burn-
side says he took it for granted that Halleck, who gave the command
about the pontoons, would see it executed. Halleck says it was
Burnside's business to see that the order was carried into effect.
Gens. Woodbury and Meigs say, that as it would take only two days
and a half for Burnside to reach Fredericksburgh, it was impossible
in that time to get the pontoons on the ground. Woodbury swears
that he begged Halleck to arrest the transfer of the army to Freder-
icksburgh for five days, to give time to execute the order about the
pontoons, but he refused to delay the movement an hour. The con-
sequence was the delay of a fortnight, giving Lee time to collect all
his forces, and to render the position impregnable. The greatest of
all Halleck's sins against the country, however, was the removal of
McClellan from the command of such an army in the midst of a
march and the execution of a plan of campaign, and appointing a
man who says himself that he was not only incompetent, but that he
knew less of the positive strength of the several corps than any
division commander in the army. What the consequences of this
step have been we now all see and deplore.
MT. 63-67.] THE CIVIL WAR. 479
As to the deplorable affair at Fredericksburgh I think no one can
read the testimony before the committee of the Senate without being
further convinced that it was an inexcusable and criminal sacrifice
of life. General Franklin testifies that the enemy could have pre-
vented the passage of the river at either of the points proposed, had
he chosen to do so, and that his own grand division was entirely at
the mercy of Lee after he had crossed. He was, therefore, opposed
to passing the river at all. Hooker says he was in favor of passing
with his corps higher up, and with 40,000 men, taking, as he says he
could have done, a position behind Fredericksburgh, from which the
whole Confederate army could have been commanded? Sumner
says he agreed to everything Burnside proposed, even to the passage
of the river at least at that point. Then as to the attack on the enemy's
position it was against all probability of success. To bring infantry
to storm intrenchments well furnished with cannon, when the troops
have to be any considerable time under fire, is a desperate affair.
The rebels at Malvern Hills failed utterly, although they assailed an
unintrenched position, but one well defended by artillery. They
failed notwithstanding their determined efforts at Corinth, though
two to one to our troops ; just as Packenham failed with his English
veterans at New Orleans. The attempt proved that it was a fool-
hardy assault. After terrible slaughter and the most desperate efforts,
continued from morning to night, not the slightest progress was made.
Burnside said he failed because the thing attempted was " impossi-
ble !" Sumner says that had we carried the first line we could not
have held it, that the second was still stronger. Here then by the
admission of the two Generals who approved the measure, the thing
they attempted was an impossibility. Notwithstanding this, Burnside
says he had all his troops all prepared to renew the assault on Sun-
day morning, and was only prevented by the remonstrance of all his
division commanders. Yet our President tells the army and the
world that the attempt was not an error, that it failed only by accident.
That is, they failed to accomplish an "impossibility" by accident!
It really seems as if God had given up our rulers to fatuity. It is
this and not any doubt of the power of government, or of the resources
of the country, which makes me so despondent. Stanton or Halleck,
or whoever has the ordering of matters, cannot concentrate men
enough to overcome Lee's army of 150,000 or 80,000 as some say.
Banks is sent off to the ends of the earth ; Foster is sent to make a
raid and destroy a few bridges at the cost of 200 lives, and the whole
resources of the country are frittered away.
You must think I have little to do when I write you such a letter.
But my heart was so full I wanted to pour it out. Whether you agree
480 THE CIVIL WAR. [1861-65.
with me or not I cannot say. I know I speak what hundreds and
thousands of the best men of the country think.
Your affectionate brother,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Jan. 27, 1863.
My Dear Brother : I enclose your check to my order. I cannot
in conscience take your money. I have done too much of that
already. As long as you were rich (at least in income), I did not
care how much you gave me, but tempora mutantur, and we must
change with them. If I stick in the mud, which is not likely, I will
call on you to help me out. If gold keeps going up we shall all be
reduced to a common level.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Sept. 16, 1864.
My Dear Brother : ****** Could I see you I would have a
battle royal with you about McClellan. I think you do him great in-
justice. My view of the case is, (i). That McClellan is a gentleman,
a Christian and a man of superior ability. (2) So far as his public
acts or declarations go, he has been perfectly consistent. He has
not only exhibited marvelous strength and self-control in submitting
in silence to injuries, insults and misrepresentations, but he has
uniformly adhered to his principles. Even in his letter advocating
Judge Woodward's election, which was a great blunder, he said
nothing which President Lincoln had not said over and over again.
Into the blunder of writing that letter he was led not only by the im-
portunity of friends, but I doubt not by false representations. Wood-
ward was represented to him as holding loyal opinions, which, ac-
cording to common belief he did not hold.
(3). His letter of acceptance is, in the first place, consistent with
all tis antecedents, with his noble West Point oration, and with all
his published and authorized declarations. And, in the second place,
all its principles and statements are sound and good. They are
identical, as to the necessity of the Union, the justice of the war, the
suppression of the rebellion, the conditions of peace, with all of the
declarations of Lincoln, with the unanimous vote of Congress, and
with Secretary Seward's recent masterly speech at Auburn. The
only exception as concerns Lincoln to the above remark, so far as I
know, is his unfortunate proclamation of six lines, " To whom it may
concern," a proclamation which makes emancipation an indispensa-
^ET. 63-67.] THE CIVIL WAR. 48 1
ble condition of peace ; a proclamation condemned by the Evening
Post, the Tribune and the N. Y. Times \ the three most influential
republican papers in the country.
(4). In saying that he assumed that the resolutions adopted by the
Convention at Chicago were consistent with the sentiments of his
letter, he did not act disingenuously ! It is notorious that the Demo-
cratic party is divided into unionists and disunionists, Peace and
War Democrats, the war party being in the vast majority in the
country and in the Chicago convention. That convention, or its
managers, for the sake of carrying the election and v getting the votes
of both sections of the Democrats designedly framed a compromise
platform, which, as the Richmond Enquirer says, and says truly, may
be understood either in a war sense or a peace sense. McClellan
knew that the great majority intended it in a war sense, and there-
fore he said so in substance in his letter of acceptance. I agree with
you that that platform is mean, contemptible and treacherous, and
had McClellan placed himself upon it, pure and simple, without
explanation, he would have sunk to the bottom of the sea and staid
there. His letter I conceive has done the country as much good as
national victory. It has given us a united North. It has placed the
Democratic party distinctly on the ground that there is to be no peace
except on the ground of Union. The insignificant faction of peace,
or disunion Democrats has separated from the mass, and will only
serve to weaken the party as a whole.
While I think thus highly of McClellan, I have no intention of
voting for him. I agree with the New York Times, that this is no
question of the relative merits of candidates. I regard Gen. McClellan
as a first-rate Captain in a very bad ship, and with a horridly bad
crew, and I have no notion of going to sea with him. I wish and
pray for his defeat, because I do not wish to see the Democratic party,
which has brought all these troubles and horrors upon us, restored
to power.
These are my sentiments, and I believe them to be the sentiments
of our best men and women.
The morning papers contain the sad intelligence of the death of
the Rev. Dr. Potts. He spent a week with us at the end of June and
beginning of July, and I little thought it was to be his last visit. He
has been for thirty years a director of the Seminary and one of my
intimate friends. I feel his death very deeply. I expect to go to
New York on Monday to attend his funeral.
Your affectionate brother,
CHARLES HODGE.
31
482 THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN. [1865.
THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN.
The assassination of President Lincoln, like an earth-
quake, convulsed his entire nature and broke up his deepest
fountains of tears. The Rev. J. L. Russell contributed the
following to the Presbyterian in April, 1 879.
" It was Saturday morning. Our class (the Junior) was
to recite to Prof. Caspar W. Hodge, in New Testament
Literature. The news of the horrible deed was spreading
like wild-fire when the class assembled at nine o'clock.
As Professor Hodge came into the class-room some one
whispered the evil news to him, and after a short prayer he
dismissed us. As I passed, in returning to my room, the
old Seminary Hall, Dr. Hodge stepped out on the. stoop at
the side-door of his study, and called to me. As I came
near he said, ' My little grandson tells me that something
has happened to President Lincoln.' I told him the facts
of the case as reported. With quivering lips, and a face
as pallid as death, he said, ' O, it cannot be, it cannot be ! '
" Just then ' extras ' were cried on the street, and bringing
one to him, I read Secretary Stanton's dispatch. Dr. Hodge
burst into a flood of tears and cried ' My poor, poor country,
what will become of thee ! ' and turning as one stunned and
bewildered by a sudden stroke, he went into his study
weeping as he went.
" About an hour later the bell rang, and the professors
and students of the Seminary and some others gathered in
the Seminary. Dr. George Junkin, who was to preach
next day in the chapel, was present and made one of his
intense soul-stirring speeches. Then Dr. Hodge prayed,
and such a prayer. Could any man forget it? Not the
words, for we could not always follow them. The petitions
began with a sob and ended with a sob, and the great
heart seemed like to break with the weight that was upon it.
" We saw the old time struggle at the ford of Jabbok re-
enacted in that quiet place, where we were wont to meet for
,ET. 67.] THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN. 483
prayer, morning and evening, and one whom we loved, one
as mighty in soul, and purer in life than the Patriarchal
Prince, wrestling with the same Angel of the Covenant, that
he might learn the secret of God's mysterious dealing with
us, and wring from Him the promise of peace for this
stricken land.
" That prayer came back to me a year ago, when I heard
Dr. Hod'ge pray for the first time, as he dismissed the class
of 1878. But how different! Then it only seemed to me
that he turned his face round from its heavenward onlook,
that its light might fall upon us, his old students, in a
blessed benediction before he went hence.
" Dr. Hodge's face as I saw it in the recitation room, in
the oratory, in the chapel, and his voice as I heard it in
lectures, in those matchless conference talks and in sermons,
I love to recall frequently ; but his face as I saw it, his
voice as I heard it that day we wept for Lincoln, come to
me a thousand times unbidden. I saw deeper into his
heart that day than ever before or since."
|In the July number of the Princeton Review, he published
an article on President Lincoln, which was a warm eulogy
on his character and services, and a sincere lament for his
death.
F When Mr. Lincoln died the nation felt herself widowed.
She rent her garments, she sat in the dust, put ashes on her
head, and refused to be comfortedTj Never in our history,
seldom if ever in the history of the world, has the heart of
a great people been so moved as when, on the I5th of
April last, the intelligence flashed over the country that
our President had been murdered. It was not merely sorrow
for the loss of a great man when most needed, or of one
who had rendered his country inestimable service, but grief
for a man whom every one personally loved. It was this
that gave its peculiar character to that day of lamentation.
Still more remarkable in the annals of the country and of
the world was the ipth of April the day of the President's
484 RECONSTRUCTION. [1865.
funeral. At 12 o'clock, noon, of that memorable day, the
whole country was draped in mourning ; our palaces and
cottages, our public buildings and private residences, our
cities and villages, and isolated dwellings. Wealth veiled
herself in crape, and poverty sought some symbol of sor-
row, however insignificant. All our churches at that hour
were filled with weeping worshipers. Millions of people
were on their knees before God. The sun never shone on
such a spectacle. Where, moreover, can history point to a
funeral progress of fifteen hundred miles through countless
myriads of uncovered mourners ? The fact cannot be re-
called. It was truly said by the Rev. Dr. Dix, of New
York, 'Abraham Lincoln has been canonized and immor-
talized by the blow of an assassin.' No effect is without
an adequate cause. Such an unparalleled movement of the
heart of this great people ; such an answering cry of indig-
nation and sorrow from foreign and even unfriendly nations,
prove beyond contradiction that Abraham Lincoln deserved
to be reverenced, loved and lamented, as few rulers of men
have ever merited the confidence and love of their fellow-
men."
Dr. Hodge took that occasion to plead the humanity and
sagacious magnanimity of Lincoln against the natural but
blindly passionate cry for the judicial punishment of rebels
which prevailed in that dark day of national sorrow and
anger.
CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS BROTHER.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Dec. 25, 1865.
My Dear Brother: * * * I trust the Radicals will not force us
into a war either with England or Mexico. How wonderfully God
has controlled and guided President Johnson. He has acted with
consummate wisdom, and I think his annual message one of the
best I ever read. Pennsylvania ought to be ashamed of such a rep-
resentative as Thaddeus Stevens.
JET. 68.] RECONSTRUCTION. 485
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Feb. 26, 1866.
My Dear Brother: I feel with you great anxiety about our public
affairs. I think the President's (Johnson's) veto message con-
clusive, and that he ought to be sustained. I cannot understand the
course of such men as Fessenden and Trumbull, whom I have been
accustomed to regard as wise and moderate. Governor Olden and
our ex-Congressman Mr. Nixon, have both said to me that four-fifths
of the party are with Johnson and against Congress. I fear some-
times that this may not turn out to be the case. The President's
stump speech on the 22d, although undignified in some things, was a
very strong one and will tell on the people. Mr. Seward's speech,
the same night, at the Cooper Institute, I think was excellent.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, July 27, 1866.
My Dear Brother: I am glad to hear that you and sister Margaret
are enjoying yourselves so much in the delightful regions of the
North River. The heat, I hope, has spared you. To us it has been
very oppressive. For three days we took refuge in the Seminary,
which, being a large stone building, and shut up for some months,
we found comparatively cool.
The Princeton Review is at last out. I do not know whether it will
satisfy either party. It sides with neither, but takes its own middle
course, commonly the most unpopular, although the safest/ I sel-
dom see the N. Y. Herald, but its number for the 26th was terribly
severe on Congress, and I believe for the most part justly. Any body
led by Thaddeus Stevens must be led to evil.
The triumphant progress of the Prussians strikes me as one of the
most remarkable events of modern times. I do not believe the
needle-gun had much to do with it. I know not which party has the
right of it. But Prussia and Italy represent the Protestant interest,
and Austria the Papal. Our sympathies are, therefore, with the
Prussians. Great things will probably flow from this change in the
dominant influence in Germany. Love to sister Margaret.
Your affectionate brother,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, Oct. 3, 1866.
My Dear Brother: * * * I am sad about the country. A dis-
tinguished Southerner, some time since, said the safety of the coun-
486 RECONSTRUCTION. [1867-68.
try depended upon the Democratic party. If they had patriotism
enough to keep in the back-ground, asking nothing for themselves
or their party, but striving to sustain the moderate and conservative
element in the Republican party, all would be well. But if they
strove to make party capital out of the dissensions of their oppo-
nents, and to get the government into their own hands, the result
would be only evil. This latter course the Democrats have taken.
They force everybody to go with the Radicals or to turn Democrats,
and give the power of the country into the hands of a party which,
during the war, was to a large extent disloyal. This, I hope, will
not be done. If I were in Pennsylvania nothing would induce me
to vote for such a man as Clymer.
If the Republicans would be content with the constitutional amend-
ments, I suppose the country will go with them. But the speeches
of Stevens, Wade, Sumner, Wilson, and the declarations of the lead-
ing papers, show that the adoption of the amendments is, as Sumner
says, only a drop in the bucket. What those men want is universal
suffrage and the disfranchisement of the white population in the
South giving the whole power to the negroes and a few hundred
renegade white men in every State. [With such outrageously wicked
men as Butler and Stevens to be their representatives and mouth-
pieces, I do not see what any party can expect. My hope is that
the Copperhead Democrats and the Radical Republicans may both
be consigned to political extinction, and all their leading men sent
to Coventry. 1 Your brother,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
WASHINGTON, May 12, 1868.
My Dear Brother: * * * Most persons whom I meet regard
the impeachment as altogether a party affair, and that judicially, or
on the grounds of legal justice, there is no sufficient evidence to con-
vict the President.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, December 20, 1867.
My Dear Brother: Should I live another week I shall be seventy
years old. You have already passed that boundary. When we look
back over this long period, how much cause for gratitude meets our
view. iWhat a Mother we had to watch over our infancy and train
our youth, and secure for us, at such sacrifice to herself, a liberal ed-
ucationr) God has preserved us from wasting or disabling sickness.
JET. 70. ] SE VENTIE TH BIR THDA Y. 487
He has granted us a good measure of professional success and use-
fulness. We have children who are our joy and delight; all of them
the professed and consistent disciples of our blessed Lord ; all prom-
ising to be useful in their several vocations. Their mothers, after
having been spared to us for many years, as inestimable blessings,
are now safe in heaven. And we are still blessed with health and
the use of all our faculties, surrounded and sustained by those who
look upon us with respect and love. Above all, God has given us a
good hope through grace of eternal life beyond the grave. Who of
all our acquaintance can recount such a catalogue of blessings ?
Such thoughts, my dear brother, I am sure, fill your mind at this
season of the year ; a season connected with the commeinoration of
our Saviour's birth, the source of all good, and with the beatifica-
tion of those we have so much reason to love.
We ourselves have nearly finished our course, and should strive to
have our hearts filled with gratitude for the good in the past, and
with joyful anticipation of blessedness in the future. Life for us is
substantially over, and we have little to expect beyond the present,
so far as this world is concerned. Our last days, however, may be
our best, if we are only filled with the assurance of God's love, and
with devotion to his service and submission to his will. * * *
With much love and constant remembrance,
Your brother,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER,
PRINCETON, April 19, 1869.
My Dear Brother: -* * * * * *.
I am glad to hear that you think Grant's administration still prom-
ises well. I do not. I am greatly disappointed. He promised to
turn out no faithful, efficient officer, and to appoint no unworthy men
for political reasons. He has not been able to keep either promise.
He seems to have succumbed entirely to the politicians. He has
swept the board, making some 1200 appointments in a few weeks,
and displacing some of the very best officers of the revenue. Think
of the appointment of such men as Ashley ! proved to be guilty by
his own confession of official corruption, to say nothing of his polit-
ical course in Congress, which led to his rejection by his political
party. The TV 7 ". Y. Times, so uniform and devoted in its support of
Grant, says it is clear that our hope of the promised reform must be
indefinitely postponed. I am afraid this is true. What can be done
with a Senate that refused to ratify a nomination because the nomi-
nee was offensive to a Senator, and that by a vote of 38 to 8 ? We
488 CORRESPONDENCE. [1869.
are in a sad way. This is a good deal for me to say, for I am gen-
erally an optimist.
* * * Mary sends love, and I join, of course.
Your brother, CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
PRINCETON, October 4th, 1869.
My Dear Brother : When I wrote to you that I had a cold, sore
throat, pain in the chest, and a boil, you said you were sorry for the
former, but intimated that you did not care much about the last.
That anthrax malitiosissimus, ferocissimus, execrabilissimus, how-
ever, has kept me awake night after night, and tormented me day
after day. That you call nothing ! I presume the anthrax to be the
opprobrium medicorum. Shame on them ! What could ever have
put it into the head of Job to scrape himself with a potsherd when
his body was covered with boils is more than I can understand. I
could not touch mine with a feather. The old patriarch must have
been in a desperate state of mind.
I do not believe that mine is a common boil. Dr. Schank has seen
it frequently, and said he will not call it names, but that it is not
going to be any worse, and will not be much better for some days.
I go about as usual, and hope to be able to attend Presbytery 9 miles
from here to-morrow.
If as a doctor you think there is anything actionable in this letter,
I shall be on hand prepared to put in a justification. ******
Your brother, CHARLES HODGE.
The following letter to his friend and former pupil, the
Rev. Dr. Robert Watts, Professor of Theology in the Pres-
byterian College of Belfast, Ireland, is a good specimen of
a large part of his immense correspondence, with pupils
and friends in all countries, in answer to questions relating
to every department of the faith and work of the Church :
DR. HODGE TO DR. WATTS.
PRINCETON, October $th, 1865,
My Dear Sir : Wistar has handed me your letter relating to the
question raised among your brethren concerning the Witness of the
Spirit. As you request an immediate answer, it is impossible for me to
do more than state in a few words the view which I have been led
to take on the subject, without any attempt to sustain that view
either historically or exegetically. I write for you alone, as I have
AST. 67.] " THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRITS 489
no idea that anything I say will be worthy of the attention of your
Committee.
We must, of course, renounce all hope to understand the mode of
the divine operation either in nature or in grace ; as we have no idea
how mind operates on matter, or matter on mind, we cannot under-
stand how God produces the effects which in the Scriptures are at-
tributed to his agency. The fact is all we can expect to know.
1 . It seems to be plainly taught in the Bible, and to be the com-
monly received doctrine, that in the external world God operates
constantly through, with, and without second causes. Whatever in
the external world, as in plants and animals, is indicative of design is
to be referred to the present agency of mind, i. e., to God. Matter can-
not produce life, much less an immaterial, intelligent substance.
Such substances, however, are constantly produced under the provi-
dential agency of God. The human soul operates in like manner
through, with and independently of the functions of the body. Every
time we speak or write, this threefold mode of exercise is evinced.
2. It is no less plain from Scripture and universally believed in the
Church that the Spirit of God operates immediately on the soul. In
the regeneration of infants this must be assumed.
3. It seems also clear that in the dealings of the Spirit with the
souls of believers there is a constant exercise of His power in connec-
tion with and independent of the truth. We know not how one
spirit operates on another ; how evil spirits controlled the thoughts
and feelings of the demoniacs, and of course we cannot pretend to
know how the Holy Spirit controls the action of our minds, how He
excites our affections or gives the truth a greater power over them at
one time than at another. But He is more immediately present with our
souls than the soul is with the body, and constantly controls them in
a way consistent with the nature of mind and the laws of spiritual
intercourse.
4. We are clearly taught that saving faith rests on the witness of
the Spirit by and with the truth. This is represented in Scripture as
something different from the evidence which the word itself contains
of its own truth. It is " an unction from the Holy One." It is " the
demonstration of the Spirit." The Spirit produces in our minds the
infallible conviction that the Bible is true. This conviction is not
the product of a process of reasoning, nor a conclusion from the.
facts of our own consciousness. If it were it would not be infallible,
and our faith after all would rest in something human and not in the
power of God.
5. In like manner the Spirit witnesses to the believer that he is a
child of God. The assurance of his adoption the Apostle refers to
49O " THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT? [1865.
two sources ; first, the conscious filial exercises of the soul towards God,
and, secondly, the witness of the Spirit, who bears witness together
(avfj-fjiapTvpli] with our spirits that we are the sons of God. Although
compound words are frequently used in the same sense with the sim-
ple forms, this is only to be assumed under the stress of the context.
When the context admits of the full and proper force of the word it
should be retained ; much more when that force is required by the
connection. The passage simply teaches that the Spirit produces in
the mind of a believer the assurance of his adoption : as in Rom.
5:5, He is said to produce the assurance that we are the objects
of God's love.
There is no real ground for the charge of enthusiasm or fanati-
cism against this view of the subject, (i). Because it attributes to
the Spirit nothing out of analogy with the constant operations of God
in the external world and on the minds of men in his providence.
(2). Because it is consistent with the constant representations of
the Scriptures relating to the intercourse of the soul with God.
We not only address Him and reveal or rather express to Him our
thoughts and feelings, but He manifests Himself to us. We not only
aver our love to Him, but He also reveals His love to us. The soul
of the believer lives, or should live, in constant fellowship or inter-
course with the Father of our spirits. He is at no loss for means and
modes of communiating with his children.
(3). When our Confession attributes saving faith to the witness of
God not only by or through but with the truth, it does not teach that
God makes any new revelations. The word is true. It declares itself
objectively to the reason, the conscience, and the affections to be
true, and God by His Spirit affirms it to be true. There is no new
revelation there. Neither is there in the witness of the Spirit to the
believer's adoption. He is a child of God. He has all the filial
affections of a child. The Spirit produces assurance that what is true
is true. The soul is not left to deductions from its own imperfectly
understood or partially interpreted consciousness. God gives it a
peace which passes understanding.
The fanatics at the Reformation and in all times have abused the
doctrine of the inward teaching of the Spirit. So they abuse the doc-
trine that He witnesses to the adoption of believers. But in neither
case have they any just reason for their perversions. And the Re-
formers as you know gave up their doctrines on neither point from
fear that the truth would be abused.
I fear these few remarks will not be of much service to you, but I
am not able to write more.
Your friend, very truly, CHARLES HODGE.
JET. 63-67.] THE CHURCH AND POLITICAL QUESTIONS. 491
THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH
TO POLITICAL QUESTIONS AND THE MERITS OF THE ACTUAL DECISIONS
OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY (o. S.) ON QUESTIONS
GROWING OUT OF THE WAR.
It was inevitable that the Churches and ministers, both
North and South, should be violently agitated by the
passions which caused and sprang out of the tremendous
political and military conflict between the hostile sections
of the country. This excitement would also necessarily
find expression alike in the writings and speeches of indi-
vidual ministers and in the action of Church courts. Under
these circumstances there came into existence also diver-
sity of sentiment as to questions of principle and policy,
and hence parties were formed within the Church, and
violent struggles for predominance for a time disturbed her
peace and dishonored her dignity. Some action by our
Church courts, under such circumstances, was necessary and
wise, in accordance with all ecclesiastical precedent in the
past, as well as with the obvious duty of the hour. There
can, on the other hand, be no question that the character of
much of the actual deliverances of our Church courts at
that time, was determined by the political passions and
prejudices existing in the bosoms of ministers and elders,
and often by the pressure arising from the clamor and
threats of the general populace without.
It was under circumstances such as these, when the
political newspapers and mob in Philadelphia threatened the
minority of the General Assembly, in May, 1 86 1, and when
many members confessed that if they should vote according
to their convictions they would be afraid to return to their
constituents, that the conduct of Dr. Hodge appears to
his friends the most noble. He had unequivocally taken
the side of the Country, and from the first advocated the
war for the Union. But when many, who had at the
beginning sympathized with secession, or at least favored
unworthy compromises, had become extreme radicals, and
492 THE CHURCH AND POLITICAL QUESTIONS. [1861-67.
while the newspapers and other organs of public opinion
severely denounced all dissent from the policy and spirit
of the majority, he, for six years, without either fear or
anger and with singular sagacity, sided with no party,
maintained the attitude of an independent and incorruptible
judge, criticised or commended the action of the Assembly,
and laid down with clearness and force the principles which
were involved in the burning questions, and the confused
contentions of the hour.
He objected, as did also the Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge,
D.D., in a paper presented by him and passed by the Synod
of Kentucky in the fall of the same year, to the passage of
the Spring resolutions of the General Assembly in May,
1 86 1, which decided in behalf of the Presbyterians of all
the States, even of those already subject to the de facto
government of the Confederacy, the political question as to
whether their supreme allegiance was due to the States or
to the Federal Government, and made consent to that
decision a term of communion in the Presbyterian Church.
He admitted all the principles involved in the paper of Dr.
R. J. Breckinridge, passed by the General Assembly of
1862, but lamented the passage on the ground of Christian
expediency, and the testimony of eminently wise and loyal
brethren from the Border States, that its passage at that
time would only tend to distract the Churches in their sec-
tion, and weaken the hands of loyal men. Against the
action of the Assembly of 1865, in Pittsburgh, whose
members came Up from constituencies lately and naturally
maddened by the assassination of President Lincoln, he pro-
tested and reasoned with all his force. The intention of the
great majority of that assembly was to brand secession as an
ecclesiastical crime, and all in any way compromised with it,
as ecclesiastical sinners, and to make repentance and open
confession the condition of the re-admission of all such
sinners to the communion of the Presbyterian Church.
It is well known that these " Pittsburgh orders," as they
-ST. 63-69.] THE CHURCH AND POLITICAL QUESTIONS. 493
were called, remained a dead letter from the first, and were
never enforced in the manner designed by their advocates
in a single instance. It is also well known that they alone
caused the action of the " Declaration and Testimony " men
of that autumn, and consequently the high-handed action
of repression of the General Assemblies of 1866 and 7.
They took off from the Northern Presbyterian Church the
majority of the Presbyterians of the Border States, and they
constitute the principal grievance in the sight of the mem-
bers of the Southern Presbyterian Church which perpetu-
ates and threatens to perpetuate indefinitely the unseemly
divisions and jealousies, which so many good men have
earnestly yet ineffectually labored to allay.
In this regard Dr. Ward of the Independent is certainly an
impartial and competent witness. In an editorial on April
nth, 1872, he writes: "In May, 1861, when the General
Assembly adopted the ' Spring resolutions/ introduced by
the venerable Dr. Spring of this city, in favor of sustaining
the government against the rebellion, Dr. Hodge led in a
protest, on the ground that the Assembly assumed a posi-
tion not warranted as an ecclesiastical body ; but it is well
known that from 1861 to the close of the war, no publica-
tion in the country, secular or religious, spoke out more
boldly than did the Princeton Review, against the rebellion,
and slavery as its cause, and none sustained the govern-
ment more vigorously and heartily in all its measures to
maintain itself and save the Union. The successive articles
on these subjects are well known to come from the pen of
Dr. Hodge, and their tenor and influence were highly ap-
preciated at the seat of government. When the war was
over, the Old-School Assembly, meeting at Pittsburgh in
May, 1865, adopted by a very large majority what were
deemed by many, extreme measures of ecclesiastical recon-
struction bearing upon ministers and churches at the South.
Dr. Hodge was not a member of the body, but on review-
ing these proceedings, he dissented from much of this
494 7HE CHURCH AND POLITICAL QUESTIONS. [1861-67.
action. Whatever may have been thought of their ex-
pediency at the time, these ' Pittsburgh Orders/ as they
have been termed, were never practically carried out, but
have remained a dead letter ever since ; and now as we
look over our religious exchanges in the Presbyterian
Church, there seems to be but one sentiment at the North
on this subject, and that is in favor of uniting with the
Presbyterians of the South on equal terms without any
questions being raised growing out of the rebellion."
The principles for which Dr. Hodge contended were the
following :
I. That " Church courts are of divine appointment. The
constitution is not a grant of powers, but an agreement be-
tween different Presbyteries and other church courts, as to
the manner in which its inherent authority as a court of
Christ shall be exercised. They have entered into various
agreements by which they are united in the exercise of the
powers derived from Christ. The same remark applies
equally to our synods and general assemblies. The first
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland met before
there was any formal written constitution of the Scotch
Church, but it met with all the powers that it ever subse-
quently possessed.
" The limits assigned to the power of church courts are
determined directly or indirectly by the word of God. As
they are church courts their authority is confined to the
church. It does not extend to those who " are without."
It follows also from the same premises that being church
courts they must be confined in their jurisdiction to church
matters. They can only expound and apply the word of
God to matters of truth and duty, and to the reforming of
abuses or to the discipline of offences.
"As the Bible commands obedience to the powers that be,
it is clearly within the province of the church to enjoin on
all her members obedience, allegiance and loyalty. . . But
as the Bible does not enable any man to decide whether
^ET. 63-69.] THE CHURCH AND POLITICAL QUESTIONS. 495
these United States are a nation, or a voluntary confederacy
of nations, the church has no voice in the decision of that
question. Her members must determine it for themselves,
and on their own responsibility. It was upon this ground
that the editor of this Review, with many others, protested
against the action of the Assembly of 1 86 1, in adopting the
Spring resolutions. In those resolutions it was declared the
duty of Christians in the seceding states to support the
national government. If the Northern (as we believe the
true theory) of our Constitution be correct it was their duty.
If the Calhoun (or Southern) theory is correct, it was not
their duty. This is purely a political question, for the de-
cision of which the word of God gives no direction.
"In the Assembly of 1859, it was urged by Dr. Thorn-
well that the church is in such a sense a spiritual body,
clothed only with spiritual powers for spiritual ends, that
all intermeddling with anything not directly bearing on the
spiritual and eternal interests of men was foreign to its
office and derogatory to its dignity. All this is true, but
it is very ambiguous. If by spiritual he meant what relates
to the spirit, in the sense of moral and religious nature of
man, then it is true that the church is restricted in her
action to what is purely spiritual. But if the word be so
restricted as to confine it to what pertains to the religious
element of our nature, to what concerns the method of
salvation, as distinguished from the law of God, then the
above principle is most obviously false. It contradicts the
great principle, universally admitted hitherto, that the
church, as the witness of God, is bound to bear her testi-
mony against all sin and error, and in favor of all truth and
righteousness, agreeably to the Scriptures ; that is guided
by the word of God in her judgments and declarations. . .
The Southern advocates of the new theory found it impossi-
ble to adhere to it. We find Dr. Thornwell preaching from
the sacred desk elaborate sermons on slavery, and writing
articles in religious journals on the state of the country.
496 THE CHURCH AND POLITICAL QUESTIONS. [1861-67.
Church papers were filled week after week with articles
vindicating Southern principles, and synods pledged them-
-selves to the support of the new confederacy. We do not
blame these brethren for violating a false principle, and dis-
regarding their own erroneous theory, but we protest
against their condemning in others what they justify in
themselves.
II. " What is the authority due to the deliverances of our
ecclesiastical judicatories? ist. They are not infallible.
' All synods or councils/ says our Confession, ' since the
Apostles' times, whether general or particular, may err, and
many have erred ; therefore they are not to be made the
rule of faith or practice, but to be used as a help to both.'
If not a rule of faith or practice, acquiescence in their de-
liverances cannot be made a term either of Christian or of
ministerial communion. Acquiescence in their deliverances
being a very different thing from submission to their judi-
cial decisions.
" 2d. If they are not infallible there must be a judge of
their correctness, and a standard by which judgment is to
be formed. The judge is every man who chooses to exer-
cise the privilege. The standard of judgment is of course
the word of God. The censures which have been heaped
upon this Review for the expression of its dissent from cer-
tain acts of the Assembly, as an act of presumption un-
becoming in the members and servants of the Church, are
to say the least undeserved.
"3. It follows from what has been said that the deliver-
ances of ecclesiastical courts, from the lowest to the highest,
cease to have any binding force, first, when they transcend
the sphere of the legitimate action of the Church ; second,
when they contravene the compact contained in our Consti-
tution ; third j when they violate any principle revealed in
the word of God."
III. As to the relation of the Northern and Southern
Churches he argued, " I. That it is Christ's will that his
MT. 63-69.] NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CHURCHES. 497
people should be one, and that it is the duty of all those
who agree in matters of faith and order, and are so situated
that they may act together, to be united in one organic
body. All who are willing to unite with us on the terms of
the cordial adoption of the standards of doctrine and order,
we are bound to welcome with the right hand of fellowship.
2. That there are reasons which render the union of Presby-
terians North and South, East and West imperative at the
present day. Other bodies of Christians, as the Romanists
and Episcopalians, are united and compact. These two
Churches bid fair to be the only two national Churches in
the land. Shall we remain divided ? Must we forfeit our
national character ? 3. Considerations of patriotism are as
urgent as those drawn from the interests of the Church.
The great aim of the National Goverment, and the great
aim of all good citizens is the reconstruction of the Union.
We hear on almost every side the utterance of the self-evi-
dent truth that 'conciliation is essential to reconstruction.'
The reunion of the Northern and Southern Churches is
almost indispensable to this conciliation. The New York
Times, the most influential Republican paper, the great
advocate of the war (Sept. 29, 1865), says the action of the
Assemblies of Presbyterians and Convention of Congrega-
tionalists months ago was not conciliatory. It commends
in strong terms the amicable spirit of the late Episcopal
Convention in New York."
In his review of the action of the General Assembly, July,
1865, he argued against the demand that repentance and
confession must be exacted of our Southern brethren as the
' condition of readmission to communion, " (i.) That such a
deliverance of the General Assembly could bind no man's
conscience and have no legal force. (2.) That secession
was not an ecclesiastical sin. That, as all admit, revolution
and rebellion are right on certain occasions, and no church
has a right to decide upon those conditions. (3.) That
such action was unprecedented, and (4.) It was unequal.
32
498 CASE OF DR. ATPHEETERS. [1864.
Thousands of people at the North sympathized with the
South, and in many ways gave aid and comfort to the rebels.
No one calls for arraigning them before our church courts.
It is plain that a principle that cannot be carried out is false ;
and that those who are strenuous in enforcing it in the one
case, while they refuse to enforce it in another, are either
mentally bewildered or insincere."
*
THE CASE OF DR. SAMUEL B. M'PHEETERS.
He at great length and with great earnestness protested
against the action ofthe General Assembly at Newark in 1 864,
in dismissing the complaint of that noble gentleman and
Christ-like clergyman, the Rev. Dr. Samuel B. MTheeters,
against the body assuming to be the Presbytery of St.
Louis. " Less than one-fifth of that Presbytery, knowing
that the majority would not attend, came together the 3d of
June to dissolve the pastoral relation between the Pine
Street Church and the Rev. S. B. MTheeters, D. D., with-
out being requested to do so either by the pastor or the
Church, and against the known wishes and judgment of the
great majority of the Presbytery. The undeniable facts are
these. I. He was a man universally respected and beloved.
2. He had taken and faithfully kept a stringent oath of
allegiance to the Government. 3. The highest authorities
of the land, the President and the Attorney-General, pro-
nounced themselves so satisfied with his loyalty that they
forbade his being interfered with on the part of the authori-
ties, either as a citizen or as a minister. 4. Whatever were
his private feelings, he so conducted himself and so per-
formed his ministerial duties, as to retain the affection and
confidence of the community, of six out of seven of the
elders of his church, of the vast majority of its members and
attendants ; and of four-fifths of the members of his Presby-
tery. That such a man should be dismissed from his
church and forbidden to preach in its pulpit, by a mere
fragment of the Presbytery to which he belongs, who knew
JET. 66.] CASE OF DR. M> PHEETERS. 499
him and all the circumstances of the case, seems to us an
injustice which has few, if any, parallels in the history of our
church/'
There can be no doubt now that this action was not only
unrighteous, but that it was also a great mistake for the
supporters of the government, and of the true theory of
the relation of the Church to the moral and religious rela-
tions of political questions, to give to the honest advocates
of a mistaken view their martyr. And no human cause
was ever crowned by one purer or more heroic.
Whatever may have been the prevalence and violent
expression of unchristian prejudices and passions among the
men of either side with whom he came in contact, Dr.
M'Pheeters at least always maintained Christian charity
unwounded either by thought or word. His spirit was
chastened with sorrow, and his physical health crushed, but
he was never excited to bitterness. All his public and
private utterances were full of love and grace. His letters
all corroborate the testimony of his wife, that at no time
during his years of trial did he, even in the privacy of
home, speak a word which would have compromised him
if known to the whole world.
For the last five years of his life he was the well-beloved
pastor of the rural congregation of Mulberry, Kentucky.
Here the beauty and glory of his life culminated and
ripened fast for heaven as gently as the rich autumnal twi-
light melts into the perfect day. For more than three
years he was confined to his couch, and preached and
talked to his people always in a recumbent position. His
house, the home of all his people, was thronged with con-
stant visitors. From his couch the patient sufferer, at
home and in the church, talked and preached with radiant
countenance, and with matchless sweetness and spiritual
power. A perennial dispensation of the gracious Spirit
was kindly granted them. Many were converted, and the
entire church walked with their angelic pastor on the
5<DO HOSTILE CRITICISM. [1861-67.
heights of Beulah, in constant view of the celestial city, and
under the perpetual inspiration of its hopes and joys. Thus
one of the humblest, gentlest, loveliest of mankind exultantly
bore testimony to the all-sufficiency of his Lord.
It was for thus standing in his place during a period of
confusion and conflict, and for teaching these principles,
that Dr. Hodge was assailed, and his influence sought to be
destroyed by angry and bewildered men. The Presbytery
of Oxford, consisting of two pastors and four stated sup-
plies, and an unusual proportion of men without charge, at its
meeting, April, 1866, overtured the General Assembly, that
"for the peace and purity of the Church," Dr. Hodge
should be directed to desist from teaching as he had done,
and from thus " corrupting the minds of the young men in
the Seminary, in regard to their church and country."
In his article, October, 1865, he says, "It has been inti-
mated in some quarters, with small indications of sorrow,
that in pursuing the course above indicated, this Review has
lost the support of the loyal States. We learn from the
publisher that this is a mistake. The list of subscribers in
those states is as large now as it was before the war. It is
in the seceding states the falling off has occurred. Some
kind friends, without our knowledge, brought the matter
before the last Assembly, but the Editor has not lifted a
finger to secure patronage for the Review. To him its dis-
continuance would be a great relief. He has carried it as a
ball-and-chain for forty years, with scarcely any other com-
pensation than the high privilege and honor of making it
an organ for upholding sound Presbyterianism, the cause of
the country, and the honor of our common Redeemer."
He had carried it for forty years, and in three years more
he did finally lay it down. The reader of the past pages of
these memoirs, will have some means of appreciating the
pathos of the above sentences, coming as they do so near
the closing scenes of such a period and character of ser-
vice.
M-s. 69-72.] REUNION OF THE PRESBYTERIANS. 50!
This is not recorded in the spirit of complaint. Dr.
Hodge's nearest representatives are gratefully sensible of the
universality, sincerity and singular eminence of the honors
awarded him in his closing life. But no picture can be
drawn, if the shadows are left out, and these shadows of
storm-drifted clouds are left where they fell, that the truth
of history may be preserved in its integrity.
THE REUNION OF THE OLD AND NEW SCHOOL PRES-
BYTERIANS.
As was shown in a previous chapter of this book the di-
vision of the Presbyterian Church was caused by the belief
on the part of those, chiefly of Scotch and Scotch-Irish de-
scent, who were strongly attached to the unmodified Pres-
byterian usages and doctrines inherited from a past age,
that the Church as then situated, was in great danger of
being disorganized by amalgamation with Congregational-
ism, and corrupted by the toleration of variations of the
Calvinistic system of New England origin. [These doctrinal
variations were of different degrees, some of them classified
under the general head of Hopkinsianism, which Dr. Hodge
thought did not occasion a ground of division, and others
classified under the head of Taylorism, which he did re-
gard as intolerable. r
Immediately after the war, the two branches of the
Church in the North approximated each other more nearly
than ever before in size and condition, the Old School
branch having been by that event separated from the large
and intensely orthodox and conservative Southern section.
They had moreover been drawn together by their intense
sympathy in the great passions and sufferings of the imme-
diately preceding years. The New School branch also,
as Dr. S. W. Fisher declared in his speech before the
National Presbyterian Union Convention in Philadel-
phia, Nov. 1867, had become separate from its past
Congregational alliances and thus " God had elimi-
502 REUNION OF THE PRESBYTERIANS. [1867-70.
nated discordant elements, which gave them (us) much
trouble, and which gave the (our) brethren of the other
branch great occasion for censure." Both branches were
now completely and equally (with slight and transient ex-
ceptions) Presbyterian in their organization, and the graver
departures from the old Calvinistic system had ceased to
prevail. Besides these facts justifying reunion, there ex-
isted, as generally prevalent conditions prompting to it ; a
disposition, upon the more politically radical party of the
Old School to make up for the loss of the Southern Church,
and an intense sympathy with that branch of the Church
which was largely leavened with New England ideas : a
substitution on all sides of an interest in the history and
comparison of theological doctrines and systems, for the
interest in original speculation which had prevailed in the
preceding generation : and last, though not least, the in-
fluence of the general spirit of the age, which deprecates
the value of doctrinal distinctions, and emphasizes the
value of character, and practical energy and work.
[In 1837-8 Dr. Hodge opposed, not the division of the
Church, but the spirit, policy, and methods of some of the
Old School leaders, in their attempts to effect that eno!?
He did so because he was constitutionally a conservative,
and spontaneously resisted all change ; because he did not
believe the evils prevalent to be as imminent nor as dan-
gerous as represented by the ultra Old School men; and
because he disapproved of many of the methods they
pursued, as unconstitutional, and as impolitic, involving
the danger of giving the opposite party the advantage
of possessing the majority, and actual legal control of
the organization and property. [In 1867-70 he occupied
precisely the same position. He had shared in none of the
" progress " of the times. He would not have divided the
Church if reunited, but he saw no sufficient reason for
uniting the actually and long-divided branches. For thirty
years the Old School Presbyterian Church had been an
yET. 69-72.] REUNION' OF THE PRESBYTERIANS. 503
established fact in the world. It had assumed its place,
and discharged its functions in the family of Churches, as
a witness-bearing body, as its special function maintaining
intact by testimony and by discipline, the strict old Calvin-
ism of our Fathers, and of the Westminster Confession,
strictly interpreted. His life had been identified with this
work ; he loved it and believed it to be indispensable to the
welfare of the sisterhood of Christian Denominations, which
God had severally adorned with different graces, and to
which he had severally assigned different functions. He did
not believe that the reunited Presbyterian Church of the
future would take the place of the Old School Church of the
past. He was not insensible to the blessedness and the
glories of Christian Union as he made plain by his speeches
at the National Presbyterian Convention, Nov. 1867, and at
the Evangelical Alliance, Oct. 1873. \_But he believed that
under the present condition of the universal Church, each
Denomination has its special gift and intrusted function,
and that the gift and function of the Old School Presbyterian
Church was one of the most precious and indispensable,
and one which no other could fulfill. He never believed
or said that his New School brethren were the holders or
the teachers of heresy. He did not pretend to judge or to
mistrust their orthodoxy. He simply maintained that as a
historical fact those brethren had always, and did now,
maintain and practice a principle and latitude of toleration
different from that of the Old School. Pie held that if not
for themselves, yet for others they interpreted the formula
of subscription to our doctrinal standards in a different
sense, or at least different spirit ; that even if hereafter the
Old School should produce all the heretics, the New
School division of the New Church would provide their
principal and most influential defenders, or excusers.
yHe therefore set himself once more to face and resist the
current of the timesjjto oppose what he believed to be the
rash course of the majority of his own church, and to call
504 NATIONAL PRESBYTERIAN CONVENTION. [1867-70.
down upon himself the impatience and displeasure of many.
He spoke and wrote in public and private, and voted against
the movement on every occasion that was afforded him.
He wrote in the Princeton Review the articles on the General
Assembly for 1866 and 1867 ; on " The Principles of Church
Union and the Re-union of Old and New School Presby-
terians " in 1865 ; and on "Presbyterian Re-union," and on
" The Protests and Answer " in 1868. He spoke, voted, and
wrote and signed the Protest against it in the General As-
sembly of 1868. And after the majority of his most
thorough sympathizers, seeing the event inevitable, had capi-
tulated in order to secure the most favorable conditions pos-
sible, he wavered not a hair's breadth, but rode nine miles
to meet the Presbytery in Cranberry, on October 5th, 1869,
with the " anthrax malitiosissimus " on the back of his neck,
for the purpose of casting his final vote against it.
THE NATIONAL PRESBYTERIAN CONVENTION, PHILADEL-
PHIA, NOVEMBER, 1867.
On the 6th, 7th and 8th of November, 1867, on the invi-
tation of the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church,
a National Presbyterian Union Convention met in the First
Reformed Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. Mr. George
H. Stuart was President. Besides many corresponding
members allowed to speak but not to vote, the Convention
consisted of 162 representatives of the Old School branch of
the Presbyterian Church, 64 of the New School, of the
United Presbyterians 1 2 ; of the Reformed Presbyterians
12; of Reformed Protestant Dutch 6; of the Cumberland
Presbyterians 6. Dr. Hodge was a member, and went to it
under an " entire misapprehension, supposing from the
wording of the call that the object of the meeting was prayer
and conference, for the promotion of Christian fellowship?
and harmonious action between the several bodies repre-
sented." When, therefore, he found that the drift of all the
speakers and resolutions was towards the establishment of
XT. 69-72.] NA TtONAL PRESB YTERIAN CONVENTION. 505
a general organic union, he remained quiet, and made no
address till the afternoon of the third day, when he ex-
pounded the sense in which he maintained the " Standards "
should be embraced as containing 'the system of doctrine
taught in Holy Scripture.'
It came to the knowledge of this Convention that in the
Annual Meeting of the Protestant Episcopal Evangelical
Societies, consisting of about 450 members, bishops, clergy
and laymen, held at that time in Philadelphia, prayer had
been offered in behalf of the National Presbyterian body.
Hence on Thursday a committee headed by Professor Henry
B. Smith of New York, was deputed to carry the salutations
of the representatives of all branches of the Presbyterian
Church to their Episcopal brethren. On Friday morning,
November 8th, a responding Episcopal delegation, consisting
of Bishops M'llvaine of Ohio, and Lee of Delaware, and
the Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, Jr., and the Hon. Judge
Conyngham and Hon. Felix B. Brunot, brought the saluta-
tions and blessings of the Episcopal body to the representa-
tives of the National Presbyterianism. They addressed the
Conference in warmly affectionate language, offered extem-
poraneous and eloquent prayers in their behalf, and pro-
nounced upon them the Apostolic benediction. Such a
scene has no parallel, considering the representative charac-
ter of the bodies and persons concerned in the transaction,
in the entire history of American Christianity.
" Dr. Hodge was brought forward by the President to re-
spond to this deputation in the name of the Presbyterian
Convention, and was greeted with great applause. He
said : ' Gentlemen and brothers, honored and beloved : I
am called upon, as you hear, to present, in the name of this
Convention, their hearty greeting and salutation. You here
see around you, sirs, the representatives of six Presbyterian
organizations of this country, comprising in the aggregate
at least five thousand ministers of Jesus, an equal number
of Christian churches, and at least one million of Christians,
506 -NATIONAL PRESBYTERIAN CONVENTION. [1867 70.
who have been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. It
is not only, therefore, as the organ of the Convention, but
for the moment, as the mouth-piece of this vast body of
ministers and public Christian men, that we, sirs, were com-
missioned to present to you our cordial and affectionate
Christian salutations.
" We wish to assure you, sirs, that your names are just
as familiar to our people as to your own ! That we appre-
ciate as highly your services in the cause of our common
Master, as the people of your own honored Church. And,
sirs, we rejoice with them in all that God has accomplished
through your instrumentality.
" I hope this audience will pardon a reference that might
seem too personal under any other circumstances than the
present. The honored President of this Convention might
easily have selected some more suitable person to be the
mouth-piece of this body, but on the ground of one con-
sideration, perhaps the choice of myself to be that organ is
not altogether inappropriate.
"You, Bishop Mcllvaine, and Bishop Johns, whom I had
hoped to see with you here to day, you and I, sir, were
boys together in Princeton College, fifty odd years ago.
Often at evening have we knelt together in prayer. We
passed through, sir, the baptism of that wonderful revival
in that institution in 1815. We sat together, year after year,
side by side, in the same class-room. We were instructed
through our theological course by the same venerable
teachers. You, sir, have gone your way, and I have gone
mine ; and I will venture to say in the presence of this
audience, that I do not believe you have preached one ser-
mon on any point of doctrine or Christian experience,
which I would not have rejoiced to have uttered. And I
feel fully confident that I never preached a sermon, the sen-
timents of which, you would not have publicly and cordially
endorsed.
"And now, sir, after these fifty odd years, here we stand,
MT. 69-72.] NA TIONA L PRESB YTERIAN CONVENTION. 507
gray-headed, side by side, for the moment representatives
. of these two great bodies of organized Christians. Feeling
for each other the same intimate cordial love, and mutual
confidence; looking not backward, not downward to the
grave beneath our very feet, but onward to the coming
glory. Brethren, pardon this personal allusion, but is there
not something that may be regarded as symbolical in this?
Has not your Church and our Church been rocked in the
same cradle? Did they not pass through the same Red
Sea, receiving the same baptism of the Spirit, and of fire ?
Have they not uttered from those days of the Reformation
to the present time, the same great testimony for Christ and
his Gospel ? What difference, sir, is there between your
Thirty-nine Articles, and our Confession of Faith, other
than the difference between one part and another of the
same great Cathedral anthem rising to the skies? Does it
not seem to indicate, sir, that these Churches are coming
together? We stand here, sir, to say to the whole world,
that we are one in faith, one in baptism, one in life, and one
in our allegiance to your Lord and to our Lord."
The reporter says, " During the delivery of this speech
there was scarcely a dry eye in the house, and the speaker
was frequently interrupted by the cries of 'Amen,' from
the delegates."
In an editorial of the next week, the Presbyterian, allud-
ing to the irritation which Dr. Hodge's course in opposing
his Church on the matter of its war-deliverances and the
project of Reunion had occasioned, said: "If any one has
ever imagined that the influence of Dr. Charles Hodge, of
Princeton, was waning, either in the Church, of which he is
the ornament, and in which he is ever held in honor, or in
other Presbyterian communions, it was only necessary for
him to be present in the late Convention, and witness the
reception given to the venerable Professor, to assure him
that his imaginings were vain. Dr. Hodge chose to re-
main quiet during the most of the sessions of the body, but
508 NATIONAL PRESBYTERIAN CONVENTION. [1867-70.
when he appeared upon the platform, it was to be greeted
as no other man was received in that church. Spontane-
ously, and ere he had ^opened his lips to speak, applause
started from all parts of the house, and was long continued
and hearty. It was the ready homage of Christian men to
one who had kept the faith, and taught it, and had ever
been foremost in its defense, and so had won his way to the
highest confidence and respect of the Church. It showed
to all how good it is to work for one's generation, and for
the Church of God, and receive, as the end of life draws
near, the precious tokens of the Church's love and the
Master's approbation. It added to the interest of the occa-
sion that his early and life-long friend was there to witness
these expressions of esteem and confidence from the
gathered Church ; and we are very sure that no one in the
assembly would have acknowledged more fully the justice
of the tribute paid to Dr. Hodge than the beloved bishop
of Ohio. We thank God for such men ; for their lives and
works, and for the honor and affection which are gathering
about their names as passing years are bringing them near-
er to the blessed home of the saints of God."
CHAPTER XII.
HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL.
APRIL 24, 1872.
AS we have seen from Dr. Hodge's journal given in
chapter 5, in which he records the celebration of the
jubilee of Professor Nehemeyer in Halle, it has been cus-
tomary in Germany to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of
veteran professors. The jubilee of his old friend, Professor
Tholuck, was celebrated in 1874, two years after his own.
But this, as far as known, is the first instance in which such
an event has crowned the life of an American professor.
As he had become a teacher in this seminary in 1820, and
had been elected professor by the General Assembly in May,
1822, the fiftieth year of his professorship terminated with
the end of the academic year ending April 23d, 1872. The
suggestion of this great honor originated with and its exe-
cution for the most part devolved on his loving and filial
pupil and colleague, Prof. William Henry Green, D. D.
Nothing could be more beautiful than the affectionate at-
tention with which for more than twenty-five years he
honored his senior and friend. Our father, just before his
death, very solemnly laid upon his children the inheritance
of obligation incurred by this long and singular kindness
of his friend and theirs.
In anticipation of this event, the Board of Directors of
the Seminary at their annual meeting in 1871, invited the
alumni and friends of the Seminary to assemble in Prince-
509
5IO HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. [1872.
ton on the day subsequent to the completion of this half
century, with a view to its glad and grateful commemora-
tion. They also suggested the creation at that time of
" some memorial of the long, faithful and useful professorial
labors" of Dr. Hodge, and proposed further that an
alumni association should be formed; and appointed a
committee of seven, to devise and carry into effect such
measures as might be requisite for the end contemplated.
This committee of the Directors forthwith named a com-
mittee of seventy alumni residing in various parts of the
country, whose counsel and co-operation were solicited, and
who were invited to meet in Princeton, June 28th, 1871,
the day of the commencement of the College of New Jer-
sey, in order to deliberate upon the best method of accom-
plishing what had been proposed and adopting such mea-
sures as might seem advisable for the purpose.
Encouraged by cordial responses to letters of inquiry
and by the general interest manifested, the committee of
seventy, with such others of the alumni of the Seminary as
were then gathered in Princeton, met in the chapel of the
College on Commencement day, and with great unanimity
and cordiality endorsed the project in the following reso-
lutions :
"Resolved, i. That the proposed celebration of the semi-
centennial of Dr. Hodge meets our hearty concurrence, and
we cordially unite with the Directors in inviting the friends
and former students of the Seminary to meet for this pur-
pose in Princeton, on Wednesday, April 24th, 1872; and
that this invitation be very particularly extended to all our
brethren in different Christian denominations, and in every
section of our country, as well as in foreign lands, who have
received their education here in whole or in part. And we
express the earnest hope that the hallowed memories of the
past, personal attachments, and local and literary associa-
tions with this cherished spot, may be permitted to over-
come the long and wide separation of time and place, and
MT. 74-1 HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 5 1 I
ecclesiastical organization, so that we may all upon this glad
occasion gather around the instructor whom we all love and
revere, a band cf brethren, cemented in Christian love, re-
newing and pledging a mutual confidence and affection
which nothing in the past shall be suffered to dim or to ob-
literate, and nothing in the future shall be permitted to
disturb.
"Resolved, 2. That an Alumni association be then formed,
consisting of all who have been for any length of time con-
nected with the Seminary as theological students.
" Resolved, 3. That, in our judgment, the most fitting
memorial of this half century of faithful and distinguished
service will be the permanent endowment of the chair which
Dr. Hodge has filled with such pre-eminent ability.
" Resolved, 4. That this endowment be immediately unr
dertaken, and, if possible, completed by the 24th day of
April next."
Bishop Johns having found as the time approached that
it was impossible for him to attend, intimated that fact to
Dr. Green by letter. To this Dr. Hodge sent the following
response :
PRINCETON, April 24, 1872.
Dear John, my Twin-brother Friend : Dr. Greer sent me over
your letter to him, and I am so disappointed and grieved at its con-
tents, I do not know what to do. I dread the 24th, and hoped for
your support. Why can't you visit some of your churches before
the 22d, so as to be free a few days after that date ? A bishop is not
worth the mentioning if he cannot do what he pleases.
Another thing troubles me very much : your letter is not in your
hand-writing. Why is this ? Do let some one tell me that it is a
lame finger or something of that kind. ,1 am over head and ears in
getting the third volume of my big book through the press and ready
for it. It is really awful. Even worse to write than it is to read.
Love to all your children within hearing.
You have only one such life-long friend as I am out of your own
family.
CHARLES HODGE.
512 HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. [1872-
e appointed day of the celebration brought together a
large concourse of friends of the Seminary, including four
hundred former students). The first class upon its roll is now
starred throughout ; the second shows but a single survivor,
and the third but two. From the next class, which entered
in 1815, the year preceding Dr. Hodge's own matriculation
as a student, four of its five surviving members were present ;
and every subsequent class was represented with possibly
three or four exceptions. They came from Texas and Col-
orado and California, as well as from places less remote.
The leading theological and literary institutions of the
country deputed one or more of their Professors to indicate
their interest in the occasion. The church in which the
exercises were held was densely thronged, and by an as-
semblage remarkable for the number of venerable heads and
thoughtful faces. Every available standing place was
occupied. The enthusiasm, which was great throughout,
reached its climax at that point in the proceedings when
Dr. Hodge himself, almost overcome by emotion, advanced
to greet his gathered pupils and to respond to the address
made to him by Dr. Boardman. The exercises were ad-
mirably conducted throughout, and in harmony with the
character of the day. And nothing occurred to mar the
general gratification, which was heightened by the fact that
notwithstanding the brevity of the time since the suggestion
had first been made the projected endowment was brought
to the verge of completion, $45,000 of the proposed $50,000
being already raised, and a purse of $15,350 having besides
been made up as a present to Dr. Hodge. One gentleman
has also given $50 towards a fund, whose income shall be
expended in the purchase of copies of Dr. Hodge's Theo-
logy or of his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans
to be given to needy students of the Seminary.
"The amount thus far contributed to the endowment is
from 575 separate donors, mostly former students of this
Seminary, residing in twenty-five different States and Terri-
MT. 74.] HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 5 I 3
tories of this country, some of them missionaries in China,
India, Siam and South America, a few in the Dominion of
Canada, and one who is now Professor of Theology in the
Assembly's College in Ireland, and who has embraced this
opportunity to renew his old allegiance. It may safely be
said that few funds of like amount represent an equal mea-
sure of self-denial and devotion on the part of those who
have contributed to them. Ministers, themselves receiving
an inadequate support, have aided in this endowment with
a generous enthusiasm, sending sums that they could not
well afford to spare, but forward to testify their indebted-
ness to their honored teacher, and eager to have a share in
erecting this monument to bear his name."
The ist Presbyterian Church of Princeton was arranged
with an extended platform as has been the custom on
college commencements from time immemorial. Dr.
Hodge and Dr. Boardman sat on the opposite sides of
the President of the occasion, the Rev. Dr. Snodgrass,
President of the Board of Directors.
The first order, after prayer, was the delivery of an ad-
mirable Address on the appropriate theme, " THE TITLE OF
THEOLOGY TO RANK AS A SCIENCE," by the Rev. Joseph T.
Duryea, D.D., of Brooklyn, N. Y.
Dr. Snodgrass then introduced the Rev. Dr. Henry A.
Boardman, of Philadelphia, who, in the name of the Direc/
tors and Trustees of the Seminary, and of the Alumni,
addressed Dr. Hodge, and spoke substantially as follows:
" MY HONORED FATHER, BROTHER, FRIEND : I am com-
missioned by the Directors of our Seminary to present
to you their cordial congratulations, and to assure you of
the profound sense they entertain of the invaluable services
you have rendered to the cause and kingdom of Christ.
We this day bear our public testimony to the eminent
ability, the ample and various learning, the practical wis-
dom, the thorough conscientiousness, the unswerving fi-
delity, and the humble, devout, earnest spirit which you
33
514 HIS SEMI- CENTENNIAL. [ 1872.
have brought to the discharge of your high trust. We
offer our thanksgivings to the Author of all good, that you
have been spared to us so long, and in reviewing this half-
century of your labors, we reverently glorify God in you.
" The occasion takes our thoughts back irresistibly to
the origin of this School of the Prophets. At this hour,
hallowed by so many tender and sacred memories, there
rise before us the venerable forms of those two patriarchal
men, Drs. Alexander and Miller, in whose arms the institu-
tion was cradled. We gratefully acknowledge the Divine
goodness and mercy in sparing them for forty years to
impress themselves upon its character, to define its theo-
logy, to determine its direction, and to infuse into it the
animating tone and spirit by which it was to be controlled
in after times. It was the universal feeling of our Church,
that a mercy so signal was too great to be repeated. Yet
what hath God wrought ! The mantle of our Elijahs has
certainly fallen upon our Elisha. Their associate first, and
then, in the true line of the apostolical succession, their
successor, he has taken up and carried forward their work,
and we to-day commemorate a ministration, not of forty,
but of fifty years, marked with every attribute which can
command our homage, or win our gratitude. But I forget
my errand. Assigned to a service to which I feel myself
most unequal, and from which I sought in vain to escape, I
am instructed to speak to you on behalf, not only of the
Directors of our Seminary, but of the Alumni also. I have
no words for this. Here, in the scene before us, is the only
adequate expression that can be given to the feelings of
your former pupils. From far and near, the aged and the
young, moved by a common impulse, have hastened to this
festal service. Commingled with them are the learned
Faculties of other seminaries and colleges, distinguished
laymen, and honored legates of European Churches. No
eye can look upon this sea of upturned faces without being
impressed with the spectacle. As interpreted by its object,
JET. 74.] &fS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 5 I 5
and by the free, generous inspiration which pervades the
entire body, it bears an aspect of moral beauty nay,
of moral sublimity beyond almost any convocation our
Church, or even our country has witnessed. Who has
ever seen a gathering like this ? Ovations to heroes, and
statesmen, and authors are no novelty, but here is the spon-
taneous homage paid to a simple teacher of God's Word,
and defender of his truth, by a vast assemblage, worthily
representing the highest culture, and the most exalted
moral worth of our land. No man of our times has re-
ceived a tribute comprising, in an equal degree, the choice
elements that are blended here. And, my beloved friend
and brother, there is but one name among the living that
could have drawn this concourse together. Nor is this all.
What we see, imposing as it is, is as nothing to what we do
not see.
" Of the twenty- seven hundred men who have sat at your
feet J there are few in the field who are not here in spirit to-
day. The wires are up, and there is a sweet tide of thought
and sympathy flowing to us at this hour from our toiling
brethren in Europe, in Africa, in Eastern Asia, in South
America, and in the Isles of the Sea. It is not less for them
I speak than for the hundreds of your students who are
present, when I say we rejoice with you in this Jubilee ;
from our heart of hearts we thank you for the priceless
benefits we have received at your hands ; and we praise
God for all that affluence of blessings which he has be-
stowed upon you, and through you upon his Church, Do
not imagine, however, that we have come together merely
to recognize in you the great expositor and defender of the
faith once delivered to the saints. I appeal to you, Fathers
and Brethren, that it is not this sentiment only, nor mainly,
which throbs in our breasts to-day. Beheld from a dis-
tance, even friendly eyes see on this ancient hill simply a
giant oak, with its grand old branches swaying to the winds
of heaven. But to us, branches and trunk alike are so
5 I 6 V HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. [1872.
covered with vines, and flowers, and clustering fruits, that
we scarcely wot of the massive props that are underneath.
And so, whatever of honest admiration we may feel for our
gifted master, it is not that which brings us here, but the
affection rather which we cherish for him as an unselfish
and sympathizing friend. If the homely phrase may be al-
lowed, while we honor him for the great head which God
has given him, we love him for his still greater heart.
'J'Allusion has been made to the type of theology taught
in this Seminary. It has two leading characteristics. In
the first place, the principle upon which it rests, and which
underlies every part and parcel of the lofty superstructure,
is the absolute, universal, and exclusive supremacy of the
Word of God as the rule of faith and practice. A censorious
critic said the other day, derisively, in reviewing the volumes
of Theology lately published : " It is enough for Dr. Hodge x
to believe a thing to be true that he finds it in the Bible !"
We accept the token. Dr. Hodge has never got beyond
the Bible. It contains every jot and title of his theolog}yj
And woe be to this Seminary whenever any man shall be
called to fill one of its chairs, who gets his theology from
any other source. [The second characteristic of this system
is that it is a Christology. Christ is its central sun ; its
pervading element; the stem from which everything" in
dogma, in precept, in religious experience, radiates, and
towards which every thing returns. Not as a mere anatomy
does Christ dwell here the crown of a speculative organism,
symmetrical and complete, but without flesh and blood and
vitality. Rather is He the living soul that animates, and
guides, and hallows the whole. If a theology must needs
take somewhat of its essential tone from the temper of its
expounder, who can marvel that the theology of this insti-
tution should be instinct with a gentle, loving, humble
Christ-like spirit ?
" To be permitted to set forth and inculcate a system like
this, even in the ordinary routine of personal labor, is no
JET. 74-] HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 517
trivial privilege. But what honor, beloved Brother, has God
put upon you ! For fifty years you have been training men
to preach the glorious gospel of the grace of God to their
fellow-sinners. The teacher of teachers, your pupils have
become professors in numerous Colleges and Seminaries at
home and abroad. Not to speak of one or two thousand
pastors, who are exerting an ameliorating influence upon
this nation more potent than that of an equal number of
men belonging to any other calling, you are helping, through
your students, to educate a great body of Christian minis-
ters, not a few of whom are to be employed in laying the
foundations of Christianity in pagan lands. And now there
is superadded that which all your friends regard as the
crowning mercy of your life, viz. : that health and strength
have been given you to complete and publish the only com-
prehensive work of Systematic Theology in our own or any
other language, which comprises the latest results of sound
scriptural exegesis, discusses the great themes of the Augus-
tinian system from an evangelical standpoint, and deals
satisfactorily with the sceptical speculations of modern
philosophy and science. In thus supplying what was con-
fessedly, in the way of authorship, the most urgent want of
Protestant Christendom, you have extended indefinitely the
range of your beneficent power.
" Your Theology must soon become the Hand-Book of
all students of the Reformed faith who speak the English
tongue. Where you have taught scores, you will now
teach hundreds; and where you have taught hundreds, you
will teach thousands. Thus, through your pupils, dispersed
over the four quarters of the globe, and through this great
work, comprising your mature views in the noblest of all
sciences, is your influence extending in ever-multiplying,
ever-widening, concentric circles, until the mind is awed in
attempting to conceive, not of its possible, but of its certain
results, as the ages come and go. That you should live to
see this mighty mechanism in motion to guide into so
5 1 8 HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. [1872.
many of its countless channels this broad stream from the
Fountain of living waters, is a distinction so rare and so
exalted that we cannot but look upon you as a man greatly
beloved of God, and honored as He has honored scarcely
any other individual of our age. When He has thus spoken,
we have no right to be silent. We render the praise to Him
whose providence and grace have made you what you are,
and given you to us and to His Church. Again we do offer
our thanksgivings for all that He has done and is doing for
our Seminary, for the Church, and for the world through
your instrumentality. Again with one heart and voice do
we, the Directors, Trustees, and Alumni of the Seminary,
the Faculties and graduates of sister institutions, the repre-
sentatives of the other liberal professions, and your friends
of every name and calling here assembled, congratulate you
on this auspicious anniversary, and pay you the tribute of
our grateful love. ' The Lord bless you and keep you. The
Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious
unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
and give you peace !' "
As Dr. Hodge rose to reply, the audience spontaneously
rose, and a large portion remained standing until he had
finished his response, which was as follows :
" Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and of the Board
of Trustees, Friends from abroad who have honored this
occasion by your presence, and dear Brethren of the Alum-
ni, I greet you.
" A man is to be commiserated who is called upon to
attempt the impossible. The certainty of failure does not
free him from the necessity of the effort. It is impossible
that I should make you understand the feelings which
swell my heart almost to bursting. Language is an im-
perfect vehicle of thought; as an expression of emotion it
is utterly inadequate. We say, ' I thank you/ to a ser-
vant who hands us a glass of water; and we thank God
for our salvation. The same word must answer these
XT. 74.] HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 5 1 9
widely different purposes; yet there is no other. When
I say I thank you for all your respect, confidence, and
love, I say nothing, I am powerless. I can only bow
down before you with tearful gratitude, and call "on God
to bless you, and to reward you a hundredfold for all your
goodness.
"Allow me to say one word. I have been fifty years
connected with this Seminary as professor. During all
those years no student has ever hurt my feelings by any
unkind word or act. You are disposed to cover to over-
whelm me with your commendations. It is you who
should be commended and blessed.
" But I am not here to speak of myself. IJLet me speak
of the Seminary. Brethren, I too am an Alumnus; I share
your feelings. We love our Alma Mater, not because she
is fairer, richer, or better than other mothers, but because
she is our Mother.
" Dr. Boardman has anticipated in part what I wished to
say. Princeton Seminary is what it is, and what, I trust it
will ever continue to be, because Archibald Alexander and
Samuel Miller were what they were.
" The law of the fixedness and transmissibility of types
pervades all the works of God. The wheat we now
grow, grew on the banks of the Nile before the pyramids
were built. Every nation of the earth is now what it is,
because of the character of its ancestors. Every State of
our Union owes its present character to that of its original
settlers. This holds good even of counties. Before the
middle of the last century a whole church with its pastor
emigrated from Massachusetts to Liberty County, Georgia;
and that county is the Eden of Georgia to this day. It is
a proverb that the child is father of the man. The same
law controls the life of institutions. What they are during
their forming period, they continue to be. This is the rea-
son why this Institution owes its character to Dr. Alexan-
der and Dr. Miller. Their controlling influence is not to
520 . HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. [1872.
be referred so much to their learning, or to their superior
abilities, as to their character and principles.
" It was of course not peculiar to them that they were
sincere,* spiritual, Christian men. This may be said of
the founders of all our Theological Seminaries. But
there are different types of religion even among true be-
lievers. The religion of St. Bernard and of John Wesley,
of Jeremy Taylor, and of Jonathan Edwards, although
essentially the same, had in each case its peculiar charac-
ter. Every great historical Church has its own type of
piety. As there are three persons in the Trinity, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so there appear to
be three general forms of religion among evangelical
Christians. There are some whose religious experience
is determined mainly by what is taught in the Scriptures
concerning the Holy Spirit. They dwell upon his inward
work on the heart, on his indwelling, his illumination, on
his life-giving power; they yield themselves passively to
his influence to exalt them into fellowship with God. Such
men are disposed more or less to mysticism.
" There are others whose religious life is determined
more by their relation to the Father, to God as God ; who
look upon Him as a sovereign, or law-giver; who dwell
upon the grounds of obligation, upon responsibility and
ability, and upon the subjective change by which the
sinner passes from a state of rebellion to that of obedience.
"Then there are those in whom the form of religion, as
Dr. Boardman has said, is distinctly Christological. I see
around me Alumni whose heads are as grey as my own.
They will unite with me in testifying that this is the form
of religion in which we were trained. While our teachers
did not dissuade us from looking within and searching for
evidences of the Spirit's work in the heart, they constantly
directed us to look only unto Jesus Jehovah Jesus Him
in whom are united all that is infinite and awful indicated
by the name Jehovah; and all that is human, and tender,
V
MT. 74.] HIS SEMI- CENTENNIAL. 5 2 1
and sympathetic, forbearing and loving, implied in the
name Jesus. If any student went to Dr. Alexander, in a
state of despondence, the venerable man was sure to tell
him, ' Look not so much within. Look to Christ. Dwell
on his person, on his work, on his promises, and devote
yourself to his service, and you will soon find peace.'
" When I was about leaving Berlin on my return to
America, the friends whom God had given me in that city
were kind enough to send me an Album, in which they had
severally written their names, and a few lines as remarks.
What Neander wrote was in Greek, and included these
words : OuSev ev ka'JTw, nothing in ourselflv Kopia) Ttdvra, all
things in the Lord ; <j> fj.bvw dooXeuztv doza xal xa'jfflfjta, whom
alone to serve is a glory and a joy. These words our old
professors would have inscribed in letters of gold over the
portals of this Seminary, there to remain in undiminished
brightness as long as the name of Princeton lingers in the
memory of man.
"Again, Drs. Alexander and Miller were not speculative\
men. They were not given to new methods or new theories.
They were content with the faith once delivered to the
saints. I am not afraid to say that a new idea never
originated in this Seminary. Their theological method was
very simple. The Bible is the word of God. That is to be
assumed or proved. If granted ; then it follows, that what
the Bible says, God says. That ends the matter.
" There recently resided in this village a venerable lady,
as distinguished for her strength of character as for her
piety. A sceptical friend once said fo her, ' My dear
madam, it is impossible that a woman of your sense can be-
lieve that story in the Bible, about the whale swallowing
Jonah.' She replied with emphasis, ' Judge, if the Bible
said that Jonah swallowed the whale, I would believe it.'
That may have been said by others ; I know it was said by
her. I am not authorized to affirm that Dr. Alexander
would say the same thing. But he would come pretty near
5 2 2 \ HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. [i8?2.
it. And he is no true Princetonian who will not come as
near to it as he can. jp
" But admitting that the Bible is the word of God, there
are different principles of interpretation which may be ap-
plied to it. Instead of understanding it in its plain historical
sense, there are those who say that the letter killeth, the
spirit maketh alive ; that the literal sense amounts to no-
thing ; that it is the hidden mystical sense which alone is of
value. Others adopt what may be called the philosophical
method. They admit that there are doctrines in the Bible,
which are the objects of faith in the common people ; but
these are only the forms under which lie abstract truths,
which it is the business of the philosopher to elicit. He
throws the doctrinal formulas of Christianity into his retort
and transmutes them into gas ; thus losing the substance
with the form. Thus the doctrine of Providence, or the
control of all events by an extramundane, personal God,
who governs by his voluntary agency the operations of
second causes, working with them or without them, so that
it rains at one time and not at another, according to his
good pleasure; all this is evaporated into cosmical arrange-
ments, leaving us no other God to pray to than the forces
of nature. The same principle is applied to the doctrines of
redemption. We were taught by our venerable fathers to
take the Bible in the sense in which it was plainly intended
to be understood.
" The principles above stated are those on which those
who founded this Institution acted. These are the principles
which have determined its character, and give it its hold on
the hearts of its Alumni.
" Brethren, I said I am an Alumnus. I know the feelings
with which you revisit your Alma Mater. Those feelings
are very complex, including those with which children re-
turn to the home of their childhood, and those with which
a man, with uncovered head and unsandaled feet, enters the
cemetery of his fathers. Here are the tombs of Dickinson
^T. 74.] HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 523
and Burr, of Edwards, of Davies and of their illustrious suc-
cessors in the presidency of our sister-institution. Here lie
the ashes of Archibald Alexander and of Samuel Miller.
The memory of these men constitutes the aureola which
surrounds the brows of Princeton, a glory which excites no
envy, and yet attracts all eyes."
After the benediction had been pronounced by the Rev.
Dr. Musgrave, of Philadelphia, the meeting of the Alumni
was called to order, a constitution adopted, and the Rev.
John C. Backus, D. D., of Baltimore, was chosen President,
and the Rev. Dr. Wm. E. Schenck, Secretary. After a
public dinner, the Alumni Association met again at 3.30 P.
M., in the Church, for the purpose of hearing congratulatory
speeches from representative delegations, and receiving
written addresses from friends not present.
Speeches were made by Rev. J. L. Porter, D. D., LL.
D., of Belfast, Ireland, as a special representative of the
Assembly's College in that city; by the Rev. James M'Cosh,
D. D., LL. D., President of the College of New Jersey, as
the appointed representative of the theological faculties of
the Free Church, United Presbyterian and Reformed Pres-
byterian Churches of Scotland; by the Rev. Hugh Smyth,
of Whitehouse, near Belfast, Ireland, as the appointed repre-
sentative of Magee College, Londonderry, Ireland ; by the
Rev. Henry B. Smith, D. D., LL. D., as the representative
of Union Theological Seminary, N. Y. City ; by the Rev.
Melancthon W. Jacobus, D. D., LL. D., as representative
of the faculty of the Western Theological Seminary,
Allegheny City, Pennsylvania ; by Professor Egbert C.
Smyth, D. D., of the Theological Seminary of Andover,
Massachusetts ; by Rev. Theodore D. Woolsey, D. D.,
LL. D., Ex-President of Yale College; by the Rev. R. S.
Vermilye, D. D., of Hartford, Professor in the Theological
Institute of Connecticut ; by the Rev. Joseph T. Cooper, D.
D., Professor of the United Presbyterian Theological Semin-
ary, Allegheny City, Penna. ; by the Rev. Charles P. Krauth,
524 HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. [1872.
D. D., of Philadelphia, Professor in the Theological Semi-
nary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church; by the Rev.
Francis L. Patton, Professor in the Presbyterian Seminary
of the North-west; by the Rev. Joseph Packard, D. D.,
Professor in the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary
of Virginia ; by the Rev. E. P. Rodgers, as representative of
the Reformed (Dutch) Church, and the faculty of the Rut-
ger's Theological Seminary, New Brunswick, N. J. ; by Rev.
S. H. Kellogg, D. D., Professor in the Presbyterian Theolo-
gical Training School, Allahabad, Northern India ; and by
his classmate Doctor Ravaud K. Rodgers, and by Doctor
Irenaeus Prime of the New York Observer, and the Rev.
Alfred Nevin, D. D., as the representative of the Alumni of
the Allegheny Theological Seminary.
Deputations were also present from the Baptist Theolo-
gical Seminary, Newton, Mass. ; from the Reformed Theo-
logical Seminary at New Brunswick ; from the United
Presbyterian Seminary at Newburgh, N. Y. ; from the Drew
Theological Seminary at Madison, N. J., and the Crozer
Theological Seminary at Upland, Pa. The Universities of
the City of New York and of Pennsylvania, Union, Lafay-
ette, Rutger's, and Bowdoin Colleges also were represented
by their Presidents, or other members of their Faculties.
Letters were presented from the Faculties of Belfast
Presbyterian College, signed in their behalf by W. D. Killen,
D. D., President of the Faculty ; from the Theological Pro-
fessors of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Scotland,
signed by Wm. H. Goold, D. D., Wm. Binny, D. D., and
Wm. Symington; from .the United Presbyterian Presbytery
of Edinburgh, signed by Wm. Reid, Moderator, and Wm.
Bruce, Clerk. Also the following, (given as a specimen) :
To the REV. CHARLES HODGE, D. D., Princeton, New Jersey.
REVEREND SIR, We, the Principals and Professors of the Theo-
logical Faculties of the Free Church of Scotland at Edinburgh,
Glasgow and Aberdeen, desire to offer our most cordial congratula-
/EX. 74-]
HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL.
525
tions to you on your entrance on the fiftieth year of your Professor-
ship in the Theological Seminary at Princeton.
We only express to yourself what, on occasions without number,
we have expressed to others, when we say that we regard your ser-
vices in the cause of revealed truth, extending over half a century, as
of inestimable value, and that we look on you as one of the chief in-
struments raised up by the Head of the Church, in these times of
doubt and contention, for maintaining in its purity the faith once de-
livered to the saints.
While the Princeton Review, under your management, has con-
tinued from year to year to bear testimony fearlessly, yet firmly, for
the truths of God's Word, and to commend them alike to the under-
standing and the conscience, and while your Commentaries have
placed these truths in a similar light before the mass of readers, your
Systematic Theology, the crown of your labors, has brought together
the invaluable information and reasoning of your Articles and Lec-
tures, and forms a Treasury of Evangelical truth expressed in a spirit
eminently calm and Christian, which will extend still more widely
the wholesome influence of your life and labors.
We congratulate you further on the honorable and distinguished
place which you hold in the esteem of the whole Presbyterian Church,
and of all churches that prize Evangelical truth, on the affectionate
regard so warmly cherished for you by your students both past and
present, and on the happy domestic influence which through God's
blessing, has given to the Church sons like-minded with yourself,
following in your footsteps, and aiding in your work.
It is our earnest prayer, and that of the whole church with which
we are connected, that you may yet long be spared to your family, to
the Seminary, and the Church universal, and eminently blessed in
such further labors as your strength may enable you to undertake,
and that in God's good time an entrance may be ministered to you
abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.
(Edinburgh.}
ROBERT S. CANDLISH, D. D.,
Principal of the New College, Edinburgh.
ALEXANDER DUFF, D. D., LL. D.,
Professor of Evangelistic Theology.
GEORGE SMEATON, D. D.,
Professor of Exegetical Theology.
ROBERT RAINY, D. D.,
Professor of Church History.
A. B DAVIDSON, LL. D., D. D.,
Professor of Hebrew, etc.
JAMES MAcGREGOR, D. D.
Professor of Systematic Theology.
WILLIAM G. BLAIKIE, D. D. LL. D.
Professor of Apologetic and Pastoral
Theology.
JOHN DUNS. D. D., F. R. S. E.,
Professor of Natural Science
526
HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL.
[1872.
(Glasgow aud Aberdeen,")
PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D. D.,
Principal of Free Church College, Glas-
gow.
GEORGE C. M. DOUGLAS, D. D.,
Professor of Hebrew in the F. C. College,
Glasgow.
ISLAY BURNS, D. D.,
Professor of Divinity, F C. College, Glas-
gow.
JAMES LUMSDUN, D. D.,
Principal and Senior Professor of Theo-
logy, Free Church College, Aberdeen.
DAVID BROWN, D. D.
(Princeton and Aberdeen,)
Professor of Theology and Church His-
tory, Aberdeen.
WM. ROBERTSON SMITH,
Professor of Hebrew, etc.. Free Church
College.
(This address was elegantly engrossed on vellum and forwarded in a purple morocco case.)
Also from the Faculty of Magee Presbyterian College,
Londonderry, Ireland, signed by Thomas Witherow,
Richard Smyth, James G. Shaw, John J. Given, J. T.
McGaw, Henry Sheil McKee and J. R. Leebody. From
the Theological Faculty of the University of Edinburgh*
signed in their behalf by the Dean, Thos. J. Crawford, D. D.
From the Professors of Theology in the United Presbyterian
Church of Scotland, signed by James Harper, D. D., N.
McMichael, D. D., John Eadie, D. D., LL. D., and John
Cairns, D. D. Also from the Theological Seminaries at
Bangor, Boston, New Haven, Auburn, the Divinity School
of the Protestant Episcopal Church at Philadelphia, the
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, the United
Presbyterian Seminary of the Northwest, the Union Theo-
logical Seminary of Virginia, from the Faculty and from a
Committee of the Students of the Seminary at Columbia, S.
C., the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Greenville,
S. C., the Theological Department of Cumberland Univer-
sity at Lebanon, Tenn., Danville Theological Seminary, Ohio,
and the youngest born of all our Seminaries, the Presbyte-
rian Seminary at San Francisco, Cal. From Williams and
Amherst Colleges, Mass., and from Dartmouth, New Hamp-
shire, from Hampden Sidney College, Virginia, and West-
minster College, Missouri, and from the University of Mis-
sissippi, from the venerable Gardiner Spring, New York
City, from many Alumni of Princeton in the Northwest,
and from Chiengmai, North Laos, Farther India.
^T. 74-] HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. $2?
The letter from his life-long friend, Bishop M'llvaine,
was as follows:
CINCINNATI, March 8, 1872.
. , . As one of the associates and friends of Dr. Hodge, than
whom there can be but very few living whose loving associations
began so early, or under circumstances so calculated to make it
abiding, I cannot withhold an expression of lively interest in the con-
templated celebration, as a rendering of honor to whom it is most
justly due, and of praise and thanksgiving to the fountain of all wis-
dom and grace for having given to His Church on earth for so many
years a light so bright and shining.
It is now some fifty-eight years since, while students together in the
College of my native State, our friendship began ; and nearly as
many years since, by the grace of God making us new creatures in
Christ Jesus, we became brethren one of another, in a very near and
affectionate association. We were then, as now, of different churches
in the one everliving Church of Christ ; but I am thankful to be able
to say, that no dividing lines have ever touched our oneness of heart,
or hindered the consciousness and manifestation of that confiding
Christian attachment with which our religious life began.
It is under these circumstances that I regard with great pleasure
the intended meeting and its object. It is very meet and right thus
to acknowledge the goodness of God in having given and preserved
to the work of His truth in the earth, during so many years of exact-
ing study and labor, a teacher so efficient and beloved, and an author
so enlightened and wise ; at whose lips so many have learned how to
make known and defend the doctrine of Christ, and for whose writings
of eminent learning and power, the whole Church is deeply indebted
to the grace which made him sufficient for such valuable service.
Desiring my respectful and fraternal regards to those who shall
meet together on the 24th of April, and hoping to meet them in that
blessed Assembly and Communion of which it will be the universal
joy to ascribe all honor and glory "to Him that sitteth on the throne
and to the Lamb forever and ever," I remain
Your friend and brother,
CHAS. P. MclLVAiNE.
All the addresses and letters were dignified as well as
full of kindness and respect. The testimony of Dr.
Charles P. Krauth, as the most active as well as earnest
champion of Lutheranism in America, " to the candor, love
528 HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. [1872.
of truth, and perfect fairness which characterized all Dr.
Hodge's dealings " with the doctrines of Churches differing
from his own, was the one particular personal vindication
to which Dr. Hodge referred afterwards with the most
emphatic satisfaction.
During the afternoon, while these congratulatory ad-
dresses were being made Dr. Hodge remained for the most
part out of sight, sitting or reclining on the sofa in the
pulpit behind the stage. Ex-President, Theodore D.
Woolsey, LL. D., stood on the stage close by the side of
the pulpit where Dr. Hodge lay. When the former spoke
tenderly of the affection he had cherished for his friend
ever since 1828 when the latter had ministered words of
Christian " cheer, comfort and of strength " to his heart,
then in darkness, Dr. Hodge suddenly rose and interrup-
ted him with a kiss.
Dr. Boardman said to him, while he was lying there, as
the long series of laudatory addresses closed, " How did
you stand all that ?" " Why," said he, with a pleasant
smile, " very quietly. It didn't seem at all to be me they
were talking about. I heard it all as of some other man."
The editor of the New York Observer wrote, " It was a
day of rare and memorable interest to the graduates who
returned to the arms of their old mother, meeting their
surviving teacher and one another, standing again by the
graves of their departed and venerated professors. Of the
first class, that of 1812-13, on ty one survives, James Hill
Parmelee of Ohio ; of the class of 1813-14 only one, John
Ross of Indiana ; of 1814-15, only one, Thomas Alexander
of Indiana. None of these were present. Of the class
of 1815-16 two live, Salmon Strong and Gilbert Morgan;
the latter was present in a cheerful, bright old age. In the
next class was CHARLES HODGE, who entered the Seminary
in 1816, fifty-six years ago. Of his class George S. Board-
man, Benjamin Gildersleeve, Samuel S. Hatch, John Johns,
Aaron D. Lane, Constant Southworth, William B. Sprague,
JET. 74.] HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 529
and Thomas S. Wickes are among the living. Of those
who are now above the stars, and who are well known in
the Church, from that class, were Artemas Boies, William
Chester, Sylvester Easton, John Goldsmith, William James,
William Nevins, Absalom Peters, William C. Woodbridge
and Henry Woodward. Taking the dead and the living it
was certainly a remarkable class. In the next was Bishop
Mcllvaine, Caruthers, Coe, Crane, Austin, Dickinson, David
Magie, S. S. Smucker and Thomas M. Strong.
" Princeton Theological Seminary has given instructions
in her halls to 2969 men, and of these 2700 (before his
death in 1878 it amounted to over 3000), have sat at the
feet of Dr. Hodge i! ! Among them are men who have been
the shining lights of the Church, and yet they are not the
brightest stars in his crown. Multitudes of men unknown
to fame ; of whom some have taken their lives in their
hands and gone far hence to the heathen, and others in
retired parishes who have kept the faith and fed the hopes
of the Church, turning many sinners to righteousness and
guiding them to heaven, will in the day when the jewelry
of God is gathered, be as brilliant crowns of Dr. Hodge's
rejoicing, as those who have stood in what is called the
bright places of Israel.
"Then who can estimate the extent of that one man's
power over the human mind. And as that power has been
in moral influence mainly, what estimate can be put on its
effect on the destiny of the country and of individual souls.
His eye is not yet dim, nor his natural force abated. He
still discharges every duty with ability and regularity. He
is cheerful, fond of that humor that good men always enjoy,
and which tends to longevity, usefulness here and hereafter.
In the midst of his family and friends he is playful, bright
and genial, and takes the way of life as comfortably as any
other intellectual and laborious man. His form is portly,
his face ruddy, his eye lighted with love, and his voice as
sweet as in youth."
34
53O HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. [1872.
The evening was set apart to a reception of the friends
of Dr. Hodge from all parts of the land, and from abroad,
at his own residence. Over the doors were significant
figures 1822-1872. The Seminary building was illumi-
nated, and in every becoming way the affection and admira-
tion of the Alumni for their venerated preceptor was grace-
fully manifested, and gratefully accepted.
In his private journal, under date, he notices the fact that
his aged brother, now blind, and all his children, and all
his own children and grand-children were gathered around
him at the time. " April 24th. The apex of my life. The
Semi-centenary Anniversary of my connection with the
Seminary as Professor. The day, by the blessing of God,
was fine, and the celebration a wonderful success. The at-
tendance of Alumni very large ; delegations of other institu-
tions numerous, and of the highest character ; the con-
gratulations from all at home and abroad of the most
gratifying kind, altogether affording an imposing and
most affecting testimony of the unity of the faith, and of
common love to the same gospel, and to our common
God and Saviour Jesus Christ."
CHAPTER XIII.
HIS LAST YEARS, FROM 1 8/2 TO HIS DEATH, JUNE IQTH, 1 8/8.
HIS APPEARANCE AND HABIT OF MIND THE OBJECT OF GENERAL LOVE, IN
HIS FAMILY, THE SEMINARY AND AMONG HIS STUDENTS THE DEATH OF
HIS BROTHER, DR. H. L. HODGE, OF PHILADELPHIA DR. WILLIAM GOOD-
ELL'S BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HIM THE VISIT OF THE GENERAL ASSEM-
BLY OF 1872 TO WASHINGTON THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE, NEW YORK,
1873 HISTORICAL SERMON, DELIVERED AT THE RE-OPENING OF THE CHA-
PEL OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, IN PRINCETON, SEPT. 27TH, 1874
LATEST CORRESPONDENCE AND INTERVIEWS WITH HIS FRIEND, BISHOP
JOHNS THE APPOINTMENT OF HIS ASSISTANT AND SUCCESSOR HIS
EIGHTIETH BIRTH-DAY HIS WRITINGS DURING THESE LAST YEARS.
FROM this time to the end, he was an old man visibly
ripening for another life. Compared with most men,
and considering his sedentary life and the amount of intel-
lectual work he had accomplished, he was, with good rea-
son, regarded as having survived his years in a condition of
excellent preservation. With the exception of a few attacks
of acute disease, his general health was very good. His
complexion, always fair, was beautiful in its perfect clearness
and soft roseate brightness. His blue eyes became more and
more sweet in their expression, and together with his strong
yet gentle and flexible mouth overflowed with benevolence
and humor, or at times with reverence and melting devo-
tion and love. As his old friend, ex-president Woolsey,
had wished for him at his semi-centennial, he had " a sweet
old age." No phrase could express it more perfectly. The
controversies were all past. The old warrior hung his
arms upon the wall, as he rested under the clear skies of
531
532 HIS LAST YEARS. [1872-78.
universal peace. He still followed and took interest in the
conflict of opinion. But his own part was done. Although
delayed for a time, the complete and universal victory of the
cause, for which he had so long contended, was absolutely
sure. His faith was the substance of things hoped for, and
for him the triumph was virtually come. All who loved
Christ were heartily loved and cherished by him. He be-
lieved in the Holy Catholic Church, and in the Communion
of Saints. He wrote in pencil with trembling lines on one
of his " Conference Papers," not long before his end, that he
believed that the vast majority of the human race were to
share the beatitudes and glories of his Lord's redemption.
He was conscious of past sins and of present imperfections,
but where sin had abounded grace did much more abound.
More and more habitually he looked upward instead of in-
ward. His heart was filled with hope and joy, as his face
was made to shine by Him who was "the health of his
countenance, and his God." He had no disappointments,
no vain regrets ; the past with all its contents he offered
through Christ to God. He had no fears for the future,
for there is no fear in love ; perfect love had cast out all fear.
He had no jealousies ; he retained the uneasy sense of no
old wounds nor injuries. He loved all in the sense of bene-
volence, and in the higher sense he loved all the brethren,
admiring and rejoicing in their graces and sympathizing in
their conflicts and their joys. And all parties, as far as he
was known, came to. love him. As he once said of his
friend, Dr. John McLean, he also became the best beloved
man in any circle in which he was embraced. The odium
theologicitm, with which he had been credited, both as subject
and occasion, met with a strange transfiguration. The storms
of the day made the peace and beauty of the setting sun
more rich and wonderful. Supreme devotion to truth was
once again proven to be a genuine form of supreme love to
God and man.
There is always something essentially pathetic even in the
JET. 74-80.] HIS LAST YEARS. 533
brightest and balmiest late autumnal day. To the eye of
faith it is the season which prepares after the interval of a
short sleep in winter, for a new and more glorious spring.
But to the eye of sense, it is, nevertheless, the end of the
year. So was it with the autumn of this life. Though he
was generally well, he was weak, and often very weary.
Though he was beautiful, it was the wasting beauty of the
fading leaf. And this was in perfect accord with the spirit
of his own mind. Though he reclined with unwavering
confidence upon a supernatural hope, his spirit and life
were eminently natural. Though he had no fear, yet he had
no desire to die. He looked beyond the world rather than
rose entirely above it. His interest in all human things
was genuine and strong, and his cheerfulness was never faM-
ing, yet often tinged with a pathetic wistfulness, arising
from an habitual sense of the imminence of his own depart-
ure. He delighted more and more in reminiscences of past
events and persons. The friends of his early years were
all gone, but their memory was very precious. The im-
provements which, during these last years were so exten-
sively made in the buildings of the College and Seminary,
interested him exceedingly, and he was glad that he was pri-
vileged to see them before the final closing of his eyes on all
earthly scenes. But his great delight was in his grand-child-
ren. Two families of them lived in the same village with him,
and made as free of his study and of the arms of his great
chair as his own children had done a generation earlier.
All their smart sayings were reported to him, and repeated
by him with the greatest zest. He knew and maintained
all of their respective points of excellence and superiority
with the zeal of a partisan. He was always on the alert in
providing presents for them on all their anniversaries of
birth-days and Christmas, and in selecting and dispatching
appropriate St. Valentines with a gleeful delight equal and
like to that of the young recipients themselves. His love
was faithfully returned by them all, and none, except the
534 HIS LAST YEARS. [1872-78.
youngest, will ever forget the frequent and delightful occa-
sions when all the resident family gathered with loving
reverence around grandfather's chair.
Before he died he was for some years the oldest survivor
of his entire family clan. Children and grand-children,
nephews, grand-nephews and cousins in various degrees
looked up to him with affection and pride, and constantly
cheered his last days by their visits, and testimonials of
sympathy and reverence.
This singular love and reverence was not confined to the
circles of his kindred or of his private friends. It extended
to his colleagues in the faculty, to the younger ministry,
to all his old students, and beyond his own denomination
to all Christian people to whom either his person or his
reputation was known.
An old pupil under the pseudonym of t( Augustin,"
wrote in the Presbyterian May 6th, 1876: "The late meet-
ing of the Princeton Theological Seminary was a time of
refreshing to all who participated in it. The face of our
dear old Professor Hodge, broke out constantly into smiles
of holy joy, as he sat like a father in the midst of his sons.
And when his voice faltered and the tears came into his
eyes, as he gave his reminiscences of his classmate and
life-long friend, Bishop Johns (recently dead) or undertook
to express his love for us, and his interest in the Seminary
with which his life had been identified, what he called his
weakness was stronger than his words, even as the showers
of heaven fall no less potently on the flowers in the earth
than the clear shining of the sun. It is a precious and
glorious sight to behold an old age so green and graceful,
to see one so eminent in intellect, so abundant in labors, so
honored in the world, as simple and tender and affectionate
as a little child prepared for our Father's house in heaven.
If this should meet his eye and offend him, he will forgive
it, when he knows the pen that writes it is dipped in a
heart that is melted in his love."
jer. 75.] DEATH OF HIS BROTHER. 535
From about 1868 to the year of his death, each graduat-
ing class at the very last took a special, personal farewell of
Dr. Hodge. After receiving their diplomas, and the vale-
dictory charge, and benediction of the representative of the
Board of Directors, the class formed a circle with Dr.
Hodge at the centre, in the middle of the front campus.
"They sang (at least in April, 1869) several verses of the
hymn, " All hail the power of Jesus' name," and the verse
of the missionary hymn beginning, " Shall we whose souls
are lighted, &c." Then making a close ring, each one
crossing his arms, they held hand by hand, and sang
"Blest be the tie that binds," and then the Long Metre
Doxology. After that, Dr. Hodge pronounced the Bene-
diction. He then shook hands with each student, and
each student shook hands with all the others, and they
separated."
THE DEATH OF HIS BROTHER, DR. HUGH L. HODGE, OF
PHILADELPHIA.
The winter of 1872-73 was characterized by numerous
waves of intense cold, recurring after intervals of about ten
days or two weeks. On Monday, the twenty-fourth of
February, one of these periods occurred. Dr. H. L.
Hodge, then in his ordinary health, and vigorous beyond
most men of his age, was exposed to the cold while
visiting patients up to ten o'clock that night. Upon his
return to his home a letter was read to him from a widow
of a physician in Virginia, whose husband had been a
pupil of his in the long-past, in her poverty appealing to
him for aid. Late as the hour was he called for his check-
book, and signed a check for her relief. This was the last
time he ever used his pen. Fit ending to a life of unceas-
ing charity. After conversing pleasantly with his son and
daughter for a while, and sitting alone in his office as his
custom was, he retired to bed about midnight. He was
immediately seized with angina pectoris, and was found by
536 DEA TH OF HIS BR O THER. [1873.
his son, also a physician, in an unconscious condition. He
was revived, and kept alive for twenty-six hours, until all
his children had been gathered to his bedside, by frequent
resort to artificial respiration. When awake he was per-
fectly conscious, full of humility, and love, faith, and peace.
" Let there be no eulogy " was the only injunction he lay
upon his pastor. But innumerable patients, and pupils,
witnesses and beneficiaries of his bounty in all parts of
the land, and the Second Presbyterian Church, of which
he was the preserver and second founder, bear witness
alike to his wisdom and his goodness, to his self-denial
and his munificence. When the despatch arrived in Prince-
ton, on Tuesday, announcing his probably fatal illness, his
brother Charles was forced to go to his own bed instead
of to the bedside of his brother. And soon after his
return, on the 3d of March, from the funeral, he was at-
tacked in his nervously prostrated condition, with a severe
congestion of the chest, which came near being fatal, and
which confined him to the house until the first week of
April.
DR. HODGE TO BISHOP JOHNS.
PRINCETON, March 4th, 1872.
Dear John : We are left like two old trees standing almost alone.
The fewer the dearer. My brother's death was entirely unexpected.
He was perfectly well, and far stronger than I am. He was out attend-
ing his patients all Monday morning, and what of late was unusual
with him, went out again in the afternoon, and remained out until it
was so dark some one had to bring him home. That day was one of
the severest of the season. It was that exposure in the opinion of his
physicians, killed him, although its effects were not immediately mani-
fest. He went to bed apparently in his usual health, but at mid-
night was heard to fall. His son, on reaching the room, found him
lying on the floor unconscious. It was not apoplexy, but angina
pectoris. His heart had ceased to act, and breathing was entirely
suspended. By artificial respiration he was gradually restored, and
was entirely himself; his mind was clear as ever, and so continued
until the end. But through the day at irregular intervals his heart
would cease to act and his breathing ceased. By a renewal of artifi-
;ET. 75.] LIFE AND CHARACTER OF DR. H. L. HODGE. 537
cial inflation of the lungs he would revive again. This occurred thirty
or forty times, he gradually getting weaker, and at last, twenty-six
hours after the attack, he finally expired.
The dear man was greatly blessed. No one touched his body after
his death but his sons.* They prepared him for his coffin, laid him in
it ; carried him down stairs, carried him in the church, and carried
him to his grave and lowered his body to its last resting-place. So
that a lovely glory surrounded him to the last.
Dear John, let us pray for each other.
Yours as ever,
CHARLES HODGE.
The following account of the life and character of Dr.
Charles Hodge's only brother and life-long friend and
benefactor, is extracted from a Memoir of H. L. Hodge,
M. D., LL. D., prepared for Philadelphia County Medical
Society, by William Goodell, M.D. "In 1820, Dr. Hodge
returned from India, but with means too limited to carry
out the long cherished prosecution of his studies in Europe.
The voyage had proved a commercial failure, but, nothing
daunted, he opened an office in Walnut Street, opposite
Washington Square. Soon after he was elected to the
Southern Dispensary, and, a few months later, to the Phila-
delphia Dispensary. In these rich fields of practice he
gained much experience, and acquired those habits of close
observation and original research which ever after character-
ized him. He soon became a man of mark, for in the sum-
mer of 1821, he was selected to teach the anatomical class of
Prof. Horner, who was then absent in Europe. So accepta-
bly did he fill this position, that in 1823 he was appointed
to the Lectureship on Surgery in Dr. Chapman's Summer
School, which, in 1837, became a chartered institution,
under the name of the ' Medical Institute/ Of these lec-
tures he was justly proud, for on them he was then able to
spend all his time and strength. Old practitioners still
refer to them in terms of high praise.
* Three Presbyterian ministers, one Presbyterian elder, and one Episcopal
minister. Five beautiful and holy sons.
538 J.IFE AND CHARACTER OF H. L. HODGE. [1796-1873.
"In September of the same year he gained a long-
coveted position on the staff of the Philadelphia Hospital,
and his practice began now steadily to increase. In
1828, at the age of thirty-two, he married Margaret E.
Aspinwall, the daughter of John Aspinwall, a well-known
merchant of New York city. From this union seven sons
were born, of whom five are living. One is the well-known
surgeon who bears his father's name; the rest are clergy-
men. After a happy married life of thirty-eight years, in
1866, this good wife and good mother died.
"Thus far, Dr. Hodge had concentrated all his energy on
anatomy and surgery. His tastes lay in these directions;
both these branches he had taught with great acceptance;
as a surgeon, he was fast winning his way to fame. But a
complete and very unexpected turn now took place in all
his plans. The dim oil-lamps of his college days, his habits
of late study, had greatly injured his eyesight, and com-
pelled him to wear glasses of very high power. Year by
year his vision so surely failed that he was at last warned to
direct his ambition into new channels. Other circumstances
confirmed him in making this change. The health of Dr.
Thomas C. James, the Professor of Midwifery in the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, was beginning to fail. Dr. William
P. Dewees, the heir-apparent to his chair, and the most
brilliant of American obstetricians, had long passed the
noontide of life. For many years the brothers Joseph and
Harvey Klapp had enjoyed the pick of the midwifery prac-
tice of a rapidly-growing city. But, at this juncture, the
one died, and the other retired to his secluded country-seat
in the wilds of West Philadelphia. These accidents and
opportunities at once determined Dr. Hodge to give up,
but with a bitter heart, his long-cherished specialty of sur-
gery for that of obstetrics. Shortly after making this de-
cision, he was enabled to exchange his lectureship of sur-
gery for that of obstetrics, which the resignation of Dr.
Dewees had left vacant. He was also the winning candi-
'96 1873.] LIFE AND CHARACTER OF DR. H. Z. HODGE. 539
date in an excited canvass for a position on the staff of the
Lying-in Department of the Pennsylvania Hospital.
" For the possession of the empty chair, left vacant by the
resignation of Dr. Wm. P. Dewees, November, 1835, a bat-
tle royal, one of giants, now took place. The struggle lay
between two such men as Hugh L. Hodge and Charles D.
Meigs, and was, therefore, a very hotly contested one. The
strong claims of the rival candidates, and the very equally
balanced influence of their respective friends, made the issue
doubtful. Dr. Hodge, who was a very modest man, could
not be prevailed upon to visit any of the trustees. At last
his friends refused to work for him unless he did so. He,
therefore, provided himself with a list of their names and
residences, and nerved himself up to this imposed and dis-
tasteful mission. As luck would have it, the first gentleman
on whom he called was an upright but very eccentric Friend,
who, upon learning his errand, at once said, ' Young man,
I should have thought better of thee, hadst thou not come.'
In great confusion the modest candidate took his leave,
tore up his list, and at once returned home. That trustee
was the only one on whom he called. No persuasions, no
entreaties, could thereafter move him to solicit another vote.
But his friends, despite their threats, worked manfully for
him. Perhaps this very modesty stood him in good stead.
At any rate, he proved the successful candidate.
" From the time of his election to the chair of obstetrics
until his resignation in 1863, no teacher ever gave a more
thorough or a more conscientious course of lectures. The
strong feature of his teaching was not to display his know-
ledge, but to impart it. He possessed, in an eminent degree,
those essentials of a good teacher the subtilitas explicandi,
as well as the subtilitas intelligendi. Dependent, as he was, on
account of imperfect vision, exclusively upon his memory,
he yet delivered new lectures with the utmost neatness and
precision. There was no faltering over a demonstration, no
omission of a diagram. Although gifted with a fluent
540 LIRE AND CHARACTER OF DR. //. L. HODGE. ['96-1873.
delivery, he used no trope or figure, and made no effort at
oratorical display. So pure-minded was he, and so far
removed from making " points " as they are technically
called that, when some madcap student distorted an acci-
dental juxtaposition of words into a double entendre, his face
flushed up with vexation. Over the young men who flocked
to hear him, his influence was great and good. At the
beginning and the end of each curriculum, they listened,
with respectful and often tearful attention, to his happy
words of greeting and tender words of parting. What
graduate of those days can ever efface from his memory that
gracious manner which seemed to convey a benediction,
and that halo of goodness which floated about him ? Men
will come, and men will go, but we shall never see his like
again.
" During a large portion of Dr. Hodge's life, the pressure
of his professional engagements was so great as to prevent
him from writing anything besides his early lectures on
surgery and those on obstetrics. But during his early pro-
fessional career he was one of the editors of the North
American Medical and Surgical Journal, to which he con-
tributed many reviews and original papers. Later in life
imperfect vision hindered Dr. Hodge from becoming a pro-
lific writer. Besides several articles written for various
medical journals, he published a memoir of Dr. James, a
eulogium on Dr. Dewees, and a number of introductory lec-
tures. One of these on criminal abortion, after being re-
printed several times, was published with some additions
under the title of " Foeticide." In 1860 he published his
work on "Diseases Peculiar to Women," and in 1863 his
great work on Obstetrics. In editing the latter, few of my
hearers are aware of the difficulties he had to encounter ;
difficulties from which most men would have shrunk. From
title-page to colophon this large work was written by an
amanuensis at his dictation. The beautiful and original
lithographs which enrich its pages gave him a world of trou-
'96-1873.] LIFE AND CHARACTER OF DR. H. L. HODGE. 541
ble and anxiety. He knew that to a student a work on
obstetrics without illustrations is practically valueless. But
how were illustrations to be made whose accuracy a blind
man could verify ! This was a problem of difficult solution,
one to which he devoted many anxious thoughts and sleep-
less nights. At last his son, Dr. H. Lenox Hodge, sug-
gested the use of photography. Here, indeed, was the
means presented, by which nature could be faithfully copied;
here the prospect of making stepping-stones of the very
obstacles which lay in his way. With a thrill of pleasure,
he jumped at the idea, and fairly laughed aloud with joy.
From the noble collection which he afterwards gave to the
unrivalled museum of the University, a typical pelvis and
fcetal head were selected. The former was placed upon an
appropriate stand, the latter he held in the proper position
within the pelvic cavity to illustrate the various positions
and presentations. In this manner they were photographed,
but in the lithographic plates copied from these originals,
the sustaining fingers and hand of the author were of course
left out. In graceful recognition of this and other literary
labors, and of his distinguished reputation, he was in 1871
honored by his Alma Mater with the degree of LL. D.
" As an author, the writings of Dr. Hodge are character-
ized by clearness, by conscientious accuracy, and by great
originality. He contemplated the soul of a subject, and not
its mere habiliments. In proof of this, witness his remark-
able papers on ' Synclitism/ and his careful study of the
' Mechanism of Labor.' Although aggressive when needful,
his mind was strongly constructive, and not destructive.
He pulled down to build up, but never for the mere sake
of pulling down. Of too rugged an individuality to
fashion himself to the modes and opinions of others, he
thought out for himself with intense convictions of truth.
These convictions he defended with rigid and drastic logic.
To them he was always true ; from them he never
swerved. Like the builders of Jerusalem, he worked with
542 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF DR. H. L. HODGE. ['96-1873.
a spear in one hand and a trowel in the other. But while
clinging tenaciously to what he had elaborated, he dis-
sented from the opinions of others with a courteous hospi-
tality of thought, with perfect fair play. Such encounters
never kindled into angry controversy, for it was not his
system that he defended, but the truth, the truth as he
interpreted it. In this respect he satisfied Schiller's defini-
tion of a true philosopher. By his loss a great gap is left
in medical literature a gap that is felt in other lands as
well.
" Thus far I have spoken of Dr. Hodge as a physician,
but great injustice would be done to his memory were this
memoir to take note simply of the services he rendered to
our common profession. In the sacred relations of kindred
and of friendship, his love never chilled. By his kindness
he won the affection of all who knew him ; by his inflexible
integrity he gained the respect of those who came in contact
with him. In 1 830 he became a member of the Second Pres-
byterian Church, a Church born of the fervor of his ances-
tors. His after life proved the sincerity of this step. He
ever after walked as if he felt that ' the Christian was the
world's Bible.' The calamity of his blindness, and that
more grievous one of the death of his beloved wife, took
sunlight from his eyes and sunshine from his heart, but he
bore each with Christian fortitude. As a church member
no one showed a greater consistency, a broader philan-
thropy, a more unstinted liberality, or set a brighter exam-
ple of loyal Christian faith. Never once did this faith
waver before the rude assaults and aggressive ventures of
human thought. Two years before his death, when the
congregation of his church decided to move further up
town, he was unanimously chosen the Chairman of the
Building Committee. On this new work he now bent all
his strength. To it he subscribed munificently, and was
active in raising contributions. Since he could not see, the
various plans of the new church were carefully explained
'96-1873.] LIFE AND CHARACTER OF DR. H. L. HODGE. 543
to him by the architect. None of them pleased him, and
yet he found himself unable to make his criticisms in tech-
nical and therefore in intelligible language. With charac-
teristic ingenuity, he took the books lying on the desk,
and with them built up a structure which conveyed the
idea of the plan ultimately adopted.
" The last years of this strong-headed and strong-hearted
man were not spent in idleness. His sight grew more and
more dim, but his natural force did not abate, his brain did
not grow weary, his hand lost not its cunning. Apart from
giving much of his time and strength to Church matters, he
continued to visit some old patients, and to keep up a lively
interest in everything pertaining to his profession. All papers
bearing on the branches which he had taught were read to
him by some member of his family, or by some person
regularly employed for this purpose. He dictated several
papers for the American Journal of the Medical Sciences. Two
of them on ' Synclitism ' attracted much attention. Deeply
impressed with the conviction that a lack of proper clinical
instruction is the crying evil of our medical schools, he
subscribed liberally towards the endowment of the noble
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, which is soon to
inaugurate a new and important departure in the medical
education of this country.
" My first acquaintance with Dr. Hodge was made at
this time of his life. We met in the library of the College
of Physicians, where he was collecting material for some
essay. I shall never forget his warm grasp and hearty
shake as he took my hand in both of his. His kind words
of encouragement are indelibly fixed in my memory; and
so is the playful manner in which he took me to task
' scolded ' me, as he termed it for some of my published
writings which did not accord with his views. His noble
but sightless face lighted up with pleasure when I told him
that I had twice read his work on 'Obstetrics' from be-
ginning to end, and that it was the means of first awakening
544 DEATH OF FRIENDS. [1873.
in me a love for his chosen branch of medicine. Other
very pleasant interviews I had with him, for like pursuits,
and congenial tastes drew us together. On these occasions
obstetric matters were always discussed. On this favo-
rite topic he spoke so fluently, and was so much at home
that, in order to follow him intelligently, the closest atten-
tion on my part was needed. A happier man I never saw ;
his face beamed with smiles ; his days seemed hymns of
thanksgiving. Some natures, like vitreous bodies, become
iridescent with age. But why, I often asked myself, why
should he be otherwise ? Why should he repine ? Sur-
rounded by devoted friends and loving children ; with much
grain stored away in the garner of his brain ; with the con-
sciousness of never having wasted the prerogatives of life ;
with a noble history behind him, and a glorious immortality
before him, could earthly estate be more princely ? "
DEATH OF FRIENDS.
Dr Charles Hodge writes in his journal : " Came down
stairs Friday, the I4th of March (1873), and heard within an
hour of the death of two life-long friends, both College and
Seminary fellow-students the Rev. James V. Henry, who
died at Jersey City, aged 75, and Charles P. Mcllvaine,
Bishop of Ohio, whose death in Florence had just been
announced. I am almost alone."
The wife of his colleague, Rev. A. T. McGill, DD., had also
died a few days previously. On that occasion he wrote to
Dr. McGill:
My afflicted friend and brother: God has brought upon you the
greatest of all bereavements, but you have the greatest of all conso-
lations. You know that the companion of your life is now happy
and glorious, forever free from all pain and sorrow, and forever
blessed in the presence of the Lord. You cannot grieve, therefore,
as those who have no hope. You know too that you will soon be re-
united to be no more separated forever. And while you remain here
still to labor and suffer in the service of the Lord, He will not leave
you comfortless ; he will send the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, to be
JET. 75.] THE ASSEMBLY OF 1873. 545
with you and to dwell in you, and to give you the peace that passes
all understanding. You can look backward as well as forward, and
feed upon the recollection of all the excellence and goodness of her
who was so long your own, and who now awaits you in heaven.
You have the consolation, which is a very great one, to know she
was admired and loved, and is now lamented by all who knew her.
No lady in this community was the subject of higher regard or more
sincere affection. You are not alone. Your sons and daughters are
about you to share your grief and to alleviate it by their devotion and
tenderness.
I write not that I may comfort you, but that I may share with you
in your sorrow, and mingle my thanksgiving with yours for the
wonders of redeeming grace, which are never felt to be so pre-
cious as when the desire of our eyes is taken from us.
Praying that God may fill your heart with the assurance of his love,
and with the consolations of his Holy Spirit, I am, my dear brother,
Yours in sincere affection, CHARLES HODGE.
THE VISIT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1873 tO
WASHINGTON.
This General Assembly contained many of his old stu-
dents, and also many strangers from a distance, especially
of the late New-school branch of the Church, who had
heard of his fame, and yet had never seen his face. Among
many of both classes a strong desire to see him gradually
gathered force. This led ultimately to the adjournment of
the Assembly during the day-time of Wednesday, the 28th
of May, and their visit as a body to Washington, in order
to meet him as their guest at Willard's Hotel. An account
of the whole matter is given in the following letter from
Dr. Joseph T. Smith, of Baltimore, who was on that occa-
sion chairman of the Assembly's Committee of Arrange-
ments.
REV. JOSEPH T. SMITH TO THE EDITOR.
BALTIMORE, April 8, 1880.
REV. A. A. HODGE,
Dear Doctor : I have just returned from Washington, where I used
all diligence to get the facts connected with your father's visit to the
Assembly. I was able to get very little beyond what I already knew.
35
546 THE ASSEMBLY OF 1873. [1873.
During the session of the Assembly of 1873 m Baltimore there was
a very general and very earnest desire expressed on the part of the
members of the Assembly, and particularly those from a distance, to
meet with your father. As Chairman of the Committee of Arrange-
ments this was brought to me from many quarters, and the committee
was anxious in some way to gratify it. Your father was then on a visit
to his brother-in-law, General Hunter, in Washington. The first move-
ment was to invite him to Baltimore, but to this he replied that his
health would not permit, as he was then convalescent from a severe
attack of acute bronchitis.
It was then proposed that the Assembly should visit Washington,
and have an interview with him there. After some correspondence
a delegation came on from Washington and invited the Assembly to
spend a day there, assuring them that proper arrangements would be
made for an interview with Dr. Hodge. On the evening of the 27th
of May the Assembly adjourned to meet at half-past 7 o'clock, p. M.
on the 28th. The Moderator, Dr. Crosby, was not able to go, but the
greater portion of the Assembly went, with Dr. Niccolls, the last Mode-
rator present, acting in Dr. Crosby's place.
They first repaired to the Capitol, and after a short address of wel-
come from the Washington Brethren, and a response from the Mode-
rator, they united in singing the Long Metre Doxology, in the
Rotunda. Hence they repaired to the White House, where in the
absence of the President, they were received by Secretary Fish and
the ladies present. They then moved in a body to the grand dining-
room in Willard's Hotel, where a rich collation had been provided
by the Churches of Washington.
Dr. Hodge, very feeble, and showing signs of great emotion, entered
on the arm of Dr. Niccolls, and took his seat by his side at the head
of the table. The room, spacious as it is, was crowded, and the great-
est interest was manifested in the proceedings. After quiet was
secured an Address of Welcome was made by Dr. Niccolls to the
honored guest of the occasion. Dr. Hodge rose under great emo-
tion, and replied, after which the brethren crowded around him with
the greatest heartiness and unanimity with their congratulations.
This action of the Assembly touched him very deeply. When first
told of the desire thus to honor him he was almost overcome, and
the cordial greeting he received on every side, he said, was among
the most cherished recollections of his life.
I am sorry that I cannot give you more than the above, but these
are the main facts.
Yours in Christ,
J. T. SMITH.
-T. 75.] THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 547
THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE.
In the early days of October, 1873, the Sixth General
Conference of the Evangelical Alliance, was held in the
city of New York. Taken all together, as to its object, the
character of its members, the value of their discussions,
the vastness and enthusiasm of the attendant audiences, and
the impression made upon the entire Christian community,
this Conference was one of the memorable events in the
history of American Christianity.
In an article entitled " American Lights of the Evangeli-
cal Alliance, by Camera Obscura," printed in the Sunday-
school Times for October iSth, 1873, the subject of this
memoir is photographed thus : '/ There is the Rev.
Charles Hodge, D.D., LL.D., of Princeton Theological
Seminary, the most impressive personality of the Alliance.
Who ever saw a face more radiant, more serene, more sug-
gestive ? Strength lying in repose, sweetness and an in-
describable innocence beam from his countenance. Dressed
in a dress-coat and snowy cravat of the olden pattern, car-
rying a gold-headed ebony cane, upon the top of which he
is wont to recline, he is growing old far too fast. When
he addresses the audience, only those who are half-way
toward the platform can have any pleasure in the hearing.
Those beyond are only conscious of their loss by seeing
how such as sit hard by are being fed."
The chief end of the Alliance is to promote and to exem-
plify the essential unity of evangelical Christendom, however
widely distinguished by denominational differences, or sepa-
rated by national or geographical barriers. The part as-
signed to Dr. Hodge, therefore, struck the key-note for the
whole Conference and the exercises of all its divisions.
His subject was " THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH BASED ON
PERSONAL UNION WITH CHRIST." His points were ist.
"The Unity of Individual Believers," first with Christ
and then with each other, which has its ground in the
548 THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. [1873,
indwelling of the Spirit and in faith. This is manifested
(i) In their agreement in faith. They all essentially em-
brace the same system of truth. (2) In the sameness of
their spiritual life or religious experience, and (3) In their
mutual love, the bond of perfectness, which is founded first,
on congeniality and second on relationship, and is mani-
fested first in mutual recognition, and second, in a disposi-
tion to bear each other's burdens and to bear each other's
wants. 2d. " The Unity of Individual Churches or Con-
gregations." " The idea of the Church, therefore, as
presented in the Bible, is that believers scattered over the
world are a band of brethren, children of the same Father,
subjects of the same Lord, forming one body by the in-
dwelling of the Holy Ghost, uniting all to Christ as their
living head. This indwelling of the Spirit makes all
believers one in faith, one in their religious life, one in love.
Hence they acknowledge each other as brethren and are
ready to bear each other's burdens. This is the communion
of saints. The Church, in this view, is the mystical body
of Christ.
" But by a law of the Spirit, believers living in the same
neighborhood unite as Churches for public worship, and
for mutual watch and care. These local Churches consti-
tute one body, first, spiritually, because they are all subject
to the same Lord, are animated by the same Holy Spirit,
and are bound together by the bond of Christian love.
Secondly, they are externally one body, because they
acknowledge each other as Churches of Christ, and recog-
nize each other's members, ordinances, ministers, and acts
of discipline; and also because they are all subject to the
same tribunal. That tribunal in the beginning was the
apostles; now it is the Bible, and the mind of the
Church, expressed sometimes in one way and sometimes
in another.
" That this normal state of the Church has never been
fully realized is to be referred partly to unavoidable circum-
JET. 75.] THE E VANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 549
stances, and partly to the imperfections of believers. * * *
In the present state of the world denominational Churches
are, therefore, relatively a good. The practical question is,
What is their relation to each other ? What are their rela-
tive duties ? How may their real unity be manifested in
the midst of these diversities.
3d. " Denominational Churches." (i) Their first duty to
each other is mutual recognition. (2) Their second duty is
intercommunion. They owe then (3) recognition of each
other's sacraments and orders, (4) non-interference and
(5) the duty of co-operation.
"If the principles above stated be correct it is of
the last importance that they should be practically re-
cognized. If all Christians really believed that they
constitute the mystical body of Christ on earth, they would
sympathize with each other as readily as the hands sympa-
thize with the feet, or the feet with the hands. If all
churches, whether local or denominational, believed that
they too are one body in Christ Jesus, then instead of con-
flict we should have concord ; instead of mutual criminations
we should have mutual respect and confidence ; instead of
rivalry and opposition we should have cordial co-operation.
The whole visible Church would then present an undivided
front against infidelity and every form of Anti-christian
error, and the sacramental host of God, though divided into
different corps, would constitute one army glorious and in-
vincible."
Dr. Hodge also took part in the extemporaneous discus-
sion on Darwinism and the doctrine of Development in the
Philosophical Section held Oct. 6.
Under the title of " Noticeable things at the Alliance/' in
the Presbyterian, Oct. 1 8, 1873, Dr. Cuyler of Brooklyn says,
" The ' corns ' of sectarianism have suffered occasionally, to
be sure, when some hard logic set its boot heavily on them.
This was the case when Dr. Hodge trod squarely on the
sore spot in ' close communionism ' in his superb address ;
550 THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. [1873.
and some of our good Baptist brethren winced a little.
This was inevitable. What does the Alliance signify but
the free and open communion of all the faithful in Christ
Jesus ? Dr. Hodge spoke with intense emotion, and was
heard with intense interest. One eminent foreign delegate
said to me, ' It paid me for crossing the ocean just to see
Dr. Hodge during that glorious speech.' '
The Examiner and Chronicle (Baptist), in an editorial on
Oct. Qth, 1873, affirmed that Dr. Hodge in that address had
" overlooked the claims of courtesy, propriety and justice."
In the Presbyterian of Nov. i, 1873, Dr. Hodge's answer is
given. He says, " I was distinctly informed that no one
was expected to speak in the name of the body which he
addressed. He was to express his own views, for which no
one was to be held responsible but himself. I find that
every other member of the Alliance acted on the same prin-
ciple that I did expressing his own sentiments without in-
tending to commit anybody else. Some of our scientific
brethren expressed views on the Mosaic account of the
creation, and of the modern theory of ' development ' from
which others dissented. No one took offence at this.
Others again advocated the propriety of the Union of
Church and State. We Americans were not thereby
offended.
" An Evangelical Alliance conducted on the principle that
every member must agree with what every other member
says, it seems to me must be a failure.
" If you agree with me as to the design of the great con-
vocation of Evangelical Christians which has been such a
blessing and such an honor to the age in which we live, I
am sure you will exonerate me from the charge of having
violated the claims of ' courtesy, propriety and justice/
" Your brother in the bonds which no difference between
Baptists and Pedo-baptists can sunder.
CHARLES HODGE."
J&i. 76.] HIS HISTORICAL SERMON. 551
HISTORICAL SERMON DELIVERED AT THE RE-OPENING OF
THE CHAPEL, SEPT. 27, 1874.
During the summer of 1874, by the generous provision
of the munificent benefactor of the Seminary, Mr. John C.
Green, of New York city, the Chapel was thoroughly re-
paired, improved and beautified. On the occasion of its
being re-opened for worship, on the 27th of September,
the sermon was delivered by Dr. Hodge as senior professor.
This sermon is so delightful and valuable in its historical and
biographical contents, that I feel it proper to insert a large
portion of the text uncondensed :
" The first signal manifestation of the divine favor to this
Institution was the selection of Dr. Archibald Alexander
and Dr. Samuel Miller as its professors, and their being
spared for nearly forty years to devote themselves to its
service. It is admitted that the most important part of a
man's life is the formative period of youth. The same is
true of communities and institutions. If a college be de-
pendent on the State, its character may vary with the
change of parties in the State; but if it be independent, it
bids fair to retain its original character from generation to
generation. If a father commit his child to incompetent
and wicked tutors and governors, the fate of the child is
sealed; but if it be confided to faithful guardians, as a rule,
it will grow up to be an ornament and a blessing. The
favor of God to this infant Seminary, was manifested in its
being intrusted to the hands of men pre-eminently qualified
for the sacred trust.
" They were in the first place eminently holy men. They
exerted that indescribable but powerful influence which
always emanates from those who live near to God. Their
piety was uniform and serene ; without any taint of enthu-
siasm or fanaticism. It was also Biblical. Christ was as
prominent in their religious experience, in their preaching,
and in their writings, as he is in the Bible. Christ's per-
552 HIS HISTORICAL SERMON. [1874.
son, his glory, his righteousness, his love, his presence,
his power, filled the whole sphere of their religious life.
When men enter a Roman Catholic Church, they see be-
fore them a wooden image of Christ extended upon a cross.
To this lifeless image they bow. When students entered
this Seminary, when its first professors were alive, they had
held up before them the image of Christ, not graven by art
or man's device, but as portrayed by the Spirit on the
pages of God's word; and it is by beholding that image that
men are transformed into its likeness from glory to glory.
It is, in large measure, to this constant holding up of
Christ, in the glory of his person and the all-sufficiency of
his work, that the hallowed influence of the fathers of this
Seminary is to be attributed.
" It often happens, however, that men are very pious with-
out being very good. Their religion expends itself in de-
votional feelings and services, while the evil passions of
their nature remain unsubdued. It was not so with our
fathers. They were as good as they were pious. I was
intimately associated with them, as pupil and colleague,
between thirty and forty years.' In all that time I never
saw in either of them any indication of vanity, of pride, of
envy, of jealousy, of insincerity, of uncharitableness, or of
disingenuousness. I know that what I say is incredible.
Nevertheless it is true. And it is my right and my duty
to scatter these withered flowers upon their graves. Most
men have reason to rejoice that their bosoms are opaque,
but these holy men, as it always seemed to me, might let
the sun shine through them.
" Another characteristic of the men of whom I speak was
their firm and simple faith in the Scriptures, and in the
system of doctrine contained in the standards of our
Church. Their faith was founded on the demonstration of
the Spirit, and therefore could not be shaken. No Sunday-
School scholar, no mother in Israel, could be more entire-
ly submissive to the teachings of the Scriptures than were
^T. 76.] HIS HISTORICAL SERMON, 553
these venerable men. There was something sublime and
beautiful in the humility of old Doctor Alexander, when he
found himself at the feet of Jesus'. There was no ques-
tionings of the reason, no opposition of the heart. The
words of Scripture were received as the revelation of what
is true and right from the highest source of truth and good-
ness. No one can estimate the influence of this trait of the
character of our first professors operating through forty
years on successive generations of their pupils.
" There are theologians who exhort men to think for
themselves, and to receive nothing on authority. * * And
others who crave after novelty and aspire after originality.
* And others who have a philosophical disposition.
" It pleased God that the first professors in this Seminary
should belong to neither of these classes. They exhorted
their students to be humble rather than high-minded. They
had no fondness for new doctrines, or for new ways of pre-
senting old ones ; and they dreaded the thought of trans-
ferring the ground of faith from the rock of God's word to
metaphysical quicksands. For this reason Princeton Theo-
logical Seminary was regarded by the illuminati in every
part of the land as very umbrageous, impenetrable to any
ray of new light. This did not move the men of whom we
speak. They had heard Christ say of certain men that the
light that is in them is darkness. And knowing that man
is blind as to the things of God, they thought it safer to
submit to be guided by a divine hand, rather than, with
darkness within and darkness without, to stumble on they
knew not whither.
"As to the method of instruction adopted by our first
professors little need be said. They both used text-books
where they could be had. Dr. Alexander's text-book in
theology was Turrettin's Theologia Elenchtica, one of the
most perspicuous books ever written. In the discussion of
every subject it begins with the Status Qucestionis, stating
that the question is not this or that ; neither this nor that,
554 HIS HISTORICAL SERMON. [1874.
until every foreign element is eliminated, and then the pre-
cise point in hand is laid down with unmistakable preci-
sion. Then follow in distinct paragraphs, numbered one,
two, three, and so on, the arguments in its support. Then
come the Fontes Solutionum, or answers to objections. The
first objection is stated with the answer ; then the second,
and so on to the end. Dr. Alexander was accustomed to
give us from twenty to forty quarto pages, in Latin, to read
for a recitation. And we did read them. When we came
to recite, the professor would place the book before him and
ask, What is the State of the Question ? What is the first
argument? What is the second, &c. ? Then what is the
first objection and its answer ? What .the second, &c. ?
There were some of my classmates, Dr. Johns, the present
bishop of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, for example,
who would day after day be able to give the State of the
Question, all the arguments in its support in their order,
all the objections and the answers to them, through the
whole thirty or forty pages, without the professor saying a
word to him. This is what in the College of New Jersey
used to be called rowling. Whatever may be thought of
this method of instruction, it was certainly effective. A
man who had passed through that drill never got over it.
Some years ago I heard the late Bishop Mcllvaine preach
a very orthodox sermon in the Episcopal Church in this
place. When we got home, it being a very warm day, he
threw himself on the bed to rest. In the course of con-
versation he happened to remark that a certain professor
failed to make any marks on the minds of his students. I
said to him, " Old Turrettin, it seems, has left his mark on
your mind." He sprang from the bed, exclaiming, " That
indeed he has, and I would give anything to see his theol-
ogy translated and made the text-book in all our Semina-
ries." The Jesuits are wise in their generation, and they
have adopted this method of instruction in their insti-
tutions.
JET. 76.] HIS HISTORICAL SERMON. 555
" Dr. Alexander, however, did not confine himself to his
text-book. He lectured from time to time on those doc-
trines which were exciting general attention. These lec-
tures from year to year became more numerous, until they
constituted an important part of his course. He was accus-
tomed also to give out lists of theological questions, which
the students were expected to answer in writing. On the
departments of mental and moral philosophy, polemic and
pastoral theology, his instructions were by lectures, so that
his mind was constantly brought into contact with those of
his students. His lectures on Pastoral Theology were de-
votional exercises, which we attended as we would attend
church.
" Dr. Miller also had a text-book on Ecclesiastical History
which he supplemented and corrected by a running com-
mentary at each recitation. He, too, gave out lists of
questions covering the whole course of biblical and church
history. His instructions on Church Government and Dis-
cipline, and on the Composition and Delivery of Sermons,
were by lectures. These venerable men were remarkably
punctual and faithful in attending on all their official duties.
"Their influence on the students was after all mainly reli-
gious, arising from the doctrines which they taught, the
character which they exhibited, and the principles which
they inculcated. To this must be added the power of call-
ing the religious feelings into exercise, which Dr. Alexander
possessed beyond any man whom I have ever known. He
had the gift of searching the heart ; of probing the con-
science; of revealing a man to himself; of telling him his
thoughts, feelings, doubts and conflicts. As with a lighted
torch he would lead a man through the labyrinth of his
heart, into places which his intelligent consciousness had
never entered. He would thus humble him, instruct him,
comfort or strengthen him. He could melt his hearers to
penitence, make their hearts burn within them, inspire them
with zeal, and give them a foretaste of the joy that is un-
556 HIS HISTORICAL SERMON, [1874.
speakable. This power he exerted not only in the pulpit,
but in our Sabbath afternoon conferences, and in his ad-
dresses to the students at evening prayers. There are three
of his sermons which I specially remember; one on Abra-
ham's offering up Isaac; one on the transfiguration of
Christ; and one on our Lord's passion. The only way in
which I can give an idea of the impression produced by
these discourses, is by saying that his hearers felt, in a mea-
sure, as they would have done had they been present at the
scenes described. We left this Chapel after his sermon on
the transfiguration, feeling that we had seen the Lord in
his glory, at least as through a glass darkly. His sermon
on the passion of Christ was delivered in the Church on a
communion Sunday. The impression which it made was
profound. The students became clamorous ; they would
take no denial of their request for its possession. I do
not think that it was printed ; but the manuscript came into
our hands ; and when I read it, there was nothing there
but what is in the Gospels. So that the mystery of its
power remained unsolved.
"There was another peculiarity in Dr. Alexander's preach-
ing. He would sometimes pause and give utterance to a
thought which had no connection with his subject, and
then resume the thread of his discourse. He seemed to
think that these thoughts were given to him for a purpose,
and he sent them forth as arrows shot at a venture. When
a boy I attended a service which he conducted in the old
school-house, which stood on the ground now occupied by
the First Presbyterian Church. I sat in the back part of
the room, on a shelf with my feet dangling half-way to the
floor. The Doctor suddenly paused in his address, and
stretching out his arm to attract attention, deliberately
uttered this sentence, ' I don't believe a praying soul ever
enters hell.' That bolt, I suspect, pierced more hearts
than one. It may well be believed that more than one
poor sinner in that little assembly, said to himself, ' If
^ET. 76.] HIS HISTORICAL SERMOtf. 557
that be so, I will keep on praying while I keep on breath-
ing.'
" We all know that the man who is instrumental in bring-
ing us near to God, who enables us to see the glory of
Christ, who stirs up our hearts to penitence and love,
becomes sacred in our eyes, and that the place in which
we have enjoyed these experiences can never be forgotten.
Hence the feeling which our old alumni cherish for this
Seminary, is not pride, but a tender, sacred, love, as for
the place in which they passed some of the holiest, hap-
piest, and most profitable hours of their lives.
" Owing to the peculiar power of Dr. Alexander over the
feelings, the students were more demonstrative of their
regard for him than for Dr. Miller. But in their heart
of hearts, in the place where reverence dwells, in the inner
temple of the soul, neither of these holy men stood higher
than the other.
" Dr. Addison Alexander was appointed teacher of He-
brew in this Seminary in 1833. In 1836 he was elected
professor of Biblical and Oriental Literature. He did not
consent, however, to be inaugurated until two years later,
although he discharged the duties of the chair to which he
had been appointed. He continued connected with the
Seminary as one of its professors until his death, February,
1860.
" I believe that I was rash enough to say on the floor of
the General Assembly of 1 860, that I thought Dr. Addison
Alexander the greatest man whom I had ever seen. This
was unwise : both because there are so many different
kinds of greatness; and because I was no competent judge.
I feel free to say now, however, that I never saw a man
who so constantly impressed me with a sense of his mental
superiority with his power to acquire knowledge and
his power to communicate it. He seemed able to learn
anything and to teach anything he pleased. And whatever
he did, was done with such apparent ease as to make the
558 HIS HISTORICAL SERMON. [1874.
impression that there was in him a reserve of strength,
which was never called into exercise. The rapidity with
which he accomplished his work was marvellous. The
second volume of his Commentary on Isaiah, a closely
printed octavo volume of five hundred pages, with all its eru-
dition, was written, as I understand, during one summer
vacation, which he passed in the city of New York. Few
literary achievements can be compared to that.
" He had two marked peculiarities. One was that al-
though he had apparently the power to master any subject,
he could not do what he did not like. Being in his youth
very precocious and very much devoted to intellectual pur-
suits, he needed neither excitement nor guidance. He was,
therefore, allowed to pass from one subject to another at
pleasure. A habit of mind was thus induced which ren-
dered it almost impossible for him to fix his attention on
subjects which were disagreeable to him. There were con-
sequently some departments of knowledge of which he was
purposely ignorant. This was true of psychology, or men-
tal philosophy. I never knew him to read a book on that
subject. He never would converse about it. If when read-
ing a book, he came across any philosophical discussion, he
would turn over the leaves until he found more congenial
matter. When Dr. Schaff 's work on The Apostolic Age
came out, he was greatly delighted with it. The theory of
historical development which it broached, he took no notice
of. He did not even know it was there. When, therefore,
he reviewed the book, he never adverted to one of its most
marked characteristics. The same thing was true, in good
measure, of natural science, to which he devoted very little
attention. It was specially true of physiology and hygiene.
It would be hard to find an educated man more profoundly
ignorant of the structure of the human body or of the func-
tions of its organs. Hence he was constantly violating the
laws of health. He was a whole year seriously ill without
knowing it : and only two or three days before his death,
ALT. 76.] HIS HISTORICAL SERMON. 559
he said to me, ' Don't look so sad, I'm as well as you
are.'
"The other peculiarity referred to was his impatience of
routine. He could not bear to go over the same ground, or
to attend long to any one subject. Hence he was constantly
changing his subjects of study and methods of instruction.
He would begin to write a book, get it half done, and then
throw it aside. Or, he would begin to write on one plan,
and then change it for another. He occupied three different
chairs in this Seminary. He first had the Old Testament
department ; then the Language and Literature of the New
Testament. The friends of the Seminary cared little what
he did, for whatever he undertook, he was sure to do so
grandly that every one would be more than satisfied. As he
advanced in life these peculiarities became less apparent.
He was constantly getting his powers more under his own
control. At the time of his death we flattered ourselves that
he had before him twenty or thirty years for steady work.
Then suddenly our great treasure ship went down disap-
pearing under the waves a dead loss leaving us, as we
then felt, utterly bankrupt.
" The departments in which he took the most interest
were languages, literature, history, and above all, the Bible.
His earliest reputation was as a linguist. It was known
that he had without any instruction made himself so fami-
liar with the Arabic that he had read the Koran through
before he was fourteen. In the same way he learned Per-
sic, and while but a lad delighted in reading the Persian
poets. He then learned Hebrew, Chaldee and Syriac. He
kept up his familiarity with the Greek and Latin classics
through life. He read all the modern languages of Europe,
unless the Sclavonic dialects be excepted. His object in
these studies was not simply the vocabulary and grammar
of these languages, but their mutual relations, and specially
the literary treasures which they contained. He was spe-
cially master of his own tongue. He had read all the
560 HIS HISTORICAL SERMON. [1874.
leading English authors of every age. His style was a
model of precision, perspicuity, felicity of expression, purity
and force. His command of language did not seem to
have any limit. He could speak in correct and polished
English as easily as he could breathe. Extemporary
speaking is an every-day matter. But I have known Dr.
Addison to come into this chapel, without having com-
mitted or written his sermon, and read it off from blank
paper from beginning to end without hesitation or correc-
tion. He was constantly doing such things, which made
those around him think he could do whatever he pleased.
" As to his qualifications as a theological professor, the
first in importance was his sincere and humble piety. Re-
ligion, however, even when genuine, assumes different
forms in different persons. Some men it impels to live
before the public as well as for the public. In others it
leads rather to self-culture and intercourse with God. Dr.
Addison's life was in a great measure hidden. He never
appeared in church-courts or in religious conventions. But
although he lived very much by himself, he did not live
for himself. All his powers were devoted to the service of
Christ, as writer, teacher, and minister of the gospel. His
temper was naturally irritable ; but if it ever got the better
of him in* the class-room, the next prayer he offered in the
oratory was sure to manifest how sincerely he repented.
The students, on leaving the prayer-room, would some-
times ask each other, ' What has Dr. Addison been doing
for which he is so sorry ?'
" The second great qualification for his office was his firm
faith in the Bible and his reverence for it as the word of
God. He believed in it just as he believed in the solar
system. He could not help believing. He saw so clearly
its grandeur as a whole, and the harmonious relation of its
several parts, that he could no more believe the Bible to be
a human production than he could believe that man made
the planets. He never seemed to have any doubts or dirfi-
AST. 76.] HIS HISTORICAL SERMON. . ^561
culty on the subject. Although perfectly familiar with the
writings of the German rationalists and sceptics from
Ernesti to Baur and Strauss, they affected him no more
than the eagle is affected by the dew on his plumage as he
soars near the sun. The man who studies the Bible as he
studied it, in the organic relation of its several parts, comes
to see that it can no more be a collection of the indepen-
dent writings of uninspired men, than the human body is a
hap-hazard combination of limbs and organs. It was in
this light that he presented it to his students, who were ac-
customed to say that he glorified the Bible to them, that is
he enabled them to see its glory, and thus confirmed
their faith and increased their reverence.
" Another of his distinguishing gifts as a professor was
his ability as a teacher. The clearness, rapidity, and force
with which he communicated his ideas aroused and sustained
attention ; and the precision and variety of his questions, in
the subsequent catechetical exercise on the subject of the
lecture, drew out from the student every thing he knew,
and made him understand himself and the matter in hand.
Students from all the classes, often crowded his lecture-
room, which they left drawing a long breath as a relief from
overstrained attention, but with their minds expanded and
invigorated.
" As a preacher his sermons were always instructive and
often magnificent. He would draw from a passage of Scrip-
ture more than you ever imagined it contained ; show how
many rays concentrated at that point ; and how the truth
there presented was related to the other great truths of the
Bible. This was not so much an exhibition of the philoso-
phical or logical relation of the doctrine in hand with other
doctrines, as showing the place which the truth or fact in
hand held in the great scheme of Scripture revelation. Thus
in his sermon on the words of Paul to the Jews at Rome,
4 Be it known to you, that the Gospel of God is sent unto
the Gentiles, and they will hear it ;' he showed that every
36
562- HIS HISTORICAL SERMON. [1874.
thing Moses and the Prophets had taught, culminated in .
the proclamation of the religion of the Bible as the religion
of the world. At times he gave his imagination full play ;
and then he would rise in spiral curves, higher and higher,
till lost to sight ; leaving his hearers gazing up into heaven,
of which they felt they then saw more than they had ever
seen before. These three men, Dr. Archibald Alexander,
Dr. Samuel Miller, and Dr. Addison Alexander are our
galaxy. They are like the three stars in the belt of Orion,
still shining upon us from on high. Their lustre can now
never be dimmed by the exhalations of the earth.
" I have not forgotten two others of our professors, now
we doubt not in heaven, Dr. John Breckinridge and Dr.
James W. Alexander. These men, however, were never
given to the Seminary ; they were only lent to it for a short
time. Dr. Breckinridge was elected in 1836 and resigned
in 1838; Dr. James Alexander was elected in 1849 and
resigned in 1851. God had fitted and designed them for
other fields of action. They were both eminent, each in
his own way ; but we cannot claim them specially as our
own. Dr. Breckinridge was one of the leaders of the
Church in its conflicts. Dr. Alexander was a man of varied
scholarship and accomplishments. The former was proud
of calling himself a Kentuckian. His State, however, had
as much reason to be proud of him, as he had of his State.
He was tall, handsome, spirited and courteous. He made a
friend of almost every man he met. Being a natural orator,
his appropriate place was the pulpit and platform. Dr.
James Alexander, as you all know, was one of the most
eminent and useful preachers of his day.
" The second signal manifestation of God's favor to this
institution is to be seen in the munificent patrons which he
has raised up for its support. Mr. James Lenox, to whom
we are indebted for our library building and the extensive
grounds on which it is erected ; for one of our professor's
houses, and for liberal contributions to our general funds.
JET. 76.] HIS HISTORICAL SERMON. 563
Messrs. Robert L. and Alexander Stuart, who have con-
tributed sixty thousand dollars to our scholarship, library
and miscellaneous funds, a professor's house, and who have
recently purchased land for the erection of a handsome
building for our recitation-rooms. Mrs. George Brown, of
Baltimore, to whom we are indebted for Brown Hall ; Mr.
Levi P. Stone, who founded the Stone Lectureship; Mr.
John C. Green, who endowed the Helena Professorship of
Ecclesiastical History, purchased a house for a professor,
contributing generously to our permanent funds, and at
whose expense this Chapel has been transformed from what
it was to what it is ; so that we can never enter this room
without being reminded of his kindness. *
" There is another class of benefactors, who not having
gold or silver to bestow, gave their prayers, their counsels,
and their disinterested labors. Dr. Ashbel Green, Dr. John
McDowell, Dr. William Philips, head a long list of friends
who should always be held in grateful remembrance, f
"A mother's pride, however, is in her children. Much as
she may love and reverence her parents, she turns her
fondest gaze on those whom she has nurtured at her bosom
and fondled on her knees. So our Alma Mater, while she
cherishes with reverence the memory of her fathers, turns
her streaming eyes with gratitude to heaven, and says,
' Here, Lord, am I and the children whom thou hast given
me.' More than three thousand ministers of the gospel have
been trained within these walls. With rare exceptions they
have been faithful men. They have labored in every part
of our own land and in almost every missionary field. This
* Since the date of this sermon these munificent benefactions have been great-
ly increased. Mr. Lenox has added another and most admirable Library build-
ing, and two professor's houses. The Messrs. Stuart have erected the finest
hall for recitations possessed by any educational institution in the land, and, as also
the representatives of Mr. Green's estate, have added large sums to the endow-
ment of the Seminary.
f To these should now be added the beloved name of Rev. H. A. Boardman,
D.D., recently deceased.
5 64 LAST INTER VIE WS WITH BISHOP JOHNS. [i866-'75.
goodly company of ministers, confessors, and even martyrs,
is God's best gift and our crown." -
The preaching of this sermon was the occasion of the
following pleasing letter from Rev. Samuel Miller, D. D.,
of Mt. Holly, N. J., the son and biographer of the second
professor in this Seminary.
DR. S. MILLER, JR. TO DR. HODGE.
MOUNT HOLLY, 3oth Oct., 1874.
My Dear Doctor Hodge : I received last evening a copy of your
discourse at the re-opening of the Seminary Chapel, for which I
most heartily thank you, and which I cannot acknowledge without
taking the opportunity of going a little beyond mere formal thanks.
However partial and unreliable a judge I may be of the fitness of
what you have so kindly said of my dear Father, I can make no
mistake in assuring you, that it is all very grateful to my own feelings,
and so must be to the feelings of every one of his children. Pardon
me for adding that I never heard him mention your name, which
of course was a most familiar household word with us, excepting
in terms of respect and affection. From his example alone I imbibed
sentiments of sincere regard to you, which all our intercourse has
constantly strengthened and which must, I believe, continue to in-
crease as the years many yet I trust to you on earth roll by.
What I owe to you as a preceptor and a friend, I shall never forget.
My sincere compliments to Mrs. Hodge and all the members of
your household. I am
Truly and affectionately yours,
S. MILLER.
LATEST CORRESPONDENCE AND INTERVIEWS WITH HIS
FRIEND, BISHOP JOHNS.
Dr. Hodge was necessarily separated from his friend, the
Bishop of Virginia, during all the years of the civil war
between the States. They did not meet until the latter
part of May, 1866. Dr. Hodge was then staying with his
brother-in-law, General Hunter, when Bishop Johns came
over to meet him from) his owa residence at Malvern, near
Alexandria, Virginia. The scene >f reunion is thus de-
scribed by Dr. A. A. E. Taylor, now President of Wooster
JET. 76.] CHARLES HODGE AND JOHN JOHNS. 565
University, Ohio. "As we talked, suddenly without any
announcement the parlor door was opened, and there
entered a man of slight build and medium stature, whose
hair was long and grey, and who was clad from head to
foot in what seemed to be Virginia homespun. He mod-
estly paused inside the threshold, for the moment not
being observed by Dr. Hodge, who was walking towards
the front window. I rose to my feet, when Dr. Hodge,
whose attention was thus attracted, turned, quickly glanced
up through his glasses at the visitor, and took a few hasty
steps towards him, as if but half recognizing the face in
the shadow of the room. Then as he advanced with out-
stretched arms, the two venerable men were clasped in a
long and affectionate embrace, the only exclamation heard
being ' My brother, my dear brother !' " Bishop Johns did
say, with that humorous vivacity so characteristic of him,
"Charley, you have been a bad boy, but I'll forgive you."
" The embrace ended, they clasped hands, silently looking
each other in the eye for a few moments, and then inter-
changed words .of tender joy at being permitted once more
to meet. Then Dr. Hodge, with one arm round his friend,
and still clasping his hand, turned towards me and cordially
introduced Bishop Johns, of Virginia. I saw that these men
were deeply moved, and that their eyes were full of tears,
and immediately withdrew."
DR. HODGE TO BISHOP JOHNS.
PRINCETON, October 3oth, 1872.
Dear John : Hail Columbia ! Tell me what train you are com-
ing in that I may meet you. I can't afford to lose a minute.
Yours of 1812, CHARLES HODGE.
What on earth has a Bishop to do at a Bible House ?
DR. HODGE TO BISHOP JOHNS.
PRINCETON, November i3th, 1874.
Dear, blessed, old John : I did not know you were 79 ; though I
might have known it, as, if I live to December 27th, I shall be 77 ^so
that you have not much to brag of.
566 CHARLES HODGE AND JOHN 1 JOHNS. [1874.
I lived in hopes, during the meeting of your Convention, that you
would stop in Princeton on your way home. I can sympathize with
you in your lameness. On the first day of September, walking in
the dark, I stepped into a newly made trench, nearly two feet deep,
which caused such a concussion in the hip-joint of my weak limb,
that I have not sin.ce been able to walk further than into the Semi-
nary. I am gradually improving, but I fear I shall not get over it for
months to come.
I am glad you sympathize with what I say * of our dear old Profes-
sors, for you must think it sober-minded ; which I fear those who did
not know them as we did might be inclined to doubt.
I am not inclined to be a laudator lemporis acti, for I really believe
that the world, on the whole, is getting better, and that the cause of
Christ is on the advance. Yet at times I am somewhat startled at the
decay of faith, or the prevalence of broad-churchism among all de-
nominations, and of skepticism among men of the world. Among
the masses speculative faith seemed, a few years ago, to be the rule.
I fear the reverse is true now. Evangelical truth appears to be con-
fined very much to true believers, of whom, I hope, the number is
now greater than during any former period of the history of the
world. As long as piety lasts, the truth will last, and not much
longer.
Ravaud Rodgers, you and I, so far as I know, are all who remain
of the class of 1815. God has been very good to us, and one of his
great blessings has been sparing us so long to love and pray for each
other. God bless you, dear brother.
Mrs. Hodge joins me in love to you and yours. All you feel for
me I feel toward you, only a little more so.
As ever and forever yours in the bonds that cannot be broken.
CHARLES HODGE.
In 1873 Dr. Hodge sent to the Bishop a copy of the lit-
tle volume containing the " Proceedings of the Semi-Cen-
tennial Commemoration/' etc., with a photographic likeness
of himself attached. He inscribed it thus: "Charles
Hodge to John Johns, friends from November, 1812, to 1872."
When they met on the next occasion Johns opened the book,
and pointing to the inscription, said, " Charles, I'll not take it
so." Dr. Hodge took up a pen instantly and added the
words, " xai er'c rov atwua" (and forever).
*In the sermon, above given, on the " Re-opening of the Chapel.'*
ALT. 77.] CHARLES HODGE AND JOHN JOHNS. 567
Then came the last interview "An occasion," said
Bishop Johns, " probably never to be repeated, but certainly
never to be forgotten." Dr. Hodge records it as " a linger-
ing and solemn farewell of each other, feeling that it was
probably the last for this world." Dr. Hodge sought the
interview by the following note.
WASHINGTON, May 22, 1875.
Dear, Dearest John : It is mighty hard for a man as old as I am
to shoot flying. I do not know where you are. The newspaper said
you were in Richmond on the 2oth inst. But where are you now ?
If I could know what day next week you would be at home, I would
(D. V.) come to see you. I am lame, and use a crutch out of doors,
so that I want to know beforehand whether at the depot I can get a
cab to take me out to your mountain residence. On the ist of Sep-
tember last, walking in the dark, I stepped into a newly made trench,
two feet deep, which so jarred my weak limb that I have not been
able to walk more than a square since. I am improving, and as there
is no injury except to the nerve, I hope during the warm weather to
get over the trouble.
Yours as ever, CHARLES HODGE.
P. S. My wife says that if it is hot I shall not go a step.
The next week Bishop Johns called for him in Washing-
ton, and insisted upon the visit to Malvern. The Bishop
had already had a slight attack of paralysis, and was shaken
in his physical system ; but his mind was as clear and his
heart as fresh and tender as ever. They took dinner toge-
ther, no one being present but their wives. At the table
Johns suddenly turned to his friend, and regarding him
very seriously, said, " Charley, you have had more influence
on my life than any other person I have ever known."
After dinner the two walked out together to a seat under a
maple tree in front of the house, commanding a lovely view
over the Potomac and surrounding country, and there they
talked for the last time over the past and the future. When
he left, the Bishop threw his arms over his neck and said,
" It is the last time. Let me have a good look at your face,
568 CHARLES HODGE AND JOHN JOHNS. [1875.
Charley, for we shall never see each other again until we
meet in heaven."
On his return to Washington Dr. Hodge sent his friend
a print he happened to pick up, of two old soldiers sitting
together on a bench, entitled the " Last Muster," to which
he appended the interrogative clause, " In the future ?" To
this the bishop alludes in his next note.
BISHOP JOHNS TO DR. HODGE.
MALVERN, June 30, 1875.
Dear Charles: Since we parted I have been over the hills and far
away, returning to a week of examinations, ordinations, etc. ; hot and
exhausting almost beyond endurance.
But I steal time daily to go from the step where we parted to the
rustic bench where we sat together, and keep the covenant for re-
freshment and comfort.
Thank you for the " Muster." No ! not the last; that will be ever-
lasting.
Love to your wife and children and children's children. Mrs. J.
and my daughter say so too. Bless you every way and always.
Truly your brother, J. JOHNS.
The venerated and beloved Bishop went to heaven on the
opening of the next spring. My father kept hanging within
sight on the wall of his study, neatly framed, the last note
he ever received from the Bishop a postal card, on which
the Bishop had written in pencil, with a strong, clear hand :
January ist, 1876.
To dear Charles and his family, greeting
From all at Malvern, with a specialty from his loving friend and
brother of 1812, and since with increase, and so forever. J.
To which my father appended in ink : "The last com-
munication received from my friend, Bishop Johns, of Vir-
ginia. He died April 5th, 1876."
DR. HODGE TO THE REV. PROF. JOSEPH PACKARD, D. D.
In the great day of penitential sorrow predicted by the prophet, it
is said, " Every family shall mourn apart." So when such a man as
/ET. 78.] APPOINTMENT OF HIS ASSISTANT. 569
Bishop Johns is taken away, the whole land mourneth, his own
household, his church, the community, each apart. So I mourn
alone. He was an honor and blessing to his church ; but he was to
me what he was to no one else. With the single exception of my
own and only brother, I never had such a friend. For nearly sixty-
four years we were as intimate and confidential as though we had
been born at one birth. In all this time, to the best of my recollec-
tion, there was never an angry word passed between us. I feel like
the last tree of a forest. Two of our college vacations of six weeks
I spent with him in his home at Newcastle. We prayed together and,
in each social religious meeting, told the people the little we knew of
Christ, helping each other out. He was only eighteen months my
senior, and yet his feeling towards me was somewhat paternal.
Alas ! alas ! he has gone. I cannot speak of him except as to what
he was to me so good, so kind, so loving, without a shadow of
change for sixty-four years ! My last visit to him, in May last, was
the most loving of our whole lives. The recollections and love of
sixty years were gathered into those few hours. Our parting was sol-
emn, tender and lingering. We looked steadily at each other with
tearful eyes, knowing that possibly, and even probably, it was for the
last time, but in the calm hope that in any event the separation could
not be for long. I have no such friend on earth. I mourn apart.
THE APPOINTMENT OF HIS ASSISTANT AND SUCCESSOR.
About the time of his semi-centennial some of the
friends of the Seminary began to consider what steps
should be taken to provide him with assistance during his
declining years, and to secure for the Seminary a successor
in his chair after his departure. In 1873 a committee, con-
sisting of four or five of the oldest and most experienced
Directors, were appointed by the Board to consider this
matter, and to ascertain by correspondence the wishes of
Dr. Hodge. Their first proposition was to appoint his
eldest son, who had been for some time Professor of Sys-
tematic Theology in the Western Theological Seminary,
Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, temporarily to the chair of
The History of Doctrine, in Princeton, with the intention that
he should render his father any desired assistance in the labor
of teaching while he lived, and succeed him afterward.
Having received from the committee, in the summer of
570 APPOINTMENT OF HIS ASSISTANT. [1877.
1874, some intimation of their design, Dr. Hodge wrote to
Dr. H. A. Boardman as follows :
NARRAGANSETT PIER, July 13, 1874.
Dear Doctor: I do not know what other people think, but so far
as 7 know I need an assistant no more now than I did twenty years
ago. Bringing Alexander to Princeton was not designed, as I under-
stood the matter, to relieve me, but as a rather cumbrous device to
secure the fidelity of the Seminary to the type of doctrine taught in
it from the beginning. It was never the intention, so far as I was
informed, of those who started this plan, that there were to be two
permanent professorships of theology, one Didactic, and the other
Polemic or Historical Theology. This would be out of proportion.
The students would not have time to attend two such courses and do
justice to the other departments. The permanent professorship
should be for the relief of Dr. Green. He is invaluable to the insti-
tution, and he has been overworked ever since he was connected
with it, until the appointment of Mr. McCurdy.
The fidelity of the Seminary to our Standards is the great object
which the Directors, I doubt not, feel conscience-bound to secure.
If that end can be obtained as well without Alexander as with him,
I have always thought it would be better to let him remain where he
is. According to all accounts he is doing good there. We do not
know that he would be equally successful in Princeton.
I see no harm in allowing things for the present to remain as they
are. At my age, life or fitness for service hangs by a thread. Pro-
vidence may soon make the path of duty plain.
Yours truly, CHARLES HODGE.
This letter naturally brought the committee to a full stop,
and nothing more was done in the matter until it was again
opened by the Professor himself.
DR. HODGE TO DR. H. A. BOARDMAN.
PRINCETON, Feb. 3d, 1877.
My Dear Doctor : Last winter, to the best of my recollection, I
did not miss a single exercise, whether of lecture-room or confer-
ence, during the whole term of eight months. This term I caught
cold the latter part of October, was confined to the house about a
fortnight, and although I have attended my classes regularly since
that first fortnight, I have not attended the chapel or conference.
^ET. 79-] APPOINTMENT OF HIS ASSISTANT.
There is, I believe, nothing wrong about any of my organs, but
my chest and vocal organs are very weak. There is every reason
to hope that when the warm weather returns I shall be as well as
usual. I had a similar attack of bronchitis in the spring of 1873.
The old alumni, who heard me attempt to speak at the alumni meet-
ing, said they never expected to hear my voice again. Nevertheless,
some of them were astonished when, at the Evangelical Alliance, a
few months after, they heard me speak like the old Homeric Stentor.
I had a similar attack last spring which prevented our going to
Washington as we usually do during the month of May. I did not
get over that attack till I went to the sea-shore in July.
Under these circumstances I think the time has come when I
should give up, either in whole or in part, my duties in the Seminary.
I honestly believe that, in my usual health, I am as well able to dis-
charge those duties as I ever was. But I am liable to be disquali-
fied in the middle of a session, and this winter have been constrained
to meet my class when my physician thought I ought to remain at
home.
Some two or three years ago the Directors kindly appointed a
committee, of which Dr. Musgrave and yourself were members, to
consider the best means for making provision for aiding me, or for
supplying my place in the Seminary. I do not know whether that
committee is regarded as still in existence. I wish this note to be
considered as a formal intimation to you, either as a member of that
committee or as a Director, that it is my purpose to apply to the Board
of Directors to be relieved in whole or in part from my duties in the
Seminary.
You can understand the feelings with which I look forward to
severing, or loosening my connection with this sacred Institution
which has been uninterrupted for fifty-five years.
You affectionate and grateful friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO DRS. MUSGRAVE AND PAXTON.
PRINCETON, Feb. 8, 1877.
REV. DRS. MUSGRAVE AND PAXTON,
Dear Brethren : I understand that you are members of a Com-
mittee appointed by the Directors of the Theological Seminary, in
reference to the instruction in the Theological Department.
The facts in the case are :
i. That last winter (1875 and '76) I did not, to the best of my re-
collection, miss a single exercise the whole term, whether in the
class-room, chapel or conference.
572 APPOINTMENT OF HIS ASSISTANT. [1877.
2. This term I caught cold the last week in October, and for ten
days or a fortnight I was unable to attend any classes. Since then
I have regularly met the classes, but have not attended chapel or
conference, since the end of October. My general health is good,
and I am free, as far as I know, from any organic complaints, but I
am very soon exhausted ; I have great weakness and a good deal of
dull pain in the chest. My voice fails me if I attempt to read aloud
a chapter from the Bible. My physician thinks there is every
reason to expect that I shall be as well as usual when the warm
weather comes.
3. Under these circumstances I do not think it wise that the whole
responsibility of the Department of Didactic Theology should con-
tinue to rest on me. There are two plans for meeting the emergen-
cy, which I would respectfully submit to the decision of the Com-
mittee and of the Board.
First. That I should resign my professorship. In this case I should
be entirely disconnected with the Seminary, and have neither the
responsibility nor the right to take any part in its instruction or
government.
Second. That provision should be made to carry on the instruction
in the department, in case of entire or partial failure on my part.
This would leave me still a member of the Faculty and give me the
right to do what I could, and yet relieve me from the obligation of
working when I did not feel fit for it.
I would, of course, cheerfully acquiesce in either of these plans
the Board may prefer. So far as my personal feelings are concerned
it is natural I should prefer to have the right to work while I can
work. I might give up to a colleague Dogmatic Theology and re-
tain what is called Exegetical Theology ; or the division of duties
might be left to be privately determined. All which is respectfully
submitted. CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO DR. BOARDMAN.
SUNDAY EVENING, FEB. 18, 1877.
My Dear Doctor: I understood Dr. Musgrave to say that the
Committee of the Directors were to meet in Philadelphia on Tuesday
next. From the few words which passed between us at the meeting
of the Trustees of the College, I gathered that he had the impression
that I was adverse to my son Alexander being chosen for a professor
in this Seminary. I have neither the right nor the wish to be con-
sulted on the subject, but to prevent any embarrassment arising from
any kind regard to my views or wishes, I think it well to let you
^T. 79-] APPOINTMENT OF HIS ASSISTANT. 573
know exactly how I feel about the matter. I cannot do this better
than by sending a copy of the letter which I wrote Alexander a few
days ago.
Praying that God may over-rule all things for the good of the
Seminary and the Church, I am very sincerely yours as ever,
CHARLES HODGE.
DR. HODGE TO HIS SON.
PRINCETON, Feb. 16, 1877.
My Dear Alexander : You say I told you to go to Allegheny ;
your memory may be better than mine, but I have no recollection of
having been so unwise. At any rate, in the event of your being
called to Princeton, I shall not assume the responsibility of deciding
whether you ought to come. You ought to decide the question be-
fore the election is made by the Board, if the Committee determine
to recommend your appointment.
The view I take of the matter is simply this :
1. Our Board is bound to take that course which it thinks will best
promote the interests of this Seminary and the general interests of
this Church.
2. If our Directors think there is any other man available, as well
qualified to fill the position as you, they ought to leave you where
you are.
3. But if they are satisfied that you are the best man to keep up
the character of this Institution for fidelity to our doctrinal standards.
I, if a Director, although your Father, would vote for your election *
4. I would do this, because I think that this Seminary, not because
of any superiority of its faculty, but simply because of providential
circumstances, is at present at least, of special importance. It, there-
fore, should be specially considered.
5. All such considerations, as delicacy, your personal wishes, cheap-
ness of living here or there, are not of any serious weight.
6. The question whether you are the best available man to fill the
place here, is for our Directors to decide. Their decision, however,
is subject to a veto from your " inner consciousness," if your con-
science constrains you to exercise it. " Commit your way unfothe
Lord, and He will direct your steps."
YOUR FATHER,
The result was that his son was elected Associate Pro-
fessor of Didactic Theology, with the understanding that
he should undertake whatever work his father desired to
574 HIS EIGHTIE TH BIR THDA Y. [1877.
be relieved of. During the session of 1877-78 Dr. Hodge
taught the senior class Didactic Theology, and lectured to
the junior class as usual on the Exegesis of the Epistles,
while his son simply taught the middle class theology.
At the end of that year Dr. Hodge handed over to his son
the entire department of Didactic Theology, intending to
retain to the end of his life the exegesis of the doctrinal
epistles. His death immediately after necessitated the
transference of that department to his other son, Professor C
W. Hodge. When his eldest son was inaugurated in the old
First Presbyterian Church of Princeton, November 8, 1877,
the Presbyterian says, " During all the services we noticed
that many eyes were turned to a corner of the church in
which a venerable man sat apart communing with himself,
with his heart doubtless rilled with varying emotions."
His mind must have gone back to August I2th, 1812,
when he, a stripling, lying on the rail of the gallery of
the same church, looked down on the inauguration of Dr.
A. Alexander to the same office. For from August 12,
1812, to November 8, 1877, for more than sixty-five years
there had been only two professors of Systematic Theology
in Princeton, and Dr. Hodge received the office from a man
he delighted to call father, and now transmitted it to his son.
HIS EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY.
On the occasion of his eightieth birthday a number of
his dear friends united in making him a present as a testi-
monial of affection. This was transmitted to him by Dr.
H. A. Boardman, who also published a graceful notice of the
anniversary of the beloved patriarch in the Presbyterian.
Hence arose the occasion of the following letters.
DR. HODGE TO DR. BOARDMAN.
PRINCETON, December 27, 1877.
My Dear Friend : I need not say that your letter and its inclo-
sures were a surprise. Much less is it necessary to assure you that I
^T. 80.] HIS EIGHTIE TH BIR THDA Y. 575
am very grateful to all the friends named in your letter for their
kindness and kind feeling. Least of all need I say that you, as the
alpha and omega of the whole, claim my warmest thanks. You are
not yet old enough to know how friends increase in value as they de-
crease in number. So large a proportion of those to whom I was
most attached, and on whom I most depended, has gone before, that
I cling like a tottering man to those who are left. Out of mere sel-
fishness I pray that they may be spared, and be allowed to diffuse
happiness around them to the end.
I must beg you to express my thanks to the friends who have
joined you in placing this chaplet on my hoary head.
Your landlady (Mrs. Hodge) returns her acknowledgments for
your New Year's card; it occupies a conspicuous place in the study.
With entire confidence and warm affection, your friend,
CHARLES HODGF.
THE SAME TO THE SAME.
PRINCETON, January 15, 1878.
My Dear Doctor : If you were in one room and Angelina Patti
singing in another, the doors being opened, you would not need ask
who it was. So when I read the article in the last Presbyterian, I
was at no loss as to its author. I knew only one man who has the
goodness, the skill, the delicacy and refinement which it manifests.
I should be a churl if I were not grateful for such a tribute. Never-
theless I cannot absorb it. It is a delusion. It is not what I am, but
what God's providence has done with me, that you have in the eye
of your imagination. Had I been settled in a retired parish, no
body would have ever heard my name. Besides, I believe that
every man, unless partially demented, whatever men may say of
him, knows in his own heart that he is " a poor shote."
I don't believe that the rod with which Moses smote the rock in
the wilderness, was any great thing of a stick after all.
Nevertheless, although I see through your delusion, I am not less
grateful for your goodness and love.
We are looking forward to the pleasure of seeing you before the
close of the week.
Your affectionate friend,
CHARLES HODGE.
HIS WRITING DURING THESE LAST YEARS.
He published in the Repertory, January 1871, "Preaching
the Gospel .to the Poor," and April 1876, "Christianity
576 HIS LAST WRITING. [1878.
without Christ." These are his last articles in that Review,
so long connected with his name, and worthily close his
long and consistent warfare for the truth, as it is in Jesus,
and for the interests of his people. In 1872 he wrote the
latter part of his "Systematic Theology." In 1874 he
published a small book entitled "Darwinism," in opposi-
tion to the prevailing doctrine of Atheistic Evolutionism^
In December, 1877, he wrote at the request of a member
of the Free Church Presbytery of Glasgow, a letter defining
and maintaining the old doctrine of the plenary inspiration
of the Scriptures. And the Independent of May pth, 1878,
published his very last contribution to the press.
The Independent and its correspondent had insisted that
the "first question" (in regard to the eternity of sin and
misery) "is not the exegetical but the ethical one. We
want to know what God says ; but it is impossible to
believe that God says anything which our moral sense tells
us he ought not to say." In a long and, as was on all
hands admitted, a clear and forcible argument, worthy of
his prime, Dr. Hodge argued that this is no new question,
and the dangers of the present moment are not beyond
precedent ; that the difficulty grows out of the decline of
piety, and that a clearing of the horizon was more to be
expected through a revival of religion than from the specu-
lations of those who had rendered such a confused account
of the matter in hand. He shows that the word " intui-
tion" is taken in two senses. 1st. In the proper sense, it
signifies those immediate judgments of the mind, whether
intellectual or moral, which are necessary and universal in
all times. " Such primary truths are part of the primary
law written by the finger of God on the hearts of men.
They are the barrier against utter skepticism. The man
who breaks through them plunges into the abyss of outer
darkness." 2. In the popular sense of the word, it means
"the immediate judgment, whether a thing is true or false,
right or wrong. They are as variable as the wind, and as
Ml. 80.] HIS LAST WRITING. 577
unstable as water. To make them the rule by which to in-
terpret the Word of God is simply ' to annihilate it as a rule
of faith and practice. It is to substitute our reason for
God's reason, our moral judgments for his moral judg-
ments. Whatever eupheuistic phraseology may be adopted,
this is the soul and essence of infidelity." He shows, then,
that the Independent and its correspondent had used the
phrase in the popular sense, and hence that their argument
was built upon false premises and led to dangerous conse-
quences.
It was claimed that we must interpret the Bible by what
our moral sense teaches. " By moral sense here must be
meant the moral sense of the individual reader. It cannot
by possibility mean those moral judgments which are neces-
sary and universal. It is a contradiction to say that the
Christian Church has for ages believed what no man can by
possibility believe. * * * * What the Bible teaches is a
matter of fact. It is a philosophical axiom that what all
men believe, in virtue of the constitution of their nature,
must be true. It is scarcely less certain that what all
Christians believe that the Bible teaches, in point of fact it
does teach."
37
CHAPTER XIV.
HIS LAST DAYS.
THE end came not from positive disease, but from ex-
haustion of nature. During the entire session he had
met his four appointments a week with his classes with per-
fect regularity, only two exceptions being remembered. Yet
his strength was gradually, though almost imperceptibly fail-
ing. He took his nourishment very regularly, but with al-
most no appetite and in diminishing quantities. In the early
spring he once fainted at the table. Then his weak resources
were very severely tried by the sudden deaths of two of
his best-beloved nieces on successive Saturdays in April.
His record is : "April 6th Our dear niece, Harriet Wool-
sey, wife of Dr. H. Lenox Hodge, died suddenly. She
apparently fainted, and never revived. One of the loveliest
and best of women." Then, alas ! again: "April 13 Died
suddenly, Alice Van Rensselaer, wife of Rev. Edward B.
Hodge. The joy and pride of her whole family connec-
tion." On April I4th he discoursed for the last time at the
"Conference" in the old Oratory, in which he had delivered
the first student's speech a few months more than sixty
years before. His subject was, " Fight the Good Fight of
Faith," and on the afternoon of April 2ist he administered
and partook with the professors and students in the Semi"
nary Chapel of his last communion.
578
yET. 80.] HIS LAST DA YS. 5 79
It had been his custom for years to spend the month of
May with his brother-in-law, General David Hunter, in the
city of Washington, and the months of July and August at
Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island. From these changes he
had hitherto uniformly experienced very decided advantage.
But at the close of the Seminary term, on this last year, his
physician and friends were in great doubt whether his
strength was sufficient for either of these journeys. Sug-
gestions were made with regard to his seeking relief from
the midsummer heats at some nearer and more readily ac-
cessible point on the New Jersey coast. But after much
hesitation he went to Washington at the usual time, the 2d
of May.
Then came the death of his life-long friend, Prof. Joseph
Henry of the Smithsonian Institute. For this noble man of
science and truly Christian Philosopher Dr. Hodge had a
long-cherished and warm personal affection, as well as intel-
lectual sympathy and sincere admiration. Professor Henry
had said of Dr. Hodge that " He had made the best use of
his talents his life through of any man he ever knew."
When visited, May, 1873, at the Smithsonian by a large
part of the General Assembly, just retiring from their ses-
sions in Baltimore, he declared, in response to their saluta-
tions, that " by birth, by education, and by preference he was
a Presbyterian." The last letter, except a few brief business
notes, he ever wrote, contains a statement of his conviction
that physical science demonstrates the existence of an om-
nipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and absolutely good God.
And further than this, that the facts of experience prove
the necessity of such a mediator between God and man as
Christians believe Christ to be. And that Christ he lived
and died trusting and loving.
Thursday afternoon, May i6th, Dr. Hodge attended the
funeral of Professor Henry in the New York Avenue Pres-
byterian Church. He made a long prayer, emphasizing in
climacteric order the great fundamental principles of the plan
580 HIS LAST DAYS. [1878.
of salvation, with such an effort of voice that he was fairly
well heard by that vast audience. Yet this was simply the
result of an exhaustive excitement. It was the last occa-
sion in which he was ever in a church. His decline, which
had been marked ever since he came to Washington, be-
came now more rapid. He suffered from indigestion, weak-
ness, weariness, and from acute neuralgic pains. On the
next Thursday his son-in-law, Colonel S. W. Stockton,
brought him to Baltimore, where they spent the night with
the beloved family of the Rev. Andrew B. Cross. On
Thursday, by the kindness of Wolcot Jackson, General
Superintendent of the New Jersey division of the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad Co., the limited express stopped for his ac-
commodation at the Princeton Junction. He came in a
horizontal position, and as he affirmed, with more comfort
than ever before
His pulse indicated vital exhaustion, and he gradually
grew weaker. He rode out every day up to the 2Qth of
May. He spent the days in his old chair in the study and
his nights in his bed-room, in the second story, up to the
2d Sabbath of June. Then his absent children were sum-
moned, and then a bed was erected for him in the back par-
lor, next adjacent his study, and where, a generation before,
he had lectured to his classes during his lameness. He
strove to spend the day-time in the study, on the old chair,
to the last. On one of those very last days he said : " This
old chair and I have been growing to fit each other for
forty years." When at last, on Monday, two days before
he died, late in the afternoon, he fainted almost for his bed ;
it was indeed a touching sight to see him delay his needed
movement to the other room to the last possible moment,
as he was as conscious as we were that he was leaving that
chair and study for the last time. He suffered frequent pain,
and almost constant uneasiness and distress. Yet he reclined
and waited in beautiful patience and peace, his face always
overflowing with love, " Even through the last hours of
JET. 75 ] HIS LAST DAYS. 581
his illness, when freedom from pain and from torpor was
gained for a little, he was alert and inquisitive, with his
usual interest in events around him, and events of the day :
the Presbyterian Assembly, the Congress at Washington,
the Congress at Berlin, the College at Princeton, and the
minutest concerns of his own children and grand-children
here and elsewhere. This rapid and wide synoptical vision
was that of a consciously dying man. For he had been
busy in setting his house in order, and wisely making the
most exact arrangements in view of his final demise. He
knew that death was at hand, and though it did come
sooner than he looked for, he repeatedly spoke of its ap-
proach being ' slow: " *
He did not wish to die, yet he was evidently without
the shadow of fear or of painful reluctance. He main-
tained to the last his characteristic aversion to being read
to, and his shyness as to the expression of his intimate,
personal feelings. To a loving inquiry of his wife he once
said, " Yes, my love, my Saviour is with me every step of
the way, but I am too weak to talk about it." Once she
asked him if it would comfort him if she should repeat
aloud his favorite hymn ; he answered, " No, dearest, I am
repeating it over and over again to myself all the while."
That his dying thoughts may be known the hymn is
given :
HYMN OF THE LATE MRS. WEISS.
Daughter of the late Archbishop of Dublin ; composed on her death-bed.
I.
Jesus, I am never weary,
When upon this bed of pain ;
If Thy presence only cheer me,
All my loss I count but gain,
Ever near me,
Ever near me, Lord, remain !
* Dr. A. T. McGill's letter to the New York Observer.
582 HIS LAST DA YS. [1878.
II.
Dear ones come with fruit and flowers,
Thus to cheer my heart the while,
In these deeply anxious hours ;
Oh ! if Jesus only smile !
Only Jesus
Can these trembling fears beguile.
III.
All my sins were laid upon Thee,
All my griefs were on Thee laid ;
For the blood of Thine atonement,
All my utmost debt has paid ;
Dearest Saviour !
I believe, for Thou hast said.
IV.
Dearest Saviour ! go not from me ;
Let Thy presence still abide ;
Look in tenderest love upon me,
I am sheltering at Thy side.
Dearest Saviour !
Who for suffering sinners died.
V.
Both mine arms are clasped around Thee ;
And my head is on Thy breast ;
For my weary soul has found Thee
Such a perfect, perfect rest.
Dearest Saviour !
Now I know that I am blessed.
Seeing his widowed daughter weeping while she watched
him, he stretched his hand towards her and said : " Why
should you grieve, daughter ? To be absent from the body
is to be with the Lord, to be with the Lord is to see the
Lord, to see the Lord is to be like Him."
On the Wednesday previous to his death his dear friend,
Dr. H. A. Boardman called, and with great tenderness set
upon his forehead a farewell kiss. On the last day of con-
scious life he saw Dr. William Adams, who gave the follow-
ing account of the interview to the New York Observer.
JET. 80.] HIS LAST DA YS. 583
"Being in Princeton, as a trustee of the College, last
Tuesday, and having heard through the papers of the ill-
ness of Dr. Hodge, I called at his home to inquire how he
was. Hearing that I was in the library with his sons, Dr. H.
requested to see me. Such a request was to me at once a
surprise and a gratification. I found him in extreme debility,
so that I immediately cautioned him against making any
effort to speak. He had taken my hand as I came to his
bedside, and held it through the whole interview ; his con-
versation with me being chiefly by its responsive pressure
and the intelligent expression of the eye. My words were
very few, assuring him how many there were who held him
in their thoughts and hearts ; and, most of all, how certain
it was, amid all his discomforts, that he was not forgotten
by Him who, knowing our frame, 'pitieth those who love
Him even as a father pitieth his children/ Both hand and
eye responded that he felt the beauty and force of that one
inspired word which taken out from the Bible would leave
an irremediable vacancy 'pitieth' Entirely conscious was
he as he lay calmly waiting for the lifting of that curtain
which alone separated him from the vision of his Lord.
" I have since been informed that I was the last person
out of his own family who saw Dr. Hodge before his death.
A few hours later he passed into a sleep from which there
was to be no waking."
Thus he slept until, in trie presence of his wife and chil-
dren and elder grand-children, life ebbed away entirely at
six o'clock, P. M., on Wednesday, the iQth of June, on the
middle day of Commencement Week of the College.
At one o'clock on Saturday, the 22d, an informal meeting
of the Presbytery of New Brunswick was held in the lec-
ture-room of the First Presbyterian Church, Princeton,
where resolutions were passed, expressive of their sense of
the Christian elevation of his character, and of the value of
his services, and of the loss involved in his death. Then
the Presbytery, with many other clergymen, alumni of the
584 ffls LAST DA YS ' [1878.
Seminary, and others, met in the chapel, where the remains
of the venerable Professor were borne, and for a short time
presented to the view of his pupils and friends. At this
meeting Dr. Atwater presented another set of appropriate
resolutions, at the request of several members of the Boards
of Directors and Trustees of the Institution, which were
unanimously passed. The procession was formed in the
grounds of the Seminary, the body being borne and depo-
sited in the grave only by the sons and nephews of the
deceased. The Presbytery of New Brunswick, the Direc-
tors and Trustees and other officers of the Seminary and
College and other institutions, and other clergy and friends,
forming in line, proceeded to the First Presbyterian Church.
All the stores in the town were closed, and all business
suspended in token of respect.
In the church the Rev. President McCosh read the Scrip-
tures; the Rev. Dr. Paxton, of N. Y., delivered a funeral
address with admirable taste and effect ; the Rev. Dr. Adams,
President of Union Theological Seminary, and the Rev.
Dr. Henry A. Boardman, of Philadelphia, offered prayers.
The procession then reformed, and the body was carried to
its resting place in the lot next to that of the Alexanders,
in- Princeton Cemetery. Here, as he was lowered into the
grave, his pastor, the Rev. Horace G. Hinsdale, repeated
the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and after prayer,
pronounced the benediction.
Resolutions expressive of the reverence and love with
which he was regarded, and the sorrow which his death oc-
casioned, were passed by the Trustees of the College, by
the Alumni of the Seminary at their next annual meeting,
and by the various Boards and Societies of which he was a
member. Cordial and appreciative notices of his death ap-
peared as editorials in all the papers of all evangelical de-
nominations. Especially it is proper to notice three emi-
nently intelligent and discriminating, as well as affectionate
notices of his character and achievements: (i) An article
JET. 80.] HIS LAST DAYS. 585
on "The late Dr. Hodge," in the British and Foreign Evan-
gelical Review, October, 1878, by his loved and trusted pu-
pil, Rev. Robert Watts, D. D., Professor of Systematic
Theology in the Assembly's Theological College, Belfast,
Ireland. (2) An address delivered before the First Presby-
terian Church, of which Dr. Hodge was a member and life-
long communicant, by the Rev. Prof. Lyman H. Atwater,
D. D., for some years his colleague in the editorship of the
Princeton Revieiv. (3) An address by his friend, Dr. H. A.
Boardman, before the Directors and Alumni of the Semi-
nary, in the First Presbyterian Church, Sunday morning,
April 23d, 1879. These addresses were printed and widely
circulated. A tablet was also erected to his memory in the
chapel of the Seminary, and unveiled with an address by
Dr. Boardman, Tuesday, April 25th, of the same year.
I append the following selections from the contemporary
notices of his death, because of their character, and because
they furnish the testimony of Christian scholars of other
denominations.
The editor of the National Repository, a Methodist maga-
zine, wrote : " Timothy Dwight, Nathaniel Emmons, Sam-
uel Hopkins, Edwards A. Park, Moses Stuart, Nathaniel
W. Taylor, Albert Barnes, the Alexanders, Francis Way-
land, Tayler Lewis, Bishop Mcllvaine, Bangs, Fisk, Mc-
Clintock, Whedon, Bledsoe, Dr. True, whose loss we have
just been called on to mourn also, and a hundred others
have shed lustre on the American name since the era of in-
dependence opened ; but none of these can, in grandeur of
achievement, compare with Charles Hodge, who recently
died at Princeton, an octogenarian. He was not only par
excellence the Calvinistic theologian of America, but the
Nestor of all American theology, and though we differ
widely with him in many things, we yet accept this master
mind and beautifully adorned life as the grandest result of
our Christian intellectual development. He produced many
valuable writings, but above all stands his ' Systematic The-
586 HIS LAST DA YS. [1878.
ology,' a work which has only begun its influence in mould-
ing the religious thought of the English-speaking world.
We could wish that its fallacy of dependence on the Calvin-
istic theology were not one of its faults. But what is this
slight failing compared to the masterful leading of a thou-
sand, lost in speculation, from the labyrinth of doubt and
despair to the haven of heavenly faith and angelic security ?
We may say of this now sainted man, ' With all thy faults
we love thee still.' Princeton has lost its greatest orna-
ment, the Presbyterian Church its most precious gem, the
American Church her greatest earth-born luminary."
The Congregational paper, the Christian at Work, for
June 27th, 1878, edited by Dr. Wm. M. Taylor, contained
an editorial written by Dr. Doolittle, a Professor in the Re-
formed (Dutch) Church, and a former pupil of Dr. Hodge.
He closes thus: " It is not, however, as the erudite Profes-
sor, nor as the masterly reviewer, nor as the impressive
pulpit orator, nor as the gifted author of commentaries and
theologies, that the venerated Princetonian will be most
remembered by former pupils. It was rather on those
fondly memorable Sabbath afternoons when he used to un-
fold before the hearts of rapt listeners the meaning of Scrip-
ture passages. Oh, with what sweet evidences of love, born
not of earth but of heaven ; of unaffected grace burning in
his heart and beaming, like the glory of Moses, from his
countenance that he appeared at his greatest and best.
Can any one that ever saw this good man while in the endea-
vor to portray the entrance of a divine life into our human
life, opening unconsciously the door of his own heart, and
exhibiting Jesus enthroned there on a believing, yearning,
loving, rejoicing disposition, ever forget how he realized at
that supreme moment that Jesus is greater than the greatest
of great men, that the Redeemer who could thus irradiate
and transform his worshipper is worthy of universal adora-
tion and love. Oh, profound earthly teacher, thou wast yet
infinitely less than the Heavenly Teacher whose words thou
JET. 80.] HIS LAST DA YS. 587
didst live to exemplify in thine own character and utter-
ances; for showing us this we bless thee more than for all
thine other works."
CHARLES HODGE, OF PRINCETON.
A Prince, wise, valiant, just, and yet benign;
His own will free, and still by law controlled :
No King, with armaments and fleets untold,
Such mastery had with purpose so divine,
O'er unseen forces active and malign.
He fought th' invisible spirits of the air,
Nor for himself alone, but for his race,
And men grew wiser, better, unaware
That he in silence, by his faith and prayer
Saved their beleaguered souls. Spirit of Grace
Who in him wrought, and held him in the strife,
We give Thee thanks that Thou didst him ordain
Unto a work wherein no act is vain,
And death but longer makes the service and the life.
A. D. F. R.
CHAPTER XV.
DR. HODGE CONSIDERED AS A TEACHER, PREACHER, THEO-
LOGIAN AND CHRISTIAN MAN.
I HAVE in the preceding chapters given the facts which
constitute what remain to us in memory of the earthly
life of the subject of this memoir. In this chapter will be
presented a reflection of the image he cast in the several
offices he filled on the minds of some of the most compe-
tent of his pupils and friends.
I. DR. HODGE AS A TEACHER OF EXEGESIS.
BY THE REV. BENJAMIN B. WARFIELD, PROFESSOR OF THE WESTERN THEOLO-
GICAL SEMINARY, ALLEGHENY CITY, PA.
Rev. A. A. Hodge : Remembering your request, I shall endeavor
to write absolutely impartially the impressions made upon me as a
student of your father's exegetical teaching. This is no easy matter,
the danger being that like the skeptics I shall lean over backwards
from the very effort not to lean forwards.
He taught exegesis only to the juniors, and although five years
have elapsed, the impressions made at that time remain as vivid as
though it were yesterday. His very mode of entering the room was
characteristic. Infirm as he was, he was not bent by extreme age or
infirmity ; his carriage was erect and graceful, and his step always
firm. The mantle that hung from his shoulders during the cooler
months heightened the effect of graceful movement. I well remem-
ber that when he stepped into the aisle of the first church to welcome
Drs. Dorner and Christlieb on their visit to Princeton, in the autumn
of '73, I thought I had never witnessed a finer spectacle of strength
588
BY PROFESSOR WAR FIELD. 589
and grace combined. And yet it was but an example of his ordinary
bearing ; he gave me the same impression every time he entered the
recitation room. After his always strikingly appropriate opening
prayer had been offered, and we had been settled back into our seats,
he would open his well thumbed Greek Testament on which it was
plain that there was not a single marginal note look at the passage
for a second, and then throwing his head back, and closing his eyes,
begin his exposition. He scarcely again glanced at the Testament
during the hour, the text was evidently before his mind, verbally,
and the matter of his exposition thoroughly at his command. In an
unbroken stream it flowed from subject to subject, simple, clear, co-
gent, unfailingly reverent. Now and then he would pause a mo-
ment to insert an illustrative anecdote now and then lean forward
suddenly with tearful, wide-open eyes, to press home a quick-risen
inference of the love of God to lost sinners. But the web of his dis-
course for a discourse it really was was calm, critical and argumen-
tative. We were expected to take notes upon it and recite on them
at our next meeting. This recitation was, however, brief, covering
not often more than a quarter of an hour ; and we consequently felt
that lecturing was the main thing.
This, then, was how he taught us exegesis. The material of the
lectures resembled very much his printed commentaries. I thought
then, and I think now, that Dr. Hodge's sense of the general mean-
ing of a passage was unsurpassed. He had all of Calvin's sense of
the flow and connection of thought. Consequently the analysis of
passages was superb. Nothing could surpass the clearness with
which he set forth the general argument and the main connections
of thought. Neither could anything surpass the analytical subtlety
with which he extracted the doctrinal contents of passages. I can
never forget how bitingly clear his sentences often were, in which he
set forth in few words the gist of a chapter. He seemed to look
through a passage, catch its main drift and all its theological bear-
ings, and state the result in crisp sentences, which would have been
worthy of Bacon ; all at a single movement of mind.
He had, however, no taste for the technicalities of Exegesis. He
did not shrink from them in his lectures, indeed ; but on such points
he was seldom wholly satisfactory. His discussion of disputed
grammatical or lexical points had a flavor of second-handedness
about them. He appeared not to care to have a personal opinion upon
such matters, but was content to accept another's without having
made it really" his own. He would state, in such cases, several
views from various critical commentators, and then make choice be-
tween them ; but I could not always feel that his choice was deter-
590 AS A TEACHER OF EXEGESIS.
mined by sound linguistic principles. He sometimes seemed to be
quite as apt to choose an indefensible as a plausible one guided, ap-
parently, sometimes by weight of name, sometimes by dislike to what
seemed to him over-subtlety, and, sometimes, it seemed, by theologi-
cal predilection.
He made no claim, again, to critical acumen ; and in questions
of textual criticism he constantly went astray. Hence it was that
often texts were quoted to support doctrines of which they did not
treat ; and a meaning was sometimes extracted from a passage which
it was far from bearing. But this affected details only, the general
flow of thought in a passage he never failed to grasp, and few men
could equal him in stating it.
From what I have written you will see that Dr. Hodge commanded
my respect and admiration as an exegete, while at the same time
I could not fail to recognize that this was not his forte. Even here
he was the clear, analytical thinker, rather than a patient collector
and weigher of detailed evidence. He was great here, but not at
his greatest. Theology was his first love.
I would like to say one word before the closing of my impressions
of your father as a teacher, because I fear that in writing to you of
other things most of your correspondents may neglect this. I have
sat under many noted teachers, and yet am free to say that as an
educator I consider Dr. Hodge superior to them all. He was in
fact my ideal of a teacher. Best of all men I have ever known, he
knew how to make a young man think. All the rote-learning that
could be done could not secure a good recitation to him. One must
have so learned a chapter of his theology, for instance, as to be able
to apply all the principles laid down in it on need, in order to be able
to recite to him at all. He had a way too of commencing his ques-
tioning away back of these principles, and by skillful interrogation
gradually making the student evolve them for himself, so finely
managing it that at last they would burst upon him as new and
self-discovered facts ; educed from his own thoughts. Thus they
were made part of the permanent furniture of his mind they were
no longer acquired things borrowed for occasional use, but his own,
"bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh." After that he could as
soon part with life as give them up.
I cannot hope either to describe this mode of teaching or express
my profound admiration of it. I can only say that in that room of
Systematic Theology, I think I had daily before me examples of
perfect teaching. The way he managed his own accumulations of
learning too constantly drawing on them for illustration and en-
forcement, constantly the master of them, and of every detail of them,
BY PR OF. WARFIELD. 5 9 1
was marvelous. We think that though learning is fuel to the mental
fire, yet there is such a thing as smothering the flames with a super-
abundance of fuel. But " so intense and ardent was the fire of his
mind that it was not only not suffocated beneath this weight of fuel,
but penetrated the whole superabundant mass with its own heat and
radiance." Every jot of that learning, consecrated to the Master's
cause, was ready to be utilized in the recitation room. Every jot of
it was Christianized by its passage through his mind from whatever
source it was drawn. Had I never gained another thing at Princeton,
I would bless God for permitting me to see this ! O si sic emnes !
Believe me as ever, yours, etc.
BENJAMIN B. WARFIELD.
II. DR. HODGE AS A TEACHER OF DIDACTIC THEOLOGY AND
AS A PREACHER, BY DR. WM. M. PAXTON, OF NEW YORK.
1st. As a Teacher of Theology.
It gives me great pleasure to think of Dr. Charles Hodge,
as I remember him when I was a student ; and to mingle
those early impressions with. my riper judgment of his gifts
and character, when in after life we were brought into more
intimate relations.
I entered the Seminary at the time when he was recover-
ing from a painful illness which confined him to his couch
for a long period during which the grace of God had
wrought in him such a matured and happy Christian expe-
rience, that his face shone in brightness and beauty as if it
had been the "face of an angel." This was noticed by all
the students, and was the frequent occasion of remark.
When he came into the class-room, still lame, leaning on
a staff, and blushing like a bashful boy, our sympathy was
excited but when he took his seat upon the chair, the
glance which he cast upon the class was one of such beam-
ing benevolence mingled with such quiet peace that we all
felt he had come in the spirit of the Apostle John, to teach
us out of his own deep spiritual intuitions the mystery of
the kingdom of God.
592 AS A TEACHER OF THEOLOGY.
His characteristics as a teacher of theology were dis-
tinctly marked.
The first impression which he made upon the student
was, his deep sincerity. It was his custom to introduce
each lecture with a short prayer, which was so simple, so
humble, and so manifestly the expression of a heart in
close fellowship with God, as to impress upon our minds
the conviction This is not a perfunctory professor, but a
man of deep experience, who comes to " testify what he
knows." The whole spirit and tone of the lecture was such
as to deepen this impression. He did not teach a system
which he had wrought out, but truths the power of which
he had felt in his own soul.
A second characteristic of his preaching was, the perfect
clearness with which he presented every subject. His mind
was both analytical and synthetical. Sometimes he com-
bined thought with singular power. His resources of
knowledge were large, and he often drew together truths
and facts from various quarters and built up massive, cu-
mulative arguments that we could see increasing in force
and power until they reached an irresistible demonstration.
But his chief power was analysis. A subject, as if by
magic, seemed to fall in pieces in his hands, in its most
lucid, logical, and striking form. The student often looked
on with astonishment to see how the light penetrated a
subject, and how the most abstruse things seemed reduced
to perfect simplicity. This clearness of thought, which
was one of his great elements of power as an educator,
arose partly from his comprehensiveness of mind, and his
peculiar capacity to balance points of thought and to ex-
hibit them in all their relations and adjustments. We take
it to be the attribute of a great mind to make difficult
subjects simple and clear. It is just here that Dr. Hodge
shows his superiority to other men. His intellect pene-
trated so far down into the deep well of truth, that the
water which he brought up was as clear as crystal.
B Y DR. . WM. M. PAXTON.
Connected with his lucid thinking was his unusual capa-
city for putting questions. He had no vague generalities,
he left nothing ambiguous, his questions went directly to
the heart of the subject. He had the faculty of putting
and of following up his questions with such skill as to
stimulate the mind of the pupil in the highest degree and
to make him detect and correct his own fallacies. In his
examination of the class he was always kind and genial, and
sometimes his vein of humor came to the surface. On one
occasion he asked a student what the Apostle Paul meant
by the expression, " I am sold under sin." " He meant,"
replied the student, " that he was taken in, or deceived by
sin." "Oh no," exclaimed the Doctor, his eyes sparkling
with fun, " Paul was not a Yankee."
Third. Another marked feature of Dr. Hodge's teaching
was its Scripturalness. He taught, not what he thought,
but what God said, not what a certain system required, but
what the Scriptures reveal ; not what the learning or piety
of past ages has formulated, but what the sure word of
truth has enunciated. With him, the simple question
was, What do the Scriptures teach ? And when this was
ascertained by the light which the study of the original
languages and exegetical investigation threw upon it, he
did not think that it was our province to stop and inquire
whether this was in harmony with our own reason, but to
accept it with an humble and trustful spirit. When God
speaks, and we understand his meaning, there is nothing
left for us but to bow and adore.
From the earliest ages there has been a strong tendency
upon the part of theological teachers to strain after novel-
ties. There has been an impression that even in this
sense, Theology is a progressive science, and that things
old must be constantly giving place to things new. Hence
the teacher must show his superiority to all who have ever
preceded him by discovering in the Scriptures what no one
had ever found before ; or if he fails in this, he must exert
38
594
AS A TEACHEK OF THEOLOGY.
his own ingenuity to invent a new system, and then show
his power to twist the interpretation of the Scriptures to its
support. Hence the whole track of the Church's history is
strewn with novelties.
From all such tendencies Dr. Hodge was absolutely ex-
empt. From originalities in this sense he shrank with
alarm. On the day of his semi-centennial celebration, he
turned with a beautiful simplicity to his brethren and said
that " Princeton had never been charged with originating a
new idea." To his mind this was a high distinction. It is
mind that has made Princeton a synonym for greatness,
but it was mind that feared God and never dared to origi-
nate what He had not taught.
Another tendency in the history of the Church is to
mingle God's truth with the world's philosophy, and the
admixture is sometimes proudly called a Philosophic Theo-
logy. We occasionally hear certain teachers styled Philo-
sophic Theologians. The appellation is designed to be
complimentary, but it has always seemed to me that if such
men do not stand directly within sweep, their hair at least
wilt be ruffled with the wind of Paul's tremendous denun-
ciation, "Though I or an angel from heaven preach any
other gospel unto you, let him be accursed."
This peril Dr. Hodge avoided with a conscientious hon-
esty, and with the most entire success. He did not teach
a philosophy, but a theology. Neither his system, as a
whole, or any part of it, was based upon philosophical
principles apart from the Word of God. We do not mean
to undervalue philosophy, nor do we mean to intimate that
Dr. Hodge had any light estimation of its worth. He was
a philosopher as well as a theologian. In all his teachings
he was abreast of the times. There was nothing in science
or philosophy which he did not strive to master, and when
such points came up in the course of theological discussion
he showed how capable he was of pointing out ever}' line
of agreement, and every point of contrast, and of exhibiting
BY DR. WM. M. PAX TON.
595
the hollow pretences of every philosophy, falsely so called.
It was just because of this mastery that he was able to
keep philosophy in its proper place. He never sought to
ally it with Gospel truth. Every student remembers, and
his public works now show, with what a simple confidence
he rested upon the Word of God for every proof, and that
he never asked us to accept any one point of doctrine
simply on the ground of a rational demonstration. He was
not a rationalist in any sense of the word. His sole
authority for eveiything was the teaching of the Scrip-
tures.
Fourthly. Still another feature of Dr. Hodge's teaching
was its spirituality.
The teaching of some great and good Professors is
purely intellectual ; they develop splendid systems, reason
with interest and force, and communicate abundance of
instruction, but the impression which they make is purely
intellectual. The students listen with a profound attention,
just as students in other schools listen to lectures upon law
and medicine and go away, instructed, indeed, but without
any spiritual or moral impression upon their minds or
hearts. The reverse of all this was true of Dr. Hodge.
His was not a dead theology. It was instinct with life.
What he gave us was bread from our Father's table. It
was life to his soul, and he dispensed it to us under the deep
conviction that it would be life to us, and that we could
make it the Word of life to others. His great intellect
shone in every discussion, but it was accompanied with
spiritual power, and it made upon us a deep practical
impression. He created an interest in the study of sci-
entific theology, but his impression on us did not stop
there ; he made us feel that we were dealing with sacred
things, and that these truths were to be to us and to others
" savors of life unto life or death unto death."
A Fifth distinguished feature of Dr. Hodge's teaching
was what may be called its Christocentric character.
596 AS A TEACHER OF THEOLOGY.
Christ was the centre of his whole system. What he
taught was "The truth as it is in Jesus.'* In this view
all truth has its relations to Jesus, and nothing is truth in
its highest sense, until it is seen and understood in this
relation. There is truth in astronomy and geology, but
these truths only attain their full significance when they are
seen in their relation to Christ, and it is understood, that
the planets and stars and solid granite were made by Him,
and that the end of their existence is to subserve his pur-
pose. Separate what are called the truths of science from
Christ, and they either lose their significance or become
false lights that lure us into error. As in nature all things
are luminous by reflecting the light of the sun, so in his
theology, all things shine in the light of Christ and his
cross. There was no point in his whole system of theo-
logy that did not derive its chief meaning from its relation
to Christ. Did he speak of God it was God in Christ.
" He is the revelation of the invisible God." When Pro-
fessor Albert Dod died at Princeton, he left this message
for the students of the College : " Tell them that Jesus
Christ is the God whom I worship." When Dr. Hodge in
the funeral address delivered this message to the students
which crowded the galleries, he threw into it a meaning
that thrilled and penetrated every heart. Did he treat of
creation it was the act of Christ. "All things were
created by Him, and without Him was not anything made
that was made." He knew nothing of a God who identi-
fied himself with nature, his God was extra-mundane, and
creation was not part of himself but the effect of his fiat.
He made this world for a purpose, and how grand it now
is as the arena of redemption. Did he treat of Provi-
dence it is the moral government of Christ over this
world, " sustaining all things by the word of his power,"
and directing all things in the interests of his Church. Did
he treat of the fall it was in the light of the cross. The
first Adam is best interpreted by the second Adam. Our
BY DR. WM. M. PA XT ON. 597
ruin is best understood by our recovery, the greatness of
our loss is demonstrated by the greatness of the price of
our redemption. In the same manner, he taught us to
look upon every subject as related to Christ. Man is
nothing, Christ is everything. We have no worthiness,
Christ is altogether worthy : He was so identified with us
that he stood for us, we are so united to him that we stand
in him ; our acceptance with God from beginning to end is
" in the beloved." He is the ground of our Election,
the foundation of our Justification, the fontal head of our
Regeneration, the means and medium of our Sanctification,
and the efficient cause and model of our glorification. He
is all in all, and we are complete in Him.
I remember that as students under Dr. Hodge we were
deeply impressed with the conviction that the thought most
in his mind was Christ, the being nearest his heart Was
Christ, the centre of all his theology was Christ. Now
that many years have passed, and I have heard other teach-
ers and read other authors, the impression grows upon me
as I remember my early instructor, that no teacher, no
author, so centralizes all things in Christ, or so uses all
things to glorify Christ.
What I have thus far said of Dr. Hodge embodies my
estimate of him as he rises upon my memory, sitting in the
class-room, and instructing us as students. Since that
time, however, his great work upon Theology, in three
volumes, has appeared, embodying the matured results of
his life of thought and study. The estimate which the
Church and the world will form of him as a theologian will
be determined by this work. We are willing that he shall
be so judged. Our own estimate is deepened and strength-
ened as we read these wonderful pages. We recognize
familiar features in the book, but it is essentially a new
work. I took elaborate notes of his lectures, and have
them still, in three bound volumes ; but there is not a
single subject which is not changed both as to matter and
598 AS A TEACHER OF THEOLOGY.
treatment. The thought is wholly recast, new accumula-
tions of learning are added, and the discussion adapted to
the most recent phases of thought and opinion. The im-
pression which it makes upon me is that of massive learn-
ing, of profound original investigation, of close, accurate,
irresistible logic, and of a comprehensiveness which takes
in the vast reach of thought in all its biblical and philoso-
phical connections, and exhibits each point of truth in its
relations to the whole.
The spirit of charity which reigns in this book will
reflect honor upon its author in all time. Theology and
controversy are inseparable, but here is controversy in its
most beautiful and attractive form. He has no word of bit-
terness to utter, every sentence is kind, every difference of
opinion is stated with fairness, and every argument is dis-
tinguished by candor and courtesy. Such volumes as these
will do much to redeem theology from the discredit which
the asperities of controversy have thrown upon it.
The system of theology which Dr. Hodge leaves us is
the old system which has been precious to the hearts of
saints in all ages, and yet in an important sense it is his
own system. Many recognize originality in nothing but
novelty, but in a far higher sense Dr. Hodge's system is
original it may be called Augustinian. Upon the day of
his semi-centennial, he was called the greatest living Au-
gustinian theologian. The leading features of these systems
are alike. The great doctrines of grace which Augustine
developed from the Scriptures with so much power, are no
less characteristic features of Dr. Hodge's theology. They
both had the unction from the Holy One which teaches
all things. They both speak from the depths of a profound
spiritual experience. They were both natural logicians,
and were prone to formulate their thought in a systematic
expression; but the system of Dr. Hodge is far more
learned, far more intelligent and complete than that of
Augustine. It is founded upon original investigation, and
BY DR. WM. M. PAXTON. 599
contains points of thought and methods of proof of which
Augustine never dreamed.
It may also be called Calvinistic, and yet the idea which
arises in the popular mind at the word Calvinism is not
realized in the system of Dr. Hodge. There are two ways
of presenting the same truth or doctrine ; the one is in its
hard, severe, repulsive ^form, and the other in its no less
true but attractive garb. The shield of our faith has two
sides ; the one is a dark iron side, the other is its bright
brazen side. To look on either side alone, will convey a
false idea. It is only when we see them both in their unity
and harmony that we get the true impression. This har-
mony Dr. Hodge realized with great success. There is not
one point of the Calvinistic system that he obscures, but he
lets in upon it the full light of God's love and mercy until
the heart melts into submission to His sovereignty.
The system of Dr. Hodge may also be said to be that of
the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, but he fills out
those statements of doctrine in a much more complete and
rounded form. The statements of the Confession are so
accurate that we could never consent to the alteration of a
single formula, but there can be no doubt that they need to
be supplemented by those views of God's love and mercy
and grace under which every doctrine of God's Word
should be made to shine in its practical presentation. To
the expounding of these doctrines in this light Dr. Hodge
was eminently fitted. His heart was filled with the love of
God, and this light he shed over every doctrine, whilst at
the same time his logical perception was so clear that he
never sacrificed a point of truth out of the mere gush of
emotion.
But whilst it is true that in all these respects the theology
of Dr. Hodge is the old system that is rendered sacred to
us by the faith and experience of ages, it is, nevertheless, in
an important sense his own. It is his own conception of
what the Scriptures teach. He has reached these same
6OO AS A PREACHER.
conclusions by his own independent line of thought. It is
the result of his own original investigation, and of his
exegetical examination of the divine record. He has for-
mulated the statement in his own way, articulated the sys-
tem in his own logical sequences, and established it by his
own proofs and modes of reasoning. His book remains to
the Church as a precious treasure. ,As a living theologian
he exerted a formative influence upon the theology of this
country in the times of controversy and change, and now
when he is gone this book will impress itself with great
power upon the thought of ages to come.
AS A PREACHER.
2d. As a preacher, Dr. Hodge was distinguished by the
same characteristics which marked him as a theologian.
He was not an orator in the common sense of the term.
He was too able to be popular. His train of thought was
usually above the comprehension of the majority of hearers
in an ordinary congregation. It was his habit to use a
manuscript, and his reading was not animated. It is true,
however, upon the other hand, that he was listened to by
people of thought and education with the greatest interest. He
always treated great subjects, and his clear thought, to those
who would appreciate him, was like water from a crystal
spring. I have frequently heard professional men speak
with great satisfaction of the way in which their minds had
been cleared upon certain subjects by hearing Dr. Hodge
preach. Others have quoted sayings which he uttered, and
passages from his sermons which had made an impression
upon their whole lives. His sermons upon public occasions
were always great, because he selected important themes, and
bestowed such thought and care upon their preparation.
His sermon, for example, upon " the teaching office of the
Church," delivered before the Board of Foreign Missions,
will remain as a treatise of permanent value, to instruct all
BY DR. WM. M. PAX TON. 6OI
those who wish to understand the principles which underlie
the work of Missions.
The students who heard his preaching in the chapel will
also remember a tender and devotional strain which often
mingled with his great lines of thought, and produced a
deep and lasting influence upon our hearts. Of this cha-
racter I remember particularly a sermon upon our Lord's
invitation to the " laboring and heavy laden," which stirred
the hearts of the students profoundly. It was just such a
sermon as would stimulate a great revival of religion.
As a public speaker, Dr. Hodge was most effective when
he did not use a manuscript. On a few occasions, before
smaller audiences, he spoke in this way, and always with
much impression. This left him free to be influenced by
his strong emotional nature, which sometimes rose into as-
cendency, and invested him with the power of a great
orator. No one who was present will ever forget an im-
promptu address which he delivered in the First Church,
in Princeton, about the time his son sailed as a missionary
to India. His fatherly affection working in unison with his
religious feeling, awoke him to a power of pathos which
thrilled the whole assembly with a wonderful impulse.
Another instance of a similar kind occurred at the funeral
of Professor Dod. They had been intimate friends. They
were both great thinkers, and had often talked together
upon the greatest themes. Dr. Hodge had been with Pro-
fessor Dod in his last hours, when his heart had been
opened to speak of Christ, and his dying confidence. With
these powerful impressions upon his mind, he arose to de-
liver his funeral address. Professor Dod had left with him a
message for the College students. When he came to that
point in his discourse, his heart swelled, and lifting his head
from the manuscript, he stood erect, and waving his hand
to the students who sat in the gallery, whilst the tears
poured down his face, he delivered the message with a gust
of emotion that went through that audience like the sweep
602 HIS SOCIAL QUALITIES.
of a storm through the forest. All hearts were broken,
and for a moment were held and swayed by a mighty
power. The scene stands before my mind this moment as
the most powerful effect of oratory which I have ever
witnessed.
III. His SOCIAL QUALITIES, AND THE MAIN TRAITS OF HIS
RELIGIOUS CHARACTER, BY His LIFE-LONG FRIEND, REV.
DR. HENRY A. BOARDMAN, OF PHILADELPHIA.
1st. His social qualities.
A retired student, in close and habitual communion with
the master-minds, ancient and modern, in the realms of
Biblical criticism and theology, he was no pent-up recluse
who saw nothing and cared for nothing beyond the sphere
of his own professional engagements. His sympathies were
as broad as our common humanity. And so vigilant an ob-
server was he of events, that nothing of importance escaped
his notice as he looked out through the loop-holes of his
retreat upon the great Babel.
His visitors were sure to find him as much at home with
the questions of the day, scientific or literary, political or
financial, domestic, foreign or international, as though these
had been his special study. Deep thinkers are apt to be
poor talkers. It was pleasant to sit down with a man who,
without being like Madame de Stael, simply " admirable in
monologue," could interest and instruct you upon any topic
you might propose.
His home was in the empire of the affections. Never did
a more kindly, loving heart throb in a human bosom.
There were those of old who said to the Master, " Thou
hast a devil." What wonder that some of their successors
should charge the disciple with bigotry, intolerance, malig-
nity ? All they knew or cared to know was, that he was
the accredited defender of a theology they hated. Accus-
tomed as they are to associate with its avowed creed ideas
of narrow-mindedness, virulence, and the like, they must
BY REV. DR. ff. A. BOARDMAN. 603
needs take it for granted that the Pontifex Maximus of this
creed was the very incarnation of these amiable qualities.
Had they charged simply that he was resolute in maintain-
ing his opinions; that he would make no compromise with
what he believed to be error; that no adverse array of num-
bers, talent, official station, or personal vituperation, could
repress the frankest expression of his sentiments on all fit-
ting occasions ; that, in a word, truth was dearer to him
than life, and he would have stood for it like Luther at
Worms, with an empire or a world in arms against it; had
this been the indictment, no one could have traversed it-
But when it comes to be a question of tone and temper, it is
a different matter. Here he was a very child. Not one of
his various eulogists has failed to advert to this feature of
his character. Addicted as he was to laborious study in
the grandest fields open to our research, and capable, be-
yond most men, of scaling the heights and sounding the
depths which define the limits of human thought, he
entered with a lively zest into the current talk of the
hour, the amusements of children, the petty news-gather-
ings of his visitors nothing, indeed, was too trivial to
interest him.
In society, he was no monopolist like Coleridge and
Macaulay, but, as already hinted, he was certainly one of
the most fascinating of talkers. A very noticeable thing
about him was the facility with which he would pass from
the lightest to the gravest themes. Abounding as he did in
anecdote, no boy enjoyed a good story more. Grim Cal-
vinist as he was said to be, his airy spirit revealed itself in
a tide of humor as inexhaustible as it was refreshing. Wit
he had, no less; as many a remembered pleasantry, and
many a sentence in his polemical essays will attest. But
this keener weapon was kept more in reserve. It was wit
as refined and sweetened into humor by sympathy, tender-
ness and affection, that set off to such advantage his massive
intellectual powers, and sparkled through his conversation
604 HIS SOCIAL QUALITIES.
like the shimmer of the moonbeams upon the rippling lake.
This beautiful gift for such it surely is never degenerated
with him into irreverence, coarseness, or buffoonery. It
never carried him so far away from the cross and its sublime
verities that he could not pass at once, and without violence
to his own feelings or those of others, from the sprightliest
to the gravest topics ; from the commerce of small talk,
bristling with amusing reminiscences and brilliant repartee,
to the discussion of some subtle question of metaphysics or
theology, or the luminous exposition of some controverted
scripture. Whatever the company or the theme, he was al-
ways natural. He never paraded his learning ; never intro-
duced a topic for the sake of "showing off" upon it; never
assumed, in his intercourse with his students or others, an
air of superiority. His world-wide fame brought to his hos-
pitable door numerous visitors from remote States and for-
eign countries ; and nothing surprised and charmed them
more than the perfect simplicity and the quiet, unostenta-
tious manners of the man whom they had been accustomed
to look at from a distance with a sort of awe. With that
inborn refinement and courtesy which came of his gentle
blood, he aimed at drawing out his guests, while he listened;
and, it must be said, he added to his many other graces the
rare accomplishment of being a good listener, even where
there was not much to listen to. If they thwarted his pur-
pose and constrained him to do the talking, it was certain
to be in a strain that would run out the hour glass very
swiftly, but without one word designed for self-laudation.
All the more surely did it win their homage. For it is a
law written as well upon the heart as upon the inspired
page, " He that humbleth himself shall be exalted ; " and
when we meet with a person of rare powers or of signal
usefulness, who loses sight of himself in his concern for the
welfare of others, we instinctively pay him the tribute of our
loving admiration. How could Dr. Hodge's visitors help
carrying away this feeling with them ?
BY REV. DR. H. A. BOARD MAN. 605
He was formed for friendship. His nature craved it.
He could not do without it, and happily he was not put to
the trial. I do not now refer to that home which was
blessed and brightened with his presence, and where his
loving heart found full scope and verge, and was in turn en-
riched by the reciprocal in-flow of a love as tender as his
own. There was a circle outside of this upon which he
lavished his warm affection. No niggard in his generous
sympathies, his kindly wishes went out towards all whom
he knew; and there were many who shared his love. But
with him. as with us all, there were a chosen few whose
place came next after his own household. Among the
names which were oftenest on his lips were those of Johns
and Mcllvaine, Nevins and B. B. Wisner, Dod and James
Alexander, and Van Rensselaer. All these preceded him
to the better country. The first two were his fellow-stu-
dents at Nassau Hall, and the first four were his companions
in the Seminary. A brilliant constellation in the moral
firmament collectively, with the addition of him who was
facile princeps among them, they represented as much of
mental power and brilliant imagination, of keen dialectic
and exquisite taste, of racy humor and quick sensibility, of
liberal letters and commanding eloquence, of Christian ac-
tivity and usefulness, and, above all, in all, and through all,
of humble, earnest piety, as could be found among any sim-
ilar group selected from the entire rolls of our Seminaries
and Colleges.
The ties which linked Dr. Hodge with these kindred spirits
were never severed nor weakened, except as, one by one,
they were sundered by death.
2d. The principal traits of his religious character.
' If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my
Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make
our abode with him." The remarkable phraseology here
employed by the Saviour, which has no parallel in His other
recorded utterances, clothes the promise with a significance
6o6 HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER.
beyond our grasp. But here, if anywhere, was one to
whom it was given to enjoy the priceless distinction it con-
ferred. Manifest it was to all eyes that the Father and the
Son had come to him, not as a wayfaring man, to tarry for
a night, but to abide with him; or, translating this unusual
language into familiar phrase, that the Holy Spirit was
given to him in a very unwonted measure. Rarely, if ever,
did any one hear him speak of his own religious exercises
but this were as superfluous as to ask the harvest-moon
where she gets her splendor. His daily walk betrayed the
secret ; and the Oratory, beyond all other spheres, showed
that the " hiding of his power " lay in that indwelling of the
Spirit which made his life an habitual communion with
God.
In these exercises, as in his prayers above all, his
prayers at the family-altar the Christological type of his
piety constantly appeared. Not Rutherford himself was
more absorbed with the love of Christ. Around this cen-
tral sun, and so near to it as to be always aglow with its
beams, his whole being revolved. Christ was not only the
ground of his hope, but the acknowledged sovereign of his
intellect, the soul of his theology, the unfailing spring of
his joy, the one all-pervading, all glorifying theme and end
of his life. His very presence was felt by his students as a
benediction a means of grace, carrying with it a silent re-
buke, an encouragement, a stimulus to watchfulness and
fidelity according to their individual needs. A personality
like this has a power all its own. It is something differenr
from talent, learning, eloquence, dialectic skill, affable man-
ners, or all these combined. You cannot see it. You can-
not define it. But you can and must feel it. No one could
sit down with Dr. Hodge without feeling it perhaps more
sensibly than with almost any one they will have known.
And these young men felt it, not only in "his opening
prayers, which seemed to constitute his class-room a Bethel,
and the savor of which was as the incense of morn to the
BY REV. DR. H. A. BOARDMAN. 607
soul, wooing it upward to communion with God,"* but
through the entire routine of the daily lecture or recitation,
and, no less, in their familiar visits to his study.
If one were called upon to specify the most conspicuous
feature of Dr. Hodge's religious character, next to that
pure love with which his whole nature was transfused, it
would be his humility perhaps the most distinctively
Christian grace in the whole garniture of the believer.
Here was a man clothed with brilliant intellectual gifts,
an accomplished scholar, laden with generous stores of the
choicest learning, his utterances on all ecclesiastical and
dogmatic questions listened to by a great church with a de-
ference accorded to no other living teacher, lauded by
eminent theologians in Europe and America as " the theo-
logian of the age," and the constant object of undisguised
and loving reverence to all around him, yet modest and un-
assuming as a child never asserting his consequence:
never obtruding his opinions ; never courting a compliment f
never saying or doing anything for effect ; never challeng-
ing attention to himself in any way. Of course he could
not be blind to the homage which was paid him from every
quarter; but his own estimate of himself was framed by
quite another standard. His vast learning taught him that
he had barely crossed the border of that boundless domain
of truth which stretches off in every direction into the infi-
nite ; and his habitual feeling was that of La Place, who,
being complimented, when near his end, on the splendor of
his attainments, replied : " What we know is very little ;
what we do not know is immense." So in respect to his
personal piety. To all eyes but his own he had approached
as near to " the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus " as
any, the most favored, of those saints whose names the
church has embalmed. But so clear was his apprehension
* Article in the British and Foreign Evangelical Review, by his distinguished
Pupil Professor, Robert Watts, D. D., of Assembly's College, Belfast.
608 HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER.
of the spotless holiness of God, so transcendent his views
of the love of Christ and the debt we owe Him, and so
inwrought his sense of the turpitude of sin, that he could
only think of himself as a poor, miserable sinner saved by
grace ineffable, whose best services were utterly unfit to be
presented to God, whose purest aspirations were too impure
to be accepted save through the ever-prevalent intercession
of our great High Priest. Here, indeed, was a clear inti-
mation that the path he was treading lay close along the
suburbs of the heavenly city. For the inevitable effect of a
near discovery of the divine glory must always be what it
was with Isaiah and the beloved apostle to overwhelm the
soul with a sense of its own vileness. Therefore it was that
our dear Professor was ever " clothed with humility "
clothed with it: it covered him like "a raiment of needle-
work " covered all the powers of his mind, all the trea-
sures of his learning, all the wealth of his affections, all that
jnade him great and good, loving and beloved, all that
moved us to look upon him as one given to the church
(may it be allowed me to say) to show how much a Chris-
tian may, even in this world, become like Christ. *
The topics with which we have now been engaged, have
brought into view the gentler side of Dr. Hodge's charac-
ter. There are those who will regard the qualities indica-
ted, as revealing a certain sort of weakness pardonable in-
deed, but still a weakness ; and an impeachment, so far, of
the title asserted for him by his friends to have his place as-
signed him among the really " great" men of this age. It
* May I illustrate this point by an incident not related at the delivery of the
discourse.
I was saying, " You ought to be a very happy man. Consider what you have
accomplished, and the universal feeling towards you " l( Now, stop!" said
he, with a wave of the hand. " All that can be said is, that God has been
pleased to take up a poor little stick and do something with it. What I have
done is as nothing compared with what is done by a man who goes to Africa, and
labors among a heathen tribe, and reduces their language to writing. I am not
worthy to stoop down and unloose the shoes of such a man.'*
BY REV. DR. H. A. BOARDMAN. 609
is simply a question as to what constitutes true greatness.
In the common judgment of the learned world, this distinc-
tion belongs by pre-eminence to pure intellect in its loftiest
manifestations, as, e. g., in the case of Thomas Aquinas or
Kant. Others would enthrone in their Pantheon the men
who combine with rare intellectual gifts, rich stores of
knowledge, a wide range of literary accomplishment, and a
voice or pen that can instruct and fascinate whole nations
like Cicero or Goethe. Others still, taught in a better
school, would have an intellectual Colossus, not only de-
corated with the triumphs and trophies of genius, but ani-
mated by a spirit of genuine piety devout and conscientious
" walking uprightly, working righteousness, and speak-
ing the truth," meeting all the claims of justice and equity,
and really kind at heart, albeit stern, phlegmatic, unsympa-
thizing. No one would refuse to accord the epithet " great "
to the choice spirits who make up any one of these classes ;
but do they, singly or united, supply all the attributes es-
sential to constitute the highest type of greatness? Can it
be necessary to answer this question, with the New Testa-
ment open before us ? This world has seen, since the fall,
but one perfect man. If you deify intellectual force, vast
erudition, philosophic penetration, here is ONE upon all
whose faculties is the stamp of infinitude ; whose mind holds
in its grasp all time and all space ; who guides alike the
stars in their orbits, and the pollen that floats through the
summer air ; and in comparison with whom the magnates
of your eulogy are but nursery-striplings. Yet where will
you find such meekness, such humility, such affectioiiate-
ness? What language have you to describe His ineffable
tenderness, His gentle bearing towards the erring, His
ready sympathy with every form of sorrow and suffering,
His overflowing love towards friends and foes, His delight
in little children in a word, that whole life which was in
truth a child-life ? No one, standing in the presence of
Jesus of Nazareth, will have the presumption to deny that
39
6 1 HIS RELIC 2O US CHAR A CTER.
we have here the very highest style of humanity ; and that
these milder graces are just as indispensable to its complete-
ness, as that array of grand intellectual endowments to
which the world pays willing homage.
Now why do I introduce our blessed Saviour upon this
scene ? Is it that we may challenge for our friend whom
we to-day commemorate, the first place among the great
men of our race? Is it that we may exalt him above this
or that illustrious philosopher or theologian in or out of the
church ? Far from it. It is simply to show that his true
position is among the very foremost of a class never large,
and augmented by only a few names in the course of a
century, who illustrate the supreme type of greatness a
type which demands the union of the rarest mental power,
with self-abnegation, patience, kindliness, and a feminine
tenderness of disposition. The combination of strength
and gentleness in his character was not merely conspicuous ;
it was transcendent : as among the men whom we may, any
of us, have known, it was unequalled unapproached. It
was the admiration of all who met him. It was the charm
that captivated his friends. It was the secret of that mag-
netic power which he exerted over so many hearts. It was
at once the fruit and the evidence of his close assimilation
to that loving Saviour in whose love he rejoiced with a joy
unspeakable and full of glory. The mind struggles in vain to
conceive what must be the rapture of such a soul on being re-
ceived into a world whose very atmosphere is love into the
immediate presence of that adored Redeemer, whose nature
is thofsame as when He wept with the sisters of Bethany, at
the very moment He was about to command the grave to
give back its dead.
Here, then, we have the true criterion of Dr. Hodge's
greatness. It is not questioned that there have been men
of still loftier intellectual culture, nor that there are names
still more suggestive of universal knowledge. But no ex-
ample is recalled in which an imperial intellect, mature
GENERAL ESTIMATE OF DR. HODG&S THEOLOGY. 6 1 I
scholarship, a creative imagination, acute sensibility, taste,
affectionateness, sterling humor, a soldier's courage and a
woman's gentleness, the freshness of youthful feeling un-
impaired at fourscore, and all the graces of the Spirit, were
more exquisitely blended. In the perfect harmony of his
mental and moral powers, the purity and benevolence of his
life, the wisdom and felicity of his doctrine, and the charm
of his conversation, we recognize the completeness of a
character, the like of which we do not expect to see this
side of heaven. From our heart of hearts we render thanks
to that God who made him what he was, and blessed the
church with his presence for eighty years.
IV. GENERAL ESTIMATE OF DR. HODGE'S SYSTEMATIC
THEOLOGY. BY CHARLES P. KRAUTH, D.D., PROFES-
SOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL
SEMINARY, PHILADELPHIA.
THE work opens with an Introduction, which treats of
Method; Theology; Rationalism; Mysticism; the Rule of
Faith in the Roman Catholic and Protestant view.
The First Part embraces Theology proper ; under which
are treated : Origin of the idea of God ; Theism ; Antithe-
istic Theories; Knowledge of God; His Nature and Attri-
butes; the Trinity; Divinity of Christ; the Holy Spirit; the
Decree of God; Creation; Providence; Miracles; Angels.
The Second Part is occupied with Anthropology ; Man,
his Origin and Nature ; Origin of the Soul ; Unity of the
Human Race; Original State of Man; Covenant of Works;
the Fall ; Sin ; Free Agency.
The Third Part presents Soteriology : the Plan of Salva-
tion; Covenant of Grace; the Person of Christ; His Media-
torial Work ; Prophetic and Priestly Offices ; Satisfaction ;
for Whom did Christ Die ? Theories of the Atonement ;
Christ's Intercession; Kingly Office; Humiliation; Exalta-
tion ; Vocation ; Regeneration ; Faith ; Justification ; Sancti-
fication ; the Law, with a Particular Commentary on each
6 1 2 GENERAL ESTIMATE OF DR. HODGE'S THEOLOGY,
Commandment; the Means of Grace; the Word of God;
the Sacraments ; Baptism ; the Lord's Supper ; Prayer.
The Fourth Part is Eschatology : the State of the Soul
after Death ; Resurrection ; Second Advent ; Concomitants
of the Second Advent
Of the general fullnesss and logical order of this arrange-
ment there can be no question. The discussion of the
Divinity of Christ as distinct from the Trinity might per-
haps better have been given under Soteriology, so as not to
separate the " Divinity of Christ " from the " Person of
Christ." The most important defect in the plan is that it
does not embrace a distinct and full treatment of the doc-
trine concerning the Church. The omission has been
made for some reason which satisfies Dr. Hodge. We hope
that it means that he proposes to give to the Church a
monograph on this subject, one of the most vitally impor-
tant and interesting doctrines of all times, but especially
in our own day. We know of no man more competent
than Dr. Hodge to rebuke, with the effectual weapons of
fact and logic, the insane pretences of the rampant pseudo-
ecclesiasticism of our time, and the yet insaner radicalism,
which frightens many into the ecclesiasticism.
The first thing which strikes us in reading Dr. Hodge's
book is the style. Whether we shall accept or reject what
he maintains may sometimes involve a question, or a pause;
but his simple, luminous mode of statement rarely leaves
us in any embarrassment as to what it is on which we are to
decide. The sentences are never involved. The language is a
model of clearness. There is a plain solid sense, the result
of a sound judgment thoroughly matured, which is delight-
ful beyond expression in this day and land of fine writing.
This, of course, will expose Dr. Hodge to the charge of
shallowness, from those who think that nothing is deep
but what is unintelligible, and that the art . of good writing
is the art of putting words to things in the proportion of
Falstaft's sack to FalstafFs bread, and that the measure of
words is like the. measure of Falstaff in the girth.
BY PROF. C. P. KRAUTH, D.D. 613
Another great feature of Dr. Hodge's book is, its value
to our common Christianity nay, in a wide sense, to reli-
gion on that broader definition in which the believing Jew
has a common interest with the Christian. To the gratitude
of Jew and Christian, Dr. Hodge is entitled by the able
vindication of Revelation against the assaults which would
bring the faith of Jew and Christian alike to the dust. To
Roman Catholic and Protestant, Dr. Hodge comes with a
defense of the common creeds of Christendom; to Calvinist
and Lutheran, with the able argument on the distinctive
elements of Protestantism and the precious truths reasserted
by the original Churches of the Reformation. Even in its
relative isolation as distinctively Calvinistic, Dr. Hodge's
book is invaluable. It is the gauge of the type of Calvinism
which is considered by its ablest living representatives as
tenable ; a Calvinism so gentle in its spirit toward other
forms of evangelical Christianity, and so full of the disposi-
tion to mitigate its own harder points, as to furnish irenical
elements of the most hopeful kind.
The general mildness, fairness, and clearness of the book
are far beyond dispute. It treats Polemics in the spirit of
Irenics, for the most part, but with here and there a delight-
ful little dash of merited sarcasm, a suspicion of irony, a
playful contempt for small presumption, and a quiet smile at
the absurd, which humanize the argument, and, with those
touches which make the whole world kin, bring the author
nearer to the reader. Nor are there wanting earnest and
eloquent passages, which deal with sin in a manner in keep-
ing with its exceeding sinfulness, and with conscious per-
versions after their evil deserts. There is no amiable inanity
in the book. It is not done in water-colors, as some people
would think it must be, because it is not executed with a
red-hot poker on an oak-board. Yet its prevailing character
is mild, quiet, firm, judicial. If it is often pleading, it is still
more frequently the decision of a judge, who sums up evi-
dence, interprets the law, and pronounces the sentence.
614 GENERAL ESTIMATE OF DR. HODGE'S THEOLOGY,
The evidences of enormous, yet reflective reading, every-
where present themselves, reading of the most varied kind,
among the best books and the worst books. There is a
gathering of honey for stores, and of poisons for the study
of antidotes. The range stretches over the ages, takes in
largely the German theology, and reaches apparently almost
to the days in which the volumes have come from the press.
The result of this anxiety to bring things down to the hour
has necessarily been that some of the latest reading has
been hasty and has involved Dr. Hodge in mistakes. But
the Doctor's greatest weakness, in this immensity of reading,
is where it might least have been suspected it is in Calvin-
istic theology. He seems to have neglected a part of the
Calvinistic theologians of no inconsiderable number and
bulk. On his own confession, so far as his memory can re-
call, he has failed to have seen a single one of a very large
and influential portion of those divines, so large in fact that
for some two centuries it is hard to find one who does not
belong to it. But we account for this on the principles of a
latent elective affinity. Like seeks only its like and holds
it. There rise up in history the grim and grisly features of
those old divines who liked election but who loved reproba-
tion ; who conceived of the human race as created chiefly
as fuel for Tophet, divines who would have thought no-
thing of the perdition of a universe or two, and, if necessary,
of throwing themselves in, if their logic proved that it was
all for God's greater glory those inexorable Jonahs on
whom a wilderness of gourds would have been lost in the
attempt to reconcile them to the sparing of Nineveh. If
Dr. Hodge long ago encountered these divines, he quietly
turned away into his own brighter -path, with other visions
of the divine glory. He did not plunge into the Sahara, in
the possibility of finding an oasis. Penetrated, as all his
works show, with the completest recognition which is pos-
sible to Calvinism, that God is love, Calvinism itself is
hardly in sharper contrast with Lutheranism than, within
BY PROF. C. P. KRAUTH, D.D. 615
Calvinism, Dr. Hodge himself is with Gomarus and his
pitiless school. The only apology which can be made for
that school is that which they constantly make for them-
selves that the logic of the system is with them, and that
they are with the logic of the system. They did not create
the horrors, they only told of them.
The general tone of the book is profoundly devout.
Though Dr. Hodge has moved largely and freely in the
living world, his most marked affinities are yet with the old.
He saith "the old is better." He has not put enough of
the new wine into the old bottles to rend them except
perhaps in a spot or two. In spite of recent reading, and
of the space devoted to the callow heresies of the hour, the
conception and organism of the book is prevailingly scho-
lastic, of the old Protestant type. It is old-fashioned theol-
ogy in the main ; and, like the best old-fashioned theology,
it has the heart of living piety beating through it. It is not
satisfied with teaching about theology : it teaches theology,
it is theology a true " theologia regenitorum" Its solid judg-
ment and learning will mark it to scholars as one of the
classics of Calvinistic Dogmatics, the ablest work in its
specific department in English literature. But it is more
than this, better than this. The graces of Christian life are
not repressed in it, as they have often been in the arid
formulating of systems. Moliere's Mock Doctor claimed
no more than that the medical profession had changed the
place of the heart from the left side to the right ; some of
the doctors in theology have left the heart out altogether.
But in Dr. Hodge's Body of Divinity there is a heart
whose beat is that of the fullest health and you can touch
the system nowhere without feeling a pulse. It is a book
for the affections. No man could obtrude himself less in
his books than Dr. Hodge does; yet all the more for this
very reason do we see the man himself in his books.
His life has been shaped upon the advice of old Sir John
Davies :
6l6 GENERAL ESTIMATE OF DR. HODGE'S THEOLOGY.
" Study the best and highest things that are ,
But of thyself, an humble thought retain."
Dr. Hodge's system furnishes a general landmark for
Christian thinking in one of its most influential shapes ; it
also furnishes a revelation of the spirit of Christian science,
a picture of the Christian scholar, a miniature of the Chris-
tian life. Dr. Hodge constitutes in himself a distinct evi-
dence of Christianity, and alike in what he writes and what
he is, vindicates the supremacy of Protestant culture.
It is a marked feature in Dr. Hodge's book that it does
unusual justice to the relative importance of Lutheran
theology. There are but two developed systems in the
world that claim with any show of probability to be purely
Biblical. These systems are the Lutheran and the Calvinistic.
They possess a common basis in their recognition of the
same rule of faith ; their profession of the Old Catholic faith
as set forth in the three General Creeds ; in their acknow-
ledgment of the doctrine of justification by faith and of its
great associated doctrines ; and they have vast interests,
great stakes, mighty bonds of sympathy in common. No
two bodies of Christians have more reason for thoroughly
understanding each other than Calvinists and Lutherans
have, and no two parts of Christendom are closer together
in some vital respects than consistent Calvinism and con-
sistent Lutheranism. It is well worth their while to com-
pare views.
But Dr. Hodge is not only full in his notices of Lutheran
theology he is also fair. Mistakes he has made, and very
important ones; but designed misrepresentations he has
never made. Next to having Dr. Hodge on one's side is the
pleasure of having him as an antagonist; for where conscien-
tious men must discuss a subject, who can express the com-
fort of honorable, magnanimous dealing on both sides the
feeling that in battling with each other they are also battling
for each other, in that grand warfare whose final issue will
be what all good men desire, the establishment o/ truth ?
INDEX.
A CT and Testimony, 292-295, 311-
A 314.
Alexander, Dr. Archibald, 18, 19, 26,
27, 28, 47-51, 65, 378-383, 454-
457, 519-523. 551-557- His Letters
to Dr. Hodge, 70, 71, 160-162,
235, 273, 274, 275, 281, 282, 327.
Alexander, Dr. Joseph Addison, 238,
435-438, 557-562.
Alexander, Dr. James W., 435-438,
562.
American Education Society, 261-264.
American Bible Society, 404-406.
Ancestry, i-io.
Articles in " Biblical Repertory and
Princeton Review," 260-271, 332-
343, 400-424, 575, 576.
Aunt Hannah, 2, 3.
T)ACHE, Sarah, 28, 29, 58-60.
* Banks, Rev. Joseph, D. D., 68.
Barnes on Romans, Review of, 270.
Bayard, John R. and James A., 5, 6.
" Biblical Repertory and Princeton Re-
view," 98-100. Its History, Char-
acter and Influence, 247-260. Dr.
Hodge's Qualifications and Suc-
cess as Editor and Reviewer and
leading contributor, 250-260. His
Articles and Reviews (from 1828 to
1840), 260-271, (from 1840 to
1851), 332 to 343, (from 1851 to
i86ij, 400-424.
Biggs, Dr. Thomas J., Letter from,
351, 352.
Blanchard, Mary, 7, 8, 9, 10, 31-33.
PHILDREN, 9 6, 97 , 9 s, 225, 3 6 7 ,
^ 368.
Church Boards, their Constitutionality,
401-403.
Church, Bishop Mcllvaine on the, 413-
418.
Church and Eldership, Lectures and
Articles on, 418-424.
Church and Political Questions, 491-
498.
Civil War, 460-481.
College Life, 20-38.
Commissions, 404.
Conference Sabbath Afternoons, 453-
459-
Cunningham, Principal William, 352-
364, 424-431. His Letters to Dr
Hodge, 355-358, 360, 3 6 2, 4 2 5-427
FjEATH of his Wife, 369-375. Of his
Mother, 229 ; and of his Brother,
535, 536. His own, 580-583.
Dod, Prof. Albert B., 364-367.
Disruption of the Presbyterian Church,
285-315-
"ECCLESIASTICAL Boards and Vol-
untary Societies, 264-267.
Evangelical Alliance of 1873, 547-55.
pESENIUS, 115, 116, 160.
Green, Dr. Ashbel, 7, 8, 13, 23, 26,
290, 295.
TJENGSTENBERG, 149, 154, 166,
174, 175, 179.
Historical Sermon at the reopening of
the Seminary Chapel, (Sept. 27,
1874), 551-564.
Hodge, Dr. Charles, Graduated from
College, 38, and from the Theo-
617
6i8
INDEX.
logical Seminary, 66, 67. Visit
to Virginia, 44-46. Studied with
Reverend Joseph Banks, D. D.,
68. Appointed Teacher in the
Seminary, 68. Licensed to Preach,
69. Journal of Preaching as Li-
centiate, 72, 74. Visit to Boston,
77-81. Stated Supply at Lambert-
ville, 84 ; and at Ewing, 84-87.
Ordination, 85, 86. Election as
Professor, 92-94. Inaugural Ad-
dress, 94. Marriage, 94-96. Birth
of Children. 96, 97. Founds the
" Biblical Repertory," or " Prince-
ton Review,' 1 98-100. Resolution
to go to Europe, 100-103. De-
parture, 103. Life in Europe,
104-201. Life in Paris, 109-114.
Life in Halle, 115-147. Life in
Berlin, 148-188. Switzerland, 197-
199. Return to Princeton, 201.
Introductory Lecture, 203, 204.
Work as Teacher, 204, 205. Work
as Preacher, 205, 206. Children,
Family Relations and Recreations,
225, 228. Death of his Mother,
229. Politics, 230-234, 245, 344-
347, 393-39 6 . 460-489- Lameness,
234-244. Remarkable Gatherings
in his Study, 239-240. " Biblical
Repertory and Princeton Review,"
its history, character and influence,
247-260. Dr. Hodge's qualifica-
tions and success as an editor and
reviewer ; his associate editors and
principal contributors, 250, 260.
Articles (from 1828 to 1840), 260-
271. Doctor of Divinity, 260.
Commentary on Romans, 271-279.
Constitutional History of the Pres-
byterian Church, 279-284. His re
lation to the " Act and Testimony,"
311-314. Change of Professor-
ship, 321. Method of Teaching,
323-324. The " Way of Life,"
324-331. His articles in the
" Princeton Review" (from 1840 to
1851), 332-343- Slavery, 333-336.
Beman on the Atonement, etc.,
337. Sustentation, 338, 339. Rom-
ish Baptism, 339-343. Moderator
of the General Assembly, 343.
Friendship and Correspondence
with Dr. William Cunningham,
352-364. Death of Professor Al-
bert B. Dod, 362-367. Marriage
and departure of his oldest chil-
dren, 367-368. Death of his Wife,
369-375. Disturbed health, 375-
377. Death of his senior col-
leagues, 378-383. Member of the
Boards of the Church, 384, 385.
Trustee of Princeton College, 385,
387. Method of Teaching, 387-
391. Second Marriage, 391, 392.
Letters on Dancing and Card-play-
ing, and the Baptism of the Infants
of Non-professors, 396-399. Com-
mentaries on Ephesians and i and
2 Corinthians, 400. Articles in
the "Princeton Review" (from
1851 to 1861), 400-424. The Con-
stitutionality of Church Boards,
401-403. Commissions, 404. The
American Bible Society, 404-406.
Subscription to the Confession of
Faith, 406-408. Religious Educa-
tion and the Relation of the State
to Religion, 408-411. " Free Agen-
cy," " Inspiration," etc., 411. Pres-
byterian Liturgies, 411. Bishop
Mcllvaine on tbe Church, 413-
418. Lectures and Articles on the
Church and Eldership, 418-424.
Deaths of Drs. James W. and
Joseph A. Alexander, 435-438.
Choice of a new Professor, 439-
446. Great Debate before the
Assembly of 1860 on the Boards of
the Church, 446-448. Appearance,
health,occupations and recreations,
after he had passed his 64th year,
449, 450. His Systematic Theolo-
gy, 451-453. Sabbath Afternoon
Conferences, 453-459. The Civil
War, 460-481. Reconstruction,
INDEX.
619
482-487. Seventieth Birthday, 486,
487. The Church and Political
Questions, 491-498. Case of the
Rev. Samuel B. McPheeters, D. D.,
498-501. Reunion, 501-508. Na-
tional Presbyterian Convention,
Philadelphia, Nov., 1867, 504-508.
His Semi-centennial, 509-530. His
Last Years, 531-577. Object of
Universal Love, 531-535. Death
of his Brother, 535, 536. Visit to
him of the General Assembly of
1873 in Washington, 545, 546. The
Evangelical Alliance, Oct., 1873,
547-550. Historical Sermon, 551-
564. Appointment of his Assistant
and Successor, 569-574. His
Eightieth Birth day, 574-575. His
Last Articles and Books, 575, 576.
His Last Writings, 576, 577. His
Last Days, 578-587. Obituary
Notices, 585-587. Estimate as a
Teacher of Exegesis, 588-591, and
as a Teacher of Theology and as a
Preacher, 591-602, and of his
Social and Religious Character,
602-611.
Hodge, Dr. Charles, Letters of, to his
Mother, 40-46, 53-58, 61-66, 75
81, 83, 86, 87-90, 97, 98, 104, 115,
116, 199.
To his Brother, 33, 34, 81-83,
86, 87, 100, 101, 229-234, 240-
247, 279, 305-308, 316. 317, 322,
343-351, 373-378, 382, 383, 393-
396, 441, 445, 446, 471-481, 484-
488.
To his Wife 109-1 1 2, 115, 117, 197-
199-200.
To Dr. A. Alexander, 69, 70, 90,
91, 105-109, 113, 114, 274-277.
To Dr. Tholuck, 207, 208, 210-
213, 216-219.
To Bishop Johns, 392, 393, 431-
433. 53 6 . 537, 565~5 6 7, 57Q, 57 1,
574. 575-
To Bishop Mcllvaine, 414, 417,
418.
To Dr. John C. Backus, 439-441,
464, 465.
To Dr. Henry A. Boardman, 282,
283, 317-320, 422-424, 464-466,
570-575-
To Principal Wm. Cunningham,
354, 355, 358, 360, 362-364, 430,
43i.
To Dr. Robert Watts, 488-490.
Hodge, Hugh Lenox, M. D., Life and
Character of, 537-544.
JOHNS, John, Bishop of Virginia, 23,
J 64, 564-569.
His Letters to Dr. Hodge, 60, 61, 64,
65, 327, 328, 37i, 372, 43i, 433
434. 568.
MCILVAINE, Charles P., Bishop of
-* Ohio, 32, 35, 36, 505-507. His
Letters to Dr. Hodge, 415, 416,
527-
McPheeters Samuel B., D. D., Case of,
498-501.
Miller, Samuel, D. D., 51, 374-381, 454,
519-523, 551-557. His Letters to
Dr. Hodge, 159, 160.
ATEANDER, 142, 153, 164-166, 181-
1\
184,187, 188.
DRINCETON Party, 290-310.
Presbyterian Liturgies, 411.
T) ECONSTRUCTION, 482-487.
** Regeneration, 267, 268.
Religion, Profession of, 30-34.
Religious Training and Experience, 13,
14.
Religious Education and THE RELA-
TION OF THE STATE TO RELI-
GION, 408-411.
Reunion of Presbyterians, 501-508.
Romish Baptism, 339-343, 428, 429.
CCHOOLS, ii, 12, 14, 15-18.
^ Semi-Centennial, 509-530.
Seminary Life, as Student, 46-67 ; as
Teacher, 65, 66.
620
INDEX.
Slavery, 333-336.
Stuart, Dr. Moses, on Romans, Review
of, 269, 270.
Subscription of the Confession of Faith,
406-408.
Sustentation, 338, 339.
" Systematic Theology," 451, 453.
yHOLUCK, Dr. Augustus, 115-124,
133-142, 158, 159, 162, 164, 165, 166,
His Letters to Dr. Hodge, 146,
188-190, 208-210, 216.
yiRGINIA, v i s it to, in 1816, 44, 46.
Von Focke, Otto, Letter from, to Dr.
Hodge, 214-216.
Von Gerlach, Ludwig, 148, 149, 166-
l6 9, *75. 182. His Letters to Dr.
Hodge, 213, 214, 219, 220, 329,
330.
Von Gerlach, Otto, 148, 149, 166, 173-
176, 182. His Letters to Dr. Hodge,
220-225, 230-231.
"WAY of Life," 324-331.
Witness of the Holy Ghost, 488
-490.
14 Tnis work everywhere exhibits the evidence of profound thought, acute analysis,
and wide learning." N. Y. TRIBUNE.
By CHARLES HODGE, D.D., LL.D.,
LATE OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
New Edition, complete in three volumes 8vo. Price in half calf, per set of three
/Glumes, including Index, bound in with Vol. III., $22.50; in cloth, $15.00; or,
ieparately, at $4.50 each, for Vols. I. and II., and $5.00 for Vol. III.
IN these volumes are comprised the results of the life-long labors and investigations of one of th
nost eminent theologians of the age. The work covers the ground usually occupied by treatises on
Systematic Theology, and adopts the commonly received divisions of the subject, THEOLOGY,
Vol. I. ; ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. II. ; SOTERIOLOGY AND ESCHATOLOGY, Vol. III.
The INTRODUCTION is devoted to the consideration of preliminary matters, such as Method, 01
the principles which should guide the student of Theology, and the different theories as to the source
and standard of our knowledge of divine things, Rationalism, Mysticism, the Roman Catholic doctrinr
of the Rule of Faith, and the Protestant doctrine on that subject.
The Apartment of THEOLOGY proper includes the origin of the Idea of God, the Being of God,
the Anti-Theistic systems of Atheism, Polytheism, Materialism, and Pantheism ; the Nature of ( rou,
the Divine Attributes, the Doctrines of the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, and of tte Holy Spirit
the Decrees of God, Creation, Providence, and Miracles.
The department of ANTHROPOLOGY includes the Nature, Origin, and Antiquity of Man, hw
Primitive State and Probation ; the Fall ; the Effect of Adam's sin upon himself and upon his Posterity
the Nature of Sin ; the Different Philosophical and Theological Theories on that subject.
SOTERIOLOGY includes the Plan or Purpose of God in reference to the Salvation of Man; the
Person and Work of the Redeemer ; his Offices as Prophet, Priest, and King ; the Work of the Holy
Spirit in applying the redemption purchased by Christ ; Common and Efficacious Grace, Regeneration^
Faith, Justification, Sanctification, the Law or Rule of Life, and the means of Grace.
ESCHATOLOGY includes the S'cate of the Soul after Death ; the Second Coming of Christ ; the
Resurrection of the Body ; the General Judgment and End of the World, and the doctrine concwmrp
Heaven and Hell.
The plan of the author is to state and vindicate the teachings of the Bible on these various subjects,
find to examine the antagonistic doctrines of different classes of Theologians. His book, therefore, is
Intended to be both didactic and elenchtic.
The various topics are discussed with that close and keen analytical and logical power, combiner 1
with that simplicity, lucidity, and strengtn of style which have already given Dr. HODGE a world
wide reputation as a controversialist and writer, and as an investigator of the great theological prcblem*
of the day.
*+*T/ie set of three volumes of Hodge's Systematic Theology ', in cloth binding, sent to any
tdJi-es, post or express charges paid, upon receipt of $12, by the publishers,
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS,
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By CHARLES HODGE, D.D.
One vol., 8vo, Cloth, $3 OO.
It has always been the practice at Princeton Theological Seminary for professors and students
lo meet of Sunday afternoons in conference, for the discussion of themes relating to practical Christian
life and teaching. The late Dr. Hodge throughout his long period of service in the seminary gave
very careful attention to this part of the work, writing out in full an analysis or skeleton of each
of the discourses which he delivered at these conferences. Although designed to meet no eye but hts
own, these preparatory analyses were as completely prepared as if they had been intended for public*;'
tion. A considerable number nave been gathered together, and it is believed that the resulting;
volume will be widely useful among clergymen of all denominations as exhibiting remarkable examples
of that analysis, that logical grouping and perspicuous exhibition of truth which is an essential facultjH
of the effective preacher, and as presenting in an analytic form an amount and quality of homiletical
example and suggestion probably not surpassed in the same number of pages in the English language. ;
" This volume cannot fail to be of value not merely to ministers of the gospel of all denomina-
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experience. " Presbyterian.
" We can only say of this work that our admiration of it and our sense of its value are greatly
increased every time we look upon its pages. Here we have the results of the most varied and
profound learning, as they passed through the thoughts and feelings of one of the highest intellects
and most devout hearts given to the service of the church in these latter days, concerning the great
themes of Gocl and his salvation, and the application of truth to the saving of the soul. From thia
rich storehouse the theologian and the Christian will draw large supplies." Presbyterian Banner. \
" The book is one which theological students and ministers will find rarely suggestive and
helpful, and which, to the ordinary lay student of the Scriptures, will bring many fresh revelations of
their scope and significance." Boston Journal.
" It needs but a superficial examination to show that the author was a man of strong feeling, of
a very logical order of mind and varied attainments; and although this reliquary from his labors may
be esteemed for its absolute use, it will reach a higher estimation if it is studied to ascertain the
effective processes of religious tuition and the cardinal tenets maintained by many communionfl
Phil. North American.
"These valuable discourses are condensed and packed with thought, and promise profit to the
student in that they not only furnish very valuable matter, but teach him how to arrange it.'*;
Christian Advocate.
" Dr. Hodge's wonderful mental grasp is seen in the exhaustive analyses which, in his hands, arej
not skeletons, but the members of a living body of truth . . . The light of holy, heavenly
sunshine seems to fall upon the pages, revealing to us this one great fact that however glorious it is
to be a great theologian, even the greatest, there is a higher glory in being one whose spiritual nature
b permeated by the Holy Ghost. This volume is a treasury of divine truth." Observer.
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BY
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Selected and Arranged by the REV. WILLIAM DURANT. With a Preface by
ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER HODGE, D.D.
One vol., 8vo, Cloth, $3. SO.
From 1835 to 1867, while Editor of the Princeton Review, Dr. Hodge contributed many papers
of permanent value on the general principles of Ecclesiology and the practical government, discipline
and worship of the Presbyterian Church. The range of subjects discussed by Dr. Hodge was so wide,
and so uniformly did he give special attention to the fundamental principles involved, that the
selections brought together and arranged in topical order in this volume form a full commentary on
the theoretical and practical law of the Church.
"The series of papers gathered together in this volume form a mine of information ar><!
reasoning, such as every Presbyterian interested in the polity of his denomination ought to explore.
Clear and vigorous in statement, acute and profound in logic, and judicial in spirit, they might serve
as models for a judge in charging the jury or in rendering decisions." Watchman.
" We do not hesitate to pronounce this quite the most valuable contribution to Ecclesiology
wrich has appeared in this country We are sure that all whose libraries contain L)r.
Hodge's 'Systematic Theology' will wish to place this volume by its side." Presbyterian.
" On account of the wide range of subjects and the thorough analysis embraced in these dis-
cussions, it is of great interest to the clergy of all denominations." Lutheran.
" We think that there is scarcely a question in Church polity of general practical interest that is
not treated in these pages. History repeats itself nowhere more unfailingly than in the discussions
and decisions of ecclesiastical courts and councils. Dr. Hodge was no less remarkable in his eluci-
dation of questions involving points of form and practice than in those involving points of doctrine
and faith. In questions that involved all of these things, he was the clearest of thinkers and ablest of
guides. In the absence of any connected treatise on Ecclesiology from the pen of Dr. Hodge,
this volume will be widely and warmly welcomed as a valuable supplement to his noble work on
Systematic Theology. 1 ' Observer.
" The preliminary principles, as set forth in the first ten chapters, are a master-piece of Biblical
research and consecutive reasoning. . . It is a legacy to all Christian people." Methodist Protestant.
" Dr. Hodge was a clear and forcible writer, always knowing what he wanted to say, and
scarcely ever failing to say precisely what he meant. By consequence, his discussions, sweeping so
largely over so broad a field, must have great value." Congregationalist.
" We are struck by the judicious calmness and fairness in which he puts forth his broad and deep
views, and the absence of all personalities and sectarian zeal even when he opposes persons and
politics contradictory to his views. He is dignified and statesmanlike, as well as catholic and Christ-
like, in all." Vermont Chronicle.
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A NEW BOOK BY PROF. FISHER
JSpginnings of (Hjrisfianif g :
With a View of the State of the Roman World at the Birth of Christ
BY GEORGE P. FISHER, D.D.,
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for ii a place in his library as a standard authority.
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BY THE SAME AUTHOR,
SUPERNATURAL ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY,
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