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 Discourses 
 Commemcrptive of the Life and Work 
 of 
 Ghprles Hodge 
 
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 BX 9225 .H6 D5 1879 
 
 Discourses commemorative of 
 the life and work of 
 
Warfield Library 
 
 DISCOURSES 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE OF THE LIFE AXD AVORK 
 
 CHARLES HODGE, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE DIRECTORS AND TRUSTEES OF 
 THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 PRESS OF HENRY B. A S II M E A D, 
 
 Nos. 1102 & 1104 Sansom Street. 
 1879. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 / 
 
 WILLIAM M. PAXTON, D.D., OF NEW YORK, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 OBSEQUIES OF THE REV. DR. HODGE, 
 
 * IX THE 
 
 FIRST PKESBYTERIAN CHURCH, OF PRINCETON, N. J., 
 
 JUNE 22, 187S. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 This is a sorrow which we all feel : the family which 
 is bereaved of one whom they so fondly loved ; the 
 Semiuary which loses its Patriarchal head ; the Profes- 
 sors who are deprived of one who was to them a father, 
 brother, and helper ; the College from which is taken 
 one of its wisest and most experienced trustees ; the 
 theological students who mourn for an instructor whom 
 they revered, at whose feet they sat with delight, and 
 around whom they clustered with the fondest affection ; 
 the ministers who hfive gathered here to-day to sorrow 
 for a teacher whose memory binds them in fondest asso- 
 ciations with this sacred place ; and this whole commu- 
 nity — all Princeton — is afflicted with a common sorrow 
 in the death of a citizen whose memory is hallowed in 
 every household, whose name has added to the renown 
 of this seat of learning, and whose life and character 
 has thrown around it the halo of its own glory. But, 
 looking beyond our personal and individual sorrow, we 
 must all feel that this bereavement extends, in its wider 
 relations, to the church, the country, and the world. 
 
 When the announcement of the decease of Charles 
 Hodge is made by the telegraph and the newspaper, it 
 will send a thrill of sorrow far and wide. It will be 
 felt not simply in one church, but in many — not in one 
 nation, but in many nations. There are few men in 
 this generation who have linked themselves with the 
 
6 
 
 whole world by so many strong and endearing ties. 
 How many Missionaries in the ends of the earth will 
 hear this message, and breathe a sigh of regret that one 
 from whom they caught the spirit of missions, and from 
 whom the Gospel has sounded out to the ends of the 
 earth, has been called to rest from his labors. 
 
 The forty-eight Presbyterian bodies scattered through- 
 out the wide world will feel that a standard-bearer, a 
 champion, a defender, has fallen just in the hour when 
 the battle thickens. The General Assemblies of Scot- 
 land and Ireland, who delighted to do him honor at the 
 celebration of his Semi-Centennial, will mourn that the 
 great expounder of the Augustinian theology, and a 
 leader of the world's thought, has passed away. Men 
 of intellect and education of all classes will say that a 
 great man and a prince has fallen in Israel ; whilst 
 Christians of many denominations, and all who love the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, will regret that one who taught, by 
 a world-wide influence, that the name of Jesus is above 
 every name, has passed from among the living. Oh, 
 yes ! the world will feel his loss, and we as individuals 
 realize to-day only too keenly that he is gone. 
 
 But he died with his armor on. He was called 
 
 " Like a watch-worn and weary sentinel 
 To put his armor off and rest — in lieaven." 
 
 It only remains for us to recount the incidents of his 
 life, to estimate his worth, and to give thanks for that 
 divine grace which endowed him with so many virtues, 
 and equipped him for so much usefulness. 
 
 Charles Houge was born in the city of Philadelphia 
 on the 28th day of December, 1797. His father was 
 Dr. Hugh Hodge, a physician of great promise and 
 
large practice, who died at the early age of forty-three 
 years, leaving a widow and two sons. His mother was 
 Maria Blanchard, of Boston, a lady of rare excellence 
 and endowments, to whom both these distinguished 
 brothers were greatly indebted for their mental and 
 moral culture. 
 
 In a brief ftimily record, made shortl}- before his 
 death, he makes this mention of his mother : " When 
 my father died he left a widow little more than thirty 
 years old, and two children ; Hugh Lenox Hodge, aged 
 two years, and the present writer, aged six months. It 
 is no marvel that mothers are sacred in the eyes of 
 their children. The debt they owe them is beyond all 
 estimate. To our mother, my brother and myself, under 
 God, owe absolutely everything. To us she devoted 
 her life. For us she prayed, labored, and suffered." 
 After describing the commercial embarrassments which 
 preceded the war of 1812, by which his mother's in- 
 come was almost entirely cut off, he proceeds: "This 
 was the time we were preparing for College. Instead 
 of putting her children oiY her hands, and leaving them 
 to provide for themselves, by sacrificing all she had, 
 and by the most self-denying economy, she succeeded 
 in securing for them the benefits of a Collegiate educa- 
 tion. She lived long enough to see both her sons set- 
 tled in life and heads of families." 
 
 In the same record he makes mention of his brother, 
 Hugh L. Hodge, who afterwards became so eminent 
 both as a physician and a Christian. '• My brother was 
 far more than a brother to me. Although only eighteen 
 months my senior, he assumed from the first the office 
 of guardian. He always went first in the dai-k. 1 
 never slept out of his arms until I was eleven or twelve 
 
8 
 
 years old. I have now distinctly before my mind the 
 )-oom in which that crisis of my life occurred. I well 
 recollect how quietly after blowing out the candle I 
 jumped into bed and threw the cover over my head. 
 Having lived through that night I afterwards got on 
 very well." But the kindness of his brother was not 
 confined to his boyhood, for this striking record follows : 
 " No Professor in Princeton was ever able to bring up 
 and educate a family of children on his salary. My 
 brother, without waiting to be asked, always helped me 
 through. He seemed to regard me as himself, and my 
 children as his own. Although he rose to eminence as 
 a physician and Professor in medicine, he was revered 
 principally for his goodness." 
 
 The early life of Dr. Charles Hodge was passed in 
 his native city, Philadelphia. At twelve years of age 
 he commenced his classical studies in the Academy in 
 Somerville, New Jersey, and afterwards pursued them 
 in a school in Princeton. He entered the Sophomore 
 class • in Nassau Hall in 1812; the year in which Dr. 
 Ashbel Green became President of the Institution. 
 About this time his earlier religious impressions ripened 
 into a decided religious character. Upon this point, in 
 the record from which I have previously quoted, he 
 says : " Our early training was religious. Our mother 
 was a Christian. She took us regularly to church, and 
 carefully drilled us in the Westminster Catechism. 
 There has never been anything remarkable in my relig- 
 ious experience, unless it be that it began very early. 
 I think that in my childhood I came nearer to conforming 
 to the Apostle's injunction, ' Pray without ceasing,' than 
 at any other period of my life. As far as I can remem- 
 ber I had the habit of thanking God for everything that 
 
9 
 
 I received, nvid of asking Ilim for everything that I 
 wanted. I thought of God as an everywhere present 
 being, full of kindness and love, who would not be 
 offended if children talked to Him." His formal con- 
 nection with the church was in December, 1814. His 
 friend, Kinsey Van Dyke, was received at the same 
 communion. Soon after a remarkable revival of religion 
 commenced in the College, which Dr. Maclean thinks 
 originated in the impression made upon the minds of 
 the students by the stand which these two young men 
 had taken upon the side of Christ. The pious students 
 were greatly encouraged and stimulated to greater 
 pniyer and cflbrt. The result was a divine blessing 
 under which a large number of students were converted 
 and brought into the membership of the church. Among 
 this number were John Johns, afterwards Bishop of 
 Virginia, and Charles P. Mcllvaine, afterwards Bishop 
 of Ohio, Rev. Ravaud K. Rogers, so well known in 
 New Jersey, also the Rev. Symmes C. Henry. 
 
 Dr. Hodge, in connection with this revival, among 
 much else that is interesting, but which time will not 
 permit us to quote, mentions the names of two students 
 who, he said, were enshrined in his memory as remark- 
 able illustrations of the power of goodness. The one 
 was Charles B. Storrs, son of the Rev. Richard S. 
 Storrs, of Long Meadow, Mass. The other was John 
 Newbold, a member of the Episcopal Church in Phila- 
 delphia. Writing of the latter, he says : " For a series 
 of years I acted upon the purpose of not allowing his 
 memory to die out in the Seminary. Therefore once, 
 at least, in three years — an academic generation with 
 us — I held him up as an example. I wished to make 
 the students see hoiv much good can he done hy slmpl// being 
 
10 
 
 goocir This sentence ends the record, and is perhaps 
 one of the last sentences penned by our venerated 
 father. It is a sentence worth}^ of being remembered, 
 and as his last utterance it should sink into our hearts. 
 "J wished to make the students see hotv much good can he 
 done hy shnjyly being good." 
 
 Dr. Hodge graduated from Nassau Hall at the com- 
 mencement in 1815. On that occasion he delivered 
 the Valedictory, and received the second honor in his 
 class, Bishop Johns having taken the first. The following 
 year he spent in study in Philadelphia, and in 1816 
 he entered the Princeton Theological Seminary, where 
 Bishops Johns and Mcllvaine w^ere again his classmates. 
 The friendship thus begun between these three remark- 
 able men continued through life. Graduating from the 
 Seminary in 1819, he spent the following winter in the 
 study of Hebrew in Philadelphia. This was done at 
 the suggestion of Dr. Alexander, who had first noticed 
 him as a boy in the grammar-school, and having fol- 
 lowed him with a watchful eye through his whole 
 course, had now, in his own mind, selected him as a 
 future Professor in the Seminary. Dr. Hodge fre- 
 quently said that the most startling sentence he ever 
 J heard in his life was Dr. Alexander's question, " Charles, 
 how would you like to be a Professor in the Seminary?" 
 Such an idea had never before entered his own mind. 
 In 1820, he w^as appointed as assistant teacher of the 
 Oriental languages. In 1822, he was elected by the 
 General Assembly to the Chair of Biblical Literature. 
 To complete his preparation for the great life-w^ork 
 which was now opening before him, he went abroad to 
 pursue a wider course of study in the German Univer- 
 sities. Two years were thus spent in ILdle, Berlin, 
 
11 
 
 and Paris. His return to the duties of his chair in the 
 Seminary was in 1828. 
 
 In 1825, he commenced the publication of the Bibli- 
 cal Repertorf/. It was at first restricted to selections from 
 foreign works in the department of Biblical literature ; 
 but on his return from Europe it was deemed expedient 
 to enlarge its scope, and " Princeton Review' was added 
 to the title. Assisted by a brilliant and effective corps 
 of writers, the Review soon assumed a prominent posi- 
 tion among the leading Quarterlies of the age. Its 
 career is a part of the literary history of the country. 
 It was a great formative power in the theology of the 
 church. It was in this that Dr. Hodge developed his 
 great powers. His articles, characterized by such mas- 
 sive learning and logical force, soon gave him the posi- 
 tion of a leader in theological thought. Upon no point 
 of doctrine did his trumpet ever give an uncertain 
 sound. Controversy was inevitable, and his blows were 
 hard, and his logic inexorable, but his discussions were 
 dignified and courteous. It was in this Review that his 
 strength became apparent to the world, and gave him such 
 eminence as a thinker. For a period of forty-three years, 
 from 1825 to 1868, he sustained the intellectual burden 
 of this great review, with no other compensation than the 
 high privilege of making it an organ for upholding sound 
 doctrine and the honor of our common Redeemer. 
 
 In the year 1840, Dr. Hodge was transferred to the 
 Chair of Systematic Theology, at the desire of Dr. 
 Alexander, whose advancing age began to require ex- 
 emption from heavy work. To this Polemic Theology 
 was added at the death of Dr. Alexander in the year 
 1851. On these departments he bestowed the most 
 assiduous labor of his life. He wrote and re-wrote his 
 
12 
 
 lectures with great care, ever keeping abreast of the 
 advance of the times, and meeting every change in the 
 complexion and hues of public thought, with an aptitude 
 that commanded the delight and admiration of the stu- 
 dents. Connected with all these labors he found time 
 to prepare arid publish the numerous other w^orks which 
 have commanded the admiration and gratitude of the 
 church. 
 
 His commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, which 
 first established for him a European reputation, and 
 gave him a place in the hearts of sound thinkers in all 
 denominations, was issued in 1835. 
 
 His " Way of Life," in which the great thinker was 
 made known to the world as the humble and devout 
 Christian, using all his great thoughts to promote hu- 
 mility, spirituality and love, was written in 1841 when 
 lying on his back, during a period of suffering, when it 
 was not known whether the issue would be life or death. 
 
 In successive years, his Commentaries upon First and 
 Second Corinthians and Ephesians were published. 
 
 His great work, his S/jstematic Theology, the result of 
 all the labor and culture of his life, was prepared after 
 he had reached his seventieth year. It was not the 
 publication of lectures prepared for the students, but a 
 new work in which the thought was re-cast, and the 
 whole re-written, so as to embody the results of his 
 riper wisdom and matured scholarship. This is the 
 work which divine Providence had prepared him to exe- 
 cute, and for the completion of which he was spared to 
 mature old age. For this, his students had been anx- 
 iously looking, and when at last it issued from the press, 
 many hearts' thanksgivings were uttered to God for his 
 kindness in permitting him to bestow upon the church 
 
this Thesaurus of thought and learning. This is the 
 work which will transmit his fame to coming genera- 
 tions. His great distinction as a theologian is his logi- 
 cal clearness and the beautiful balance of his mental 
 operations. Some theologians are distinguished for 
 their power in handling single subjects. They seize 
 salient points and prove and enforce them with great 
 cogency ; but Dr. Hodge combined wdth this power the 
 rare faculty of presenting a subject so balanced in its 
 connections with all other subjects, as to exhibit the 
 harmony of the whole system. It was this that made 
 him so useful and satisfactory as a teacher. He was 
 never obscure. He had gone through the subject him- 
 self, and was able to lead the student in a plain path. 
 His work will live to mould thought and guide inquiry 
 for generations to come. It is an anchorage that will 
 keep the church from drifting into error. There are 
 times when public sentiment seems to drift by the force 
 of undercurrents ; but a work like this is an " anchor 
 sure and steadfast." When epidemical influences have 
 spent their force, and calm thought returns, the exhi- 
 bition of truth in this work is so clear and cogent that 
 thoughtful minds under its guidance will return to the 
 conviction, that, if the Scriptures are the word of God, 
 then these volumes are the exposition of the system of 
 doctrines which the Scriptures contain. 
 
 The event of central interest in the life of Dr. Hodge 
 was his Semi-Centennial Celebration. It was contrary 
 to his own feeling, but it was a spontiineous movement 
 upon the part of the students and friends of the Semi- 
 nary to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his Profes- 
 sorship. It is so unusual to find one who is spared to 
 complete so lengthy a period of labor, and so many cir- 
 
14 
 
 cumstances of interest and importance seemed involved 
 in it, that he was compelled to sacrifice his personal 
 feeling to gratify the loving impulses of his friends. It 
 was a day long to be remembered. Loving students 
 gathered from every part of the land. Many of them 
 were venerable gray-haired fathers in the church. They 
 had come from their distant homes, drawn by a power- 
 ful constraint to look once more upon the face of their 
 aged teacher, and amidst the stirring remembrances of 
 their early days, to express their love and gratitude to 
 one whom God had made to them a source of so much 
 blessing. It was common on that day to hear old men, 
 as they mentioned his name to each other, say, under 
 the stirrings of youthful emotions, "I never so loved 
 any man." Scholars, men of thought and learning, 
 from many spheres. Professors in other institutions, and 
 men of rank and position in other denominations — all 
 came to do him honor. The General Assembly of Ire- 
 land sent its delegates with their warmest salutations. 
 The General Assembly of Scotland sent an official 
 address, recognizing his high position, and his claims 
 upon the loyal affections of all Christian people. Pro- 
 fessors and representatives from other Seminaries and 
 literary institutions, many of them from other denomi- 
 nations of Christians, were present to unite in a tribute 
 of respect and affection which few men in the history 
 of the world have ever been permitted to call forth. 
 When in response to all this language of compliment 
 and affection, that aged man arose and spoke like a 
 father to his children, in the simplest utterances, often 
 choked by the swelling of emotions ; ascribing all honor 
 to God, and showing how little credit he took to himself, 
 attributing the efficiency and success of the Seminary 
 
15 
 
 to his honored predecessors, and setting forth the Scrip- 
 tures as the source of all truth, and Christ as the centre 
 of all hope, the hearts of all were m.elted to tenderness 
 at the thought of that grace which can make greatness 
 so humble, and produce of the wreck of the Fall such 
 a beautiful specimen of sanctified humanity. 
 
 Dr. Hodge was permitted to continue his labors to the 
 end. Though relieved for the past year by the assist- 
 ance of his son, he continued the discharge of his duties 
 in the Seminary to the end of the last term ; and when 
 the students gathered around him to receive his bene- 
 diction, he was so well and cheerful that it seemed as 
 though he might be spared to equip still other laborers 
 for the harvest. His last public sermon was at the 
 funeral of his life-long friend. Professor Henry, in 
 Washington City. Shortly after, an attack of pain re- 
 sulted in a prostration under which he gradually sunk. 
 He was fully aware of his approaching end, and looked 
 for it wdth the quietude and calmness that characterized 
 his life. It was the event for which his whole life was 
 a preparation. He met death as a familiar friend. He 
 had never been accustomed to talk of his own experi- 
 ence, and his feebleness did not permit him any indul- 
 gence of emotion now. Occasional words indicated the 
 direction of his thought. He silently revolved in his 
 mind verses of hymns and passages of Scripture, and 
 he sometimes remarked that his memory was failing, 
 that he could not remember the clauses and connections 
 as he wished. When a member of his family burst into 
 tears at his bed-side, he took her hand and said, " Do 
 not grieve. To be absent from the body is to be with 
 the Lord, to be with the Lord is to see the Lord, to see 
 the Lord is to be like Him." With this simple faith he 
 
16 
 
 passed into the joy of his Lord. It is a comfort for us 
 to think that he was permitted to finish his course, and 
 fulfil his mission in life. His period of labor has not 
 many parallels. He had been a teacher in this Semi- 
 nary for fifty-eight years, and a professor for fifty-six. 
 Dr. Miller had filled his chair for thirty-six years, and 
 Dr. Alexander for thirty-nine. 
 
 Human life is often a record of purposes broken off 
 in the midst, and of usefulness suddenly terminated. 
 The most affecting prayer that David ever uttered was, 
 " Lord, take me not away in th5 midst of my days." 
 He prayed against death, he prayed for life to complete 
 his plans and purposes. David had it in his heart to 
 build the temple, but he had to lie down and die long 
 before the work was accomplished ; and so it often is. 
 The young man is cut down in the very dew of his 
 youth, just when the vision of life is opening before 
 him. The husbandman has to leave the plough in the 
 furrow, the artist his half-finished picture upon the can- 
 .vas, the merchant his business just when fortune is 
 within his grasp, the minister has to leave his pulpit 
 just when his heart is yearning to bring other souls into 
 the garner. 
 
 But it was permitted our revered father to labor on 
 to the very shades of evening, and to fill out the full 
 measure of human existence. After seeing the plans 
 and purposes of his life consummated, he might have 
 said as the Master did, at least in a modified sense, " I 
 have glorified Thee upon the earth. I have finished the 
 work which Thou gavest me to do." 
 
 Such is the record of his life. Time will not permit 
 us to enter into a detailed estimate of his character and 
 worth. To the world he is known as a great theologian. 
 
17 
 
 but we who knew him better feel assured that as a 
 Christian he was greater still. His growth and develop- 
 ment in intellect and knowledge was only exceeded by 
 his growth in grace. His great thoughts had a reflex 
 spiritual influence in stimulating spirituality and exciting 
 devotion. The truth which he thought, was the truth upon 
 which his soul lived. His conception of God seemed an 
 ever present realization, and the love of Christ was ever 
 warm in his heart. He was always humble, tender, 
 loving, and devotional^Avith mighty strength of thought 
 he combined so much that was gentle, tender, and emo- 
 tional, that he always appeared to the students as the 
 impersonation of the Apostle John.\ He was so sincere 
 that no one ever left his class-room with any doubt of 
 his cordial belief of every word he uttered, or of his 
 deep experience of the truth in his own soul, His 
 heart was very impressible, and the truth often pro- 
 duced within him a sudden gush of emotion. It was 
 this that gave him moments of power in the pulpit. 
 His preaching was ordinarily calm, and his current of 
 thought too deep for popular impression. But there 
 were times when the momentary swell of sudden and 
 tender emotion made him a powerful orator. No one 
 who was present will ever forget an impromptu address 
 which he delivered in the First Church, in Princeton, 
 about the time his son sailed as a missionary for India. 
 His fatherly aff'ection working in unison with his religious 
 feeling, awoke him to a power of pathos which thrilled 
 that whole assembly with a wonderful impulse. Another 
 instance of a similar kind occurred at the funeral of 
 Professor Dod. They had been intimate friends. They 
 were both great thinkers, and had often talked together 
 upon the greatest themes. Dr. Hodge had been with 
 
18 
 
 Professor Dod in his last hours, when his heart had 
 been opened to speak of Christ and his dying confidence. 
 AA'ith these powerful impressions upon his mind he arose 
 to deliver his funeral address. Professor Dod had left 
 with him a message for the college students. When he 
 came to that point in his discourse, his heart swelled, 
 and lifting his head from the manuscript, he stood erect, 
 and waving his hand to the students who sat in the 
 gallery, whilst the tears poured down his face, he deliv- 
 ered the message with a gust of emotion that went 
 through that audience like the sweep of a storm through 
 the forest. All hearts were broken, and for the moment 
 were held and swayed by a mighty power. The scene 
 stands before my mind this moment as the most power- 
 ful effect of oratory which I have ever witnessed. 
 
 ■ To sum up all, I may say that when due allowance is 
 made for his intellect and his learning, after all his chief 
 power was in his goodness. Christ enshrined in his 
 heart was the centre of his theology and his life. The 
 world will write upon his monument great ; but we, his 
 students will write upon it good. He was as good as he 
 was great. 
 
 There is a picture of Thomas Aquinas which repre- 
 sents him as bowing before a crucifix, when the Master 
 addressing him, says : " Thomas, thou hast written well 
 concerning me. What reward wilt thou have for thyself 
 for all that thou hast done for me ?" To this he answers : 
 "Nothing but thyself. Lord." This answer embodies 
 the very spirit and life of our departed father. He 
 wrote and toiled for Jesus, and if he had been asked, 
 "What reward wilt thou have for thyself?" he would 
 have answered : 
 
 " Nothinii; but thyself, Lord."" 
 
A TRIBUTE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY TO THE 
 
 OPENING LECTURE OF THE SESSION OF 1878-9, 
 
 PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 
 
 SEPTEMBER 6, 1878, 
 
 BY PROF. CHARLES A. AIKEN, D.D. 
 
TRIBUTE. 
 
 When the head of a household has been taken away, 
 a very dear and precious home may remain to those who 
 are left behind, and j^et for a time it will be very far 
 from home-like. A great void must be faced whichever 
 way they turn. Reverence misses an object before 
 which it has delighted to bow; affection an object to 
 which it has loved to bring its tributes and render its 
 choicest ministries. Counsel must now be taken for 
 themselves and their common interests by those who, 
 if they have outgrown the period in which they were 
 passive objects of care, have still instinctively submitted 
 all their plans to be moulded by the ripe wisdom, the 
 larger experience, the tender, shielding thoughtfulness 
 that are now withdrawn from over them. To attempt 
 to walk in one's later and more responsible way — in the 
 spirit and in the steps of him who is gone — is not quite 
 the same thing as to walk by the side and under the 
 shadow of one, nearness to whom has of itself developed 
 security and created a habit of dependence. 
 
 As we gather here to-day we cannot feel that we are 
 quite at home. A place is empty, a voice is silent ; 
 such a place, and such a voice ! A feeling of strange- 
 ness is upon us all. To be without the presiding pres- 
 ence of him whose connection with the Seminary dates 
 from its fifth year, who was for one generation the 
 trusted and honored junior colleague of its venerated 
 
22 
 
 fathers, and who for another generation was himself its 
 senior Professor, will not easily become natural to us. His 
 character and services have long been a large part of 
 our treasure. And while this blessed past is secure, 
 and while this grand influence is to us more than to any 
 others immortal, we are now by his translation thrown 
 back on what has been spoken, written, lived by him, 
 and cannot come as beforetime for counsel, teaching, 
 inspiration to the living, loving man. 
 
 Great has been our privilege, and great has been our 
 pride in his presence. To be under the influence of his 
 broad and admirably balanced views of truth ; his ample, 
 well compacted and varied learning with respect to 
 truth and error ; his clearness, thoroughness, steadfast- 
 ness of conviction concerning the truths that are funda- 
 mental and vital ; his chivalrous loyalty to truth, and 
 above all his determination and power in tracing and 
 exhibiting the connections of all real truth with Him 
 who is " the Truth ;" who can estimate the intellectual 
 A''alue to us of all this ? But it was more than this that 
 to be near him was of itself an impulse to holiness. 
 To him more than to any other man I ever knew had 
 the grace been given not only to " bring into captivity 
 ever}^ thought to the obedience of Christ," but to draw 
 the motives of life from Christ, and to find the daily 
 strength and joy of life in Christ. Partly of nature, 
 but more of grace, was his tender love, " passing the love 
 of women ;" his most catholic sympathy with all who 
 held to Christ ; his scrupulous desire and effort to do 
 generous justice to men whose errors he might still 
 deem grave, and to manifest the charity which Paul 
 commends (and of which his life was a richer exposi- 
 tion than even the prized instructions of the lecture 
 
23 
 
 room unci the Cuiiimentary) ; his humble, natural forget- 
 fulness and disparagement of himself and of his due. 
 If men here and there, disliking his views of truth, trans- 
 ferred to him their hard judgments of the faith which 
 the church will evermore identify with his name, we can 
 only wish that they had known him better. To us his 
 character and life gave krge endorsement to his views. 
 
 Another occasion wnll, it is hoped, before the session 
 is far advanced, bring before us a more careful and com- 
 plete tribute to his worth and work, from one whose 
 opportunities of knowing him were exceeded only by 
 the admiration and devotion that grew out of them. 
 But to-day my lips would refuse to utter a word on any 
 other theme, did I not first endeavor (and the more 
 eagerly as one not to this manner born, but adopted into 
 the famil}^) to give voice in a few sad and sincere, how- 
 ever inadequate, sentences to that which burdens the 
 hearts of us all. 
 
 From the pulpit we had reluctantly learned to be- 
 come accustomed to his enforced absence. The neces- 
 sity is upon us of becoming wonted to his absence from 
 the lecture room, the conference room, the communion 
 service, our faculty consultations, and the thousand 
 forms of individual intercourse with him, in which ad- 
 miration, reverence, love, delight, gratitude were strug- 
 gling for ascendency in us. We gird ourselves for new 
 tasks. His lips and his life have taught us to whom to 
 look both for large consolation and for adequate sup- 
 plies of grace. 
 
MEMORIAL DISCOUESE 
 
 DELIVEUED IX THE 
 
 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PRINCETON, N. .1. 
 
 APllIL 27, 1879, 
 
 By PIENRY a. BOARDMAN, D.D., 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
DISCOURSE 
 
 " The Discii'LE whom Jesu's loved." — John xxi. 20. 
 
 The only flaws which even microscopic unbelief 
 claims to have detected in the ethical system of the 
 New^ Testament, are these two, viz. : that it fails to in- 
 culcate the virtues of patriotism and of friendship. 
 AVithout adverting to the former, it is rather amusing 
 to be told, that the obligations of friendship arc ignored 
 by a book which sums up the entire duty of man 
 towards his fellows in the precept, '' Thou shalt love 
 thy neighbor as thyself," and the whole tendency of 
 whose teachings and ordinances is, to bring the race 
 together in a universal brotherhood. The book, how- 
 ever, goes C|uite beyond this ; for, not content with en- 
 joining the duty, it supplies numerous examples of true 
 friendship, and among them the most illustrious instance 
 to be found in the annals of our race. 
 
 We are not at liberty to doubt that our blessed Lord 
 entertained a strong personal affection for each one of 
 his apostles, Judas alone excepted. But there were 
 three of them wdiom He honored with si)ecial marks of 
 His esteem and confidence. As among the loved, they 
 were the more beloved ; and, as among the more be- 
 loved, one was the most loved of all. Peter, James 
 and John were permitted to be with Him when He re- 
 called the daughter of Jairus to life, in the glory of His 
 
28 
 
 transfiguration, in His memorable discourse (to which 
 Andrew also was a listener) on the coming destruction 
 of Jerusalem, and in His agony in the garden. But 
 upon John He bestowed other tokens of His friendship, 
 which were shared by none of his brethren. He was, 
 by pre-eminence, ^HJie disciple whom Jesus loved!' So 
 undisguised was this partiality, that this beautiful peri- 
 phrasis became, naturally enough, his own mode of 
 speaking of himself. • Four times over does he use it in 
 his Gospel, and in relations which show that the other 
 apostles understood and recognized the place he held in 
 their Master's esteem. Of the reasons for this prefer- 
 ence we are not informed; but it is not diilicult to 
 believe that John's character was one to attract the 
 sympathy and affection of his Lord. By nature frank, 
 ardent, decided, courageous, a very " sou of thunder," 
 he was at the ^ame time gentle, loving, and confiding, a 
 very " son of consolation." It was both proof and illus- 
 tration of his position with his Master, that he should 
 have received at His hands that opulent store of gifts 
 and graces which we trace in every line he wrote. In- 
 flexible in his maintenance of the truth, and stern in 
 his rebuke of errorists, the whole strain of his Epistles 
 shows that, like his Saviour, love was the element in 
 which he lived, and moved, and had his being. 
 
 Again, what a scene was that at the last supper. We 
 read of it without stopping to picture it to ourselves, — 
 John leaning his head upon that sacred breast, which he 
 could not have done unless Jesus' arm was around 
 him — the attitude, of all others, expressive of tender, 
 mutual affection. 
 
 Yet if this impresses us, what must be thought of 
 that wonderful spectacle at the cross, when our adorable 
 
29 
 
 Redeemer, amidst the jeers of tlie crowd and the agonies 
 of crucifixion, commits His weeping mother to the care, 
 of this chosen disciple: ''Woman, behold thy son!" 
 "Behold thy mother!" thus putting John in His own 
 place, and joining together in this hallowed union the 
 two people most honored of God at that time among the 
 millions of the race, and whom He himself loved above 
 all others in the world. 
 
 Still further honor is to be lavished ui)on the beloved 
 disciple after his Lord's ascension. Three evangelists 
 were inspired to record the principal acts, the miracles, 
 the parables, and some of the discourses of the great 
 Teacher. But there was still needed a narrative which 
 should be made up mainly of His own words ; which 
 should set the God-man more distinctly before us ; which 
 should reveal to us more of the inner life of that mys- 
 terious nature, and open to us the way for a more inti- 
 mate communion with Him. When such a biography 
 was to be written, who but John could be appointed to 
 the exalted office ? Is it fjinciful to suggest that he may 
 have written every line of it, with the blessed mother, 
 whom he had "taken to his own house," sitting at his 
 side? And what nobler distinction could have been 
 conferred upon him, than that of being commissioned to 
 write the book of which Q\QYy Christian, of whatever 
 age or land, would say, " If I must be deprived of all 
 the books of the Bible l)ut one, leave me the Gospel of 
 John." . 
 
 One crowning token of his Master's love remains. 
 The glorified Kedeemer, arrayed in Ilis coronation 
 robes, condescends to visit Ilis aged servant in his exile, 
 to "speak to him face to face, as a man spe;iketh unto 
 his friend," to draw aside for him the curtain which 
 
30 
 
 hides the future from every eye but that of Omniscience, 
 and to instruct him to depict, as on a glowing canvas, 
 the fortunes of the church and of the world for all the 
 coming ages. He thus becomes the only prophet whose 
 predictions will find their term only wdien time itself 
 expires. 
 
 When the centurion saw the marvels which attended 
 the crucifixion, he exclaimed, " Truly, this was the Son 
 of God." So, when the facts that have now been so 
 inadequately stated are duly considered, every one 
 must be ready to say, " Truly, this was the disciple 
 whom Jesus loved." 
 
 And what Scripture could be suggested more appro- 
 priate to the present seryice — a service, I may be ex- 
 cused for adding, which I have consented to share with 
 my brethren, not because I feel myself at all equal to 
 its just requirements, but first, because there are re- 
 quests which have the authority of commands; and 
 secondly, because an intimate, confidential friendship 
 running through forty-five years, imposes obligations 
 which it were treason to the promptings of one's own 
 affections to contemn. 
 
 Having accepted the invitation thus proffered through 
 the courtesy of the venerable Faculty of our Seminary, 
 and of those whose wishes were first of all to be con- 
 sidered, this text immediately offered itself as the 
 proper foundation for the proposed exercise. It is not 
 the sort of Scripture which a stranger to Dr. Hodge — 
 one who knew him only through his writings — would 
 have selected. But you. Christian brethren, among 
 whom he lived and who were in habits of fiimiliar inter- 
 course with him, instinctively think of him as holding 
 the same kind of relation to the Saviour as that to 
 
31 
 
 which the beloved disciple was admitted. It is easy to 
 imagine him, were Jesns again upon the earth, as lean- 
 ing upon that sacred bosom, clasped by the same lovini:- 
 hand. Nor will one of you dissent when it is aOiimed, 
 that could he have been consulted while living, or could 
 his voice come to us at this moment, all the ascriptions 
 of extraordinary talents, of immense learning, of per- 
 sonal worth, and pre-eminent usefulness, accorded to him 
 by the wise and good of two hemispheres, would have 
 gone with him for chaff, as weighed against that simple 
 title. The disciple zvhom Jesus loved. Rare gifts he 
 had of nature and of grace, gifts enlarged and multi- 
 plied by unceasing, conscientious study, and carried ui» 
 to the highest reach of culture. But, like the great 
 apostle, love pervaded and controlled all his powers. 
 The earthly objects of his affection well knew^ its fervor 
 and tenderness. But it craved, and in Jesus of Naza- 
 reth it found, the only Friend who could fully satisfy its 
 yearnings. As his whole theology was a Christology, 
 so love to Christ was the essential principle of his entire 
 being ; the well-spring which gave flow^ and direction to 
 his every current of thought and feeling. And the love 
 of Christ to him w^as the supreme joy of his life, the' 
 secret of that bright, serene atmosi)here which always 
 infolded him, and of which even casual visitors felt the 
 charm. 
 
 " The disciple whom Jesus loved !" He so loved him 
 as to array him in all the graces of the Spirit with a 
 fulness vouchsafed only to a few among the most favored 
 of His chosen. He so loved him as to endow him with 
 a profusion of noble intellectual powers, and to place 
 and keep him in a position where he could use them to 
 the best possible purpose for the welfare of the church 
 
32 
 
 and of the race. He so loved him as to commission 
 him to become, by common consent, the ablest ex- 
 pounder, in our day, and the foremost defender, of the 
 evangelical faith. He so loved him as to clothe him 
 (not exclusively, but in his measure) with the high re- 
 sponsibility of educating three thousand young men for 
 the Christian ministry, a larger body than has been en- 
 trusted to the tutelage of any teacher of the present 
 century.''' He so loved him that, although occupying a 
 most conspicuous position "where he could not be hid," 
 and engaged in numerous controversies adapted to evoke 
 whatever of evil there may be slumbering in the breast, 
 he passed tlirough life unchallenged as to his spotless 
 integrity and the purity of his motives, and, in fact, 
 without a single stain upon his character. He so loved 
 him, that having made him. an object of universal re- 
 spect and confidence, of loving admiration and eulogy, 
 above almost any of his contemporaries, such abounding 
 grace was given him that no word of self-complacency 
 ever escaped his lips, nor could the most watchful eye 
 or ear ever detect in his tone or manner any other feel- 
 ing than that of the great apostle, " Not I, but the grace 
 of God which is with me." And all this for eighty 
 years ! Are we not justified in citing as his prototype 
 " The disciple whom Jesus loved" ? 
 
 This is so easily said, that any friendly tongue might 
 have uttered it. But now that the threshold is crossed, 
 who is to choose our way for us ? It is not the preacher, 
 l)ut the biographer, whose pen must be invoked here. 
 That life, so simple in its outward incidents that it may 
 be summed up in a few sentences, wears so many differ- 
 
 * His friend, the late Professor Tholuck, may, possibly, he entitled to 
 share this distinction with him. 
 
ent aspects, links itself with so many momentous inter- 
 ests, and blends so indissolubly with the world's progress 
 and the church's glory, that it were unpardonable°pre- 
 sumption to attempt to compress any adequate estimate 
 . of it within the limits of a single discourse. The pulpit 
 and the press have Tied with each other in extolling 
 some of its more commanding features. I shall bu^t 
 follow in their steps, adverting to a few only of the 
 topics which press for a hearing, and, as to a part 
 of these, repeating substantially what has been said 
 before. 
 
 How indelible was the impress his character received 
 from the hands of his widowed mother, may be seen in 
 his remark so often quoted, that himself and his brother, 
 Hugh Lenox Hodge, that eminent Christian phj^sician 
 whose name adorns the annals of the medical profession, 
 owed all that they were to their mother. Passing over 
 the experiences of his College and Seminary life, his 
 election by the General Assembly to the Chair of Orien- 
 tal and Biblical Literature in our Seminary, and his 
 three years of study in Paris, Halle, and Berlin, we 
 greet him as the founder and editor of the " Biblical 
 Repertory and Princeton Review." 
 
 Two thoughts must suggest themselves to any one 
 who runs his eye through the successive volumes of this 
 great Quarterly, to wit, the tireless industry of the 
 editor, and his insatiate craving for knowledge. The 
 two were clasped together. He could not be idle. 
 Without the least token of that disquiet and flurry so 
 often betrayed by earnest students, he prosecuted his 
 laborious work with a diligence that never flagged, and 
 a composure which savored more of pleasant pastime 
 than of toil. Even severe bodily infirmity laid no 
 
34 
 
 arrest upon his busy tand and pen. — Let me pause here 
 for a moment to say that as it is not the way of divine 
 Providence to form a character of consummate excel- 
 lence without the discipline of suffering, so Dr. Hodge's 
 case forms no exception to this general law. A weak- 
 ness in the right hip, aggravated by a pedestrian tour 
 through the Alps in 182S, was brought to a crisis and 
 assumed a malignant form while he was wearisomely 
 canvassing the city of New York for funds to build the 
 Seminary-chapel. For five years he had been unable to 
 walk without great discomfort, and this was followed by 
 a close confinement to his couch, attended with intense 
 pain, for four years. It was during this visitation oT 
 suffering, which baffled the best medical skill of New 
 York and Philadelphia, that he wrote several of his 
 most elaborate Review-articles, and the major part of 
 that Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, which 
 instantly raised him to a place among the first Biblical 
 critics of the age. After this, one is prepared to hear 
 that the aggregate fruits of his authorship rival in bulk, 
 and not less in value, those of the great Puritan writers. 
 One of the shelves of my library is graced with the 
 works of John Owen, in twenty-one solid octavo vol- 
 umes. A kindred series of twenty-one volumes would 
 grace an adjoining shelf, if the works of Charles Hodge 
 were collected and published in a uniform edition. 
 
 Having mentioned his " Romans," it may be worth 
 while to quote just here an observation he made to me 
 several years later. " Our rule here is to urge Addison 
 (his familiar way of speaking of Dr. J. Addison Alex- 
 ander) to do whatever we can find he is iviUing to do. 
 After much solicitation, he has now consented to unite 
 with us in preparing a Commentary on the New Testa- 
 
ment ; Addison to take the Gospels and the Book of 
 Acts, his brother James the Pastoral Epistles, and I the 
 other Epistles." It is by reason of this arrangement, 
 that we now have among our choicest Biblical treasures, 
 Hodge on First and Second Corinthians and on Ephe- 
 sians, and Alexander on The Acts, St. Mark's Gospel, 
 and the earlier chapters of St. Matthew. How sadly 
 the scheme was brought to an end by the inscrutable 
 Providence which removed Professor Addison Alexander 
 in the very prime of his days, needs not to l)e related 
 here. 
 
 Recurring to the " Repertory," it will not l)e amiss to 
 repeat a remark which fell from the editor's lips in the 
 year 1865, to the effect, that he "had carried it as a 
 ball and chain for forty years, with scarcely any other 
 compensation than the privilege of making it an organ 
 for upholding sound Presbyterianism, and the honor of 
 our common Redeemer." How characteristic of the 
 man ; and what a reproach to the church he loved and 
 served so well ! That he should be willing to endure all 
 this unrequited toil and sacrifice for the cause of truth 
 and the well-being of others, was in keeping with the 
 whole tenor of his life. If he had any fault in this di- 
 rection, it lay in an excess of self-forgetfulness. The 
 nobility of his nature raised him even above the maxims 
 of ordinary prudence. Never but once in all my inti- 
 mate relations with him, did he allude to the very large 
 pecuniary sacrifice which his professorship had involved; 
 nor did he add a single word of complaint. But his 
 glory herein is our shame. It is not meet that a great 
 and opulent church should receive priceless benefits at 
 the hands of one of its servants whom it shackles with 
 a ball and chain for forty years. 
 
30 
 
 Our present concern, however, is with the Repertory 
 dimply as an index to the stores of knowledge garnered 
 )y its editor from so many fields, old and new, near and 
 remote. The venerable Dr. Alexander once said to me, 
 •My son James has always been a sort of walking 
 OyclopcTdia." A cursory examination of the Revieiv will 
 .-how that this was no less true of Dr. Hodge. More 
 than one hundred and forty essays from his pen enrich 
 its pages. In these he has dealt with almost every 
 leading question in theology, in ecclesiology, in meta- 
 physics, in church policy, and in public morality, which 
 has emerged out of the conflicts of the last fifty years. 
 A retired student, in close and habitual communion with 
 the master-minds, ancient and modern, in the realms of 
 Biblical criticism and theology, he was no pent-up recluse 
 Avho saw nothing and cared for nothing beyond the 
 sphere of his own professional engagements. His sym- 
 pathies were as broad as our common humanity. And 
 so vigilant an observer was he of events, that nothing 
 )f importance escaped his notice as he looked out 
 l\rough the loop-holes of his retreat upon the great 
 ^abel. 
 
 His visitors were sure to find him as much at home 
 with the questions of the day, scientific or literary, 
 political or financial, domestic, foreign or international, 
 as though these had been his special study. Deep 
 thinkers are apt to be poor talkers. It was pleasant to 
 sit down with a man who without being like Madame 
 De Stael, simply " admirable in monologue," could inter- 
 est and instruct you upon any topic you might propose. 
 But of this hereafter. 
 
 Of the several categories to which his contributions 
 to the Repertory belong, his annual review of the pro- 
 
0*7 
 
 ceedings of the General Assembly was sought fur with 
 special avidity. The tone of these articles, although 
 never arrogant, was uniformly judicial. The court hav- 
 ing gone through its docket and made up its record, had 
 adjourned. And now, in the quiet of his study, with 
 all the pleadings before him, he calmly examines ever}- 
 leading case, with unvarying candor presents the argu- 
 ments pro and con, and sums up the whole, and pro- 
 nounces judgment with such an appeal to settled princi- 
 ples, such discrimination, and such force of reasoning, 
 that he usually carries the church with him. whether 
 his opinion be for or against the action of its supreme 
 tribunal. Instances have not been wanting in which his 
 smgle pen has, with triumphant success, controverted a 
 judgment sustained, after long debate, by a two-thirds 
 majority of a large Assembly. His position recalls that 
 of an illustrious statesman, to whom for so many years 
 the country was wont to turn for counsel in seasons of 
 threatening conflict, and who won for himself that 
 proudest of civic titles, the " Defender of the Constitu- 
 tion." It was with a kindred feeling the Presbyterian 
 Church was accustomed to turn to our beloved Profes- 
 sor, whenever the supremacy or integrity of on?- consti- 
 tution was menaced, whether from without or from within. 
 It were extravagant to assert that our entire communion 
 always acquiesced in his utterances; this has never 
 been the manner of any Presbyterian body in respect 
 to any uninspired teacher. But no one Avill challenge 
 his predo?7ii?mnt influence in moulding and controlling 
 the general sentiment of the church on controverted 
 questions of doctrine and policy. 
 
 It was a necessity of the times that the tone of the 
 Repertory should be largely polemical. It had Itareh 
 
38 
 
 entered upon its second year as a repository of original 
 essays, when a theological controversy commenced, 
 second in importance only to that which signalized the 
 ill-starred birth of Unitarianism in Massachusetts. It 
 sprang from a source outside of our communion, but had 
 for its material some of the central doctrines of the 
 Westminster Confession. The assault upon these doc- 
 trines was based, as it has often been, upon a false phi- 
 losophy, which begot inevitably a false exegesis. Divine 
 sovereignty, the nature of sin, hereditary depravity, the 
 relation of Adam to his posterity, the work of the Holy 
 Spirit in regeneration, the nature of the atonement, 
 these were the grave questions involved in that great 
 debate. Of course the Repertory could not look on 
 with indifference, when a bold and organized attempt 
 was made to subvert the fundamental principles of the 
 Calvinistic system. The proffered challenge was in- 
 stantly accepted. Not to refer to his coadjutors, Dr. 
 ^loDGE responded with a series of masterly articles on 
 ?tegen oration. Imputation, and Justification, which left 
 he friends of the ancient faith nothing to desire. The 
 :irst of these articles was written in the year 1830, in 
 die thirty-third year of his age (long before it became 
 his official duty to teach theology), and the last in 1839. 
 The church hailed the rising star with thankfulness to 
 God. He was already in their eyes a learned and ac- 
 complished theologian, from whose after life, should he 
 be spared, the most beneficent results might be ex- 
 pected. He was spared, and the church garnered from 
 his husbandry even a richer harvest than she would 
 have dared anticipate. 
 
 Having taken up his pen in defence of the primitive 
 faith, the course of events forbade him to lay it down. 
 
39 
 
 The post-Reformation attacks upon the Pauline theology 
 were neither more vigorous nor more subtle than some 
 of those which now emanated from a region once domi- 
 nated by the Sai/hrook Platform. So far from weary- 
 ing of the combat thus forced upon him, he waged it 
 with a growing energy which showed how much his 
 heart was in it. While he did not court the strife, it is 
 impossible to read the articles he published on one and 
 another of its ever-varying phases, without feeling 
 that, in vindicating the truth as it is in Jesus, he was 
 breathing a congenial atmosphere. Some of these dis- 
 quisitions are nowhere surpassed in the religious litera- 
 ture of the age, as examples of great astuteness, discrimi- 
 nation, the capacity of broad generalization and incisive 
 logic, combined with copious knowledge, and instinct 
 with unvarying candor, and a fine Christian spirit. 
 
 One of these qualities, which it may be allowable to 
 emphasize, because the rarest of all virtues among con- 
 troversialists, elicited from that eminent scholar who 
 represented the Lutheran church at the " Semi-Centen- 
 ary," a generous compliment. " In taking up the doc- 
 trines of a church differing from his own church. Dr. 
 Hodge treats them with candor, love of truth, and the 
 perfect fairness which characterizes all his dealings with 
 that which he is not able to maintain.'''^ 
 
 As Dr. Krauth, in making this remark, had special 
 reference to his Systematic Divinity, then recently pub- 
 lished, it may be added that every chiq)ter of this great 
 work illustrates the author's candor. No adversary or 
 errorist ever suffers at his hands from a prejudiced or in- 
 
 * lie said to me that evening that few utterances of the day had 
 afforded him so much gratification as this frank acknowledgment from 
 Prof. Krauth. 
 
40 
 
 adequate statement of his case ; nor has occasion to 
 complain that the writer misses the true issue or argues 
 it upon grounds which are not thoroughly legitimate 
 and trustworthy. But this is a theme upon which we 
 cannot dwell. 
 
 For the first eighteen years of his editorial life he 
 filled the Chair of Biblical Literature in our Seminary. 
 Through the co-ordinate exercise of these very diverse 
 functions, a gracious Providence was training him in the 
 best possible way for what was to be the crowning work 
 of his life. No man can be a great theologian who. is 
 not on the one hand a thorough exegetical scholar, and 
 on the other an adept in dealing with the various forms 
 of error which have divided or corrupted the church. 
 And it is as a " great theologian" that Dr. Hodge has 
 made his mark upon the age, and will be known to the 
 coming generations. How much the age demanded just 
 such a teacher, must be apparent to every thoughtful 
 observer. 
 
 The disposition to magnify the evils of one's own 
 times seems to be inherent in human nature. Solomon 
 had occasion to note this weakness : " Say not thou, 
 What is the cause that the former days were better 
 than these ?" The explanation is obvious. The evils 
 of the present are all around and upon us ; those of the 
 past are seen only in the distance. That real Christian- 
 ity should always and everywhere encounter hostility 
 is a matter of course. It is not of the world ; iherefore 
 the world hateth it. " I came not to send peace, but a 
 sword." There have been lulls in the contest, and the 
 weapons and modes of attack have varied indefinitely, 
 all the way up from an imposing and treacherous ritual- 
 ism, to the wholesale slaughters conducted by Pagan 
 
41 
 
 princes, and the diabolieal tortures oi' tlie IiKiuisition. 
 But it is impossible to mistake the leading characteris- 
 tics of the present age. Unrivalled even by the years 
 which followed the Reformation, as a period of intense 
 mental activity, this closing half of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury is distinguished by a towering pride of intellect, 
 an impatience of authority, an irreverence and audacity 
 of speculation, unknown, save in individual and local 
 examples, to any former age. " Modern thought," as it 
 styles itself, 
 
 '* Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, 
 As make the angels weep." 
 
 It neither "fears God, nor regards man." In truth 
 there is no God but blind force and motion. The Bible 
 is a myth. Man has been self-evolved — body, soul, and 
 spirit — remotely out of an ethereal mist, immediately 
 out of a baboon. Nay, not "soul and spirit," for in 
 any proper historical or psychological sense of the 
 terms, he has neither. Death is annihilation. Chris- 
 tianity is merely one of many religions — all invented 
 and kept alive by priestcraft. Sin, repentance, moral 
 accountability, a final judgment, immortality, are imple- 
 ments for holding men in bondage to superstition. 
 These, and such as these, are the axioms of " modern 
 thought." 
 
 " A tliousand demi-gods on golden seats 
 Frequent and full," 
 
 propound them with oracular dignity, and send them 
 forth to comfort and bless, or, as may be, to bewilder and 
 confound,, a benighted, enslaved, and suffering world. 
 
 While "modern thought" is thus running riot tln'ough 
 the realm of scientific research, it has found another 
 field for the exercise of its puissance. In a less gross, 
 
42 
 
 but still autocratic and impious spirit, it has entered 
 the church — not the domain of Socinianism, which it 
 has always controlled unchallenged, but the communion 
 of the faithful. Protesting its loyalty to our divine 
 Lord, it sits in judgment upon His word, as it would 
 upon the ethics of Aristotle or the Novum Organum of 
 Bacon. The inspiration of the sacred penmen is reduced 
 to a precarious and fallible illumination. Eighteen cen- 
 turies have come and gone without settling a single 
 fundamental truth, not even the being of a God. The car- 
 dinal doctrines of the gospel — those which are deposited 
 in the ark of the covenant, which have been enshrined 
 in the creeds of all the historic chirrches, and sealed with 
 the blood of " the noble army of martyrs" — these doc- 
 trines are treated as if they were mere vagrant opinions, 
 born of yesterday, and of no binding obligation except- 
 ing so far as they may commend themselves to our per- 
 sonal intuitions. The last paper which Dr. Hodge wrote 
 for the press, was an elaborate and vehement protest 
 against the arrogant assumption here referred to. It 
 was in reply to an essay published in a leading religious 
 journal, in which it was said : "The first question (con- 
 cerning an alleged Scripture doctrine) is not the exe- 
 getical. but the ethical one. We want to know what 
 God says ; but it is impossible to believe that God says 
 anything which our moral sense tells us lie ought not to 
 say r And then the sponsors of the ancient f\iith are 
 told that they do not at all " understand the depth and 
 momentum of the current of thought now sweeping 
 underneath the surface and throughout the religious 
 world." Dr. Hodge's comment on this taunt is as fol- 
 lows : " We have no belief in the momentum and cur- 
 rent here mentioned. The surface of the ocean is sel- 
 
43 
 
 dom perfectly smooth. There is always a ripjde, and 
 sometimes waves ' mountains high.' But a few fathoms 
 deep all is calm. It is so with the church. There are 
 always ' diverse winds of doctrine' sweeping over its 
 surface, i>roducing ripples which none Imt those who 
 make them think much ahout. The church as a whole 
 is secure, and the truth is secure. There is no danger 
 to the truth from 'currents of thought.' The only 
 danger is from the decline of piety. Men do not firmly 
 adhere to doctrines of which they have not experienced 
 the power." Then follows a masterly dissection and 
 refutation of the pernicious principle which it is the 
 object of the essay to defend.* 
 
 As a matter of course the type of theology which 
 the reigning " spirit of the age" arraigns and denounces 
 with special imperiousness, is that wiiich ive revere as 
 God's truth — the system which "has underlain the 
 piety of the church in all ages ; the great granitic for- 
 mation whose peaks tower toward heaven, and draw 
 thence the waters of life, and in whose capacious l)osom 
 repose those green pastures in which the great Shep- 
 herd gathers and sustains his flock."f These doctrines 
 evoke the same hostility now as they did when preached 
 b}' St. Paul. The boasted " culture" of our day can no 
 more endure them, than would the culture of Athens 
 and Rome. The jibe still is, " What will this babbler 
 
 * Dr. Ilodse's article fills five columns of the Independent of May 9, 
 1878. Writing to me from Washington the week following (May 15), 
 perhaps the last letter he ever wrote, after speaking of Professor Henry's 
 death, he refers to the communication here mentioned in these terms : 
 " How I was able to write it during the confusion of our Examination 
 week, the meeting of the Directors, Sec, I do not know, as it made my 
 head ache to read it in print." 
 
 t Dr. Hodge, in Bib. Rep., 1851. 
 
44 
 
 say ?" Plain enough it is after eighteen centuries, that 
 that babbler had his say, and that he said it to some 
 purpose. But the race of scoffers never learns any- 
 thing ; and so the experience of Mars' Hill is perpetu- 
 ally repeated. Nor has the fresh outbreak of this 
 spirit in our time been without effect. Its rationalizing 
 influence is telling upon the church. There has been a 
 disposition to tone down what are regarded as the rugged 
 features of the Calvinistic system ; to suppress its more 
 obnoxious demands; to accommodate it to the advanced 
 thought of this polite age ; and, whether of purpose or 
 not, to sap the popular faith in the supernatural origin 
 of the Scriptures, divine sovereignty, and, generally, 
 the affiliated doctrines which constitute, in Scottish 
 phrase, the " marrow of the Gospel." Without any for- 
 mal league among the high contracting parties, numer- 
 ous agencies, materialistic, philosophical, and ecclesias- 
 tical, are at this moment, and long have been, confeder- 
 ate against the ancient Pauline and Augustinian theology. 
 As the inevitable consequence, that theology has' relaxed 
 its hold upon some important denominations which once 
 gloried in it, counterfeit imitations, mere caricatures, 
 palmed upon the world in its name, have excited preju- 
 dice against it ; and even among its friends it has been 
 largely misapprehended. 
 
 Considered with reference alike to the scientific skep- 
 ticism of the day, and the earthward tendencies of 
 thought within the church, there was no want of the 
 age more urgent than an exposition of the system of 
 theology contained in the Scriptures, able, learned, and 
 comprehensive ; embracing a re-statement of the Augus- 
 tinian Creed, with a full discussion, from the evangelical 
 stand-point, of all essential topics, and a candid and 
 
45 
 
 ellfectivo refutation of the prevalent heresies in i)liiloso- 
 phy and morals. It might be unwarrantable to say that 
 there was but one man living, who had been endowed 
 with all the gifts and graces required to do this work as 
 it should be done. But rich as the Church is in illus- 
 trious scholars and divines, there was but one man to 
 W'hom the great confraternity of Calvinistic theologians, 
 among the English-speaking peoples, would have been 
 willing, to confide this task. His pre-eminent fitness, 
 as well for this service as for the various functions de- 
 volved upon him in another sphere, is shadowed forth 
 in a miniature portrait of him, graphic and beautiful, 
 drawn by a loving pen : " Great tenderness and strength 
 of emotion, and the power of exciting it in others ; an 
 habitual and adoring love for Christ, and absolute sub- 
 mission of mind and will to His word; a chivalrous 
 disposition to maintain against all odds and with un- 
 varying self-consistency, through all the years of a long 
 life, the truth as he saw it; crystalline clearness of 
 thought and expression; and an unsurpassed logical 
 power of analysis, and of grasping and exhibiting all 
 truths in their relations."* 
 
 To this outline it must be added that the profound 
 problems pertaining to the being, attributes, and gov- 
 ernment of God, and mans origin and destiny, had 
 been his life-study. He had long been in familiar con- 
 tact with the great leaders of thought and founders of 
 schools. Classic and Christian, transcendental and pan- 
 theistic. He had examined and analyzed not only the 
 ancient and stereotype forms of error, but every imjtor- 
 tant scheme of philosophy, ol" historical criticism, and 
 of science, down to the latest divinations of the Dar- 
 
 * Rev. A. A. Ilod^re, D.D. 
 
46 
 
 winian augurs. And with all this wealth of learning, 
 and all these exalted powers trained to the loftiest pitch 
 of dialectic skill, he brought to the study of the Bible 
 the humility of a little child. To use his own words 
 respecting Dr. Addison Alexander : " He believed in it 
 just as he believed in the solar system. He could not 
 help believing. He saw so clearly its grandeur as a 
 whole, and the harmonious relation of its several parts, 
 that he could no more believe the Bible to be a human 
 production, than he could believe that man made the 
 planets. He never seemed to have any doubts or diffi- 
 culty on the subject. Although perfectly familiar with 
 the writings of the German rationalists and skeptics 
 from Ernest! to Bauer and Strauss ; they atfected him 
 no more than the eagle is affected by the dew on his 
 plumage as he soars near the sun."* 
 
 Such was the man whom God raised up to supply 
 what was confessedly the great want of the Church. 
 How well he has supplied it needs not to be told in 
 this presence, nor, indeed, in the presence of any com- 
 munion, the world over, which acknowledges the Be- 
 formed faith. It is not to be denied (as already hinted) 
 that Calvinism had come to be more or less distorted, 
 diluted, exaggerated, and therefore misrepresented, even 
 among its professed friends. They may now, at their 
 leisure, learn what Calvinism is, and the no less indis- 
 pensable lesson, what it is not. With equal effect does 
 his Theology address itself to the magnates of the 
 learned world, and to that great body of educated youth 
 who are prosecuting their quest of truth amidst influ- 
 ences eminently hostile to the claims of revealed relig- 
 
 * Discourse at the re-opening of the Seminary Chapel, September 27, 
 1S74. 
 
47 
 
 ion. With neither of these classes woiihl coinnion-place 
 thinkers be allowed a hearing. But here is a work the 
 author of which is the peer in learning, in hreailth and 
 comprehension of mind, in metaphysical acumen and 
 in the power of logical ratiocination, of the greatest of 
 the applauded scientists and philosophers of the day. 
 Immediately on its re-publication in Scotland, an astute 
 critic, who had no sympathy with its teachings, said of 
 it : " There is manifest throughout the volume the pres- 
 ence of ample knowledge. There is no book learning 
 on any of its vast range of subjects, which the learned 
 author would not app. r to have read, and also, with 
 more than ordinary success, digested. Hegel himself 
 is not too subtle for his apprehension ; Huxley not too 
 trenchant and logical for his dialectic to face." A work 
 like this cannot fail to be of essential assistance to the 
 many able and accomplished men who are perplexed 
 with the phenomena of our condition, and honestly seek- 
 ing a way out of the labyrinth ; while it lies athwart 
 the path of the various materialistic schools, an obstack' 
 which can neither be eluded nor removed. Assuredly 
 to ignore such a work, or not to attempt an answer to 
 it, will be to confess it unanswerable. We revere it, 
 then, as a majestic and indestructible dyke against the 
 devastating tides of error, which are everywhere me- 
 nacing the defences of the Christian faith. 
 
 But this Theology is something more than a bulwark 
 against error — more than a guide for the per})lexod. a 
 shield for the timid, and an arsenal for the unarmed. 
 Its chief mission is higher and nobler still. It is the 
 only work on systematic theology in any language which 
 comprises the latest results of sound Scriptural exegesis, 
 expounds with competent learning, and in an evangeli- 
 
48 
 
 (;al spirit, the august verities of the sacred Canon, and 
 reduces to cobweb the skeptical speculations of modern 
 philosophy and science. A work clothed with these 
 attributes becomes a necessity to the Protestant minis- 
 • try of every name. They cannot afford to be without 
 it. Still less can it be dispensed with in the Halls of 
 divinit}^ established by the Calvinistic churches at home 
 and abroad. May I be pardoned for quoting on this 
 point a brief paragraph from the words of congratulation 
 which it fell to my lot to address to Dr. Hodge on 
 behalf of the Directors and Alumni of our Seminary, at 
 his Semi-Centennial Commemoration ? 
 
 " Your- Theology must soon become the hand-book of 
 all students of the Reformed faith who speak the Eng- 
 lish tongue. Where you have taught scores, you will 
 now teach hundreds ; and where you have taught hun- 
 dreds, you will teach thousands. Thus, through your 
 pupils dispersed over the four quarters of the globe, 
 many of them engaged in laying the foundations of 
 Christianity in pagan and Mohammedan lands, and 
 through this great work comprising your mature views 
 in the noblest of all sciences, is your influence extend- 
 ing in ever-multiplying, ever-widening, concentric circles, 
 until the mind is awed in attempting to conceive, not of 
 its possible, but of its certain results, as the ages come 
 and go. That you should live to see this mighty me- 
 chanism in motion — to guide into so many of its count- 
 less channels this broad stream from the fountain of 
 living waters, is a distinction so rare and so exalted 
 that we cannot but look upon you as a man greatly 
 beloved of God, and honored as He has honored scarcely 
 any other individual of our age. AVhen He has thus 
 spoken, we have no right to be silent." 
 
49 
 
 This prediction, uttered seven years ago, has ))een in 
 process of fulfihnent ever since. His work has become, 
 in form or in. fact, a text-book with many important 
 institutions in America and Great Britain. It is proba- 
 bly, at this moment, a more efficient factor in shaping 
 the theology of the rising ministry of our churches, than 
 any other u.nmspired production. Nor this only. It is 
 clearly destined, in the hands of faithful missionaries, 
 to become a leading authority in framing the earliest 
 formal and permanent Creeds of numerous peoples, on 
 their emerging from barbarism into the light and liberty 
 of the Gospel — a force in the fashioning of national 
 character, silent and tranquil, but more benign and more 
 powerful than laws and literature combined. 
 
 But it is time to come nearer home, and commune 
 with our beloved Professor here in this Seminary. It. 
 may suffice to say in respect to his methods as a teacher, 
 that the rare intellectual gifts of which we have been 
 speaking, found full play in the lecture and class-rooms. 
 The same acumen in piercing the husk and the shell, 
 and detecting the hidden kernel of truth ; the same 
 marvellous power of analysis ; the same skill in dissect- 
 ing off extraneous and impertinent issues, and going 
 down to foundation-principles ; the same candor in 
 dealing with adverse opinions ; the same rigorous logic ; 
 these and their kindred qualities, informed with the 
 kindest spirit, and blended with a tone and manner all 
 gentleness, were daily illustrated in his official inter- 
 course with his students. 
 
 But there was something still higher and better than 
 all this. The motto inscribed over the portals of this 
 School of the prophets by those who established it, and 
 which its Directors and Professors have guarded with 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 uch jealous care that the lapse of sixty-seven years 
 has not eroded, nor even moulded the device, was, 
 '■' Truth and Holiness — Truth in ordei; to Holiness." 
 Piety first, then learning. Thorough intellectual culture, 
 but culture inspired, controlled, and hallowed b}^ supreme 
 conseci'ation to Gk>d. This was the paramount aim of 
 those venerable men to whom God, in his great love and 
 mercy to our church and to our race, confided the gov- 
 ernment and instruction of this Seminary at its birth. 
 
 Let me put this before you in its most authoritative 
 form. In the lucid and exhaustive sermon preached by 
 Dr. Miller at the inauguration of Dr. Alexander (Aug. 
 12, 1812), he used this very solemn language : " When 
 I cast an eye down the ages of eternity, and think how 
 important is the salvation of a single soul ; when I re- 
 collect how important, of course, the office of a minister 
 of the gospel, who may be the happy instrument of 
 saving many hundreds or thousands of souls; and when 
 I remember how many and how momentous are the 
 relations which a Seminary intended solely for training 
 up ministers bears to all the interests of men in the life 
 that now is, and especially in that which is to come, I 
 feel as if the task of conducting such a Seminary had an 
 awfulness of responsibility connected with it, which is 
 enough to make us tremble. Oh, my fathers and breth- 
 ren ! let it never be said of us on whom this task has 
 fallen, that we take more pains to make polite scholars, 
 eloquent orators, or men of mere learning, than to form 
 'able and faithful ministers of the New Testament.' 
 Let it never be said that we are more anxious to main- 
 tain the literary and scientific honors of the ministry, 
 than we are to promote that honor which consists in 
 being ' full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,' and the in- 
 
51 
 
 stmments of -adding much people to the Lord.' The 
 eyes of the Church are upon us. The eyes of angels, 
 and, above aU, the eyes of the King of Zion are upon 
 us. May we have grace given us to be faithful !"' 
 
 What rapture would have filled the breast of the 
 revered father, could the record which we now make 
 have been spread before him on that day, that three 
 thousand men would be trained within these walls for 
 the sacred ministry, under the ceaseless influence of the 
 lesson he enforced with such persuasive eloquence. No 
 teacher ever occupied one of these Chairs who has lost 
 sight of it. It is the guiding star of the distinguished 
 scholars and divines who constitute the present Faculty. 
 These brethren, his honored associates, will bear willing 
 testimony to the beneficent power of Dr. Hodge in keep- 
 ing the Seminary up to this its loftiest mission. It cost 
 him no effort to hold this end ever in view. And a man 
 who walked with God, as he did, could not fail to exert 
 a healthful influence upon all who approached him. 
 His very presence was felt by his students as a benedic- 
 tion — a means of grace, carrying with it a silent rebuke, 
 an encouragement, a stimulus to watchfulness and fidelity 
 — according to their individual needs. A personality 
 like this has a power all its own. It is something dif- 
 ferent from talent, learning, eloquence, dialet-tic skill, 
 affable manners, or all these combined. You cannot see 
 it. You cannot define it. But you can and must feel 
 it. No one could sit down with Dr. Hodge without 
 feeling it — perhaps more sensibly than with almost 
 any one they will have known. And these young men 
 felt it, not only in " his opening prayers which seemed 
 to constitute his class-room a Bethel, and the savor of 
 which was as the incense of morn to the soul wooing it 
 
upi,vard to communion with God,"'=' but through the 
 entire routine of the daily lecture or recitation, and, no 
 less, in their familiar visits to his study. 
 
 If this were true of his ordinary converse, what must 
 be said of his " Sunday-afternoon talks " in the Ora- 
 tory ? The older graduates of the Seminary love to 
 dwell upon this conference as it was conducted by the 
 two senior Professors of their day. It was here, espe- 
 cially, that Dr. Alexander displayed that deep exper- 
 imental knowledge of the human heart, and of the 
 Gospel as the only remedy for its corruptions, for which 
 he was so pre-eminent. He seemed to have studied 
 every phase of character and every type of the Chris- 
 tian life. It mattered not whether the subject were joy 
 or sorrow, temptation or triumph, the hope that saves 
 or the hope that deceives, trust or despondency, faith 
 or works, life or death, — you soon saw, in listening 
 to him, that it was familiar ground to him, and that, 
 wherever you were, he had been there before you. 
 How could we help reverencing a man whom we felt, 
 as soon as he began to speak, busy about our hearts, 
 and who would go on opening one ward after another, 
 until we began to fear that there was not a secret 
 chamber he might not enter, and lay bare all that was 
 in it ? This rare gift descended to his successor. Dr. 
 Hodge's addresses at this conference, colloquial in form, 
 but, as now appears from his memoranda, carefully pre- 
 meditated, reveal the same familiarity with the intrica- 
 cies of the human heart, the same aptitude in dealing 
 with questions of casuistry, and the same felicity in 
 
 * See an admirable article in the " British and Foreign Evangelical 
 Review," by his distinguished pupil, Professor Watts, of the Assembly's 
 College, Belfast. 
 
63 
 
 portraying the hopes and fears, the snares and eonfliets. 
 the trials and encouragements, of the Christian warfare. 
 
 One of his favorite pupils'^' has hrought him l^efore us 
 at this service, in a sketch as beautiful as it is life-like : 
 
 " No triumph of his with tongue or pen ever so thrilled 
 and moved human hearts as did his utterances at the 
 Sabbath-afternoon conferences in the Seminary Oratory, 
 which will live in the immortal memory of every Prince- 
 ton student. A subject would be given out on the Sun- 
 day before, generally some one which involved prac- 
 tical, experimental, spiritual religion — such as Christian 
 fidelity, love of God's word, prayer, the Lord's Supper, 
 the great commission. After brief opening services by 
 the students, the Professors spoke in turn ; but Dr. 
 Hodge's was the voice which all waited to hear. Sit- 
 ting quietly in his chair, with a simple ease which 
 seemed born of the moment, but was really the fruit 
 of careful preparation, even with the pen, he would 
 pour out a tide of thought and feeling which moved 
 and melted all — solemn, searching, touching, tender — 
 his eye sometimes kindling and his voice swelling or 
 trembling with the force of sacred emotion, while 
 thought and language at times rose to a grandeur which 
 held us spell-bound. Few went away from- those con- 
 secrated meetings without feeling in their hearts that 
 there was nothing good and pure and noble in Christian 
 character which he who would be a worthy minister oi 
 Christ ought not to covet for his own." 
 
 It was these familiar descants on the inner life of the 
 soul, even more than his profound discussions of the 
 sublime theories of theology, that disclosed the real 
 secret of his greatness. The key to his whole charac- 
 
 * William Irvin, D.D., of Troy, N. Y. 
 
54 
 
 ter, intellectual and moral, lies in the extraordinary 
 measure of divine influence which was granted him. 
 " If a man love me, he will keep my words : and my 
 Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and 
 make our abode with him." The remarkable phrase- 
 ology here employed by the Saviour, which has no par- 
 allel in His other recorded utterances, clothes the prom- 
 ise with a significance beyond our grasp. But here, if 
 anywhere, was one to whom it was given to enjoy the 
 priceless distinction it conferred. Manifest it was to 
 all eyes that the Father and the Son had come to him, 
 not as a wayfaring man, to tarry for a night, but to 
 ahide with him ; or, translating this unusual language 
 into familiar phrase, that the Holy Spirit was given to 
 him in a very unwonted measure. Rarely, if ever, did 
 any one hear him speak of his own religious exercises ; 
 but this were as superfluous as to ask the harvest-moon 
 where she gets her splendor. His daily walk betrayed 
 the Secret ; and the Oratory, beyond all other spheres, 
 showed that the " hiding of his power " lay in that in- 
 dwelling of the Spirit which made his life an habitual 
 communion with God. In these exercises, as in his 
 prayers — above all, his prayers at the family-altar — the 
 Christological type of his piety constantly appeared. 
 Not Rutherford himself was more absorbed with the 
 love of Christ. Around this central sun, and so near 
 to it as to be always aglow with its beams, his whole 
 being revolved. Christ was not onl}^ the ground of his 
 hope, but the acknowledged sovereign of his intellect, 
 the soul of his theology, the unfailing spring of his joy, 
 the one all-pervading, all-glorifying theme and end of 
 his life. When Bengel lay a-dying, a friend, standing 
 l)y his bedside, pronounced over him these words : — 
 
55 
 
 " Lord Jesns, to Thee I live ; to Thee I siinVr ; to Thee 
 I die : Thine I am, in death and in life. Save and bless 
 me, Savionr, for ever and ever : Amen." Upon hear- 
 ing the words Thine I am, the great expositor hud his 
 right hand npon his heart, and fell asleep in Jesus. 
 There is bnt one formula which so well sums up and 
 defines the religious character of our revered Professor : 
 '• To me, TO live is Christ ; and to die is gain." And 
 here in this Conference, where his every tone, and look, 
 and utterance, was instinct with his love to Christ, did 
 he most fully realize to those around him their concep- 
 tion of '•' the disciple whom Jesus loved." When his 
 addresses come to be collected and published,* they 
 will constitute, though merely in outline, a body of 
 practical and casuistical divinity inferior to no work of 
 its size and compass in our language. 
 
 Let me not be understood as depreciating the labors 
 of his colleagues, whether in this or any other depart- 
 ment of the Seminary life. In the Oratory, as every- 
 where else, they were in perfect sympathy with him ; 
 they were just as conscientious and faithful; they sec- 
 onded all his efforts for leading the students up to a 
 closer and still closer '' imitation of Christ ;" and as they 
 shared with him the responsibility, so they will share 
 with him the imperishable reward, of having success- 
 fully trained a very large body of young men to become 
 able ministers of the New Testament — perhaps the 
 very highest function which God ever entrusts to mor- 
 tal hands. 
 
 This incidental reference to our corps of Professors 
 conjointly may fitly introduce a further observation on 
 the subject. In a sermon already quoted, Dr. Hodge, 
 
 *As they now have been. 
 
56 
 
 speaking of Drs. Alexander and Miller, says : "It often 
 happens that men are very pious without being very 
 good. Their religion expends itself in devotional feel- 
 ings and services, while the evil passions of their nature 
 remain unsubdued. It was not so with our fathers : 
 they were as good as they were pious. I was inti- 
 mately associated with them, as pupil and colleague, 
 between thirty and forty years. In all that time I 
 never saw in either of them any indication of vanity, 
 of pride, of malice, of envy, of jealousy, of insincerity, 
 of uncharitableness, or of disingenuousness. I know 
 that what I say is incredible, nevertheless it is true ; 
 and it is my right and my duty to scatter these with- 
 ered flowers upon their graves. Most men have reason 
 to rejoice that their bosoms are opaque ; but these holy 
 men, as it always seemed to me, might let the sun shine 
 through them." 
 
 This is a very remarkable statement. It is doubtful 
 whether its counterpart could be supplied from the an- 
 nals of any literary or theological institution the world 
 has seen. Yet is there one thing even more remarkable 
 —viz., that without going beyond this record, a third 
 man should be found in whom all those virtues shone 
 with the same undimmed lustre ; that in the judgment of 
 those who were the most confidentially associated with 
 its author for fifty years, every word he has here writ- 
 ten is as strictly applicable to himself as it was to his 
 venerable colleagues. Who ever saw in Charles Hodge 
 the slightest taint or token " of vanity, of pride, of mal- 
 ice, of envy, of jealousy, of insincerity, of uncharitable- 
 ness, or of disingenuousness " ? Is it extravagant to say 
 that the contemporaneous presence of three men in the 
 same Faculty for two score years, any one of whom 
 
57 
 
 might have sat for this portrait, is a inarxcl to which 
 no parallel can be foimd ? What hath Cuxl wrouglit for 
 this Seminary and for the church made so much ridier 
 and better by the lives and labors of these holy men ! 
 If one were called upon to specify the most conspic- 
 uous feature of Dr. Hodge's religious character, next to 
 that pure love with which his whole nature was trjins- 
 fused, it would be his humility — perhaps the most dis- 
 tinctively Christian grace in the whole garniture of the 
 believer. Here was a man clothed with brilliant intel- 
 lectual gifts, an accomplished scholar, laden with gen- 
 erous stores of the choicest learning, his utterances on 
 all ecclesiastical and dogmatic questions listened to by 
 a great church with a deference accorded to no other 
 living teacher, lauded by eminent theologians in Europe 
 and America as " the theologian of the age," and the 
 constant object of undisguised and loving reverence to 
 all around him, yet modest and unassuming as a child — 
 never asserting his consequence : never obtruding his 
 opinions ; never courting a compliment ; never saying or 
 doing anything for effect; never challenging attention 
 to himself in any way."^' Of course he could not be 
 blind to the homage which was paid him from every 
 quarter ; but his own estimate of himself was framed 
 by quite another standard. His vast learning taught 
 him that he had barely crossed the border of that 
 boundless domain of truth which stretches off in every 
 direction into \kiQ infinite; and his habitual feeling was 
 
 * One of. our Directors, lonti; since gone to liis reward, was a most 
 vivacious and affrccable talker. Dr. Hodge said to mo one day, *' Have 
 
 you noticed a curious fact about Dr. ?" " Wiiat is it?" "lie 
 
 never talks about anything but himself, and yet in him it never strikes 
 you as egotism." This was true. I cite it simply as siiowing his pleas- 
 ant way of dealing with an infirmity which had no Jiiaee in his own 
 character. 
 
58 
 
 that of La Place, who, being complimented, when near 
 his end, on the splendor of his attainments, replied, 
 " What we know is very little ; what we do not know 
 is immense." So in respect to his personal piety. To 
 all eyes but his own he had approached as near to " the 
 stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus" as any, the 
 most favored, of those saints whose names the church 
 has embalmed. But so' clear was his apprehension of 
 the spotless holiness of God, so transcendent his views 
 of the love of Christ and the debt we owe Him, and 
 so inwrought his sense of the turpitude of sin, that he 
 could only think of himself as a poor, miserable sinner 
 saved by grace ineffable, whose best services were 
 utterly unfit to be presented to God, whose purest 
 aspirations were too impure to be accepted save through 
 the ever-prevalent intercession of our great High Priest. 
 Here, indeed, was a clear intimation that the path he 
 was treading lay close along the suburbs of the heav- 
 enly city. For the inevitable effect of a near discovery 
 of the divine glory must always be what it was with 
 Isaiah and the beloved apostle — to overwhelm the soul 
 Avith a sense of its own vileness. Therefore it was that 
 our dear Professor was ever "clothed with humility" 
 — clothed with it : it covered him like " a raiment of 
 needlework " — covered all the powers of his mind, all 
 the treasures of his learning, all the wealth of his affec- 
 tions, all that made him great and good, loving and 
 beloved, all that moved us to look upon him as one 
 given to the church (may it be allowed me to say) to 
 shew how much a Christian may, even in this world, 
 become like Christ.* 
 
 * May I illustrate this point by one or two incidents not related at 
 the delivery of the discourse. 
 
 About a year before his death we were one day talkini!; toi^ether, and 
 
59 
 
 Fidelity to the truth constrains mc to eniiiliasize the 
 thought, that the spirit here delineated is the logical 
 out-come of the Calvinistic theology in its thorough and 
 pervasive contact with a powerful intellect. With the 
 world, especinlly with the lighter cohorts of the world 
 of letters, this theology is the symbol of pride, bigotry, 
 and austerity. That these traits are sometimes exhibited 
 by professed Calvinists, as well as by people of other 
 creeds and of no creed, is not denied. Nor is it denied 
 that there are fierce Calvinistic lions who are never 
 turned into lambs. But that the legitimate tendency of 
 the system is in that direction, and that witli an energy 
 unknown to any other belief, it would be easy to prove 
 both from an analysis of its elements and from the an- 
 nals of the church. Let it suffice to say, that its grand, 
 characteristic feature, that which in the judgment alike 
 
 I was saying, " You ouf;ht to be a very happy man. Consider what you 
 have accomplished, and the universal feelin;;; towards you — " " Now 
 stop !" said he, with a wave of the hand. " All that can lie said is, that 
 God has been pleased to take up a poor little stick and do something 
 with it. What I have done is as nothing compared with what is done by 
 a man who goes to Africa, and labors among a heathen tribe, and re- 
 duces their language to writing. I am not worthy to stoop down and 
 unloose the shoes of such a man." 
 
 Again, in the course of a letter written in January, 1878, and breath- 
 ing in every sentence the same spirit, he says : " It is a delusion. It is 
 not what I am, but what God's providence has done with me, that you 
 have in the eye of your imagination. Had I been settled in a retired 
 parish, nobody would ever have heard my 7io;«e." 
 
 At his Semi-Centennial Commemoration (April 24, 1872), the highest 
 tribute ever paid to a minister of the gospel in the United States, the 
 entire afternoon was taken up with the laudatory addresses of repre- 
 sentative men, speaking for their respective institutions and Christian 
 denominations, at home and abroad. lie was reclining, the while, upon 
 a sofa at the rear of the platform. When it was over, I said to him, 
 " How did you stand all that?"' " Why," said he, with a pleasant smile, 
 " very quietly. It didn't seem at all to be me they were talking about. 
 I hi'ard it all as of some other man." 
 
GO 
 
 of friends and foes distinguishes it from all other schemes, 
 is, that it exalts God and abases man. Its fundamental 
 princiiDles are these two, viz., man's utter depravity, 
 ruin, and helplessness ; and salvation by grace through 
 the mediation of Christ, sovereign, free, and unmerited, 
 from first to last, in every stage, and at every step. 
 These principles received into the heart with an enlight- 
 ened and cordial faith, must necessarily foster low 
 thoughts of one's self, meekness, benevolence, and the 
 whole train of sister-graces. A cloud of witnesses might 
 be summoned to show that this is no mere speculative 
 conjecture, but the actual and ordinary result where the 
 doctrines in question are clearly apprehended and lov- 
 ingly embraced. Among these witnesses would be found 
 very many in different lands whose seraphic piety, pro- 
 found learning, and unwearied labors, have illumined the 
 times in which they lived. It will be germane to the 
 occasion to mention, by way of example, two names 
 which must have place in any enrolment that claims to 
 include the ten most illustrious thinkers and authors 
 known, outside the circle of inspiration, to the Christian 
 Church. Augustine and Jonathan Edwards were as 
 humble and lowly in spirit, as they were resplendent in 
 their intellectual strength. 
 
 This train of thought is suggestive of another trait of 
 Dr. Hodge's character already glanced at. His home 
 was in the empire of the affections. Never did a more 
 kindly, loving heart throb in a human bosom. There 
 were those of old who said to the Master, " Thou hast 
 a devil." What wonder that some of their successors 
 should charge the disciple with bigotry, intolerance, ma- 
 lignity ? All they knew or cared to know, was, that he 
 was the accredited defender of a theology they hated. 
 
61 
 
 although as ignorant of it as were the Pharisees of the 
 Saviour's teachings. This " antiquated theoh)gy," '^ an- 
 tiquated," we admit, for it dates back to the apostles, 
 yes, and to prophets and patriarchs, has always been 
 the abhorrence of free-thinkers and latitudinarians of 
 whatever name. Princeton, its chosen sanctuary, is, 
 to the eyes of the Eastern Magi, covered with a pall of 
 Cimmerian darkness. No flowers of Paradise bloom 
 there. The only Flora known to its rugged soil is thorns 
 and brambles. Accustomed as they are to associate 
 with its avowed creed ideas of narrow-mindedness, viru- 
 lence, and the like, they must needs take it for granted 
 that the Pontifex Maximus of this creed was the very 
 incarnation of these amiable qualities. Had they 
 charged simply that he was resolute in maintaining his 
 opinions ; that he would make no compromise with what 
 he believed to be error ; that no adverse array of num- 
 bers, talent, official station, or personal vituperation, 
 could repress the frankest expression of his sentiments 
 on all fitting occasions ; that, in a word, truth was dearer 
 to him than life, and he would have stood for it like 
 Luther at Worms, with an empire or a world in arms 
 against it : had this been the indictment, no one could 
 have traversed it. But when it comes to be a question 
 of tone and temper, it is a different matter. Here he 
 was a very child. Not one of his various eulogists has 
 failed to advert to this feature of his character. Ad- 
 dicted as he was to laborious study in the grandest fields 
 open to our research, and capable, l)eyond most men, of 
 scaling the heights and sounding the depths which de- 
 fine the limits of human thought, he entered with ;i 
 lively zest into the current talk of the hour, Ihe amuse- 
 ments of children, the petty news-gatherings of his 
 
62 
 
 visitors, — nothing, indeed, was too trivial to interest 
 him. 
 
 In society, he was no monopolist like Coleridge and 
 Macanlay, but, as already hinted, he was certainly one 
 of the most foscinating of talkers. A very noticeable 
 thing about him was the facility with which he would 
 pass from the lightest to the gravest themes. Abound- 
 ing as he did in anecdote, no boy enjoyed a good story 
 more. Grim Calvinist as he was said to be, his airy 
 spirit revealed itself in a tide of humor as inexhaustible 
 as it w^as refreshing. Wit he had, no less ; as many a 
 remembered pleasantry, and many a sentence in his 
 polemical essays will attest. But this keener weapon 
 was kept more in reserve. It was wdt as refined and 
 sweetened into humor by sympathy, tenderness, and 
 affection, that set oft' to such advantage his massive in- 
 tellectual powers, and sparkled through his conversation 
 like the shimmer of the moonbeams upon the rippling 
 lake. This beautiful gift — for such it surely is — never 
 degenerated with him into irreverence, coarseness, or 
 buffoonery. It never carried him so far aw^ay from the 
 cross and its sublime verities, that he could not pass at 
 once, and without violence to his own feelings or those 
 of others, from the sprightliest to the gravest topics ; 
 from the commerce of small talk bristling with amusing 
 reminiscences and brilliant repartee, to the discussion of 
 some subtle question of metaphysics or theology, or the 
 luminous exposition of some controverted scripture. 
 Whatever the company or the theme, he was always 
 natural. He never paraded his learning ; never intro- 
 duced a topic for the sake of "showing off" upon it; 
 never assumed, in his intercourse with his students or 
 others, an air of superiority. His world-wide fame 
 
63 
 
 brought to his hospitable door numerous visitors from 
 remote states and foreign countries ; and nothing sur- 
 prised and charmed them more than the perfect sim- 
 plicity and the quiet, unostentatious manners of tlio man 
 whom they had been accustomed to look at from a dis- 
 tance with a sort of awe. With that inborn refinement 
 and courtesy which came of his gentle blood, he aimed 
 at drawing out his guests while he listened ; and, it must 
 be said, he added to his many other graces the rare ac- 
 complishment of being a good listener, even where there 
 was not much to listen to. If they thwarted his pur- 
 pose and constrained him to do the talking, it was cer- 
 tain to be in a strain which would run out the hour-glass 
 very swiftly, but without one word designed for self- 
 laudation. All the more surely did it win their homage. 
 For it is a law written as well upon the heart as upon 
 the inspired page, '' He that humbleth himself shall be 
 exalted ;" and when we meet with a person of rare pow- 
 ers or of signal usefulness, who loses sight of himself 
 in his concern for the welfare of others, we instinctively 
 pay him the tribute of our loving admiration. How 
 could Dr. Hodge's visitors help carrying away this feel- 
 ing with them ? 
 
 In one of Dr. Chalmers' SabbatlL llcadiu(j><, there is 
 a touching allusion to himself. He is commenting on 
 the devoted friendship between David and Jonathan, the 
 latter of whom he styles, " my beloved Jonathan." and 
 speaks of him as, " on the whole, the most engaging 
 character, and perhaps the most perfectly drawn of all 
 the merely human personages whom either jtrufaiie <»r 
 sacred history has recorded." Depicting the mutual 
 love of these two friends, he adds with a sort of pathos. 
 "I feel a void in my own heart from the want of an 
 
64 
 
 object on whom I might concentrate this affection in 
 Ml, loving him 'both in the flesh and in the Lord.' 
 (Philemon xvi.) There is a shyness, or coldness, or 
 want of foil and free congeniality about me, in virtue of 
 which I feel that my capacity for the enjoyment of 
 social intimacy has not been met by aught that is ade- 
 quate for my entire satisfaction in this way." Our be- 
 loved Professor labored under no such disability as that 
 wdiich is here so feelingly confessed and deplored (though 
 in the judgment of some who knew him well, without 
 reason*) by the illustrious Scotchman. He was formed 
 for friendship. His nature craved it. He could not do 
 without it, and happily he Avas not put to the trial. I 
 do not now refer to that home which was blessed and 
 brightened with his presence, and where his loving 
 heart found full scope and verge, and was in turn en- 
 riched by the reciprocal in-flow of a love as tender as 
 his own. There was a circle outside of this upon which 
 
 * It was my hio;h privilege to spend with Dr. Chalmers the last even- 
 ing but one of his life, Saturday, May 28, 1847. At sunrise on the 
 ' ensuing Monday, the cry rang through Edinburgh, Dr. Chalmers is 
 dead ! Not to go into the details of that memorable interview, let it 
 suffice to say, as bearing upon the passage in the text, that I have never 
 received a more cordial and hearty greeting than that with which, taking 
 both my hands in his own, he welcomed me to Morning-side. He had 
 returned from London only the day before, and spoke of himself as being 
 in unusually good health. All the benevolence of his character came 
 out in his genial smile. His courtesy, his affability, the tones of his 
 voice, the graciousness and even warmth of his whole manner, as he 
 talked with me of grave questions with which the Free Church Assem- 
 bly, then in session, was likely to be agitated, and the kindliness with 
 which, on my rising to leave, he pressed an invitation for us (the ladies 
 of my party had remained at the hotel that evening) to l)reakfast with 
 him, first on Tuesday and then on Monday morning — all this made a 
 lasting impression upon me so grateful and so vivid that I cannot at all 
 take in that disparaging estimate of his own social nature which I have 
 quoted from his " Sabbath Readings." 
 
66 
 
 he lavished his warm affection. No niggard in his gene- 
 rous sympathies, his kindly wishes went out towards all 
 whom he knew; and there were many who shared 
 his love. But with him, as with us all, there were a 
 chosen few whose place came next after his own 
 household. Among the names which were oftenest on 
 his lips were those of Johns and McIlvaine, Nevins and 
 B. B. WiSNER, DoD and James Alexander, and Van 
 Rensselaer. All these preceded him to the better 
 country. The first two were his fellow-students at Nas- 
 sau Hall, and the first four were his companions in the 
 Seminary. A brilliant constellation in the moral firma- 
 ment — collectively, with the addition of him who was 
 facile frinceps among them, they represented as much of 
 mental power and brilliant imagination, of keen dialectic 
 and exquisite taste, of racy humor and quick sensibility, 
 of liberal letters and commanding eloquence, of Christian 
 activity and usefulness, and, above all, in^all, and through 
 all, of humble, earnest piety, as could be found among 
 any similar group selected from the entire rolls of our 
 Seminaries and Colleges. 
 
 The ties which linked Dr. Hodge with these kindred 
 spirits were never severed nor weakened, except as, one 
 by one, they were sundered by death. It is no dispar- 
 agement of the others to say that, as Johns was his first 
 love in the order of time, and was spared to him the 
 longest, so his affection for him was peculiarly intense 
 and tender. The friendship born of their early inti- 
 macy never lost its aroma. Those who were present 
 at the Semi-Centenary Commemoration, will remember 
 the thrill of pleasure which went through the great 
 assemblage when the Rev. Prof Packard, speaking for 
 the Protestant Episcopal Seminary of Virginia, re- 
 5 
 
Go 
 
 marked that on leaving home, Bishop Johns said to 
 him, " Give my love to Charlie^ That message told the 
 story : they were boys together at twenty, and they 
 were still boys together at eighty ; the presage and ex- 
 emplar of that blessed fellowship which, after a brief 
 interruption, has now been renewed before the throne. 
 If I quote one further observation of Prof. Packard's, 
 it is with the conviction that the good Bishop, could he 
 have been present, would have said in person just what 
 he did say through his honored representative : " When 
 the history of theology in America for the last fifty 
 years shall be impartially written, the foremost name 
 on the list of those who have deserved well of the 
 Church — that name which will shine in letters of light 
 as the first and foremost name on the list — will, by the 
 almost universal consent of all the churches, be the 
 name of Charles Hodge." 
 
 The topics with which we have now been engaged, 
 have brought into view the gentler side of Dr. Hodge's 
 character. There are those who will regard the quali- 
 ties indicated, as revealing a certain sort of weakness — 
 pardonable, indeed, but still a weakness ; and an im- 
 peachment, so far, of the title asserted for him by his 
 friends to have his place assigned him among the really 
 " great" men of this age. It is simply a question as to 
 what constitutes true greatness. In the common judg- 
 ment of the learned world, this distinction belongs by 
 pre-eminence to pure intellect in its loftiest manifesta- 
 tions, as, e. g., in the case of Thomas Aquinas or Kant. 
 Others would enthrone in their Pantheon the men who 
 combine with rare intellectual gifts, rich stores of 
 knowledge, a wide range of literary accomplishment, 
 and a voice or pen that can instruct and fiiscinate whole 
 
67 
 
 nations — like Cicero or Goethe. Others still, t.-night in 
 a better school, would have an intellectual Colossus, not 
 only decorated with the triumphs and trophies of genius, 
 but animated by a spirit of genuine piety — devout and 
 conscientious — " walking uprightly, working righteous- 
 ness, and speaking the truth," meeting all the claims of 
 justice and equity, and really kind at heart, albeit stern, 
 phlegmatic, unsympathizing. No one would refuse to 
 accord the epithet "great" to the choice spirits who 
 make up any one of these classes ; but do they, singly 
 or united, supply all the attributes essential to consti- 
 tute the highest type of greatness ? Can it be necessary 
 to answer this question, with the New Testament open 
 before us ? The world has seen, since the fall, but one 
 perfect man. If you deify intellectual force, vast eru- 
 dition, philosophic penetration, here is ONE upon all 
 whose faculties is the stamp of infinitude ; whose mind 
 holds in its grasp all time and all space ; who guides 
 alike the stars in their orbits, and the pollen that floats 
 through the summer air ; and in comparison with whom 
 the magnates of your eulogy are but nursery-striplings. 
 Yet where will you find such meekness, such humility, 
 such afi'ectionateness ? What language have you to 
 describe His ineffable tenderness, His gentle bearing 
 towards the erring. His ready sympathy with every 
 form of sorrow and suffering, His overflowing love to- 
 wards friends and foes, His delight in little children — 
 in a word, that whole life which was in truth a child- 
 life ? No one, standing in the presence of Jesus of 
 Nazareth, will have the presumption to deny that 
 we have here the very highest style of humanity ; 
 and that these milder graces are just as indispen- 
 sable to its completeness, as that array of grand 
 
68 
 
 intellectual endowments to which the world pays will- 
 ing homage. 
 
 Now why do I introduce our blessed Saviour upon 
 this scene ? Is it that we may challenge for our friend 
 whom we to-day commemorate, the first place among 
 the great men of our race ? Is it that we may exalt 
 him above this or that illustrious philosopher or theolo- 
 gian in or out of the church ? Far from it. It is sim- 
 ply to show that his true position is among the very 
 foremost of a class never large, and augmented by only 
 a few names in the course of a century, who illustrate 
 the supreme type of greatness — a type which demands 
 the union of the rarest mental power, with self-abnega- 
 tion, patience, kindliness, and a feminine tenderness of 
 disposition. The combination of strength and gentle- 
 ness in his character was not merely conspicuous ; it 
 was transcendent : as among the men whom we may, 
 any of us, have known, it was unequalled — unap- 
 proached. It was the admiration of all who met him. 
 It "was the charm that captivated his friends. It was 
 the secret of that magnetic power which he exerted 
 over so many hearts. It was at once the fruit and 
 the evidence of his close assimilation to that loving 
 Saviour in whose love he rejoiced with a joy unspeak- 
 able and full of glory. The mind struggles in vain to 
 conceive what must be the rapture of such a soul on 
 being received into a world whose very atmosphere is 
 love — into the immediate presence of that adored Re- 
 deemer, whose nature is the same as when He wept with 
 the sisters of Bethany, at the very moment He was 
 about to command the grave to give back its dead. 
 
 Here, then, we have the true criterion of Dr. Hodge's 
 greatness. It is not questioned that there have been 
 
men of still loftier intellectual culture, nor that there 
 are names still more suggestive of universal knowledge. 
 But no example is recalled in which an imperial intel- 
 lect, mature scholarship, a creative imagination, acute 
 sensibility, taste, atfectionateness, sterling humor, ii 
 soldier's courage and a woman's gentleness, the Iresh- 
 ness of youthful feeling unimpaii-ed at fourscore, and 
 all the graces of the Spirit, were more exquisitely 
 blended. In the perfect harmony of his mental and 
 moral powers, the purity and benevolence of his life, 
 the wisdom and felicity of his doctrine, and the charm 
 of his conversation, we recognize the completeness of a 
 character, the like of which we do not expect to see 
 this side of heaven. From our heart of hearts we ren- 
 der thanks to that God who made him what he was, 
 and blessed the church with his presence for eighty 
 years. 
 
 When Dr. Archibald Alexander was about to die, he 
 said to his son, " I have never before seen a time so 
 suitable for my departure." May we not say the same 
 of his revered successor ? Ilis great Treatise, for which 
 the Church had waited with many hopes and fears, had 
 been finished. The Seminary, with its full corps of 
 able professors, its increased endowment and new build- 
 ings, was never more prosperous. His sons had come 
 to honor, and were already taking up and carrying for- 
 ward his work. His faculties were in full vigor. And 
 his image, in all its lineaments, w\as just that which 
 those nearest his heart would most love to hold in last- 
 ing remembrance. The completeness of his character 
 found its complement in the completeness of his life. 
 And as faith enjoins, so reason must confirm the senti- 
 ment, that in this, as in all His dispensations, God's 
 
70 
 
 time was the best time. With reverent hearts we 
 accept the lesson. But " we cannot repress a sense of 
 privation partaking of desolateness. An animating in- 
 fluence that pervaded, and enlarged, and raised our 
 minds, is extinct. While ready to give due honor to 
 all valuable teachers, and knowing that the lights of 
 religious instruction will still shine with useful lustre, 
 and new ones continually rise, we involuntarily and jjen- 
 sively turn to look at the last fading colors in the distance 
 tvhere the greater luminary has set."^' 
 
 * John Foster on Robert Hall. 
 
MINUTE 
 
 ADOPTED BY THE 
 
 BOARD OF DIRECTORS 
 
 PEIJSrOETOl^ THEOLOGICAL SEMDnTAEY, 
 
 ANNUAL MEETING, HELD APRIL 29, 1879. 
 
MINUTE. 
 
 The Reverend Charles Hodge, Doctor of Divinity. 
 Doctor of Laws, was born in Philadelphia, December 27. 
 1797. He graduated at the College of New Jersey with 
 the highest honor, in 1815. Having spent three years 
 as a student in this Seminary, graduating in the Class of 
 1819, he was appointed by this Board, in the year fol- 
 lowing, Assistant Teaclw of the Original Languages of 
 Scripture. In the year 1822, he was elected by the 
 General Assembly, Professor of Oriental and Biblical 
 Literature. In the year 1840, he was transferred to the 
 chair of Didactic Theology. This position he filled 
 until his death, June 19, 1878. 
 
 His entire professional life was thus passed as an in- 
 structor of students in this institution. About three 
 thousand young men were prepared, largely under his 
 influence and tuition, for the ministry of the Gosi)el. By 
 these, his name is affectionately cherished as a house- 
 hold word in every quarter of the globe. 
 
 From the day of his appointment as Assistant In- 
 structor, he enjoyed the confidence, alike of his col- 
 leagues, of the members of this Board, of the students 
 under his charge, and of the entire church. To this 
 confidence were soon added profound respect and admi- 
 ration ; while from the generation who knew him in his 
 ripest years, came the homage of grateful and reverent 
 affection. 
 
74 
 
 The tribute, thus gladly paid by successive genera- 
 tions, was justified by his talents and attainments ; by 
 his labors as teacher and author; by his consecration of 
 all his endowments to the service of Christ and the 
 Truth ; by his exalted Christian character and his con- 
 sistent Christian life ; by his humility before God, and 
 his love for men. 
 
 As a Teacher, whether of Biblical Literature or of 
 Systematic Theology, it was his single aim, as it was his 
 chief success, to deepen the interest of his students in 
 Divine Truth, as revealed in the Word of God, and to 
 impress them with a profound sense of its supreme im- 
 portance, as against all speculations and theories of the 
 human mind. 
 
 As an Author, his large and accurate learning, his 
 wide intellectual sympathies, embracing almost every 
 department of knowledge, his perfect candor, his loyalty 
 to truth, and his imperial mental endowments, entitle 
 him to a place in history among the foremost expounders 
 and defenders of the Faith delivered to the Saints. 
 
 These great intellectual gifts, and traits, and attain- 
 ments, he exercised and employed under the absolute 
 direction of his implicit faith in the revealed Word of 
 God. Standing in the succession of the apostolic and 
 historic theologians of the Church, in virtue of his mas- 
 terly exposition and defence of the Nicene Theology, 
 the Augustinian Anthropology, and the Reformed Sote- 
 riology as announced in the Westminster Symbols, he 
 tried them by, and found their highest defence in their 
 harmony with, the teachings of the Sacred Scriptures ; 
 whose plenary inspiration, and absolute authority as the 
 infallible rule of faith and duty, he thoroughly believed 
 and distinctly taught. 
 
75 
 
 His Christian experience was profound and vivid. 
 Like his theological instruction, it was distinguished l)y 
 its scriptural character. As in the class-room and in his 
 writings, he expounded the written Word, in which he 
 implicitly believed; so in his life, he reproduced the 
 s[»irit of the living Word, in whom he trusted as his Re- 
 deemer, and whom he obeyed as his Lord. 
 
 To his personal character, formed by this Christian 
 experience, and manifested in his relations to the mem- 
 bers of this Board, we cannot refer, as we cannot recall 
 it, without profound gratitude to God that we were per- 
 mitted intimately to know him, and without a deep 
 sense of the incalculable loss that each of us has sus- 
 tained. His unsullied honor, his unbending integrity, 
 his large affection, his tender sympathy, and his fidelity 
 to every public and personal interest committed to his 
 keeping, endeared him, beyond adequate expression, to 
 all who knew him. 
 
 Lamenting our own loss, we mourn the loss of the 
 Church of Christ ; and we offer the expression of our 
 sympathy to those most deeply bereaved in his death. 
 
 " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord ; yea, 
 saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors ; 
 and their works do follow them." 
 
'^. 
 
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