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 Seminary. 
 Inaugural addresses at the 
 
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IJSTAUaURAL ADDRESSES 
 
 AT THE OPENING 
 
 OP THE 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEIINAKY 
 
 OP THE 
 
 NORTH WEST, 
 
 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 JOSEPH M. WILSON, 
 
 No. Ill South Tenth Street, below Chestnut Street. 
 
 1860. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CHARGE TO THE PKOFESSOKS 
 
 BT 
 
 Ket. SAMUEL T. TTILSOX, 
 
 PEESIDEXT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTOES. 
 
 INAUGUllAL ADDRESS 
 
 BT 
 
 NATHAN L. RICE, D. D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF DIDACTIC AXD POLEMIC THEOLOGT. 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 BT 
 
 "WILLIS LORD, D. D., 
 
 EOFESSOR OF BIBLICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 BT 
 
 LEROT J. HALSEY, D. D., 
 
 PBOFESSOR OF HISTORICAL AND PASTORAL THEOLOGY, AND CHrRCH GOVEEXirEXT. 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 WILLIAM M. SCOTT, D. D., 
 
 PEOrZSSOR OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE AXD EXEGESIS. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the North West 
 having been tendered to the General Assembly, in session at 
 Indianapolis in May 1859, by direction of the Synods hav- 
 ing control thereof, the General Assembly passed the following 
 resolution : 
 
 *•' Resolved : That in accordance with the overtures emanating 
 from eight S3'nods, this Assembly does now accept the direc- 
 tion and control of the Seminary, known by the corporate name 
 and style of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the 
 North West." 
 
 The Assembly located the Seminary at Chicago, and in refer- 
 ence to a communication from Cyrus H. McCormick, Esq., dated, 
 Washington, May 1.3th, 1859; proposing to endow the Semi- 
 nary with one hundred thousand dollars^ on condition it was taken 
 under the charge and control of the General Assembly and 
 located at Chicago, Illinois, the Assembly passed the following 
 resolutions : 
 
 " Resolved : That this General Assembly does hereby accept 
 the donation of one hundred thousand dollars made by Cyrus 
 Hall McCormick to them for the endowment of four Profes- 
 sorships in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the North 
 West, about to be established by this Assembly, and upon the 
 terms and conditions therein mentioned. 
 
 ''Resolved: That the thanks of this General Assembly be 
 tendered to Mr. C. 11. McCormick for his munificent donation; 
 and that a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to Mr. 
 McCormick by the Stated Clerk." 
 
 (3) 
 
The General Assembly elected a Board of Directors, and 
 four Professors, viz : 
 
 N. L. RiGE, D.D., Professor of Didactic and Polemic Theology, 
 
 Willis Lord, d.d., Prof, of Biblical and Ecclesiastical History, 
 
 LeRoy J. Halsey, D.D., Professor of Historical and Pastoral 
 Theology, and Church Government, 
 
 Wm. M. Scott, d.d.. Professor of Biblical Literature and 
 Exegesis, 
 
 and instructed the Board of Directors "to use and take all 
 proper measures necessary to put the Seminary in operation 
 at the earliest date practicable." 
 
 The Board met in Chicago, by the appointment of the 
 General Assembly, on the 21st of June 1859, and made ar- 
 rangements for opening the Seminary on the 14th of Septem- 
 ber following; and appointed the 26th of October as the time 
 for the formal installation of the Professors. 
 
 On the 26th of October, 1859, the Board of Directors met in 
 the North Presbyterian Church of Chicago, and after a sermon 
 by J. H. Brown, D.D., the Rev. S. T.Vilson, President of 
 the Board, read to the Professors the following engagement, 
 ordained by the General Assembly, to which they gave their 
 solemn assent and affixed their respective signatures; 
 
 "In the presence of God and of the Board of Directors of 
 this Seminar}'', I do solemnly profess my belief that the Con- 
 fession of Faith and Catechisms of the Presbyterian Church 
 contain a summary and true exhibition of the system of doctrine, 
 order, and worship taught in the Holy Scriptures, the only 
 supreme and infallible rule of faith, and my approbation of the 
 Presbyterian form of Church Government, as being agreeable 
 to the Scriptures; and do promise that I will not teach, directly 
 or indirectly, anything contrary to, or inconsistent with, the 
 said Confession and Catechisms, or the fundamental principles 
 of Presbyterian Church Government; and that I will faithfully 
 execute the office of a Professor in the Presbyterian Theologi- 
 cal Seminary of the North West." 
 
 Prayer having been offered, the Rev. S. T. Wilson, by pre- 
 vious appointment of the Board, delivered a Charge to the Pro- 
 fessors; and the day following the Professors delivered, each, 
 an Inaugural Address; which Charge and Addresses are here- 
 with published, by order of the Board of Directors. 
 
THE 
 
 CHARGE TO THE PROFESSORS 
 
 Bi- 
 ll E V. S . T . WILSON, 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. 
 
 (5) 
 

 THE CHARGE TO THE PROFESSORS. 
 
 We meet to-day, brethren of the Board of Directors, and 
 Christian friends, under circumstances of no ordinary solemnity; 
 and for the transaction of business intimately connected with 
 the honour of religion, the glory of God, and the decisions of 
 the last day. 
 
 The Presbyterian Theological Seminary for the North West 
 is this day to be formally organized by the inauguration of those 
 who have been chosen to be its Professors. Such an event as 
 the installation of four professors at the same time has never 
 before occurred in connection with any Theological Seminary 
 in this land ; nor, so ftir as remembered, in any other land since 
 the days of the Reformation. 
 
 From the circumstances which have attended the previous 
 efforts to establish this Institution, it is unavoidable that many 
 and various emotions should fill the minds and hearts of all 
 concerned in the present exercises. Three years ago precisely, 
 the voice of the seven Synods in the North West, as the voice 
 of one man, united in saying, " We need a Seminary for the 
 training of Ministers for this wide and extending field; and 
 with the help of God we will arise and build one. The pur- 
 pose thus so harmoniously formed met the hearty response 
 of every Presbyterian heart, and within a few months there- 
 after such a beginning had been made as seemed to promise a 
 
 (■) 
 
8 
 
 speedy realization of all that was desired. Unforeseen diffi- 
 culties however arose, which not onl}^ clouded these first 
 i'avourable prospects, but for a time seemed to involve the whole 
 enterprise in hopeless ruin. Nor were these difficulties re- 
 moved, until by an act of rare Christian magnanimity on the 
 j)art of those who had been foremost in the effort, the whole 
 enterprise was transferred to the General Assembly of the 
 Church, with the simple request that a Seminary, on the same 
 footing with those already under the care of the Assembly, 
 might be at once established. The transfer thus made was 
 accepted, and the Seminary now to be organized is the result. 
 
 Brought thus into closer contact with the great throbbing 
 heart of the church, the Seminary seemed at once to secure 
 the affections and to call forth the liberality of God's people. 
 One gentleman in particular, whose name will be hereafter as 
 an household word among us, and whose noble gift will re- 
 main a monument more enduring than brass, whose hands God 
 had filled with wealth and whose heart he had moved to honor 
 him with it, immediately bestowed upon the institution a most 
 munificent endowment. And others since, with kindred liber- 
 ality, have provided for its present and permanent location here 
 in this great city. The General Assembly too, appreciating 
 the extent of the field to be occupied, and the magnitude of 
 of the work to be done, with a singular and perhaps unaccount- 
 able unanimity, at once proceeded to fill the chairs of instruc- 
 tion in the infant Seminary with four of her choicest sons; all 
 of whom have been led subsequently, not only to accept the 
 places thus assigned them, but in the good providence of God, 
 they are all here to-day to offer to you their solemn pledges 
 of fidelity, and to receive at your hands their official investi- 
 ture. 
 
 Such having been the steps in the progress of this matter, 
 instead of pronouncing now upon these, or upon the circum- 
 stances by which they have been attended, or the influ- 
 ences by which the present condition of things has been 
 
9 
 
 reached, it becomes iis rather, in humility and sorrow for very 
 much in the past, and with hope and trust in God for every 
 thing in the future, to turn our hearts in filial confidence and 
 love to that blessed word of his, *'My thoughts are not 3'^our 
 thoughts, neither are your wa3's my wpys, saith the Lord. 
 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways 
 higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." 
 
 My brethren, the Professors elect ! That branch of the 
 Church of Christ with which we are connected, recognizing it 
 as ail important part of her great work in the establishment 
 of the Redeemer's kingdom, to raise up and qualify a numer- 
 ous and efficient Ministry, has chosen to accomplish this 
 througli the instrumentality of Theological Seminaries, estab- 
 lished in such numbers and in such localities as the exigencies 
 of the Church may seem to require; and where godly young 
 men may be gathered together and trained for the work of 
 publishing through the world the gospel message. And having 
 now established one of these Seminaries here, the Church calls 
 3'ou to do for her this work of instruction and training; to re- 
 ceive at her hands her sons, separated unto the work of the 
 ministiy, and to qualify them, "to go," in the fulfillment of 
 her great commission, '-into all the world and preach the gospel 
 to every creature." 
 
 "While therefore, I advert, in a few particulars, to the work 
 which is to be done, I would charge you, dear brethren, in the 
 name and by the authority of the Church which calls you, to 
 prepare here a race of Ministers in view of this work, and for 
 the full and faithful performance of it. 
 
 The work to be accomplished is one of amazing magnitude, 
 if considered merely in connection with the wants of this par- 
 ticular region. In establishing this Seminary, the General 
 Assembly designated as the particular field of its operations, 
 iJiis, which is distinctively and truly denominated "the Great 
 North West." 
 
 Looking abroad therefore, brethren, from the place where 
 2 
 
10 
 
 you now stand, you mny take in the dimensions of your work, 
 and realize, if this be possible, the present and prospective 
 magnitude, and the certain and glorious fruitfulness of it, if 
 properly cared for, as it spreads out before you on ever}'' 
 hand, beginning at the very doors of the Seminary and 
 stretching indefinitely beyond. The Seminary therefore 
 comes into being with an empire as its distinctive domain; and 
 what a weighty practical task does Providence here assign it, 
 along with the gift of this virgin soil! and what a tremendous 
 responsibility does it assume in venturing to put its hand to 
 this great work ! 
 
 But how much more grand is its field of operations, and 
 how much more responsible its work, if we take into the account, 
 as we properly may, the entire country ! Leaving out of 
 view the vast continents of the old world, the countless 
 myriads of Papal and Pagan lands, and of the isles of the sea, 
 yen have a ivorld almost here at your very doors. Suice our 
 country has become the "high- way between the two great 
 oceans ; since our language is spoken, and our Government is 
 planted om both shores, if the Church were ambitious, it could 
 crave no loftier enterprise than to bring under its spiritual 
 sway this vast ompire." And humbly intent, as it is, on 
 setting up the kingdom of our Lord wherever this language is 
 spoken, or the aegis of this Government extends, we cannot but 
 wonder and tremble ^tt wiiat God has given it to do. 
 
 But is the work to foe d'Oae confined to this particular field 
 <i,^ the Seminary, vast and increasing as it is? Is it circum- 
 scribed even by the boundaries <$f the continent? 
 
 I anticipate your answer, as your hearts swelling with 
 Christian benevolence, -repeat with every throb, No, no! 
 "The field is the worid,"" said our Lord when defining for his 
 Church the limits of her work. The charter of the Church, 
 therefore., under which this whole enterprise is undertaken, 
 covers every continent and every isle; and her patent embraces 
 every kindred, tongue, and people under the whole heaven. 
 
11 
 
 And does any one ask for an authoritative exposition of this 
 charter, or a prosper exemplification of its catholic spirit? I 
 point him to the recorded history of the first ministers of the 
 Church. "Singly and in gi'oups," says one, "these penetrated 
 into the solid masses of heathenism, and left their foot-prints 
 marked in blood. The torch kindled at the altar, and snatched 
 from hand to hand, passed to the confiuesof the known world." 
 If the history of the first ages of the church teaches us any 
 lesson, it teaches us this one, that to be a Christian, and espe- 
 .cially to be a Christian minister is to be a missionary. Though 
 our eyes ache, therefore, in the survey of the field, wide and 
 destitute, in the midst of which we plant this Seminary ; 
 though our hearts bleed as Ave take the wider view of the en- 
 tire country, and behold the mighty harvests ripe and perish- 
 ing for lack of reapers who may thrust in the spiritual sickle 
 and gather it ; still the greatest work of the Church, the 
 greatest work of the Seminary, and of you, the Professors, lies 
 beyond where the zvorld is perishing for lack of knowledge. 
 " Our lines," says one in apt and beautiful language, " have 
 fiillen to us in a Missionary age; not the first in our Christian 
 history, but the first since the Reformation three hundred 
 years ago, and perhaps the last designed in Providence to 
 usher in the glories of the Millennium. The end of our history 
 turns back upon its beginning, and the nineteenth century is 
 toiling to repeat the first. The Apostles and Evangelists have 
 at length found their emulators, who accept neither mountains, 
 oceans, nor rivers, as the boundaries of their zeal;" who know 
 no kingdom but that of Christ our Lord, and who cheerfully 
 suffer the loss of all things that they may achieve the victories 
 of his cross. 
 
 The hymns and psalms of praise which we are accustomed 
 to chant in our Christian assemblies from Sabbath to Sabbath, 
 begin to embody the facts of sober history, and their loud 
 notes come echoing back to us from the deep darkness of many 
 pagan lauds, in startling human outcries: as, 
 
12 
 
 " From Greenland's icy mountains, 
 
 From India's coral strands ; 
 Where Afric's sunny fountains 
 
 Eoll down their golden sands ; 
 From many an ai^cient river, 
 
 From many a palmy plain, 
 They call us to deliver 
 
 Their land from error's chain," 
 
 Recognizing therefore, in the spirit of the early disciples, 
 the loorld as the field of the Church's operations, the business 
 of this Seminary, and your business as its Professors will be 
 to raise up an army of missionary ministers who by their zeal 
 and boldness, and their intense love for souls, will take pos- 
 session, in the name of the Lord of Hosts, not only of this 
 broad land, conceding, not for a moment, the right of Infidelity 
 or Romanism to possess one inch of it; but who, disregarding 
 all boundaries of kindred or country, will also penetrate into 
 every region of the earth with the message of salvation on 
 their lips; and so realize without a figure that Apocalyptic 
 vision of the "Angel having the everlasting Gospel to preach 
 unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and 
 kindred and tongue and people," until " He of the golden girdle 
 and glittering feet, now King of saints, shall be the King of 
 all the nations." 
 
 But besides the extent and magnitude of the work, it is 
 also compassed with peculiar and increasing difficulties. Who 
 has ever written— nay, who could write the philosophy of the 
 American mind, especially in its connection with religious sub- 
 jects ? The peculiar characteristics of the people, no less than 
 these liberal institutions under which we live, seem to be singu- 
 larly ftiv curable for the introduction and dissemination of every 
 species of error and irreligion. And these, when fostered and 
 stimulated as they are by the intense mental and social activity 
 of the age — that activity which here finds its intensest devel- 
 opment, propagate themselves with prodigious rapidity. This 
 
13 
 
 remark is made not in the way of complaint that our institu- 
 tions are what they are, or that this activity is what it is; but 
 mere!}' to indicate the peculiar difficulties to be overcome, and 
 the character of the work to be done b}^ the rising race of 
 ministers. 
 
 Consider again, I beseech you, how the intellectual and 
 spiritual thraldom of Rome is extending itself over the fair 
 face of this land consecrated to religious as well as civil liberty ! 
 Consider too, how Spiritualism, that most foolish and yet most 
 seductive of all modern errors, is secretly and powerfully dis- 
 seminating itself like some active poison, among all classes of 
 the people, till already its deluded votaries are numbered by 
 millions ! Consider how Infidelity and Rationalism, trans- 
 planted from the old world, are striking their roots deeper and 
 firmer into this rich virgin soil, till their dark Upas shade begins 
 to rest like a blight upon the fiiirest and most populous por- 
 tions of the land ! Consider how the conflict already begun, 
 increases ever}'- hour, in respect alike to the obfigations of the 
 Christian Sabbath, and the position which the Bible is to oc- 
 cupy in the matter of popular instruction. Nor will this con- 
 flict be terminated till, as we greatly fear, all the old sanctions 
 of the Sabbath as a day of commanded and holy rest are re- 
 moved, and the tremendous engine of common school education 
 is left without a single direct religious element to leaven or 
 sanctify it ! Consider with what untiring zeal and activity 
 the champions of Infidelity in every form of its manifestation 
 are abroad in the land, seizing every opportunity, and employ- 
 ing every agency for the dissemination of their pernicious 
 principles, till every place of popular assembly resounds with 
 such lectures, and every press groans with such printed pages, 
 as strike, every one of them, at the very foundations of all 
 our domestic, social, and religious institutions ! Nor is the 
 pulpit even exempt from this sacrilegious invasion. Consider 
 again how bold and persistent has been, and is yet, the cflbrfc 
 to put Science in array a:ain.>-t the Bible ; and how Literature 
 
14 
 
 in many of its most popular and influential departments is made 
 to toil and grind like another blind Nazarite, in the service of 
 those who have degraded it, and thus to bring shame and de- 
 rision upon all the practical teachings and blessed results of 
 the religion of Christ. 
 
 When such and even greater obstacles are to be encountered 
 at home ; and when the petrified superstition, consolidated with 
 the deposits of centuries, and the mental, and moral, and spir- 
 itual slavery of the Catholic world ; and the colossal darkness 
 and idolatry — the unspeakable degradation and misery of the 
 Pagan Nations — are to be overcome and removed ; what, oh ! 
 what should be the character and the qualifications of those 
 who are to proclaim the doctrines of the true religion and win 
 large conquests for Christ ? I w^ould recite here words spoken 
 by one who has now entered into his rest, and gotten his 
 crown, when a few jenYS ago he occupied the position which 
 you now occupy : " Looking around us," says he, " w^e see 
 abundant reason for arming the Christian ministry with all the 
 wisdom and might and courage which it is possible to draw 
 from the storehouses of knowledge and grace. This is forced 
 upon us equally by a surve}^ of the Church and the world. In 
 spite of those lulling strains which well-meaning friends of 
 outward amity continue to sing, we behold tokens of peril, if 
 not of judgment on every hand. 
 
 " The questions which our fathers debated, even at the risk of 
 life, and the rights which they maintained, with arms in their 
 hands, are in no wise more stirring than those which we see 
 our sons must debate. Not pettj^ scholastic niceties which 
 may divide good men, but stantis aut cadentk ccdesiae. Whether 
 for example, the infinite Jehovah is a personal God, or a self- 
 developing sum of all things ; whether we rightly hold 
 *' the Athanasian Trinity, or must accept a Sabellian Godhead 
 in triple manifestation : whether Holy Scripture is inspired, 
 or merel}^ half inspired, or not inspired at all ; whether there 
 is a spiritual revelation of positive truth, or only a theology 
 
15 
 
 of reason; whether atonement is expiatory or merely dramatic; 
 whether the ground of our acceptance with God is a forensic 
 justification, or an imputed or derived life of holiness ; and 
 Tvhether there shall be eternal punishment, or fmite punishment, 
 ' or no punishment. These are the questions now rising for us, 
 and rising within the churches of the Reformation. By a slow 
 but irresistible process the distillations of the German alembic 
 are coming to tincture the theology of Britain and America. 
 The most alarming latitude widens around us ; and heresies 
 which all the confessions of all the Beformed Churches, with- 
 out a single exception, agree in denouncing, and at which even 
 Bome revolts, are declared by ministers of religion not to 
 touch the foundation." 
 
 Would it not seem as if these pregnant words were pro- 
 phetic? Since v:e begin to see the form and outlines of 
 " The Broad Church," with its diluted creed, its gorgeous 
 ritual, and its sensuous worship, projecting itself clearly 
 and pretendingly upon the ecclesiastical horizon; since we 
 begin to hear the commanding eloquence of some, who, al- 
 though erratic, have been esteemed hitherto the earnest advo- 
 cates of spiritual and vital godliness, now employed in heaping 
 discredit on the old fundamental doctrines of religion, and in 
 giving unlooked-for aid and encouragement to those who are 
 its sorest enemies; and, what is still more sad, since we begin 
 to see some of our own ministers, high in place, and in the 
 confidence and affection of the Church, allying themselves in 
 sympathy and in conflict with those who are waging a stout 
 and stubborn warfare against some of our most sacred and 
 cherished privileges and institutions as a Christian people. 
 
 There never was a period, perhaps, w^hen Christians at large 
 had greater reason to be filled with anxiety, and to look with 
 solicitude towards the impending future. In the old w^orld 
 dynasties and governments are rocking on the bosom of a 
 rumbling volcano; and all the great powers there in mutual 
 dread and jealousy, are arming and strengthening themselves 
 
16 
 
 either for defence or aggression. In the new world men who 
 are the most confident are filled with trembling for the per- 
 petuity of our institutions, while fanaticism waxes bold and 
 defiant, and the daring spirit of free inquiry, spurning the 
 land-marks of the Fathers, and rejecting the principles which 
 centuries have settled, is making rapid and strange revolutions 
 in society. 
 
 We live, as has been truly said, in an age of unparalleled 
 projection, adventure, change, accomplishment, and when vast 
 and pregnant schemes for the future of religion and politics 
 are projecting themselves far into the territory of established 
 opinions and existing institutions. 
 
 What then is demanded of those who would be the success- 
 ful champions of the truth as it is in Jesus; the banner-men 
 of that kingdom which is not of this world, at such a time, 
 in such an age, and in the teeth of such obstacles? For such 
 times, and for such labours the Church demands soldiers, men 
 of mettle and training, men of fire and dauntless courage, 
 "lion-like men," who can bravely do or die for Christ's cross 
 and crown; men like those who built the walls of Jerusalem 
 in troublous times, holding the working implement in the one 
 hand and the fighting implement in the other; now squaring 
 the foundation stones, or lifting the capstone to its place of 
 beauty; anon, smiting the enemy hip and thigh, with the 
 weapons in hand. It is demanded that they be men of ac- 
 tivity, men of industry, men of learning, men of capability. 
 As the champions of error are learned, acute, and subtile, so 
 must the ministers of Christ be. As the emissaries of Satan 
 are active, enterprizing, and painstaking in the propagation of 
 error and irreligion, the ministers of Christ must be more so in 
 the dissemination of the truth. 
 
 It is demanded that they be men carefully taught in the 
 history of the Church. "Every thing pertaining to its out- 
 ward extension, as the Gospel has travelled from realm to 
 realm, conflicting and conquering; everything pertaining to its 
 
17 
 
 polity, as the Church has passed from Apostolic simplicity to 
 the scarlet llauntings of the Papacy; every thing pertaining to 
 the inner life of the Church, as piety has waxed or Avaned; 
 every thing pertaining to worship, from the Church of the 
 Catacombs, chanting its homely music, preaching and hearing 
 its modest homily, and saying its unstudied prayers, to the * 
 church of surpliced priests, and tinkling bells, and swinging 
 censers." 
 
 It is demanded that they be men securely and thoroughly 
 grounded in the great doctrines of the Church, as "from the 
 crude, artless statements of Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp, 
 these have grown up through the ages out of the Christian 
 consciousness, fed by the Living Word, and interpreted by 
 Christian science, till, becoming clearer and fuller and stronger 
 from stage to stage, they have found their maturest and best 
 expression in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms " 
 
 It is demanded that they be men of great earnestness and 
 devotion of character. Men who will feel intensely and work 
 intensely — men who will take a living, loving interest in souls, 
 and try to save them, pulling them with both hands out of 
 the fire. The secret of Chalmers's wonderful power was de- 
 scribed to be "his blood earnestness." Says Guthrie, that 
 flashing torch of Scotland, " Though every minister were as 
 a flaming fire in the service of his God, though every bishop 
 were a Latimer, every reformer were a Knox, every preacher 
 were a Whitefield, every missionary were a Martyn, the work 
 is greater than ministers can accomplish; and if men will not 
 submit that the interests of nations, and the success of armies 
 shall be sacrificed to routine and forms of office, much less 
 should these be tolerated where the cause of souls is at stake." 
 What a day for the Church and for the world, will that be i 
 when every young minister goes forth of the Seminary in the 
 spirit and power of Brainerd's prayer, "Oh that I were a 
 flaming fire in the service of my God !" 
 
 It is demanded that they be men who are deeply and 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 thoroughly possessed with the dignity and glory of their 
 office; who, because they are "Ambassadors for Christ/' will 
 esteem themselves invested with honours and responsibilities 
 far above an}' thing in the power of earthly prince or potentate 
 to bestow — Avho, because they are authorized to say, "We are 
 fellow-labourers with God," are able to stand up like Paul, and, 
 "confronting a sceptic, sneering, scoffing world, bravely say, 
 *I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.'" It is written 
 of Elijah the Tishbite, when he had prayed for rain, and the 
 little cloud out of the sea was reported to him, that he girt up 
 his loins and with the storm at his back ran abreast of the 
 smoking horses of Ahab's chariot unto the gates of Jezreel. 
 This may have been a position honourable to the old Prophet, 
 and befitting his holy office, or it may not. " But to run by 
 the chariot where Jesus sits, his crown on his head, his bow 
 in his hand, and his sword by his thigh; to employ their feet 
 in offices which have employed angels' wings; to bear the 
 news of mercy to dying sinners; and to gather crowds around 
 the Saviour, that they may strew his path with palms, and 
 swell the song of ^ Hosanna to the Son of David !' — for such a 
 work as this a king might cast off robes and diadem." From 
 such employment as this, the finest powers, the noblest accom- 
 plishments, and the loftiest station must always receive new 
 acquisitions of honour and glory. 
 
 It is demanded again that they be men who are emulous for 
 the character and the success and the glory of the Church, 
 whose ministers they are. While in the spirit of evangelical 
 liberality they shout, All hail, brothers, God speed thy work! 
 to the captains and the standard-bearers, and the toiling hosts 
 of the other tribes of Israel, they should still feel that the 
 banners which they bear, like those of the tribe of Judah, are 
 to be always nearest to the ark of God and the Holy Taber- 
 nacle, as appointed for the guard and defence of these. 
 
 But, above all things, it is demanded that they be men 
 grounded in the word of God, mighty in the Scriptures, rich 
 
19 
 
 ia those treasures of wisdom and knowledge, of faith and ex- 
 perience drawn from the exhaustless mines hid in the holy 
 moiinlains, Siiiai and Calvary! In undertaking to evangelize 
 the Pagan nations of the earth, some of which are civilized, 
 and some yet in barbarism ; in undertaking to subdue this broad 
 land of our inheritance for Christ; to plant in the tops of all 
 these mountains that handful of corn, the fruit of which shall 
 shake like Lebanon, what power is sufficient for this work save 
 the power of God ? What weapon can possibly prevail, save only 
 the "Sword of the Spirit" which is the "Word of God?" 
 What else is able to control the passions, or govern the con- 
 science, or ail'ect the hearts of men? Philosoph}'', human 
 wisdom, the highest eflbrts of genius, and the most moving 
 persuasives to virtue have never yet, alone or in combined 
 power, ellected a spiritual reformation, or converted a single 
 soul ! But the Word of God ! it is Spirit and it is Life ! This, 
 this is to do the battles of the Lofd of Hosts j this is to bind 
 in fetters of love at the feet of Jesus every stubborn and 
 stout-heartxid rebel; this is to level the mountains and fill up 
 the valle3's, and prepare the way for the coming of the Prince 
 of Peace, and for the universal introduction of his happy reign. 
 Then let this inspired volume, God's own Gospel, be enthroned 
 in each one of these chairs of the Seminary. Let our young 
 ministers be made acquainted thoroughly with those "colossal 
 characters and events which symbolize so well the elder dis- 
 pensations of the Spirit. Train them to feel at home with the 
 great Apostles, Evangelists, and Mart3^rs of the New Testa- 
 ment. Let them ponder every syllable of the book of the 
 generation of Jesus Christ." Inspire them with a taste for 
 the grand simplicity and truthfulness of the Scriptural narra- 
 tives. Teach them to interpret the ways of God in providence 
 and redemption out of the Word of God. Let them "acquire 
 their critical tact," their historical acumen, and their doctrinal 
 principles in the " schools of the Prophets, Evangelists, and 
 Apostles," and we shall have no fears of their becoming either 
 
20 
 
 visionary or bigoted; either foggy or fanatical \n the perform- 
 ance of their great work. Standing full and square and firm 
 upon the Bible; they will show themselves to be not " sensation 
 preachers," but workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly 
 dividing the word of truth, and approved of God. 
 
 Such, imperfectly, are the ministers dema.nded by the age 
 and the work — " men of the brightest talents, and the largest 
 learning, and the warmest piety; men w^ho will fill with power 
 the pulpits of our cities and our towns; men who will sweep 
 the prairies on their errands of mercy ; men who will stand on 
 the Pacific coast, their backs turned towards us, facing the 
 Orient on the other side; men who will take their lives in 
 their hands, going amongst the Heathen, and the Moslems, 
 and the Jews. These are the men we need in vastly increasing 
 numbers, as the population of the globe swells on ; and our 
 own land, the last chosen of Providence to accomplish its 
 grandest consummations, pushes forward into the van of the 
 march of the moving host." 
 
 And now, brethren, beloved for your work's sake, we com- 
 mit this infant school of sacred learning, with all its masculine 
 proportions and strange maturity, into your keeping. We ex- 
 pect it to receive its form from your hands, and that it will be 
 baptized into your spirit. Under God, its character, and its 
 powers, and the streams of its influence going forth from 3'ear 
 to year, must be very much what 3'ou make them. Let then 
 all your contact with these issuing streams, and all your influ- 
 ence upon them, like the salt of the old Prophet, contribute 
 always to heal and sanctify them, so that all the lands which 
 they may water shall be made thereb}'' to bloom like Eden. 
 
 And as God's people, out of their deep povert}', contribute 
 of their substance to endow this Seminary ; especially as they 
 shall bring hither their sons consecrated unto God for the work 
 of the ministry, I charge you under the sanctions of that cov- 
 enant of tears and sacrifices by which these have been sepa- 
 rated unto this service — I charge you in the name of God who 
 
21 
 
 has CcalleJ you ; be ye faithful to these sons of the covenant 
 whose feet are to be winged with messages of grace and sal- 
 vation to a dying world ; be ye kind and tender towards them 
 as your own sons ; and, receiving them as from God to be 
 trained for the higiiest and most difficult office in the world, 
 be ye diligent and laborious to develope every talent, and to 
 mature every grace, and to cducaic them as those who are to 
 be made "wise to wia souls" for Christ and heaven. 
 
 Your t.'Lsk is a noble one; your work one of unknown re- 
 sponsibilities, and concerning which you have the profoundest 
 reasons for saying, " Who is sutlicient ?" 
 
 As then you are to expound the ways of God, and trace his 
 mysterious footsteps in the long ages of the past; as3^ouareto 
 teach what he has done for our race, as made known in his word; 
 as you are to unfold the great doctrines of the true religion 
 on which hang eternal things, and by such means raise up a 
 company of men who shall be thoroughly furnished for the 
 great work of the ministry — surely God alone can show you 
 how to do this aright. He alone can make you strong enough 
 and wise enough for this solemn and responsible business. I 
 charge you then again, in all the earnestness of a growing 
 sympathy with 3'ou in j'our weighty duties — I charge you to 
 seek your light from Ilim who is the Father of lights, and 
 with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning ; 
 to seek your wisdom from Him who giveth liberally and up- 
 braideth not ; to seek your sufficiency from Him who is a 
 present refuge and an Almighty helper ; and to seek all your 
 results from Him who is able to make you joyful in all the la- 
 bour of your hands. 
 
 Says one who is himself a professor, " No man can avoid 
 eternal shame in so difficult a work, but by taking hold of 
 God's strength and ceasing from man." 
 
 Therefore, beloved brethren, assured that a multitude of 
 hands are at this moment stretching out over your heads ; that 
 a multitude of prayers are ascending to the throne of God on 
 
22 
 
 your behalf ; and that a strong cordon of faith, entering within 
 the veil, is now binding the Seminary and you its Professors, 
 to the infallible promises, — what can we the Directors and re- 
 presentatives of the Church, do better than to mingle our bene- 
 dictions and our supplications over you? "The Lord hear you 
 in the day of trouble ; the name of the God of Jacob defend 
 you, send you help from the Sanctuary, and strengthen you 
 out of Zion — remember all your offerings, and accept your 
 burnt sacrifices — grant you according to your own hearts, and 
 fulfil all your council ! And may grace be unto you, and peace 
 from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come ; and 
 from the seven spirits which are before his throne; and 
 from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first be- 
 gotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth ; 
 and unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in 
 his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God 
 and his Father, to him be glory, and dominion for ever and 
 ever. Amen." 
 
Tho' S W^oner's Lifi 38 Hadscin S'-PliP.a 
 
 Professor of Polemic and Didactic Theology 
 
 RilUsh^a. Ij Joseph MWilson mil South lO^^S^ PUl'^ 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 NATHAN L. RICE, D. D,, 
 
 PROFESSOR OF DIDACTIC AND POLEMIC THEOLOGY. 
 
 (23) 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF N. L. RICE. 
 
 Nature and Revelation alike proclaim the value of truth. 
 The discovery of it is the object in every department of in- 
 vestif^ation ; and in every department the interests of mankind 
 are promoted in the proportion that truth is known and re- 
 garded. 
 
 This principle, so universally true of God's natural kingdom, 
 is preeminently true of his spiritual kingdom. The religious 
 beliefs of men necessarily mould their moral characters, and 
 direct their energies. Holiness is nothing more or less than 
 obedience to the truth. The only religious zeal acceptable to 
 God, is '"'according to knowledge." The highest liberty man 
 can enjo}^, is that which the truth gives him. "Ye shall know 
 the truth, and the truth shall make you free. If the Son there- 
 fore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." God's re- 
 vealed truth is the proper nutriment of the spiritual life of the 
 soul — the milk for the young disciple ; the meat for the more 
 mature; and that truth only is the means of sanctification. 
 '' Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth." To 
 assist candidates for the Christian ministry in obtaining a 
 thorough acquaintance with God's system of revealed truth, 
 and the best method of teaching it to men of all classes, is the 
 appropriate work of Professors of Theology. 
 
 4 
 
 (25) 
 
26 
 
 The department of instruction assigned to me by the General 
 Assembly, in this Institution, embraces the entire system of 
 doctrines and morals contained in the sacred Scriptures. My 
 duty is to teach candidates for the sacred office, first, how to 
 state, illustrate, and prove each of the doctrines contained in 
 the Divine system, and, secondly, how to defend them against 
 the multiplied forms of error, by which they are constantly as- 
 sailed. The mere statement of what is embraced in Didactic and 
 Polemic Theology, reveals the extentof the field over which, in 
 this department of instruction, it is necessary to travel; and even 
 a superficial glance at the past history of the Church and the 
 world, is sufficient to discover to us the difficulty and the re- 
 sponsibility of the work. If in the ordinary work of the min- 
 istry, we constantly feel the absolute necessity of Divine illu- 
 mination; how much more is this inestimable blessing needed 
 in the work of teaching them how to discharge the duties of 
 the sacred office ! 
 
 Faith is the leading condition of salvation. It is that ex- 
 ercise of the mind, or that grace, from which all the other 
 graces may be said to flow. The disbelief of the Scriptures 
 as completely shuts out from the view of the mind the glorious 
 objects they reveal, as if they had no existence. Conse- 
 quently it renders love, repentance, and every other grace im- 
 possible. The most important question ever asked, is, "What 
 must I do to be saved ?" and the most important answer ever 
 given to any question, is the answer to this. Didactic Theology 
 shows the necessity and the unspeakable importance of the 
 question, and gives the true answer. Polemic Theolog}^ de- 
 fends both the question and the answer against all the assaults 
 of error. 
 
 It will not be inappropriate to the present occasion, to con- 
 sider the source from which sound Theology, the object of 
 saving faith, is to be derived, and the best method of teaching 
 Theolog}^, Didactic and Polemic. 
 
 In considering the source from whence Theology is to be 
 
27 
 
 derived, several important questions might be discussed: as 
 how far the human mind can discover the being, the perfec- 
 tions, and the will of God, without a revelation; whether 
 unwritten tradition forms any part of that revelation which is 
 to guide us in faith and morals; whether the Apocr3'phal 
 books, as they are called, are entitled to a place in the sacred 
 Canon ; whether there is on earth any infallible interpreter of 
 God's revehition. I prefer, however, to pass by all these 
 questions, important though the}^ are, to consider others, which, 
 in our day, are assuming great prominence, and which demand 
 the attention of every theologian. In the discussion, I assume 
 that the Scriptures are a revelation from God ; and that the 
 Old and New Testaments contain the entire revelation which 
 God designed to guide mankind in faith and morals. These 
 positions will be denied by none but infidels and papists; and 
 I do not now propose to controvert the errors of either of these. 
 Assuming these truths, I remark : 
 
 1. The fact that God has given to mankind a revelation, is 
 evidence conclusive, were there no other, of their incompetency 
 to discover, by any other means, those truths which he has 
 thus taught. If the Word of God is " a lamp to the feet and 
 a light to the path," it is so, because without it we must walk 
 in darkness. " The world by wisdom knew not God ;" and, 
 therefore, could not know his will, their duty, or their des- 
 tiny. 
 
 2. The fact, that God has given his revelation in human 
 language, is evidence conclusive, that the true office of a 
 teacher of Theolog}'', whether in the Seminary or in the pulpit, 
 is that of cm interpreter of language. In what other way can 
 we become acquainted with the ideas God designed to commu- 
 nicate, than by a correct understanding of the words which 
 are the medium of communication between God and man? 
 "To the word and to the testimony," saith Isaiah. "Search 
 the Scriptures," said our Lord. Lukfe highly commended the 
 Bereans, because they heard the Apostles attentively, "and 
 
28 
 
 searched the Scriptures daily, "whether these things were so." 
 Apollos was "an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures." 
 At Thessalonica Paul reasoned with the Jews "out of the 
 Scriptures." Christ crucified was the theme of the Apostles, 
 whether they preached to Jews or Greeks, to the learned or 
 the unlearned. The clamours of the Jews for a sign, and of 
 the Greeks for ivisdom, did not divert them from the inspired 
 word. The example of Paul is surely worthy of the imitation 
 of uninspired men. "And I, brethren," said he to the Corin- 
 thian Christians, "when I came to you, came not with excel- 
 lency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony 
 of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, 
 save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And my speech and my 
 preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but 
 in demonstration of the spirit and of power." It is a remark- 
 able fact, that in the preaching of Christ and his Apostles we 
 discover not a trace of any existing system of philosophy. 
 
 The Scriptures claim not only to be a revelation from God, 
 but to teach completely all that is necessar}'' to make us " wise 
 unto salvation." No doctrine, therefore, is worthy of our con- 
 fidence, or can be safely received into our creed, unless it is 
 sustained by the language of the Scriptures, fairly inter- 
 preted ; and no minister of the Gospel has the right to ask his 
 hearers to receive the doctrines he preaches, till he has sus- 
 tained them by a direct appeal to the language of the Holy 
 Spirit. The Apostles themselves gladly submitted to this test. 
 
 Nor is the principle for which we are contending, limited to 
 what are technically called the doctrines of Christianity. It 
 applies with equal force to the duties arising from the doc- 
 trines. The world has as signally failed in discovering the 
 true code of morals, apart from the Scriptures, as in reasoning 
 out a creed. The conscience is not a light in the mind, as it 
 has been so often represented, but a faculty to be enlightened. 
 Like the judge on the b^nch, it decides each particular case 
 according to its view of the law. One of the arguments most 
 
29 
 
 constantly urj^ed by Christian ministers to prov.o the necessity 
 of a Divine revelation, is the entire Inilure of the wise men of 
 the world to discover the true code of morals. lu ascertain- 
 in<^' the duty of men, therefore, the appeal must be, in all cases, 
 to the lan.E^uiJge of inspiration, interpreted in accordance wi(h 
 the known principles of langunge. 
 
 3. The fact that God gave a revelation, not for the learned, 
 but for all classes of men ; not for any one age or nation, but 
 for all ages and all nations ; proves, that that revelation may 
 be understood, at least as to its direct teaching, without the 
 aid of human science. It is an instructive fact, tliat the Gos- 
 pel was understood, and did achieve its most signal triumphs, 
 at periods when every existing system of philosophy wns fun- 
 damentally erroneous.. The entire history'- of the Church in 
 all ages, and in the present, sustains me in the assertion — that 
 the Gospel has lost its power over the human conscience and 
 heart, precisely in the degree in which there has been depar- 
 ture from the obvious meaning of the language of the Bible, 
 to accommodate its teaching to any science or system of phil- 
 osophy. The history of the Church furnishes not a solitary 
 exception to this general statement ; indeed, one of the most 
 convincing proofs of the inspiration of the Scriptures is the 
 fact, that every attempt to improve upon their obvious mean- 
 ing, (and there have been many such,) has been attended 
 with loss of power, or has exhibited a perverted and pernicious 
 power. 
 
 True, there have been instances, not a few, in which a mix- 
 ture of philosophy, materially modifying the interpretation of 
 the language of the Scriptures, has produced a temporary ef- 
 fervescence, which has been mistaken for an increase of sancti- 
 fying power; but in every instance the results have reproved 
 the presumption of self-conceited men. When in the third 
 century, the New Platonism, so much admired by the learned 
 Origen, was introduced into the Theology of the Church, the 
 multitude of ascetics who hastened to the wilderness to live in 
 
30 
 
 seclusion, in devout meditation and bodily mortifications, awa- 
 kened the admiration of many sincere Christians, and even of 
 eminent ministers of Christ; and in our own day, the Church 
 of Rome still applauds and worships those devout dwellers in 
 dreary solitudes, as "lights of the desert." Yet this admix- 
 ture of human philosophy with Divine truth substituted a spu- 
 rious piety for vital godliness, and rendered the most religious 
 persons the most worthless. 
 
 And within the last thirty years, the introduction of a new 
 metaphysics into the Theology of our own Church, in connec- 
 tion with revivals of religion, seemed to add great power to 
 these works of grace, and gave great prominence and almost 
 unbounded influence to a class of fiery evangelists, whose labors 
 filled the churches with unconverted and self-righteous mem- 
 bers. Men were assured that they could and must regenerate 
 themselves ; and it is not surprising, that multitudes persuaded 
 themselves that they had performed the difi&cult work. Crowds 
 attended upon their preaching with intensest interest : and the 
 news of multiplied converts was published throughout the 
 land. Soon a terrible reaction occurred, and the withering ef- 
 fects of those spurious revivals have long since been seen and 
 deplored. So it has been, and so it will be. 
 
 Let me not be misunderstood. I would not array Christi- 
 anity and Science against each other. God cannot contradict 
 himself, lie has revealed himself partly in his works ; he has 
 revealed himself more fully in his word. Beyond a doubt, 
 these two revelations are perfectly harmonious. If they ever 
 seem in conflict, it is because one or the other has been misin- 
 terpreted. Because we know the teachings of Nature and 
 Revelation to be perfectly harmonious,we cannot but desire the 
 knowledge of the former to be, as nearly as possible, perfected. 
 ^ Christianity has much to hope, for, and nothing to fear, from 
 the progress of true philosophy. It dreads only that which is 
 false. 
 
 We do not contend, therefore, that the theologian can de- 
 
31 
 
 rive no advnntago from science. In several ways it may be 
 greatly subservient to the interests of Christianity. 
 
 In the first place, it may aid in the defence of Christianity 
 against infidelity and other forms of error. It is a significant 
 . fact, that very generally infidelity has been the product of false 
 philosophy ; and in its defence it has relied mainly upon the 
 systems from which it sprang. When, for example, infidels 
 advocate tJw development hf/pothesis against the Bible, and ap- 
 peal for support to the sciences of Astronomy and Geology, the 
 telescope does good service by demolishing the nebular theory; 
 and Geology renders service no less important by demonstra- 
 ing creation, instead of development. When the German meta- 
 physics proclaims pantheism as the grand result of all its 
 inquiries, and when the French philosophy pronounces mate- 
 rialism and atheism the highest reason, true mental science 
 may greatly aid in the defence of the doctrines of revelation 
 against these false systems. It is, indeed, very remarkable 
 that of all the sciences, that of the human mind is the most 
 unsettled ; and that the study of this science has so commonly 
 resulted in very grave theological errors, and even in the bold- 
 est infidelity. Dr. Chalmers was not far from the truth, when 
 he said, the main advantage of a true metaphysical formula is 
 " to restore our confidence in the old lessons of common sense ; 
 old as human nature itself, and which we never had deserted, 
 or in which we should never have lost our confidence, had not 
 a perverse metaphysics arisen to disturb and darken it." A 
 child, says he, "sees an apple on the table, and afiirms an 
 apple to be there. A Berkleian philosopher labours to disprove 
 the assertion. A second metaphysician arises and repels the 
 sophistry of the first." 
 
 Again — when men object to the mf/steries of revelation, and 
 contend that the Scriptures unduly restrain reason in its inqui- 
 ries after truth, true science may expose the weakness of 
 these objections, by showing that the mysteries of nature are 
 precisely of the same character as those of the Scriptures; 
 
32 
 
 and that in the study of the latter, human reason is no more 
 restraiued, than in the study of the former; nay — that both 
 are to be studied on the same principles. This is a subject of 
 great interest, and a ver}^ powerful argument may be deduced 
 from the mysteries of Nature, as compared with those of the 
 Scriptures, in favor of the inspiration of the latter. 
 
 Science, in its different departments, may afford many illus- 
 trations and confirmations of the doctrines of the Bible. When 
 the inspired writers would fill the minds of their readers with 
 reverence for the infinite ninjesty of God, and inspire them 
 with confidence in Him, they point then to the vastness and 
 grandeur of his creation. Eead, for example, the fortieth chap- 
 ter of Isaiah. Every improvement which increases the power 
 of the telescope, adds beauty and force to the eloquent lan- 
 guage of the Prophet, and constrains us to feel that his pen 
 was guided by that Spirit who garnished the heavens, and 
 who perfectly knew the boundless extent of the creation of 
 God. 
 
 Again. To a very great extent, the principles of God's 
 natural kingdom are identical with those of his spiritual king- 
 dom ; and the former both illustrate and confirm the latter. 
 "Ye shall know the truth," said our Lord, " and the truth 
 shall make you free." Throughout the kingdom of nature, it 
 is truth, known and obeyed, that delivers men from the evils 
 and dangers to which they are exposed. Why should not the 
 same principle hold good in the kingdom of grace? "What- 
 soever a man soweth," says Paul, " that shall he also reap." 
 The principle, that the harvest is of the same nature as the 
 seed sown, runs through the entire government of God. In 
 every department men receive the legitimate fruits of their 
 works. When our Lord says, " Strait is the gate and nar- 
 row the way that leads' to life," he states a principle that finds 
 ten thousand confirmations in the history of the world. One 
 who has never investigated the subject, would be astonished at 
 
33 
 
 the extent to which the laws of these two kingdoms arc iden- 
 tical. 
 
 We are fjir from undervaluing science in any of its depart- 
 ments ; but, like every other good thing, it is injurious when 
 misplaced ; and the injury is in proportion to its value when 
 rightly used. We cannot breathe water, nor drink air. Food, * 
 water, and air are equally necessary to animal life ; but neither 
 of these can be substituted for the other. So science and rev- 
 elation are both necessary to the well — being of mankind ; but 
 neither of these can take the place of the other. Science re- 
 veals the objects and laws of the kingdom of nature directly 
 and clearly; the objects and laws of the kingdom of grace, if 
 it reveals them at all, it reveals indirectly and very imperfectly. 
 The Scriptures reveal the latter directly and fully ; the former 
 indirectly and imperfectly. To a certain extent, the two vol- 
 umes of Nature and Revelation overlap. That is to say — the 
 inferential teachings of science extend into the kingdom of 
 morals and religion ; and the indirect teachings of the Scrip- 
 tures extend into the kingdom of nature. Now it is just as 
 absurd to allow the inferential teachings of science, which may 
 be, and often are erroneous, to control the direct teachings of 
 the Scriptures, as it is to insist that the inferences of theolo- 
 gians from the direct or indirect teachings of the Scriptures, 
 shall control the direct teachings of science. For example, 
 science teaches directly, that the sun is stationary, and that 
 the earth revolves around it. Would it be wise in Christians 
 to deny this, because the Scriptures tell us, that Joshua com- 
 manded the sun to stand still, and it obeyed him ? Very prop- 
 erly the inspired historian, in narrating the facts, used 
 popular language ; and there is no real discrepancy between 
 astronomy and the Bible. On the other hand, the Scriptures 
 teach us directly, that all the human race sprang from one 
 pair. Shall we allow the devotees of science to shake our 
 faith in this truth by mere inferences from the facts of physi- 
 ology ? 
 
34 
 
 Again. The Scriptures directly and clearly teach the doctrine 
 of original sin. Shall we allow metaphysicians, by their specula- 
 tions, to shake our faith in this doctrine, and to give us in its 
 stead an innocent proclivitij to sin ? The Scriptures teach us 
 directly that God can control the minds of his rational crea- 
 tures, the good and the evil, without interfering with their 
 moral agency. Shall we permit our faith in this doctrine to 
 be overthrown by modern metaphysicians, like Dr. Bushnell, 
 who assert that God could not create a race of acountable be- 
 ings who would not certainly sin ? 
 
 Why should we bow so submissively to the inferential reas- 
 onings of men claiming to be philosophers ? Have they been 
 so generally in the right, and have the literal interpretations 
 of the Bible been so generally untrue ? How old is science ? 
 Which of all the sciences has yet reached the maturity of 
 manhood ? How often have its advocates reviewed their prem- 
 ises, and changed their conclusions ? And how often, may they 
 yet be obliged to repeat this operation ? What power was it 
 that overthrew the erroneous philosophy of Plato and Aristo- 
 tle, and prepared the way for a new era in the progress of hu- 
 man knowledge ? Was it not the Bible, in the hands of the 
 Reformers of the 16th century ? And what power is it that 
 has conducted the sciences to their present degree of matu- 
 rity ? What has science achieved, where it has not enjoyed 
 the light of Christianity ? What is it doing now ? Which of 
 the four or five systems of metaphysics, now claiming our 
 homage, shall we receive as true ? The well ascertained facU 
 in all the sciences we gladly receive; the inferences from those 
 facts, when they contradict the plain teachings of God's word, 
 we cannot admit. 
 
 This subject is one of growing interest. We are entering 
 upon an age of subtle theorizing and bold speculation. Too 
 self-conceited to sit humbly by the volumes of Nature and 
 Revelation, in the character of disciples, learning their facts and 
 their laws, men are beginning to repeat the folly of past ages, 
 
35 
 
 by substituting theories for facts. The man floating in his 
 balloon, two miles above the earth, may look down contemptu- 
 ously upon the vulgar crowd, who are content to Avalk or ride 
 on terra Jirma ; but wise men pity his folly. Our theorizers 
 are t^us floating aloft. The realities of things do not compare 
 with their day dreams. As in ages past, so it will be again. 
 True science, as well as true religion, will lose ground, just as 
 far as this theorizing spirit shall prevail. But as Chalmers 
 said, we are chiefly concerned to see, that in the midst of all 
 that is unsettled, our Theology is safe. 
 
 We take fair ground. Let science be supreme in its own 
 domain; but let it not attempt more than it can perform. Its 
 ascertained /^/cAs, and the Icms those facts reveal, we admit and 
 appreciate. But in the higher department of religion and 
 morals, '' let God be true, and every man a liar." Ills plain 
 declarations infinitely outweigh the doubtful inferences of falli- 
 ble ]»hilosophy. 
 
 These views will indicate the method of instruction I propose 
 to adopt in the responsible position assigned me in this School 
 of the Prophets. 
 
 1. I shall endeavour to demonstrate, against all infidels and 
 semi-infidels, the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures. 
 
 2. We shall try to sit at the feet of the great Teacher, listen 
 to his words, and interpret them according to the established 
 laws of language, praying for that Divine illumination without 
 which none can rightly understand the truths of the inspired 
 Volume, see their beauty, and feel their power. We shall test 
 every doctrine by this perfect rule; and every moral principle 
 and every proposed reform, we shall try in the same way. It 
 shall be my constant aim to impress upon the minds of candi- 
 dates for the ministry, that they must go to the Word of God, 
 not as philosophers, but as disciples; not to show to how great 
 extent human reason is independent of Divine teaching, but 
 to submit the understanding implicitly to "the wisdom that 
 cometh from above." As in the teaching of the inspired Paul, 
 
36 
 
 so in ours, the cross of Christ shall ever stand in the centre 
 of our system of ftiith, pouring its light and heat upon all the 
 doctrines and truths of the Scriptures, as the sun illumines 
 and warms the planets that revolve around it. 
 
 3. I shall ever seek to impress upon their minds the great 
 importance of confirming all their instructions, when they enter 
 upon their official work, by abundant quotations of the language 
 of the Scriptures; that their discourses thus enriched, may 
 come home to the consciences and hearts of men, backed by the 
 authority of God, whose ministers they are. 
 
 4. It shall be my aim to make them acquainted with the 
 different forms of error, especially with those prevalent in the 
 fields in which they may be called to labour, and with the 
 best methods of stating and defending the doctrines of the 
 Gospel. Then, if called to an open issue with any of these 
 forms of error, they may wield "the Sword of the Spirit" 
 skilfully and effectively; if not, they may know how so to 
 direct their ordinary preaching, as to render controversy un- 
 necessary. 
 
 5. I shall teach them, as far as possible, to use every de- 
 partment of human knowledge in illustrating and defending the 
 truths of the Gospel. 
 
 But "who is sufficient for these things?" In the most 
 favourable circumstances, the work of the Christian ministry is 
 one environed with difficulties and discouragements, and in- 
 volving fearful responsibilities. In every department of it the 
 interests of both time and eternity are involved. But in such 
 a day as this, and in view of the vast changes that must soon 
 occur in the world, attended with unparalleled excitements and 
 agitations, how much are both the difficulties and the respon- 
 sibilities of the work increased! And how much greater the 
 difficulty and the responsibility attending the training of those 
 called of God to take part in this conflict ! The standard of 
 ministerial qualification needs to be greatly elevated. The 
 Church and the world now especially need ministers who know 
 
37 
 
 how to " preach the word" in its purity, and who are not afraid 
 to do it — men who know how to address the masses oC tlie 
 people, so as both to instruct and interest them. Were 1 not 
 convinced, that in entering upon this work, I but obey the 
 call of God through his Church, I would not dare to touch it. 
 But I would fain adopt the language of the Apostle of the 
 Gentiles, and say, "I can do all things through Christ, which 
 strengtheneth me." I thank God that in laying the foundations 
 of this important Institution, I have associates, whose eminent 
 qualifications will, in some measure, compensate for my defi- 
 ciencies. To Ilim whose servants we are, and at whose call 
 we are entering upon these labours, we humbly and prayerfully 
 commit the destinies of this School of the Prophets. 
 
./ -< 
 
 'ilu,-' S Wafners li'k ?■"■ Hjlds-u r-PMad^ 
 
 ^^c-^^^Y ^^^^ 
 
 Professor rjf BiMicalani ( Ecclesiasiical History. 
 
 PalUsJieS. by Joseph. MMilson. J^Jll Scruih JO^^Sf Fhxl'^ 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIS LORD, D. D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 
 
 (39) 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF WILLIS LORD. 
 
 Fathers and Brethren — It is a great and sacred work to 
 train Pastors and Teachers for the Church of God. When I 
 think how great and sacred, I marvel that any part in it should 
 have been committed to me. Certainly, I did not seek it. 
 Neither did 1 desire it. I had not a thought even, in reference 
 to it, as a personal matter. Had I known beforehand of any 
 purpose to put this work upon me, I should have shunned it. 
 I undertake it now from a deep sense of duty; because, by 
 various and clear indications it seems to be the will of God. 
 
 In founding this new School of the Prophets, and arranging 
 its offices of instruction, it pleased the venerable Assembly of 
 the Church to place me in the chair of Biblical and Ecclesiastical 
 Hisiory. The general subject, therefore, of the present Ad- 
 dress is not optional. It is determined by the nature of the 
 duties I am called to perform, and by this solemn service of 
 inauguration. 
 
 History, in its simplest form, is the record of events or 
 fiicts. Indeed, in every form, these must constitute its essen- 
 tial matter — its warp and woof. Theories, however ingenious, 
 and speculations, however brilHant or profound, are of little 
 worth, without a basis of clear and soKd truth. But, neither 
 
 6 (41) 
 
42 
 
 do isolated and indigested facts meet our wants. In order to 
 utility, there must be method and classification. 
 
 History assumes a scientific character and aspect, when its 
 fjicts are presented in due order, and a pervading intelligence 
 exhibits their causes, relations, and results. It becomes then 
 not only interesting, but also instructive. Yesterday is the 
 monitor and. teacher of to-day. The Past imparts the treasures 
 of its experience and wisdom, for the use and benefit of the 
 Present. Each successive age transmits its accumulated and 
 various wealth to the ages coming. 
 
 But a higher view enters into the right conception of History, 
 and is necessary to its completeness. In the course and con- 
 flict of earthly and heavenly things, above human means and 
 ends, are the divine; above every created actor, is God. His 
 presence pervades all space. His power controls all being. 
 His purposes embrace all events. His eternal providence 
 presides over insects and angels, invisible atoms and im- 
 measurable worlds. It is the dictate of reason, as well as the 
 averment of the Bible. Philosophy requires that it should be 
 so, equally with Faith. The most unimportant page, there- 
 fore, in even secular annals, cannot be read in its true light, 
 or understood in its full import, apart from the plan and pur- 
 pose of Him, who "hath prepared his throne in the heavens," 
 and "whose kingdom ruleth over all." History, without God, 
 is chaos. 
 
 BibUcal History has its name, not from its subject, but from 
 its source. It does not treat of the Bible, its language, text, 
 manuscripts, versions, criticism, or the laws of its interpretation, 
 except incidentally ; but, it is recorded in it, and is drawn from it. 
 With the truth and power of the divine pen, it presents, as its 
 central and main theme, the Apostasy and the Redemption, 
 the People and Kingdom of God, their beginning, character, 
 course, trials, and triumphs; interweaving with this distinctive 
 and pervading element, those collateral and subsidiary matters 
 which result from the inevitable contact and implication of 
 
43 
 
 sacred with secular thinf^s. Its starting point is the Creation. 
 In that, the work of God is perfect. It narrates then the 
 Temptation and the Fall. In these, the perfect work of God 
 is destroyed. But amidst this dread ruin, it reveals the pre- 
 sence of One who is greater than Satan. It is llis puri)ose to 
 redeem and restore. Grace, therefore, mingles with justice, 
 and invests the divine government with new and wondrous 
 ' features. It bestows upon Man, what is withheld from Angels. 
 Among the very desolations of Eden, there is the promise 
 of a Deliverer. That promise awakens hope and joy in Adam. 
 It is the germ of all subsequent revelation, the ground of 
 all subsequent spiritual life, power, and achievment. It 
 wrought the faith of Abel, the translation of Enoch, the right- 
 eousness of Noah. That dispensation closed, indeed, with a 
 terrific judgment; but the Church survived the Deluge. 
 Faith rebuilt its altar on Ararat, linking thus the world that 
 was, with the world that is; and thence began new and dis- 
 tincter manifestations of the plan of God in Redemption. We 
 see them in the Confusion of Tongues and the Dispersion of 
 Mankind; in the Call of Abraham and the Covenant with him 
 and his Seed; in the Oppression and the Wonders in Egypt; 
 in the Discipline of the Wilderness; in the Institutions of the 
 Law; the Conquest of Canaan, the Government of the Judges 
 and Kings, the Captivity in Babylon, and in the whole course 
 and condition of the chosen people, until the succession of the 
 Prophets and the Spirit of Inspiration ceased with Malachi. 
 Through all this period, and amidst whatever changes, in the 
 light of Biblical History, we trace the divine purpose, not only 
 in unbroken continuity, but also in constant progress towards 
 that stupendous consummation, with which the Ages were in 
 travail, God in Bethlehem ! God on Calvary ! 
 
 Ecclesiastical History differs from Biblical in this — that 
 while its subject is sacred, its sources are human. It treats 
 indeed of the Church of God ; but its witnesses and writers 
 are men. It traverses too a later period in the course of time. 
 
44 
 
 It begins where the inspired page is about to end. With the 
 exception of the Acts of the Apostles — whose historical value 
 is immense — and a few incidental passages in the Apostolic 
 letters, it depends wholly on records and monuments, made by 
 successive generations since the beloved John died. Its main 
 features however are authentic ; its great facts, certain. On the 
 closure of the Old Econom}^, the Church is a " little flock." 
 But the gospel is preached, the Spirit is given, and converts 
 are multiplied. The scenes of Pentecost continue. People 
 and priests become obedient to the faith. Gentiles as well as 
 Jews are gathered in ; Cornelius as well as Saul. Success 
 awakens hostility. Judaism arrays its forces. Paganism is 
 roused to resistance. Persecution kindles its fire, and whets 
 its sword. Heresy begins its invasion. Who can fittingly de- 
 scribe the conflict ? Who can duly estimate its surpassing mo- 
 ment? But truth is mightier than error. God is stronger than 
 men. In three centuries the Church triumphs. The Emperor 
 of the world becomes the servant of Jesus Christ. Then fol- 
 low the perils of prosperity. Then are made, by gradual steps, 
 those wider and bolder departures from the primitive form and 
 faith, which, at length, result in the claim of the harlot to be 
 the bride of Christ, and in the casting out of his true wedded 
 wife, to seek for refuge among the crags of the mountains and 
 in the dens of the desert. And yet, the Church was not then 
 extinct, nor did the promise of God fail. Through all those 
 mournful ages, the pure stream of truth flowed on, the succession 
 of faithful witnesses was maintained, real piety lived and flour- 
 ished, sometimes even beneath cowls and in monasteries, as 
 well as among those who utterly abjured them both. It was 
 an English priest, who first gave the people the New Testa- 
 ment, in their own mother tongue. It was a German monk 
 whom God mainly used in that mighty upheaval of the six- 
 teenth century, which we call the Reformation, that glorious 
 work of demolition and reconstruction which restored to such 
 an extent the Apostolic faith and Church, and whose beneficent 
 
45 
 
 influences pervadinp; tlic nations, have roused and sharpened 
 their mental and moral life, stimulated invention, agriculture, 
 commerce, and the arts, and made our age pre-eminently the 
 age of civil and religious liberty and power. 
 
 But from this general view, suggested thus by the terms 
 which designate our oflice and work, let us turn to some par- 
 ticulars concerning the Church, in which history instructs us, 
 and which may serve as specimens, to show the interest and 
 importance of its stud}', especiall}^ to those who would minis- 
 ter in the Sanctuary, and guide the hosts of God along their 
 way to victory and heaven. 
 
 History discloses the Divine origin of the Church. It is not 
 of men, but of God. We might perhaps have argued this from 
 its manifest character and end as compared with any human 
 institution ; but W'e have the explicit record. God devised 
 and created it. Its ground and charter were germinally in 
 that first promise. It became real and visible in the trusting 
 and active faith of Abel, perhaps of Adam. That promise was 
 the blossom of God's grace ; that faith awoke and put on its 
 marvellous strength and beauty, at God's secret call, and be- 
 cause of God's internal and efficacious work. As signally 
 then, as in any instance of Divine life since, was it true — " Not 
 by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of 
 Hosts." The Church so begun, w\as continued by the acces- 
 sion of others, through the working of the same grace, and 
 the manifestation of a like faith. All the saints before the 
 flood, whether numerous or few, and whatever the form of 
 their association or the order of their worship, were the fold, 
 the family, the house, the Church of God. 
 
 When after that memorable event, a new and clearer devel- 
 opment of the Divine purpose, as touching the Church, was to 
 be made, God was still present. The call of Abraham was a 
 Divine call. The covenant with him and his seed was a Di- 
 vine covenant. The promises, which within that covenant wei'e 
 as living fountains of strength and refreshment; to many gene- 
 
46 
 
 rations, were Divine promises. Moses, the great legislator of 
 the Church, was the servant of God. Elijah, the stern reform- 
 er of the Church, came in the strength of God. David, the 
 sweet psalmist of the Church, sung by the Spirit of God. 
 Isaiah, and all the holy Prophets of the Church, spoke in the 
 name of God. And<3f the Church of that dispensation, though 
 indeed belonging essentially to all dispensations, it was, that 
 God himself said, "This is my rest forever, here willl dwell." 
 And still later, when at length the legal and typical economy 
 passed away, because He had come who was the substance of 
 all types, and the perfect fulfiller of the Law, and when there- 
 fore the form and order of the Church were to be further and 
 materially changed, it was at the command, or by the graciously 
 present Spirit, of its glorious Head. The commission of the 
 Apostles was a Divine commission. The truths they preached 
 were Divine truths. The laws they enacted were Divine laws. 
 The powers, by which they vindicated their claims and wrought 
 conviction and obedience among Gentiles and Jews, were 
 Divine powers. And as the narrative of their work and teach- 
 ing flows on, the pregnant phrase continually recurs, "the Church 
 of God," "the Church of God," implying not only his presence 
 in it, and his jurisdiction over it, but also its origin and its con- 
 tinued life in him and by him. And then, when the sacred word 
 is about to close, and the Church, the Bride, the Lamb's wife, 
 passes before the vision of the entranced Prophet, s3'mbolized 
 by a city of great extent and inefffible beauty and glory, that 
 city comes down out of heaven, and is the City of God. 
 
 God then devised and created the Church. He laid its 
 foundation, and will rear its pinnacles. And he devised it and 
 brought it into visible existence and operation, not only as the 
 school and home where he might best train his children for 
 r their work on earth and their rest in heaven, but also as the 
 chief instrument of his wisdom and power in combating sin 
 and destroying the works of the devil. Its characteristic 
 idea is that of a selection out of, and a separation from, the 
 
47 
 
 earthl}' and corrupt mass; to be indeed a heavenly society, but 
 to be also a heavenly power, re-acting on that mass, and per- 
 vading and transforming it to such extent as God wills; and 
 whether in the one view or the other, there is no device or 
 creation of men like it. Those restless or ambitious spirits 
 w'ho seek to cast out Satan and renew the social and moral 
 world, by antagonistic or even independent means, betray as 
 profound folly as they do irreverence. They labour in vain 
 and spend their strength for naught. It is not indeed the mere 
 organism which quickens and regenerates, but it is the ever- 
 living and Almighty Spirit, who dwells in that organism and 
 works by it. The Church is the device of Divine wisdom, the 
 depository of Divine truth, the channel of Divine grace, the im- 
 plement of Divine power, the earthly abode of the Divine pre- 
 sence. To the Church pertain " the adoption, and the glory, and 
 the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of 
 God, and the promises." This is her exclusive distinction. It 
 is the living source of her efficiency. "What shall one then 
 answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath 
 founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it." In 
 the sense of the ancient symbol, " I believe in the Holy Ghost, 
 and the Holy Catholic Church." 
 
 History further attests the constant and firm faith of the 
 Church. The Church has a faith. She is no creedless thing. 
 In every age, and with deep emphasis, she has said, I believe. 
 And to instruct and confirm her children, at every now and 
 then, she has drawn out her sense of Scripture, that only per- 
 fect and infallible rule, in clear and logical compends, or well 
 considered Confessions; but whether in that or these, it is 
 " one faith;" it is '4he faith of God's elect;" it is "the faith 
 "delivered" by God whose Oracles they are. And observe that 
 apostolic word. It discriminates and so instructs. Not in- 
 vented by Philosophy. Not discovered by Science. Not 
 elaborated by any process or power of the human mind, but 
 
48 
 
 "delivered" from above. Indeed how else could itbe? ADivine 
 faith necessitates a Divine revelation. In such a matter, 
 Nature is deficient, human wit and reason fail. There must 
 be the supernatural. Its entire absence from the faith and 
 history of the Church, would prove them not Divine. In the 
 face then of all current atheism, vulgar and refined, we avow 
 and exult in this that, as a system of truth as well as a spiritual 
 experience, our "faith stands, not in the wisdom of men, but 
 in the power of God." 
 
 It is interesting to notice how soon this faith began to be 
 "delivered;" how early the Church had it; not indeed, in ab- 
 stract and scientific statements, but in the concrete, in living 
 and speaking facts. Turn to the pages of Genesis. Is there 
 a God, do you ask? Men reason. They infer causes from ef- 
 fects, and thus reach the First Cause. The Bible does not 
 reason, it declares, "God created the heavens and the earth." 
 Is there an Almighty Spirit? Men hesitate. They consult 
 analogies. Our being is complex. Perhaps God's being is so. 
 The Bible neither consults nor hesitates, it again declares, " The 
 Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Is there 
 a Trinity in the Godhead ? How profound the silence which 
 seals mortal lips ! And yet that supreme mystery is at least 
 intimated when the narrative adds, " Blohim said. Let us make 
 man in our image." Is sin in question — its fact or its relation ? 
 Read that story of the fall, and that sentence on our trembling 
 parents. How certain their guilt ! how wide and disastrous 
 its reach! Is there a Redeemer? Hearken, thou who art 
 lost ! " The Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpent's 
 head." Not at once, indeed, is understood the full import rf)f 
 these prophetic and assuring words, but there is light in them 
 and eternal life. Is salvation by faith? Come with me to 
 that altar where Abel worships. Hear him as he cries, " 
 Lamb of God, through thy precious blood, prefigured b}' the 
 blood of this lamb, save me!" Does God choose whom he 
 will to be the heirs of his grace? Mark yonder heroic exile 
 
49 
 
 from among the idolaters of Chaklea. He alone is called of 
 God, and becorues the Father of the faithful. Will God pre- 
 serve the real Christian and the true Church amidst whatever 
 perils? See that wondrous sight on Iloreb, the symbolic 
 bush, burning, yet unconsumed. Will the dead live again ? 
 Behold the sacrifice on Moriah. The Patriarch binds the be- 
 loved victim, and prepares the flital blow, "accounting that 
 God is able to raise him up, even from the dead !" Is there 
 a Judgment to come? How clear and startling is this voice 
 from Enoch, '' Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of 
 his saints, to execute judgment upon all!" 
 
 In this manner, God, from the beginning, " delivered" the 
 faith, not to the philosophers, but " the saints j" not to the 
 Academy, but the Church. The Church with reverence received 
 it, with affection preserved it, with fidelity transmitted it. It 
 gathered precision and fulness, by time. So God wisely pur- 
 posed. What at first was obscure became gradually clearer. 
 What was imperfect was made more and more complete. In 
 its initial stage, it spread saving knowledge through the ante- 
 diluvian period. With still stronger rays, it shone on the 
 tents and hallowed the altars of the Patriarchs. In the signi- 
 ficant forms and ceremonies of the law, it had a distincter and 
 more impressive exhibition. The pages of the Prophets glow 
 with its splendor, and almost anticipate the completed revela- 
 tions of the gospel. With new elements of light and power, 
 it passes over into the records and the Church of the New 
 Testament, being witnessed through Evangelists and Apostles, 
 by the Holy Ghost ; and it remains to-day in the original doc- 
 uments most wonderfully preserved, and in venerable symbols, 
 like those of Dort and Westminster, the sacred and priceless 
 possession of the household of God. 
 
 There have been indeed sad departures from the faith ; there 
 have been multiplied corruptions of it, by individuals and by 
 sects. All history is defiled with, and groans under, the de- 
 posits of error. And yet from this sore evil God has educed 
 
50 
 
 good. Error has been the means of defining the truth more 
 clearly, of eliminating from it all foreign mixtures, of bring- 
 ing it out in bolder relief, and throwing around it ampler and 
 impregnable defences. That memorable misconception of the 
 gift of Grod by Simon Magus prompted the equally memorable 
 rebuke and correction of it by Simon Peter. Judaizing at- 
 tempts on the one hand, and philosophical pretensions on the 
 other, gave greater point and power to the preaching and let- 
 ters of Paul. The ambition of Diotrephes and the impiety of 
 Cerinthus redoubled the pleas for humility in Christians, and 
 the proofs of Godhead in Christ, from the lips and the pen of 
 John. The advancing shadow of Gnosticism impelled both 
 these great Apostles to contend more earnestly for that gnosis 
 which alone is real and true. The slanderous assaults of the 
 Pagan adversaries, called forth the noble defences of the early 
 Christian Apologists. Arianism aroused the uncompromising 
 orthodoxy of Athanasius. The Pelagian heresy gave rise to 
 the profound and masterly vindications and expositions of 
 Augustine. The culmination of the errors and abuses of the 
 Papacy under Leo, brought on, by an almost inevitable reaction, 
 the Reformation under Luther. And to instance now no fur- 
 ther, the plausible but impious Naturalism of the present, in- 
 sinuating itself through Magazines and desecrating even Pulpits, 
 is filling the true sons of God with a deeper love and holier 
 ardour for the long tried and imperishable faith of the Church. 
 
 And in its faithful record of error, in giving its genesis and 
 development, its forms and fruits, how great a boon does His- 
 tory confer ! "What an illustration too that " there is nothing 
 new under the sun !" The human mind seems to move in a 
 circle. It seems especially to run the round of its deviations 
 from truth, in stated periods ; and then to repeat the revolu- 
 tion. The multiplied isms of to-day, however novel they ma}^ 
 seem, are not new truths, but old falsehoods. They lived in 
 the same or kindred forms, bore their proper fruit, died and 
 were buried perhaps centuries ago. And those vain men who 
 
 f 
 
51 
 
 father them, and would fain be thought original or profound 
 thinkers because of them, have no such merit at all. They 
 have simpl}'- been opening some ancient graves, and evoking 
 the dead, presently to die again. Is it Humanitarianism, or 
 Transcendentalism, or Pantheism, or Formalism, or Spiritual- 
 ism, or Anti-Scripturism of any sort ? To History it is an 
 old acquaintance. Somewhere in its course along the ages, 
 History has seen it before. History knows its character and 
 pedigree. History exposes and refutes its pretensions. His- 
 tor}^ bids men beware of its influence and to remand it with 
 due promptness to its forsaken sepulchre. Truth alone is in- 
 stinct with immortal life and beauty. 
 
 History, moreover, brings us into contact and sympathy 
 with the great Teachers of the Church. Ignorance is not the 
 mother of devotion. An intelligent piety will be more apt to 
 be both spiritual and efficient. The material creation began 
 with light. It is no less the case when God begins the new 
 creation of a soul in Christ. What begins in light, as the very 
 condition and means of its existence, cannot be expected to 
 thrive in darkness. It were a reversing of primary law, and 
 of nature itself. The evangelic command therefore is, Grow 
 in knowledge as well as grace. It presses on the individual 
 Christian, and on the collective body of believers. How else 
 can the Church realize the Divine purpose as to its own char- 
 acter, or become God's great Institute of instruction to the 
 world ? And yet this is her mission. " Go ye therefore," 
 said Jesus as he left his cross for his throne, "and teach all 
 nations." And he added thus no new function to the Church, 
 but only enlarged the sphere of her operation. 
 
 The supreme Teacher was Jesus Christ, aforetime as the 
 Angel of the Covenant, under various Divine appearances; in 
 these last days as the seed of the woman, in the form of a 
 servant ; and both then and now, by his Spirit also, as well as 
 in person. The Prophets were his ministers and bore his mes- 
 sages. The Apostles sat at his feet, and taught only in his 
 
52 
 
 name. How adminible, hence, the historical skill and legisla- 
 tive wisdom of Moses! How rich and various the spiritual 
 treasures of Asaph and David ! How grand and stirring the 
 predictive strains of Isaiah and his gifted associates ! How 
 beautiful, too, for simplicity are the Gospels ! How earnest 
 and practical the exhortations of Peter ! How glowing and re- 
 sistless the arguments of Paul ! How childlike and yet pro- 
 found the sentences of John ! And when you gather into one 
 the writings of Apostles and Prophets, the teaching of Christ 
 in his own person, and the teaching of Christ by his inspired 
 servants, what other volume is like it ? How vast and perfect 
 its truth ! How incomparable its wisdom and power ! 
 
 In passing from the Scriptures to the Fathers, we do indeed 
 make a long descent ; we leave the Divine and consciously en- 
 ter the human. The difference between them is so palpable 
 and great, as to afford itself an impressive argument for the su- 
 pernatural source of the Bible. And yet, in the Fathers, there 
 are grains of fine wheat, and particles of pure gold. Clemens, 
 Ignatius, Polycarp, and Justin Martyr, yield now and then a 
 senten<3e or thought not unworthy of preservation. We find 
 a higher order of intellect, as well as a wider reach of attain- 
 ment, in the philosophical Clement of Alexandria, the pro- 
 foundly erudite but fanciful Origen, and the fervid and imagi- 
 native Tertuliian. They were the master spirits of their age. 
 Then follow tiie churchly Cyprian, who, notwithstanding, loved 
 Christ, and won a martyr's crown ; the oratorical Lactantius, 
 who has been called the Christian Cicero ; the bold and in- 
 tense Athanasius, whose w^atch cry in the Arian conflict was, 
 " Earth has no Saviour, if its Saviour be not God ;" Ambrose 
 also, in the West, wkomMilman characterizes as " the spiritual 
 .ancestor of the Hildebrands and Innocents;" and Basil and the 
 ■Gregories, in the East, who, with some grave blemishes, belong- 
 ing rather to the times than the men, united some eminent 
 merits, which have been the admiration of all times. Still su- 
 perior to these was Jerome, the great Scholar of the Church, 
 
63 
 
 whom Niebuhr calls a " giant," and describes his works, except- 
 ing the critical, as disclosing " animation, elasticity of mind, 
 learning to an immense extent, and wit, which continues till 
 his old age, and constitutes the predominant feature of his 
 character;" the golden-mouthed Chrysostom, the great Preach- 
 er of the Church, whose marvellous eloquence, usually ground- 
 ed on evangelic truth, swayed the vast assemblies of Antioch 
 and Constantinople as the wind does the forests, and around 
 whose memory a charm and fragrance linger, which fifteen 
 centuries have not been able to dispel; and Augustine, the 
 great Theologian of the Church, of a prodigious grasp of in- 
 tellect, " in whom, Paul lived again ;" whom Luther thought 
 "the ablest and purest of all the Doctors;" whom even Dr. 
 Piisey recommends as " one in whom the stream of Catholic 
 truth flowed strong and deep," although predestinarian sticks 
 and straws do sometimes intermingle, and whose influence 
 on his own and all subsequent ages, as touching Theology, 
 has doubtless been greater than that of any other uninspired 
 man. 
 
 But 1 must desist from even these glances, and wholly 
 passing media3val times and medireval men, (some of whom 
 were truly great, as Anselm and Bernard,) be content, in refer- 
 ence to the later teachers of the Church, just to mention the 
 impetuous zeal of Luther, the gentle strength of Melanchthon, 
 the invincible logic of Calvin, the stern intrepidity of Knox, 
 the rich f\incy of Taylor, the calm depth of Ilowe, the exhaus- 
 tive power of Owen, the heavenly fervour of Baxter, the sen- 
 tentious and pungent style of Wesley, and the metaphysical 
 force and deep spiritual insight of Edwards. It is indeed an 
 illustrious company, and sacred as illustrious. They were all 
 endowed with eminent gifts. They all loved the one personal, 
 living, Divine Redeemer. They all strove to edify his body, 
 the Church. They all taught that in him alone is everlasting 
 life. As they pass before us in history, we discern the ex- 
 cellence of their character, we feel the power of their presence, 
 
54 
 
 we profit by the variety and richness of their gifts, we become 
 acqufiinted, through them, with the successive generations of 
 believers, and we realize, to some extent at least, the oneness 
 of Christ's mystical body, and the sweetness of communion 
 with saints. 
 
 History, still again, demonstrates the abiding presence of 
 God in the Church. That presence is the solution of what 
 were, otherwise, utterly insolvable. We are apt to think of 
 miracles especially in connection with the founding of Christ- 
 ianity, and as the necessary vouchers of its high claims. And 
 so indeed they were. But there is a greater miracle than any 
 or all of these. The continued being of the Church, in a 
 world like this, along with her occasional triumphs, is the 
 miracle of all time. It were a small thing to heal a diseased 
 limb, or open a blind eye, or give life to a dead body, or calm 
 the tempest by a word, in comparison with the work of be- 
 getting sons and daughters unto God, and maintaining truth 
 end holiness, age after age, among fallen and hostile men, and 
 confederate and mighty devils. No conceivable power, less 
 than Divine power, could do it. And what the exigencies of 
 the case so imperatively demand, History shows has been 
 actually supplied. All along the pathway of the Church are 
 the footsteps of God, the memorials of his presence and agency. 
 His voice was heard in the garden, if denouncing judgment, 
 telling also of grace. His Spirit strove with the generations 
 before the flood. His presence was vouchsafed to the Hebrew 
 Patriarchs. His arm wrought the deliverance from Egypt. 
 His pillar of fire and cloud accompanied the tribes in the wilder- 
 ness. His word was in the mouth of the Prophets. His 
 dominion was represented by the throne and sceptre of the 
 Kings. When Christ came in the flesh, God was with him, 
 and he was God. When Christ returned to his glory, he said 
 concerning the Eternal Spirit, "He shall abide with 3'ou for 
 ever!" It was not a mere prediction. It was no conditional 
 promise. It was rather a part of the constitution and law of 
 
55 
 
 the Church, during the present dispensation. It has been 
 literally realized. The Holy Spirit has dwelt with his people. 
 His presence has been the light and salvation of the Church. 
 It is he who wrought the simple and loving faith of the primi- 
 tive disciples. It is he who gave courage and constancy to 
 the Confessors and Martyrs. It is he who raised up and 
 qualified the long line of faithful pastors and teachers. It is 
 he who, through weary ages of conflict and corruption, pre- 
 served the pure faith of the Church, and continued the succes- 
 sion of the believing and holy. It is he who in modern days, 
 has re-inaugurated the great work of missions, and is now 
 making manifest his grace and power in numerous and glorious 
 revivals. And all this is a prophecy and pledge of the future. 
 With a heavenly origin, with a holy faith, with a sanctified 
 ministry, with the indwelling Divine presence, attested by a 
 history reaching now well nigh across six thousand years, how 
 valid the hope, how grand the prospect, and how sure the 
 triumph of the Church of God ! 
 
 Such, Fathers and Brethren, is a me^-e glance at the work, 
 in its two-fold aspect, assigned to me in this sacred Institution ; 
 and such are a few of the many particulars, by which the in- 
 terest and importance of historical studies, in connection 
 with the plan and course of Redemption, may be indicated. I 
 enter upon this work in the confidence of j'-our sympathy and 
 prayers, and seeing that in it we specially serve a Church so 
 illustrious in its place and influence along the past, so scrip- 
 tural and powerful in its position as to the present, and of so 
 glorious promise for the future; and above this, seeing that he 
 is a most precious and a Divine Saviour whom we would thus 
 glorify, shall we not, one and all, bring to it our choicest labour 
 and our richest offerings? Let who will abide in their tents. 
 Let us arise and do the work of the Lord ! 
 
TKo' S.WaSner's Liih SBUiason S'PHai? 
 
 Professor of Historic d and Pastoral Theology 
 
 FuhlzsJied. Ij Joseph MMJson. ^111 South lO^SP Fh£l^- 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 LEEOY J. HALSEY, D. D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OP HISTORICAL AND PASTORAL THEOLOGY, AND CHURCH 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 (57) 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF L. J. UALSEY. 
 
 It is ^vith no ordinary feelings of misgiving and embarrass- 
 ment that I stand here to-day, to take part with my brethren 
 in these inaugural services. Until within the last few days, I 
 have not, for more than twelve months, ventured to address a 
 public ussembl3^ After eighteen years of unremitting labour 
 in the i)rcaching of the gospel, 1 was compelled by loss of voice 
 to resign the pastoral office, and to desist entirely from all its 
 public functions. Under these circumstances I must crave the 
 greater indulgence for such remarks as I may be able to make 
 on the present occasion. But called by the voice of God's 
 providence, and the General Assembly of our Church, to bear 
 a share with my respected colleagues, in the inauguration of 
 the Theological Seminary of the North West, and having so 
 far obeyed the summons, as to set aside all opposing engage- 
 ments, and to appear here at the time and place appointed for 
 our work, I feel, that though it be with a trembling heart 
 and a faltering tongue, some public utterance, however brief 
 and inadequate, is due to an occasion so solemn and impor- 
 tant. 
 
 To be called by the Church to aid in laying the foundations 
 of a new Theological Seminary in this queen city of the Lakes, 
 
 (59) 
 
60 
 
 or to be called any where, to the highly important work of 
 training the sons of Zion for the holy ministry, is a position, 
 which twelve months ago I had as little thought of occupying, 
 as I had of being sent out by the Church on one of her great 
 foreign missions. That 1 find myself in such a position now, 
 and that, too, in a condition of bodily health only partially re- 
 covered from the wasting cares of other fields of labour, is to 
 me an event, which 1 can reconcile to myself, or hope to 
 justify to others, only on the ground, that the calls of God and 
 his Church have seemed to demand it. For the great work 
 here to be done, I feel that I have no special preparation or 
 qualification, above others of my ministerial brethren all over 
 the Church. And I should be utterly appalled at the diflS.- 
 culties and the responsibilities of such a work, were it not 
 that I come into it with hands already inured to the toils of 
 the pastoral office, with a sincere desire to learn and obey the 
 truth, and with a heart ready to serve the Master in any thing 
 he may appoint, while humbly relying upon his grace for as- 
 sistance. 
 
 For what is true of this work is true of the ministry itself. 
 "We are all unworthy of it, even at our best estate. And it 
 becomes us all to say, What are we, and what our father's 
 house, that we should be taken from following a few sheep in 
 the wilderness, and exalted to responsibilities so solemn and 
 sacred, as that of ministering in God's great name ! No one 
 in the Church can be more sensible than I am of my own un- 
 worthiness to be either a preacher of God's gospel or a teacher 
 of God's ministers. But I would desire, so far as I can, to 
 adopt the sentiment of George Gillespie, when called to stand 
 up for the truth, before the learned Colemans, Seldens, and 
 Lightfoots of the Westminster Assembly. "Let no man, who 
 is called of God to any work, be it never so great and difficult, 
 distrust God for assistance, as I clearly found at that great 
 Assembly at Westminster. If I were to live a long time in 
 the world, I would not desire a more noble life, than a life of 
 
61 
 
 pure and single dependence on God; for," said he, "though I 
 may have a claim to some learning and parts, yet I ever found 
 more advantage by single looking to God for assistance, than 
 by all the parts and gifts that I ever could pretend to at that 
 time !" 
 
 Theology, the great subject matter of all our instructions 
 here, is in its essence the knowledge or doctrine of God. As 
 a science, it is, both in the order of nature and of importance, 
 the first of all the sciences. To know God as the only true 
 God, aiul Jesus Christ, whom he has sent, as the only Mediator 
 is eternal life. As this is the central truth cf all truth, so 
 the knowledge of it is the central science of all the sciences 
 man can know. 
 
 Its basis of truth is the testimony, of God in his written 
 word; precisely as the foundation of all natural science or 
 philosophy is in the works of God, or, as they are called, the 
 works of Nature. The Scripture, therefore, the sure testimony 
 of God in his revealed word, is the great text book of Theo- 
 logical Science; just as material and physical nature, like 
 another scripture of a lower order, is the text book of all the 
 other sciences. In a certain sense God has revealed himself 
 everywhere in the great book of nature; as the apostle sjiys, 
 The invisible things of him from the creation of the world being 
 clearly seen, even his eternal power and Godhead. But we 
 needed the light of another book. And accordingl}^ in a much 
 higher sense, and with infinitely clearer light, God has re- 
 vealed in the Bible all we need to know of him, while in this 
 mortal state. 
 
 But while the knowledge of God himself is the essence of 
 Theology, it includes, at the same time, all that God has re- 
 vealed in his word, on all other subjects. Strictly speaking, 
 therefore, Theology embraces all that knowledge of which God 
 is the author in the Bible. It is, therefore, the knowledge of 
 all the truth respecting God, all the truth respecting man, and 
 all the truth respecting salvation.'-' For these are the three 
 
 * Brcckinridpfe's KuowIcJ^c of God. Vol. ii. book iv. 
 
62 
 
 grand subjects of all revelation, the burden of all the prophets, 
 the stor^ of all the evangelists, the never absent themes of every 
 page of Scripture; Grod the Creator and the Sovereign ; man the 
 creature and the sinner; salvation, the remedy, and the onl}^ pos- 
 sible method of restoration. And hence in all and above all, 
 Jesus Christ, the Mediator, Jesus Christ, the Saviour. For it is 
 in Christ Jesus alone that these three great subjects of all revela- 
 tion — God, man, and salvation — are harmonized. We behold 
 God in him; we behold man in him; we behold salvation in 
 him. And therefore as combining the three in one, he becomes 
 to us the sum of all revelation, the substance of all Theology. 
 Hence it is in Theology, as it was in the history of Redemp- 
 tion. Every thing stands related to Christ as the central ob- 
 ject. All the rays of revelation concentre upon him.' All the 
 blessed beams of Divine light emanate from him. He is the 
 sun of the system. For four thousand years every thing 
 pointed to his coming, and prepared the way for it. For 
 eighteen centuries and a half, everything has either pointed 
 back to what he did and suffered on Calvary, or else is point- 
 ing forward and preparing the way for his second coming. 
 And so in like manner, our Theology — our instructions and our 
 studies — must all point to him. 
 
 There may be many departments in Theology, many methods 
 of teaching it, many professorships ; but there can be but one 
 true Theology, even as, with all its diversities, there is but one 
 Bible. At whatever point, therefore, we begin our investiga- 
 tions in the broad fields of theological science, be it the text 
 of the sacred word, or the doctrines of revealed truth, or the 
 facts of the wondrous story, or the ordinances of Divine wor- 
 ship, or the Church's progress across the ages, we must seek 
 to find Christ there : — " Him first, him last, him midst, and 
 without end." 
 
 But while all theological science is thus one grand whole, 
 a perfect body of divinity whose head is Christ, the experi- 
 ence of the Church has proved, that it can best be taught, es- 
 
63 
 
 pecially where several teachers are engafred in giving instruc- 
 tions simultaneously, by arranging it into separate and conveni- 
 ent departments, to be assigned, each to its own teacher, and 
 all to be carried on abreast. Such divisions are, of course, al- 
 ways somewhat arbitrary ; and they vary somewhat in our 
 different seminaries. At present, they are for the most part 
 four, each distinct enough for a separate department, and all 
 together covering the whole field of instruction. The most 
 natural and scientific classification which perhaps the subject 
 admits of, would be the following : 
 
 First, Exegelical Theology : that is, the Theology of Iler- 
 meneutics or Interpretation, including all Biblical antiquities, and 
 the original tongues of the sacred word, so as to ascertain clear- 
 ly the mind of the Spirit in the word as the basis of our science. 
 Secondly, Systematic Theology : that is, the Theology of 
 doctrine, or as it is commonly called Didactic Theology, inclu- 
 ding also the defence of the same, or Polemic Theology : but 
 Systematic, as containing the whole system of Divine truth 
 drawn from the written word. 
 
 Thirdly, Historical Theology : that is, the History of the 
 Church of God, both in the Bible and out of it, both in the ad- 
 ministration of its affairs, and in the development of its doc- 
 trines, as exhibited in all past ages. 
 
 Fourthly, Practical and Executive Theology : that is, the 
 doctrine of the Church, as an organized kingdom in the world, 
 with all the functions and duties of its ministry and office 
 bearers — including all pastoral care and all christian experience. 
 This is not the precise arrangement as yet adopted in any 
 of our existing seminaries. Nevertheless they all agree in 
 comprehending all of these departments in some part of the 
 couhe. But the plan prescribed by the General Assembly 
 for us, in this new Seminary of the North West, accords very 
 nearly with that which I have just marked out. The chief 
 difference, and that is not material, is that the department of 
 Interpretation or Exegesis, would come first in the order ; 
 
64 
 
 whereas in the curriculum of our Seminar^'- it is last. The 
 mere order, of course, is nothing ; seeing that all the depart- 
 ments are to be carried on simultaneously and abreast. And 
 this is well : for while the student gets all the advantage of a 
 division of labour and a diversity of gifts, he is compelled at 
 every step to feel, that Theology is still a grand whole. 
 
 The department of study, which, according to the plan of 
 our Seminary, is assigned to my special direction, is that of 
 Historical and Pastoral Theology, and Church Government. In 
 entering upon it, it is exceedingly important that we should get 
 a distinct and definite idea of the field which we have to in- 
 vestigate. In getting knowledge, we do well to follow the ex- 
 ample of the agriculturist, who, before he begins to plant, or 
 even to plough, surveys his whole ground, and lays it off into 
 well defined and convenient compartments, ready for the la- 
 bourers. Otherwise we might plough at random, and plant to 
 little purpose. It seems to be the order of Providence, that 
 as we add furrow to furrow in the fields, so we must add fact 
 to fact, and truth to truth, one at a time, here a little and there 
 a little, in the acquisition of knowledge. We can no more ex- 
 pect to get knowledge in the lump, than we can to reap the 
 harvest or plough the fields in the mass. It become us, there- 
 fore, to go to work systematically and patiently, as knowing 
 what we are about. 
 
 This department is wide in its range, and it is of the utmost 
 importance in all its practical bearings both upon the character 
 of the ministry and upon the Church itself. It embraces all 
 the varied topics of the pastoral care : the nature, design, and 
 functions of the ministry; Homiletics, or the composition and 
 delivery of sermons ; the whole constitution, polity, worship, 
 and mission of the Church of God as a visible organization in 
 the world ; together with a historical survey of the different 
 theories and opinions, both true and false, on all these points 
 as they have been developed during all past ages, and as they 
 
65 
 
 have been attested or condemned in the fierce fires of so many 
 great conflicts. 
 
 Until very recently these nfrdiated branches of study were 
 usually divided oil", and distributed among the other leading 
 departments of the course, in all our Theological Seminaries. 
 Now they are for the most part assigned to a separate chair, 
 as their close affinity and great practical importance demand. 
 At first sight, Historical and Pastoral Theology, llomiletics, 
 and Church Government may look somewhat disconnected. 
 But it will be found on examination that there is one central 
 idea on which they all meet, as the primal and fundamental 
 truth of the science. That is the true theory of the Church. 
 This underlies our whole department, and gives it unity and 
 character as a distinct branch of Theology. We must ascer- 
 tain what the Church is ; what is its true nature, object, and 
 end, as a Divine institute. For, manifestly, there can be no 
 wise and consistent action in the administration of Church af- 
 fairs, or in the discharge of ministerial duties : that is, no right 
 pastoral Theology, and no right practical Theology, except 
 that which is grounded upon the right theory of the Church ; 
 just as theory is essential to practice in every thing else. 
 
 But at the same time all mere theory is worthless, unless 
 it developes itself in a wholesome experience. And therefore 
 inasmuch as the grand object of training men for the ministry 
 in au}^ Theological Seminary is that, as master workmen for 
 Christ, they ma}' be able to carry the Divine theory of the 
 Church into all the daily duties of preaching the gospel and 
 watching for souls, this chair of Ecclesiastical Polity becomes, 
 of necessity and by pre-eminence, the chair of Practice. All de- 
 partments of Theology are indeed, or ought to be practical ; in- 
 asmuch as the object of all of them is to point the sinner and 
 the saint to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
 world. But this above all others is practical. Its ofiice is to 
 meet the student as he comes forth from the armory of the 
 
 other chairs, fully furnished, as he is presumed to be, with the 
 9 
 
66 
 
 accumulated resources of Exegetical, Didactic, Polemic, and 
 Narrative Theology, and to teach him how he may best wield 
 these weapons of truth, for the salvation of sinners, the edifi- 
 cation of saints, and the glory of God. It corresponds some- 
 what to that which, in the curriculum of our Medical schools, 
 is known as the chair of Theory and Practice. It embraces 
 the theoretical knowledge and the practical administration of 
 all those great remedial agencies and institutes, which the 
 Physician of souls has prescribed in his word, and committed 
 to his Church for the healing of our dying race. 
 . This department, however, owing to its wide range of sub- 
 jects, has not yet attained, at least in our text-books, that 
 systematic and symmetrical form which belongs to the others, 
 and which it is, no doubt, capable of receiving. It has hither- 
 to been treated too much as a mere outline of isolated rules 
 and duties, more the result of individual experiment, than of 
 great fundamental principles, grounded in the very constitution 
 of the Church, and the essential nature of the Gospel as a rev- 
 elation from God. We see no reason why all that God has re- 
 vealed in the Bible touching the functions of his Church, and 
 the duties of her ministry and other officers, may not be as 
 readily classified and arranged in systematic order as any other 
 truths of revelation ; and consequently none, why the depart- 
 ment of Theory and Practice in Theology should be less scien- 
 tifically treated than the corresponding chair in Medicine. 
 On the contrary, the difference is all the other way ; for while 
 Medicine in its practical application to the maladies of the hu- 
 man body is at best but a human science, and confessedly one 
 of the most uncertain of all the sciences, Theology, in its prac- 
 tical application to the maladies of the human soul, as in all its 
 other aspects, is a Divine science, and is as certain and positive 
 as the infallible oracles of God can make it. As however, the 
 questions pertaining to this whole field of inquiry have now 
 become the leading and most vital questions of the age in 
 
67 
 
 which we live, the whole department will doubtless receive a 
 profounder and more scientific treatment hereafter. 
 
 At present the best scientific term which we have for it, as 
 being at once the briefest and the most comprehensive, is to 
 call it Ecclesiology, that is, the doctrine or science of the 
 Clinrch. Regarding it thus as a great system of closely af- 
 filiated truths, whose central idea is the Church of Christ, or 
 Christ in the Church, it naturally includes all the functions 
 and duties of the ministry in the whole field of llomilctics 
 and the Pastoral care; because the ministry is but one of the 
 great gifts which Christ bestowed upon his Church, when he 
 left the world. So that to know what God has revealed touch- 
 ing his Church on earth, is to know all that he has revealed 
 about the ministry; even as the whole includes the parts. And 
 so on the other hand a full Eccclesiology would also necessarily 
 include all the opinions, theories, and practices, relating to the 
 Church, as they have been developed under all dispensations 
 through all past ages; thus opening to our view the immense 
 field of Historical Theology, both in the Bible and out of it. 
 Ecclesiology, to be complete, must take in, on one side, the 
 whole practical working of the church, with all its officers of 
 government, and its ordinances of worship, as an existing king- 
 dom of God in the world ; and on the other, the whole past pro- 
 gress and development, through which this kingdom has come 
 to be what we now behold it. 
 
 Hence it is manifest, that our true scientific starting point 
 in this whole department, and, so to speak, the base-line of all 
 our subsequent movements, must be the Church of Christ, as 
 his Spirit has revealed it in the Scriptures, as his providence 
 and grace have developed it in all human history. For let us 
 not forget, that the true Church of the present is the true 
 Church of history, and that the true Church of history is the 
 true Church of the Bible. The Church which the Son of God 
 purchased with his own blood, and over which through all the 
 Scriptures, he is the exalted Head, is the same Church over 
 
68 
 
 wliicli he has been reigning through all subsequent history, 
 and over which he now reigns and rules on his mediatorial 
 throne in heaven. The Church in the Bible, the Church in 
 histor}^, the Church in actual operation before our eyes, and 
 Jesus Christ in all and over all, as Head, King, and God, 
 blessed for ever: this is the primal conception of the depart- 
 ment which is here assigned to me. 
 
 Such is the wide domain of Ecclesiology, regarded as the 
 science of the Church of God. You will readily perceive, from 
 what has been said, that it may be viewed in a threefold as- 
 pect, answering somewhat to the three difierent branches of 
 study, embraced in this one professorship : namely. Church Gov- 
 ernment, Pastoral Theology, and Historical Theology. First, 
 as a survey of the Church, abstractly and objectively consid- 
 ered, in her whole constitution, polity, order, officers, discipline, 
 worship, design, and destiny, as a Divine Institute, or visible 
 kingdom among men, that is, Theoretical Ecclesiology. 
 
 Secondly, as a survey of the Church, concretely and practi- 
 cally considered, that is, as a Divine Institute in actual opera- 
 tion among men, through all her holy ordinances and her sacred 
 office bearers, manifesting her inward life and power, and ful- 
 filling her grand mission in the work of preaching the gospel, 
 saving sinners, edif}dng the saints, and glorifying God; that is 
 Executive and Pastoral, or Practical and Experimental Eccle- 
 siology. 
 
 And thirdly, as a survey of the Church in her onward pro- 
 gress across the ages, her trials and conflicts, her successes and 
 disasters, her fulfillment or neglect of duty, as a Divine In- 
 stitute ordained for the defence and diffusion of the truth of 
 God, the very pillar and ground of the truth ; that is Historical 
 Ecclesiology. First, Ecclesiology in its theory; then, Eccle- 
 siology in its practical working; and last, Ecclesiology in its 
 historical development. 
 
 Now as a full course in our Seminary contemplates three 
 years' study, we may find it most convenient to follow out this 
 
69 
 
 order, devotinf^ one year of the three in succession to each of 
 the three great divisions of our subject. At the same time we 
 do not deem it best to pursue any one of them exclusively, 
 even in its own separate year, to the neglect of the others. 
 For just as it is proposed to carry on the studies of the four 
 professorsiiips, simultaneously and abreast, so, to some extent 
 at least, we may carry on abreast, through each year of our 
 course, these three branches of the department. That is to 
 say, while discussing- the theory and polity of the Church in 
 the Ih'st year, we may have an eye also to its present practice 
 under that theory, and to its historical development in past 
 ages. And while discussing the varied duties of the Church 
 and the ministry in the second year, and giving a fuller atten- 
 tion to the historical development in the third year, we need 
 not forget the great essential principles of that Divine Insti- 
 tute out of which they all grow, as discussed in our first 
 year. 
 
 And as all Theology is a unit, a grand circle of truth, of 
 which Christ crucified is the centre, and the revelation of God 
 the circumference, and as in every other department of Theo- 
 logy we are to find Christ ever3'where, shining with full orbed 
 glory from the centre to the circumference, so here also we must 
 find and exalt Christ in the Church, There is no true Church 
 now in the world, none in history, none in the Bible, where 
 Christ is not exalted and adored above every thing that is 
 named in heaven and earth. As in Didactic and Polemic 
 Theology, it is Christ the centre of the whole system of doc- 
 trine ; as in Biblical and Exegetical Theology, it is Christ the 
 burden of all the Scriptures; as in Ecclesiastical and Narrative 
 Theology, it is Christ the sum of all history, God of providence 
 and grace; so here in Pastoral and Practical Theology, it is the 
 same Christ, pervading all, filling all, governing all, blessing all, 
 according to his promise: Lo! I am with you always even unto 
 the end of the world. 
 
 Nor shall he ever cease to be supreme in that Church which 
 
70 
 
 he hath purchased with his blood. Let him reign then for 
 ever on the highest throne of our affections, for he alone is 
 worthy. Let him reign supreme and without a rival, in all 
 our Theology and over all our schools, as he does in his own 
 inspired word, and in that heaven to which he has gone. 
 
 We need not wander from the truth, nor ever surrender one 
 jot or tittle of the faith once delivered to the saints, while 
 Christ holds the place of supremacy in our hearts. However 
 wide the seas of error around us, however dark the night of 
 human speculation, and however fiercely all the winds of false 
 doctrine may blow, there is no danger to our A'^essel while 
 Christ is at the helm. Let him direct all our studies, let him 
 answer all our inquiries, and himself be the crowning object 
 of all our affections, and we cannot miss the clear pathway of 
 truth, and the blest haven of life. We ma}^ have to sail over 
 treacherous seas, and encounter adverse winds; but this pole 
 star of truth never ceases to shine; and by its light we may 
 take our reckoning, and tell our latitude and longitude on the 
 widest and the wildest ocean of human error. 
 
 Such is a brief and imperfect outline of the field of study to 
 -which I have been • specially appointed in this institution. 
 Without enlarging any further upon it at present, it may be 
 more in accordance with the design for which we are met to- 
 day, to advert now briefly to a few of the many and striking 
 considerations, which press upon us all alike, as we survey the 
 whole joint labour which lies before us in the Seminary. 
 
 In every possible view we may take of such a work as this, 
 the building up of another School of the Prophets, and the 
 training of young men to preach the everlasting gospel, it is 
 confessedly a great and good work. In all the work that is 
 done beneath the sun, there is certainly nothing more impor- 
 tant, more difficult, and more blessed. While of ourselves we 
 might well shrink from it, appalled by its magnitude and gran- 
 deur, and crying, Who is sufficient for these things ? yet with 
 God's blessing, there is everything to stimulate and encourage 
 
71 
 
 us to its ftiithful performance. Its whole nature, relations, and 
 influences, both for time and eternity, are such as to inspire 
 every pious heart with the highest enthusiasm, and nerve 
 every arm that can work for Christ to the greatest exertion. 
 Not only those of us who are called to give instruction as Pro- 
 fessors, and the young men who may be committed to our care 
 as pupils, but all, it seems to me, who feel an interest in the 
 prosperity of Zion, the directors, friends, and patrons of the 
 Seminary, the community in whose bosom it is located, and the 
 whole body of the Church, to whose fostering care it is com- 
 mitted, should ponder well the important character and bear- 
 ing of the work here taken in hand. 
 
 Let us look for a moment, then, at our undertaking here, as 
 a work intimately connected with all the great interests of 
 truth, the growth of the Church, and the glory of God among 
 men. It is not more certain that there is a Bible in the world 
 the veritable word of God, than that there is a visible Church 
 or kingdom of God amongst men, to which he has committed 
 the oracles of truth, and by and through which he has, in all 
 ages, manifested his glory. This Church is the house of God, 
 the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the pillar and ground of the 
 truth, and has been perpetuated with increasing power and 
 glory, in every age and every land, from its first organization 
 to the present hour. It consists of all those, together with 
 their children, who hold the essential saving faith of the gos- 
 pel, love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and worship God 
 in the Spirit according to his word. This Church is to be per- 
 petuated to the end of time and fill the world with its glory; 
 for in terms as emphatic as were ever used by the Son of God, 
 he has told us that it is founded upon the rock of ages, and 
 that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Nay, it 
 has a destiny and relations infinitely higher and more glorious 
 than any which refer to the present world. For we arc told 
 that " God created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent, 
 that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places 
 
72 
 
 might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God." 
 But even as it regards this world alone, there are three things 
 that have been indissolably bound together from the begin- 
 ning : namely, the truth of God, the Church of God, and the 
 glory of God. The Church as the instrument, the truth as the 
 means, and the glory as the end of all. 
 
 Now it is the fashion in our day to think slightingl}^ of all 
 these great things, or rather to ignore their existence alto- 
 gether. But the infidelity which under the guise of Christian- 
 ity, can admit the Bible, and deny the existence of the Church 
 of God, is not a particle more entitled to respect, either for 
 its logic or its piety, than that w^hich repudiates the Divine 
 authority of the Bible out and out. Because there is nothing 
 to which the whole word of God gives a more decisive and 
 abundant testimon}^ than to this Church or kingdom of Jesus 
 Christ. Nor is it an}'- more clearly settled that the Church 
 herself exists by Divine appointment, than it is that her ado- 
 rable Head and King hath ordained the ministry of reconcilia- 
 tion, to be perpetuated in her bosom till the end of time. 
 There is a species of baptized infidehty, current every wherein 
 the world, and in the Church too, the infidelity of our most 
 approved popular literature, rejoicing in the boast of liberal 
 opinions, which affects to ignore or despise the ministry as a 
 thing having no more claims to a Divine mission than any 
 other order of men. But why not reject Christianity and the 
 gospel itself along with the Church and the ministr}"- ? The 
 gospel is no more of God than the ministry appointed to preach 
 it. Christianity is not a particle uiore Divine than the Church 
 which its great Founder purchased with his own blood. And 
 neither of them has any other warrant than that Divine book 
 which tells us with absolute certainty, that they all alike are 
 ordained of God. Most assuredly, if there is any Divine in- 
 stitution in the world, it is the ministry of reconciliation, ap- 
 pointed and ordained for the defence of the truth, the procla- 
 mation of the gospel, and the glory of God in the salvation of 
 
men. It is Divine in its origin, Divine in its authority, Divine 
 in its work, and Divine in its influences for time and eternity, 
 because it is in all accompanied and supported by the might}'' 
 power of God. "After that in the wisdom of men, the world 
 by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness 
 of preaching to save them that believe." "Now then we are* 
 ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, 
 we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." 
 
 These things are all bound together by indissolubleties, the 
 Church, the ministry, the truth, the glory of God, the salva- 
 tion of men. And there is no demonstration clearer than that 
 all the greatest blessings of God to our race, both temporal 
 and spiritual, for time and eternity, flow through these chan- 
 nels. The greatest good any of us can do in this world, and 
 the greatest good we can receive, is in immediate connection 
 with this whole divinely appointed instrumentality of the 
 Church. 
 
 Now it is to perpetuate and to multiply these agencies, to 
 qualify and to equip the young servants of Jesus Christ, for 
 the work of the ministry, the work of proclaiming salvation 
 to our dying race, of extending the triumphs of the Redeem- 
 er's kingdom over all the earth, and of promoting the glory 
 of God in the highest, confessedly the greatest work that is 
 done, or can be done, for God or man, beneath the sun, it is 
 for this that the Church, whose servants we all are, by her 
 highest and most solemn action, has here established a new 
 Theological Seminary. She has located it here, beyond the 
 utmost bounds of all her older Seminaries, here at the haven 
 of these great waters of the North West, and at the place of 
 concourse of all these mighty multitudes of people, under the 
 conviction that such an institution was demanded here by all 
 her highest interests, the spread of the gospel, the salvation 
 of sinners, the defence of the truth, and the glory of God. 
 
 And what a field is this in which, and for which we are 
 called to labour ! Consider our work here in its more immedi- 
 
 10 
 
74 
 
 ate bearings upon this great North Western section of our 
 common country. Whatever good God may enable any of us 
 to do here, now or in time to come, in the way of building up 
 this institution and preparing men to preach the gospel, is good 
 done not only for his Church, but for our common country and 
 for the world. The Church of God has a great mission to 
 perform for our country and for the world. It is hers to save 
 sinners, to train the rising generation, to instruct the people in 
 truth, and righteousness, and virtue. And thus, in God's name 
 it is hers to bless the country, to bless the world. 
 
 Since our ascending Saviour commissioned his Apostles to 
 go forth into all the world and preach this gospel to every 
 creature, there surely never was a more important and invit- 
 ing field for ministerial labour, than this vast region of the 
 North West, stretching away with its swelling millions from 
 these great inland seas, the gates of its commerce, to the un- 
 measured regions of the farthest West, the tributaries of its 
 coming wealth and power. If we look over this wonderful 
 field, so new, so immense, so diversified in its populations, as 
 yet so destitute of religious privileges and the means of grace, 
 and still so potential for good or evil on the character and des- 
 tiny of our common country, we cannot fail to see that the one 
 great want of it every where, paramount to every other want, 
 is a ministr}^ of able and faithful men to preach the gospel. 
 Shall we say that a hundred such ministers might this day find 
 employment in it, in our branch of the Church alone ? Per- 
 haps it would be nearer the truth to say a thousand. Does a 
 3'oung man of talents and piety wish to make the most of 
 life, to serve God in his generation by doing the greatest possi- 
 ble good for his Church, for his country, and for the souls of 
 his dying fellow men ? Does he wish to consecrate time, tal- 
 ent, soul, body, all he has and is, to the cause of the Master 
 who hath bought him with his blood ? Here is the work for 
 him ; here is the field for him ; and now is the time for him, 
 in preaching the gospel of the blessed God to the myriads of 
 
75 
 
 this great North West. Now is the time to stem the torrent 
 of its incoming errors, and vices, and false doctrines. Now is 
 the time to lay the foundations of virtue, morality, social or- 
 der, and political prosperity, deep and broad in the hearts of 
 the rising generation. Now is the time in all these new States, 
 and in ten thousand rising towns, cities, and villages, to build 
 up cliurches, schools, colleges, all civil, religious, and charita- 
 ble institutions, which shall stand to do good, when the hands 
 that built them shall cease to labour, and the eloquent tongues 
 that pleaded for them shall be silent in the grave. It is bless- 
 ed and glorious to work for such a Master in an}^ country 
 under any circumstances. How glorious and blessed is it to 
 work at such a time, and in such a field as this ! It would be 
 enough to work for such a country as it now is. But to work now., 
 is to work for it as it will be fifty or a hundred years hence, 
 when, if our work is well done, thousands yet unborn shall rise 
 up and call us blessed. 
 
 Now it is to occupy such a field as this, to bless such a 
 country in all time to come, by supplying it with faithful and 
 full}'" furnished ministers of the word, that the General Assem- 
 bly has located a Theological Seminary at Chicago. 
 
 If we take a map of the United States, and draw a straight 
 line from the south-western corner of the State of New York 
 to the nearest point of Texas, we shall have an axis which 
 geographically divides the present settled portions of the Uni- 
 ted States into two very nearly equal parts. At present the 
 preponderance of population is in the portion lying to the 
 south-east of this line. But the ratio is changing every day, 
 and there can be little question that in a few years the mnjor- 
 ity of our people will be living on the north-west side. Of 
 this north-west portion, Chicago is nearer the geographical 
 centre tlian any other great city now existing or likely to exist. 
 Its position, at the extreme south-western head of this great 
 chain of inland seas, is such that it is not likely ever to lose 
 this advantage of being the great central city of the North 
 
76 
 
 West. Now, of the six Seminaries of our Church, five are lo- 
 cated on the south-east side of this line ; and the only one in the 
 whole vast region to the north-west of it, is that which we 
 are here to-day to inaugurate. This single fact is all we need 
 both to illustrate the magnitude of our field, and to vindicate 
 the wisdom of the Assembly in founding this Institution. 
 
 But we cannot stay to develope these thoughts now. The 
 work is great. The time is short ; the business is urgent ; and 
 what our hands find to do, let us do with all our might. Our 
 sufficiency is of God, and through Christ strengthening us, we 
 can do all things. The day in which we live, and the place 
 where we stand, the time past, the time to come, and the signs 
 of the present time, all conspire to encourage and cheer us 
 on to renewed exertion in the work of the Lord. 
 
 It is wonderful to think what God has done for our Zion, 
 and to see what he is doing all over the earth. The soul of 
 the greatest of all the Apostles, could he return to the earth, 
 might well be moved within him, to see what our eyes have 
 seen, to hear what we hear of God's wonderful works among 
 men. Look where we stand to-day, on the map of the world 
 and on the chart of human history. The gospel which we 
 preach, and for the defence of which this new Seminary is 
 now opened, is the gospel which began at Jerusalem. And 
 here we are, almost at the centre of a continent, which when 
 it began, was unknown even to human conjecture. Here we 
 stand in the midst of the freest people and the brightest civil- 
 ization that ever existed on the globe; a civilization and a 
 people that seem destined to endure till they usher in the lat- 
 ter day glory and the second coming of the Son of Man. 
 Here we stand midway between the Polar regions and the 
 Southern Gulf, almost midway between the Atlantic and the 
 Pacific, and on the very verge of those great inland seas which 
 together form the Mediterranean of our Continent, a great 
 highway of commerce, which may yet play as important a 
 part in our future history, as the Mediterranean has done in 
 
I / 
 
 the history of the Old World. Here we stand upon the border 
 of wh.'it was, a little more than a quarter of a century ago, a 
 vast untrodden wild ; on one hand the wide expanse of deep 
 Ijlue waters stretching away to the east, uncheered by a sail, 
 on tile other the boundless prairies, stretching away like anoth- 
 er ocean, towards the setting sun, untenanted by civilized man ; 
 but now the busy abode of a hundred thousand souls, and the 
 commercial centre of an empire of mighty States ; here we 
 stand in the good providence of God, solemnly and hopefully 
 to inaugurate another of those institutions of learning, which 
 are at once the highest known to the Church of God, and the 
 most important, if not indeed the most ancient, known to hu- 
 man civilization. As from such a point of vision, and such a 
 stage of our progress, we survey the wonders of Providence, 
 we may indeed say, Lo I what hath God wrought ! 
 
Tlio' r. .Va.JnsTS LI*. 3? mii-^z-. S-piilai! 
 
 y/^^^^ t^<fl^ 
 
 Professor of Eiblical Literature and Exe^esi: 
 
 stihUsheci .ajr.Jbseph \r£.Wason. N^lll Sovuh lO'^P PkCl^ 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM M. SCOTT, D. D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE AND EXEGESIS. 
 
 (79) 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF W. M. SCOTT. 
 
 Brethren of the Directory and Christian friends : — In the 
 part of this service which you have required of me, it has oc- 
 curred to me that you would naturally expect some indication 
 of the conception which I have of the nature and ends of the 
 department of instruction intrusted to me in this Seminary, and 
 the general idea of the methods by which I propose to attain 
 those ends in the actual course of instruction. 
 
 It is the peculiarity of our holy religion that it exists 
 outwardly in the form of a Revelation from God, that Revela- 
 tion in its complete and final form having been made matter 
 of record, under such Divine inspiration as to secure absolute 
 infallibility in matter and form. Accordingly that record in 
 the form in which it was completed by the Holy Spirit, is the 
 source of knowledge, and the standard of authority, in such 
 sense that every word put therein by direction of the Divine 
 Spirit we are bound to receive, and no word without that record 
 are we bound to receive as of equal authority. For the pur- 
 poses of this Revelation, for both communication .and record, 
 God has employed the marvellous framework of language, the 
 instrument and vehiculum of human thought. Speech is em- 
 bodied thought. Written speech is embodied thought, not em- 
 
 11 
 
 (81) 
 
82 
 
 balmed, but immortalized. It neither dies nor changes, while 
 the record is preserved, so that while men retain the language 
 in which the record subsists, they may come into living contact 
 and communion with the original living thought. 
 
 For the purposes of the world-revelation, God chose not 
 one, but two languages: the one to subserve the ends of a 
 national, limited, preparatory dispensation; the other to com- 
 plete and complement the revelation, and adapt it to universal 
 diffusion amongst men, and to the great purpose of persuasion, 
 TzscOscy, to the production of that state of mind, which is at once 
 the means of salvation and of growth, faith, -lazc;, the result 
 of persuasion, and the principle of obedience. This is not the 
 time nor the place for the discussion of the reasons of these 
 things ; why God chose two languages rather than one, and 
 why the two he did rather than any other of the manifold forms 
 that human speech has assumed. 
 
 It is enough that these are facts, acknowledged, undeniable, 
 and tiierefore to be accepted in all their consequences. This 
 Divine Book in these two languages is put into the hand of a 
 divinely -ordained order of Church ofticers, to be by them 
 taught to men, for the obedience of faith among all nations. 
 Whatever else these men may know or not know, this Divine 
 Book, of which they are the professional teachers and de- 
 fenders, they are surely bound to know — know in every 
 sense and to every intent, to which they are set to teach it to 
 others. Accordingly it is of the reason and nature of the case 
 that they who are thus to teach must themselves first be taught 
 — taught what they are to teach, the actual contents of this 
 Divine record. 
 
 They are to be taught, not simply as others are taught, with 
 the view of their own personal persuasion and obedience, but 
 also, and mainly here, with the view to their teaching others. 
 This involves the two processes of learning and communicating, 
 of understanding and fitly interpreting. |; 
 
 It is apparent then how fundamental this department of the 
 
83 
 
 languages and interpretation of the original Scriptures must be 
 to the whole scheme of professional training of the authoritative 
 teachers of this recorded religion. To this must everything 
 be referred as its source. Upon correct interpretation of this 
 Divine record in its only inspired form must everything taught 
 here rest for its vaUie and authority. And when the men 
 trained here go forth to their work amongst men, everything 
 they shall accomplish for God in the way of the salvation of 
 souls must be done through the means of this very truth of 
 God. In all that men may say ahoid this truth, in all the 
 masses of human learning that have been accumulated upon it, 
 there is nothing in the way of saving truth, but what itself 
 has directly furnished. This necessitates the keeping of 
 the active ministry in constant contact with the truth in its 
 inspired sources, if they would do well and faithfully the 
 work to which they are ordained, teach men these given words 
 of God, for this is the test of fidelity which the Saviour ap- 
 plied to himself: For I have given unto them the loords which thou 
 gavest me. 
 
 The end of this department of instruction in the Seminary 
 I conceive to be, to meet this demand of the active ministry, 
 to enable them to commune with the living truth of God in 
 its inspired forms and sources, to hear constantly, and to in- 
 terpret for the people, the very words of the Spirit, to get be- 
 tween it and all human authority, and gain the right use of 
 all human aids. And thus to be able to say to the people, 
 whose souls they are to win and to feed with knowledge, 
 with the confidence of those who know, Thus saith Jehovah, 
 near the word of the Lord. 
 
 "With this as the central idea of the design of this depart- 
 ment, many others naturally connect themselves more or less 
 intimately. Though it is proper to regard some things as set- 
 tled by those who have gone before us, yet there is a stage in our 
 progress where justice to ourselves and to them requires us to 
 examine the grounds on which they have rested their decisions, 
 
84 
 
 so that their mere authority shall not stand as the foundation 
 of our ftiith, but take its proper place as evidence. So that, 
 though at the outset it is proper and wise for us to accept at 
 the hands of our fathers what they deliver to us as Scripture, 
 there comes a time in the course of preparation for the teach- 
 ing of these Scriptures, as the word of God for the faith of 
 men, when the question must be raised and answered : What 
 is Scripture? And on what grounds have these different books 
 in this collection been always received by the faith of the 
 Church? This requires the stream of mingling evidence and 
 authority to be traced to the highest accessible point, and the 
 internal character of each to be examined with enlightened 
 fairness, so that if possible our reception of every book of 
 Scripture shall be grounded on the very evidence that taught 
 the first hand receiver that it was the very word of God. 
 
 Intimately connected with this is the great question as to 
 the state of the record. As it has had various fortunes in the 
 course of the ages, as it has been intrusted to the fidelity of 
 many hands in its preservation, as its friends and its enemies 
 have had something to do with it, what is the result as we 
 have it now, in our Hebrew and Greek Bibles? This of itself 
 must be avast department of inquiry and learning; and though 
 reason and philosophy require us to accept as settled the con- 
 clusion of our predecessors, there is a time and place in the 
 progress of preparation for the teaching of this book to examine 
 for ourselves these questions, so that our minds may, as far as 
 the nature of the case allows, rest on the very grounds of be- 
 lief that satisfied those who have most fully examined, con- 
 verting again their authority into testimony. 
 
 The state of the languages when the record was made in 
 each, the history of the changes through which they passed to 
 that state, the places they held in the great families of 
 languages to which they severally belong, together with the 
 intimate nature and providential career of each, which fitted it 
 in a peculiar manner to its office, as the vehicle of the revela- 
 
85 
 
 tion, all fall nppropriatcly within the province of this dopart- 
 ment, and enter cssentiall}^ into tlie ideal rcsnlt at which it 
 aims in the thoroughly quiililied minister, able rightly to divide 
 the word of truth. 
 
 So also would it be presumptuous foil}' for the young man 
 to be taught to regard the labours of predecessors as worthless 
 to him; all that has been' done rightly, much that has been 
 done w^'onglyand wickedly in the way of actual interpretation 
 and exposition, will therefore justly claim his attention, with 
 the principles on which all the work of interpretation is to be 
 done, and all results judged and tested. 
 
 Gathering all these within the province of one department 
 of instruction, limiting the time to the narrow space of less 
 than three years, and making the necessary abatements for the 
 fact that one of these languages must be taught from its very 
 elements, and the other in many cases had better be, and 
 making the needful allowance for three other cotemporaneous 
 and exacting departments of instruction, and you will be able 
 to judge how far it would be just to expect results, rather than 
 beginnings, and mere indication of methods, and training to 
 habits of study and investigation. 
 
 II. The general methods which I propose to myself on which 
 to conduct the practical instruction of this department, are 
 readily deduced from the nature and the ends of it, already 
 briefly suggested. * 
 
 1. The first thing required is that the students be made 
 Greek and Hclreiu scholar's. This does not mean simply the 
 ability, with the aid of lexicon and grammar and perhaps trans- 
 lation to "get a lesson," but such an acquaintance with them 
 as to make the reading of a chapter or a book in either no 
 longer a terror or a drudgery, if not an absolute pleasure and 
 delight. It is such a knowledge as to make the original much 
 more clear and suggestive than any version can possibly be, 
 as will make it the only satisfactory source of knowledge of 
 any passage to which attention is specially directed. The 
 
86 
 
 method of attaining this is expected to be the old familiar one 
 of requiring the drudgery at the hand of the student. The only 
 secret of language in its elementary stages of acquisition is 
 repetition, until the conscious exercise of memory is no longer 
 necessary. 
 
 2, This will naturally bring with it the practice of keeping 
 them employed in the actual work of interpretation, of keeping 
 them always in contact with the actual teachings of the original 
 Scriptures, allowing the merely human learning of the subject 
 to come as little between the mind and the sacred text as pos- 
 sible. The analogy of teaching a mechanical trade or training 
 an athlete furnishes an illustration of the reasonableness of 
 this. The master does not content himself with only or chiefly 
 explaining the principles of the different exercises, with their 
 adaptation to the development of the various muscles of the body, 
 nor even with performing before his pupils the various opera- 
 tions of the master workman, or the trained athlete. The 
 chief part of the instruction is in guiding the actual exercises 
 of the learners, so as through their own voluntary power and 
 exertions to reach the result. It is by doing their best in 
 trying to-day, that they will do the same thing better to-morrow. 
 Eminently thus in the matter of interpreting a written record 
 in any language, and especially one not native. Every sin- 
 cere, well directed attempt to reach the sense, and explain 
 a passage of, the sacred record is a gain in all the requisites 
 for another attempt. 
 
 Until this result is attained, the collateral learning of the 
 subject is very much wasted in the attempt to communicate 
 'it, and therefore may be safely left to a very subordinate 
 place, or to future acquisition. I know there is danger con- 
 nected with this method, of a result expressed in exaggerated 
 form and severity by a witty reviewer, exhibited in the minis- 
 try who had been personally trained by Simeon, that he sent 
 them forth armed with an oyster knife, instead of the sword 
 of the Spirit. The ability to draw and quarter a text, and get 
 
87 
 
 out of it the four divisions and six reflections of ;i sermon is 
 not the kind of ability aimed at. But the power of attaining 
 the very mind of the Spirit, from the very words of the Spirit, 
 and all the light shed upon the particular passage from a know- 
 ledge of all the other utterances of the Spirit and the Divine 
 proportion of faith, is the ideal result; and then to em- 
 ploy this knowledge, j^^curate, broad, logical, in communicating 
 the same truths in appropriate forms to the minds of the 
 people. 
 
 This I conceive to be no disparagement of human learning, 
 or of the pursuits of the mere scholar. It is following the 
 method of Divine wisdom, which has been justified by the 
 highest merely human wisdom. The great satirist and poet 
 of Rome expresses the ideal result, when he cautions us to be- 
 ware of the man of a single book. His observation had shown 
 him that the man who thoroughly possessed himself of the 
 spirit, and yielded himself to the educating power of one really 
 great book, was the man of jeal force and dangerous efficiency. 
 The thorough mastery of resources, the prompt energ}^ of 
 effort, which make men of men, equal to their work whatever 
 it may be, all come, not so much from a hurried acquaintance 
 with many books, as the thorough possession of the mind with 
 one really great and educating book. 
 
 And surely I need not dwell in this presence upon the 
 character and power of the Bible as such a great, informing, 
 educating book to the human soul. When God puts this book 
 into the hands of a class of men to study it up to the highest 
 measure of their power, he requires them to be men of the single 
 book in this eminent sense, of making it the instrument of their 
 personal education, and the means of their power iu the forma- 
 tion of other minds. And it may be safely predicted as of 
 the nature of the case, what the best experience demonstrates 
 as the actual result, that the ministers who are most the men 
 of this single book, and the people who are trained under their 
 influences, will be the highest specimens of vigorous thinking, 
 
88 
 
 and efficient working men. I need but point you to the land 
 of Scotland, for both an illustration and proof of all this. 
 
 This view of the case, you would naturall}'' expect from one 
 who had been summoned from the ranks of the active, practi- 
 cal ministry, to take charge of this department of instruction 
 in your Seminary, rather than such as would be natural in one 
 whose life had been devoted to the graceful pursuits of the spec- 
 ulative, elegant scholar, whose whole converse has lain among 
 books, without taking the time to turn, and employ his acqui- 
 sitions as instruments of power over his fellow men, especially 
 in bringing them to the knowledge of God for their salvation. 
 Such men have their high and honoured use and office, and it 
 will be a sad day for the ministers of religion, if they should 
 ever lose a thorough sympath}^ with them. They are the en- 
 gineers of human thought and progress, pushing their examina- 
 tions, and opening broad, practicable roads for the great army 
 of humanity. But the great body of the actual ministry must 
 ever be directing officers of the march, keeping compact the 
 columns, taking care of the hospitals and the general discipline 
 and efficiency of soldiers and camp followers. Their post 
 must generally be with the main hody, but in thorough sym- 
 pathy with the pioneers. 
 
 3. It may not be judged amiss for me to bespeak your co- 
 operation, in all the ways in which that co-operation can. tend 
 to the general result, in your several offices of Directors and 
 Presbyters. As directors the students here should recognize 
 and feel that your eye is ever upon them, encouraging, stimu- 
 lating, requiring high attainments in these central studies of 
 the Christian ministry. But it is in your places as Presbyters 
 that most may be done to elevate the standard of the coming 
 ministry, by practically showing that the knowledge of the 
 Greek and Hebrew Scriptures is an actual, as well as formal 
 requirement for licensure and ordination ; that such a know- 
 ledge as will be of use to them in the ministry, is what you re- 
 quire, rather than such a smattering as will merely enable 
 
89 
 
 them to stand an examination, and be most conveniently 
 forgotten, when the ordeal is past. IIow many Presbyteries 
 are untrue to themselves, and to the interests of the rising 
 ministry in this respect, it would not bo seemly here to discuss. 
 But it is perfectly apparent how futile must be the effort of a 
 Seminary to maintain a high standard of scholarship in this 
 department, in the midst of surrounding Presbyteries, that 
 constantly discharge their office of trial and judgment in such 
 ways, as to operate effectually in lowering or debasing the 
 standard. Let us at least have the encouragement that the 
 highest attainments to which we can bring the 3'^oung men that 
 shall go out from us here, shall be made the actual hona fide 
 standard of 3'our requirements, according to the laws of the 
 Church, and we shall feci the power of such a sanction in the 
 whole course of instruction. Let us be able to tell our students 
 with confidence that really creditable attainments in these vi- 
 tal studies are not merely necessary to the proper discharge 
 of the work of the ministry, but will be held an essential con- 
 dition of admission to the office, and we shall be in less dan- 
 ger of slights and evasions in the work of the student. If you 
 let him know that real, thorough knowledge alone, will be his 
 passport to that high and sacred office, the entrance to which 
 you are divinely set to keep ; that he need not apply to you 
 at all, until he has the attainments, our work here will be di- 
 vested of much of its most discouraging difficulty. 
 
 4. As one great part of the training of the ministry should al- 
 ways be promotion of their own personal piety and holiness, it 
 may be hoped that the department of their studies which brings 
 them most constantly and intimately into contact with the 
 sacred truths of God in their inspired forms, may be so 
 managed by the blessing of God as to tend perpetually in that ^ 
 direction. Eminent examples of the highest learning, imbued 
 with the most earnest and humble spirit of devotion, have de- 
 monstrated that this result is not impossible, but on the con- 
 trary that there can be nothing more flivourable to spirituality 
 
 1:2 
 
90 
 
 of mind and growth in the graces of the heart than these pur- 
 suits, requiring the severest mental application to the forms 
 of truth in these venerable tongues. This is of the reason 
 of the case, since these truths are given to sanctify the soul. 
 And it is not what men may say about them, not the human 
 learning that has been employed in their illustration, but the 
 living words as they proceeded from the mouth of God that 
 are efficacious to this result. 
 
 The aim shall be, never to allow the student to forget that 
 it is God's word he is dealing with, in every stage of his 
 knowledge of the tongues in which he chose to speak to men, 
 and that the guide who only can lead him into all truth is 
 the Holy Spirit given in answer to prayer. The spiritual dis- 
 cernment which is necessary to the salvation and sanctifica- 
 tion of the man's own soul, is the very discernment of the 
 truth which is the condition of communication to others. The 
 study of the Scriptures as a means of grace, as well as a 
 means of culture and furniture, shall therefore be kept in con- 
 stant view. 
 
 With these conceptions of the nature and ends of this de- 
 partment of instruction in this Seminary, and these purposes 
 as to the methods upon which it is to be conducted, I cast 
 myself on your generous indulgence, and the aid of Him whose 
 prerogative it is to call and qualify his ministers to the end of 
 time. It may argue in your judgment an inadequate sense 
 of the nature of the work, that I venture upon it at all, from 
 the labours and exactions of a pastoral charge, which allowed 
 little time or thought for the patient study and wide range of 
 learning required in this vast field of knowledge. Some of 
 you know how difficult it is for the laborious pastor to keep 
 abreast of the learning of his profession. Some of you per- 
 haps know how hard it is to retain even the acquisitions of 
 his student days. Let me ask of you then a little time, be- 
 fore you apply to me in judgment the lofty standards of those 
 whose transcendant powers have been for their whole lives 
 
91 
 
 devoted to these vast rang-es of study. Perhaps students ma}'- 
 not make the less progress with one ^vho is obliged to travel 
 so much in their company as to sympathize in all their ex- 
 periences, to a})preciate all their diflicultics, and share in the 
 joy of all their fresh discoveries. 
 
 That true modesty which generally requires a man to say 
 nothing of himself may sometimes demand the thing it gen- 
 erally forbids. I may be pardoned for judging such to be the 
 the case now, even if the judgment be mistaken. 
 
 Why am I here, bearing the part I now do in these solemn 
 and important transactions? I have not sought it. Those of 
 you who know most of the matter, know that 1 was not even 
 consulted, know that 1 sincerely sought to shun it after the 
 voice of the Church, to which I owe my highest earthly alle- 
 giance, had been pronounced solemnly bidding me take the 
 service. None knew so well as I, and therefore none more 
 sincerely distrusted my fitness for the work. Sincerely,' 
 earnestly, I sought to put by me the call that summoned me 
 away from the work of my choice, and a people whom I loved 
 and still love, with no common measure of tenderness. But 
 the General Assembly, my brethren and friends, and as I 
 believe my Master, judged otherwise, and 1 humbly bow to 
 their decision. In convulsive sorrow I separated myself from 
 a people whose generous love seemed to w\arm to deeper 
 tenderness by our being called to part. The sadness of 
 that deep sorrow still rests upon my heart, and adds to the 
 deep solemnity with which, under any circumstances, I must 
 accept the perils, the responsibilities, and the toils, which if 
 left to myself I would have gladly shunned, with the purpose 
 still to do what God enables me, to justify the act. 
 
 Nothing but a profound conviction that it is the Master's 
 call, and a humble but abiding sympathy with the objects 
 of the great Christian brotherhood in whose name and by 
 whose sanction all these proceedings are had, has brought me 
 here. 
 
92 
 
 In the bosom of one of the youngest Synods, in the heart 
 of this youthful city, far out in the centre of this vast con- 
 tinent, with a vast free empire rising towards the setting sun, 
 the whole Presbyterian Church comes to accomplish that last 
 and most difficult work of our organized Christianity, the proper 
 teaching of those whom God shall call as the teachers of his 
 people. With all her priceless heritage of history, with all her 
 gifts in trust for the souls of men, with all her love for God, 
 for coujitry, and for truth, she comes to bear her part -in con- 
 quering this rising empire to the Prince of Peace. She comes 
 to raise up and qualify her sons to preach the truth as he 
 hath given it to her, committing it to faithful men, who shall 
 be able to teach others also. Men who shall dare, as her 
 great fathers dared, to maintain and defend the integrity and 
 sufficiency of God's truth and gospel; who shall have the 
 learning to know how far he goes, and the courage to go 
 that far, and to know where he stops, and the sometimes 
 greater courage to stop just there ; who shall be as careful 
 to teach nothing but the truth, for the faith of men, as the 
 whole truth; who shall be as slow to add, or allow others 
 to add to what he hath proclaimed as his law, as to take, or 
 allow to be taken, aught therefrom — even in his name. 
 She does not ordain and establish this Seminar}'- to lower 
 the standard of learning in her ministr}^, nor to invent for 
 them any other message to the souls and faith of men, but 
 that old story of the cross. This day's work recalls a mo- 
 mentous career over which that Church has already past. 
 These proceedings point to results vast beyond all that can 
 be predicted by man, and commit the Church of which we 
 are members to a future which she may not have the grace 
 to estimate aright. According to her faith shall it be done 
 to her, and done by her. May the voice and the influence 
 that shall go forth from this Seminary, even to countless 
 generations of teachers and pupils, be such as to cheer on- 
 ward to higher efforts, and broader conquests, and more ex- 
 
93 
 
 hausting sacrifices, and deeper trust in God, the hosts that 
 shall be called from their graves of worldlincss and sin by 
 the voice of these heralds of the truth. And may the spirit 
 of the first great Teachers of the first great Seminary of this 
 Church upon these shores be perpetuated in all the depart- 
 ments of this youngest born of the bright sisterhood, till the 
 ministry of men shall be set aside by the bright appearing of 
 the Son of God. 
 
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