UCSB LIBRARY 
 
 IN MEMORY 
 
 DKLITKBKD 
 
 Sunday, March 14, 187$) in the First (Presbyterian 
 Church, (Dayton, Ohio. 
 
 OF CINCINNATI. 
 
 rfv 6 "kv l xyo(; b Kaiopevog at (fraivw. John v. 35. 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 ULM STREET PRINTING COMPANY, 176 A 178 ELM STREET. 
 1875.
 
 AND is he gone, who brightly shone ? 
 
 Oh gloomy, gloomy night, 
 Here, left alone, we deeply moan 
 
 His lost lamented light ! 
 The Hero gone ? the Prophet, too ? 
 
 Why does he cease to cry ? 
 Oh, will not heaven the lamp renew ? 
 
 Say, did the Prophet die ?
 
 " And what shall I more say ? for the time would fail me to tell of 
 
 Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah ; David also, and 
 
 Samuel, and the prophets; who, through faith, subdued 
 
 kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, 
 
 stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence 
 
 of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of 
 
 weakness were made strong, waxed valiant 
 
 in fight, turned to flight the armies of 
 
 the aliens." Hebrews xi. 32-34. 
 
 CHOSEN to pronounce a commemorative address over 
 those whose valor had made them victims in the first 
 Peloponnesian war, and around whose public tomb 
 the cypress had begun to wave, Pericles thus spoke to 
 the assembled Athenians: " I deem it sufficient for 
 men who have approved their virtue in action, by ac- 
 tion to be honored for it. Difficult it is judiciously 
 to handle a subject where even probable truth may not 
 gain assent in the minds of those who, through envy 
 of deeds which are beyond their own. achievement, 
 pronounce all that is spoken to be exaggeration and 
 false. For the praises bestowed upon men are only to 
 be endured when others imagine they can do, them-
 
 4 
 
 selves, those feats they hear to have already been 
 done." 
 
 By such words did the great orator express his judg- 
 ment that " action," and not " oration," should si<r- 
 
 l i o 
 
 nalize the tribute of a people's gratitude to those 
 whose lives had been made an offering for the public 
 welfare and glory. By such words did he give pre- 
 cedence to the long-drawn and solemnly-moving pro- 
 cession, the measured step, the trailing spears, the 
 drooping standards, the sumptuous funeral-car empty 
 in memory of the slain, the torch-light, the banquet, 
 and proud material monument, rather than to lamenta- 
 tions of mourners, orations pronounced, and elegaic 
 honors to the dead. 
 
 Reversely to this Pagan conception does the relig- 
 ion of Jesus teach us, that all mere outward and ma- 
 terial demonstrations of regard for the meritorious 
 dead, are inferior to that better tribute which seeks to 
 perpetuate their virtues in lives conformed to their ex- 
 ample, and in the enforcement and commendation of 
 the principles by which their actions were inspired and 
 adorned. " The righteous shall be in everlasting- re- 
 
 o o 
 
 membrance." " The memory of the just is blessed." 
 " Remember them who have rule over you, who have 
 spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow ; 
 considering the end of their conversation, Jesus 
 Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." 
 " The teachers shall shine as the brightness of the 
 firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, 
 as the stars forever and ever." Better than material 
 monument of >oric strength or Corinthian beauty, 
 than sarcophagus or mausoleum, where lie the ashes of 
 the dead inurned with funeral pomp, is that sublime 
 chapter of inspiration from which the words of the
 
 text are taken. More than a Westminster Abbey, it 
 is a Temple of Eternal Fame, wherejn the names and 
 deeds of heroes of the taith are recorded, and a niche 
 left for the spiritual bust of every true successor in the 
 line of their valor. To this Temple of Remembrance, 
 built by the breath of the Holy Spirit, we come to- 
 day. Its portals we enter. Here would we place our 
 image, imperfect though it be, of him who was worthy, 
 on earth, to stand beside " the elders " who, ages 
 ago, " obtained a good report through faith," and 
 who, now in heaven, stands crowned in their ranks, 
 for ages to come, around the throne. * 
 
 I am directed to the text because it presents an ap- 
 propriate category wherein to class the name of one 
 who so long was your honored pastor, lent of God not 
 to you alone, but given to the whole Church, one who 
 so long was a hero of the faith, a true soldier of Christ. 
 ^Nor Gideon, nor Barak, nor Samson, nor Jephthah, 
 nor David, nor Samuel, nor the prophets, held in 
 higher regard the word of God, nor trusted with more 
 
 O O ' 
 
 unswerving fidelity to Him who had made it their 
 absolute guide. Here lay the secret of his life and 
 labors, trials and reproaches, courage, victories and 
 unmurmuring death. Let the name of Thomas Eben- 
 ezer Thomas be inscribed upon the same tablet with 
 the names of the judges, the prophets, the heroes, of 
 Israel. To him, as to them, it was given, in high 
 moral conflict, to subdue kingdoms, work righteous- 
 ness, obtain promises, stop the mouths of lions, quench 
 the violence of fire, escape the edge of the sword, out 
 of weakness become strong, wax valiant in fight, turn 
 to flight the armies of the aliens. 
 
 Shortly before his death it was my privilege, in 
 company with another, to whom he was attached, to
 
 6 
 
 visit him just when his strength began to wane, and 
 the tide of life to ebb slowly away. We found the 
 soldier, wounded on the battlement, calmly reposing 
 on his shield " the shield of faith." Buckled tight 
 to his head, and gleaming as ever, he still wore his 
 helmet " the helmet of salvation." Stretched oil his 
 shield, his hand supporting his weary head, his front 
 glittered all over with " the breastplate of righteous- 
 ness." Unsheathed by his side lay his well-tried 
 sword, tested in many a conflict " the sword of the 
 Spirit, which is the word of God." Armed, vap-a-pie, 
 with sandals on his feet, ready, faint as he was, either 
 to walk " in the way of peace," or, if needs be, shout 
 " the sword of the Lord and of "Gideon," he seemed a 
 very soldier, born and bred alike to the fortunes of 
 holy war and the experience of rest that comes from 
 victory. The pallor of his face and fading light in his 
 eyes foreboded that the joy of his Lord, his eternal 
 crown, was near. It was during the afternoon of Tues- 
 day, February 2d, the winds from the hills moaned over 
 'the city of Cincinnati " Dr. Thomas is dying! " Pleuro- 
 pneumonia was doing its fatal work. It was on the 
 following morning of February 3d, the same winds 
 moaned again, " Dr. Thomas is dead! " He had tall- 
 en asleep in Jesus. " And the voice said cry ! " And 
 I said, " What shall I cry ? " And it said, " All flesh 
 is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower 
 of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, 
 because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it ; surely 
 the people are grass ! The grass withereth, the flower 
 fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever ! " 
 " And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto 
 me, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord 
 from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they
 
 7 
 
 may rest from their labors; and their works do follow 
 them." 
 
 Doctor Thomas Ebenezer Thomas, eldest son of 
 Rev. Thomas Thomas and Elizabeth Robinson, was of 
 Welsh and English descent. The blood that flowed in 
 the veins of a Christmas Evans, a John Elias, and a 
 Howell Harris, gentle, fiery, chariot-like, and mount- 
 ing 1 , coursed in his own. The Puritan spirit that could 
 welcome either martyrdom or exile, for righteousness' 
 sake, and write a Smithfield, an Amsterdam, a Plym- 
 outh Rock, in its annals^ was his. He .was born in 
 Chelmsford, England, December 23, 1812. While yet 
 a child, but six years old, the decree of Him who led 
 Israel through the sea wafted him across the Atlantic 
 to find, in the ~New World, a theater of action for his 
 boyhood, his manhood, his maturer age. With his 
 parents he reached the shores of the United States, 
 and landed at Baltimore in the year 1818. Together 
 they journeyed to the city of Pittsburg, thence down 
 the Ohio to Cincinnati. Prepared for college by his 
 father, who himself was a graduate of Hoxton Col- 
 lege, London, and a minister of the Independent 
 Church, and whose "boarding-school*' in the Miami 
 country was the pride of its patrons, he was matricu- 
 lated in Miami University in the fall of 1829, then 
 under the supervision of President Bishop and Pro- 
 fessors McGuffey, Scott, and Armstrong, and was 
 graduated four years later, in the spring of 1834. 
 Among his classmates and intimate friends were Rev. 
 Dr. J. G. Monfort, Gov. Charles Anderson, Hon. W. 
 S. Groesbeck, and others of eminent distinction. 
 
 Impressive incidents of his college life are still vivid 
 in the memories of surviving companions. I pass by 
 his reputation in debate and proficiency in scholar-
 
 g 
 
 ship, to mention but two. T have it from the testi- 
 mony of an eminent servant of Christ, Dr. John M. 
 Stevenson, of New York, that during his college 
 course, Dr. Thomas fell into deep spiritual distiv^. 
 " For weeks he was the special subject of prayer on 
 the part of his pious fellow-students. He saw the 
 truth of God's justice, and the criminality of sin, but 
 could not see the infinite mercy of Christ as applied 
 to his own soul. His chosen friends among the stu- 
 dents prayed with him and for him, daily and nightly, 
 rising at midnight to walk away into the grove with 
 him to plead for the light of God's countenance." At 
 length it came ! " God brought him forth in the full 
 and joyful experience of his love in Christ Jesus. 
 From that time he became a bright, trustful, joyous, 
 exultant Christian." He made a profession of his 
 faith in Christ at Venice, Ohio, April 2, 1831, in the 
 twentieth year of his age. 
 
 Remarkable was his moral heroism, as a youth, and 
 his love of principle. Specially, as some yet remem- 
 , ber, did it shine in face of danger, during the dreadful 
 cholera scourge of 1833, when, resisting with a few 
 others, the recalcitrant vote of his fellow-students, 
 determined to abandon the University and seek refuge 
 in flight, he remained firm to the last amid the despair- 
 ing and the dying, thus supporting the hands of his 
 instructors and receivingtheir warmest encomiums. 
 
 He was licensed at Oxford, Ohio, October, 1836, tb 
 preach the gospel. He was ordained to his first pas- 
 torate at Harrison, July, 1837, the period of the divis- 
 ion of the Presbyterian Church into Old and New 
 School. He became the pastor of the church at Ham- 
 ilton, Ohio, in the fall of 1838. He was elected pres- 
 ident of Hanover College in 1849, receiving his Doc-
 
 9 
 
 torate from Wabash College in 1850, and resigned in 
 1854 to accept the Chair of Biblical Literature and 
 Exegesis in the New Albany Theological Seminary, 
 Indiana; increasing his burdens by discharging, also, 
 the duties of the Professorship of Church History, 
 and lecturing occasionally on Hermeneutics. A mem- 
 orable crisis, well known to the Church, was at hand. 
 The National Fugitive Slave Law had already been 
 passed, and the struggle of the South for domination 
 in the Church was intense as the battle for control 
 in the government was violent. In 1852 the two great 
 political parties of the country had pronounced the 
 Fugitive Slave Law a " finality." 
 
 General Assemblies and Halls of Congress echoed 
 to each other in fiery debate. In 1857 the nine West- 
 ern and Northwestern Synods, associated in the con- 
 duct of New Albany Seminary, removed it to Chi- 
 cago, Illinois, and in 1858 offered its control, as a 
 measure of peace and prosperity, to the General As- 
 sembly, expecting that the antislavery sentiment of 
 the Northwest would be regarded in any new organi- 
 zation of the institution the Assembly might make. 
 To evince the perfect sincerity of this offer, the argu- 
 ment then being that all Theological Seminaries should 
 be under Assembly control, directly and immediately, 
 Dr. Thomas and his distinguished colleague, Rev. E. D. 
 MacMaster, D. D., resigned their professorships. As 
 the reward of their magnanimity, both were laid aside 
 by the dominant Southern sentiment in the General 
 Assembly of 1859, met at Indianapolis. The civil war 
 was rapidly approaching. Meanwhile Dr. Thomas 
 remained in New Albany, as stated supply to the 
 Presbyterian Church in that place. In 1858 he was 
 called to the pastorate of the First Presbyterian
 
 10 - 
 
 Church, Dayton, Ohio, there to remain, in the provi- 
 dence of God, until the issues of the contest of three 
 generations had been solved in a nation's blood, and 
 the sundered branches of the Presbyterian Church re- 
 united. In 1871 he was elected to the Chair of New 
 Testament Greek and Exegesis, in Lane Theological 
 Seminary, supplying the pulpit, also, in the Broadway 
 Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, and the pulpit at 
 Walnut Hills, near the Seminary. In the fourth year 
 of his labors in Lane Seminary, a voice called to him 
 from above, " Well done, good and faithful servant ! " 
 " Come up hither ! v The silver cord was loosed, the 
 golden bowl was broken, the pitcher at the fountain, 
 the wheel at the cistern ! The dust returned to the 
 ea:th as it was, and the spirit to God who gave it. 
 
 "Welcome, the hour of full discharge, 
 That set his longing soul at large, 
 Unbound his chain, broke up his cell, 
 And gave him with his God to dwell." 
 
 The measure of Dr. Thomas' professional life may, 
 therefore, be thus divided: 1. Two years of academic 
 teaching at Rising Sun, Indiana, and Franklin, Ohio, 
 subsequent to his graduation and previous to his licen- 
 sure, i. e., from 1834 to 1836. 2. Five years of Presi- 
 dency in Hanover College, i. e., from 1849 to 1854. 3. 
 Twenty-seven years of active and successful pastoral 
 and pulpit work: in Harrison from 1836 to 1839 ; in 
 JIamilton from 1839 to 1849 ; in New Albany from 
 1857 to 1858; in Dayton from 1858 to 1871; be- 
 sides his pulpit labors in Cincinnati and at Walnut 
 Hills. 4. Seven years of devoted toil in the Profes- 
 sor's Chair, in New Albany, from 1857 to 1859, in Lane 
 Seminary from 1871 to 1875. In n\\ forty years of ac-
 
 11 
 
 tive Christian life, as a public instructor, in the school, 
 the college, the seminary, the pastorate ; training 1 the 
 faculties and molding the manners of the young, in- 
 stilling the principles of virtue and religion, proclaim- 
 ing the unsearchable riches of Christ, resisting man- 
 fully the encroaching and overspreading corruptions in 
 Church and State in their common subserviency to a 
 system of human oppression rich with the spoil of un- 
 numbered souls, thrilling the fibers of the human 
 frame with magnetic and matchless eloquence, in 
 Presbytery, Synod, and Assembly, from platform and 
 sacred desk alike, and pressing on to the goal, not 
 counting his life dear, determined that Christ should be 
 magnified in his body, whether by life or by death ! 
 
 As a man, physically, Dr. Thomas was of medium 
 stature, strong in constitution, solidly built, and of 
 fair complexion. His voice was feeble yet possessed 
 of unusual charm. On his shoulders he bore a " dome 
 of thought " seldom seen on the shoulders of men. 
 On the wall of that '"palace" fancy hung her pictures 
 wrought in colors of striking beauty, and high intel- 
 lectual lights threw T their splendor over the scene 
 within. He w T as clear in understanding, comprehensive 
 in grasp, quick and penetrating in perception. Affable 
 in manners, accessible and courteous, manly and dig- 
 nified, tender as a child, sympathetic and tearful, free, 
 frank, generous, firm when firmness was needed, play- 
 ful as a sportive jet from the fountain, mirthful with his 
 keen twinkling eye, sparkling with anecdote, wit and 
 humor, and chaste in every expression, he was one of the 
 most socially gifted, delightful, and companionable of 
 men. Enthusiastic in hospitality, who that knocked at 
 his door and felt the warm grasp of his hand could ever 
 forget that hearty welcome : " Come in, thou blessed
 
 12 
 
 of the Lord ; wherefore standest thou without ? " 
 Resolute in will and of tenacious purpose, forming- his 
 judgment without prejudice, yet amenable to persua- 
 sion and honest argument, uncompromising in princi- 
 ple, respectful and magnanimous to the last degree, a 
 man without the shadow of personal resentment or de- 
 sire of personal revenge, he was just such a friend as 
 the high-souled and noble among men delighted to 
 cultivate and honor. Ardent in temperament and im- 
 pulsive, because strung with the finest sensibilities of 
 soul added to quickness of natural perception, intense 
 in his moral convictions, delicate as a maid, yet brave 
 RK a lion and regardless of self, his soul sprang, as by 
 a single leap, to the side of the right, and triumphed 
 or fell with the cause it espoused. His courage re- 
 mained undaunted by misfortune. His confidence was 
 unbroken by adversity. His righteousness sustained 
 him. His presence was a tower of strength to any 
 cause. If, at times, the ardor of virtue betrayed him 
 into verbal indiscretions, which, in calmer moods, his 
 better judgment would have shunned, none read- 
 ier than he to ask forgiveness. He seemed born to 
 hate meanness, injustice, oppression, and insolent of- 
 fending. To malice his heart was a stranger. Secret 
 calumny found no arrows in his tongue with which to 
 shoot, privily, at his neighbor. Crawling circumven- 
 tion, sanctimonious and soft-footed intrigue, vainly 
 concealing the envy that bore murder in its purpose, 
 shrewd cunning, silent and sly, duplicity, stratagem, 
 plot, craft, trick, treachery, slander, and the hollow 
 smile of simulated friendship, the whole brood of moral 
 abominations, his manly soul abhorred. On all he 
 wrote "Anathema."
 
 13] 
 
 " From the loud roar of foaming calumny, 
 To the small whisper of the as paltry few, 
 And subtler venom of the reptile crew, 
 The Janus glance of whose significant eye, 
 Learning to lie with silence, would seem true, 
 And, without utterance, save the shrug or sigh, 
 Deal round to happy fools its speechless obloquy." 
 
 Better moral metal never was found in man. He 
 was the soul of honor, integrity and truth. 
 
 But these virtues of his character, bright as they were, 
 stood inferior to other adornments, whose luster out- 
 shone the gems that Aaron wore. Throughout the w^hole 
 wealth of his genius, lively or grave, morally stern or 
 socially flexible, spirituality and sanctity marked him 
 as their own. The cross of Christ had subdued him. The 
 Spirit ot Christ had anointed him. He had studied his 
 Master, as Harris in his " Great Teacher " had studied 
 Him. The contrast between himself and Christ was 
 vivid in his consciousness, and this made him humble. 
 At times an inward glance at Christ would check the 
 playfulness of his mood and tone him into saintly 
 thought fulness. To be like Christ this was his aim. 
 To battle with the corruptions of his sinful nature and 
 emerge victorious from the contest this was his in- 
 ward agony and prayer. To despair of self and find 
 strength and peace in looking alone to Christ this 
 was his daily experience^ It explained all his spirit- 
 ual states. He made one thing clear as sunshine the 
 fact that he had not one spiritual grace which did not 
 come to him through faith in Christ. He saw in 
 Christ all that he needed, and by looking, obtained it. 
 Christ's humility made him humble ; Christ's poverty, 
 patience, sanctity, tenderness, love and zeal, made him 
 poor, patient, saintly, tender, loving and zealous.
 
 14 
 
 Christ's intercession made him prayerful. What he 
 had of grace he received by " looking unto Jesus." 
 The Holy Spirit wrought through Christ, upon his 
 soul, and not outside of, nor apart from Christ. All 
 the spiritual light he ever enjoyed came, as he said, 
 " through Christ.' 7 Christ was the miracle, the mag- 
 net, the mystery of his life. 
 
 The piety of Dr. Thomas was not morbid. It was 
 fresh as the dew of Hermon, bright as the glow of the 
 morning. It was not self-generated. It came from 
 above. Fervor and exhilarating life were in it, a 
 power as when some new emotion kindles the soul for 
 the first time. The supernatural grafted itself upon 
 the natural, and yet the individuality of the man was 
 not lost in the sanctification of the saint. A quality 
 of tenderness, too, lull of persuasion and sweetness, 
 made it all the more precious. Trials had ministered, 
 through grace, to cast over it, at times, the tinge of 
 sadness. He had drank something of the cup his 
 Master drank; entered, in some measure, into the deep 
 mysteries of his Master's sufferings aild reproach. 
 Gethsemanes, Calvarys, and dark eclipses of the spirit, 
 though brief, visited him during the trying struggle of 
 practical obedience, in public life, to his Father's will. 
 No theme touched his pious affections more deeply 
 than the mention of his Master's name. The fountain 
 and the flame were close together in his heart, neither 
 to extinguish nor destroy the other, but the one to burn, 
 the other to bedew, and both to bless. Well do I re- 
 member, as one day we sat beneath the trees near his 
 study, the theme of our conversation was the " Re- 
 deemer's Tears." I asked him if ever he had noticed 
 Luther's beautiful version of the text " Jesus wept " 
 "the eyes of Jesus go over." He said nothing, but
 
 15 
 
 looking steadfastly in my face just as a river swells 
 to its banks, or the water to the goblet's brim, and 
 overflows, so did the moisture gather in his eyes, and 
 breaking over their lids, already too full to hold more, 
 ran down in pious streams upon his cheeks ! 
 
 His love for the word of Christ, not less than for his 
 Master, was remarkable. He panted for it as the hart 
 for the water-brooks ; cried for it as the hungering 
 sheep for the green meadows. Morning by morning 
 his Divine Shepherd wakened his ear to hear as the 
 learned. While yet his family were locked in slumber, 
 he would rise, and, opening the shutters to the dawn, 
 gaze with delight upon the dew-gemmed pastures of 
 the Hebrew Psalter he loved so well. Margin on mar- 
 gin, fly-leaves and covers, from beginning to end, two 
 copies of the Psalter in the original tongue, are mark- 
 ed with expressions of his affectionate pleasure and 
 care. At midnight, too, he would rise to record with 
 his pen the verses his whispering heart had indited. 
 Blessed man ! Planted by the river of water, fruit- 
 bearing not only in season, but out of season, his leaf 
 never withering ! And well did he know how to 
 minister consolation to the afflicted. The Lord God 
 had given him " the tongue of the learned that he 
 should know how to speak a word in season to him 
 that is weary." Sorrow found in him a comforter at her 
 couch, not less than did joy a guest at her banquet. The 
 humility that shone transparent through the vesture of 
 his strength was no mere natural modesty. It was the 
 feature of a spirit molded by Christ, penitent under a 
 sense of its own un worthiness, conscious of its eternal 
 indebtedness to the mercy and love of Jesus, chastened 
 by trials with which his Master had honored and tested 
 him, and confirmed by a felt need of it, " lest he should
 
 16 
 
 be exalted above measure by the abundance of the rev- 
 elations given to him." 
 
 Shall I speak of his faith ? From the hour it 
 pleased God to reveal his Son in him, and give him 
 victory over law and conscience, doubt, fear, and self- 
 condemnation, and bring him forth to the enlargement 
 of spiritual liberty, he was a buoyant, joyful, trustful 
 disciple. Simple, spirit-born, and unfaltering was this 
 bright particular star in the constellation of his graces. 
 It was in him a conviction deeper than granite founda- 
 tions, loftier than the firmament, outlasting the limits 
 of an earthly career. It was the faith of Gideon and 
 Barak, and Samson and Jephthah. Not Gibraltar, 
 impervious to attack, nor the rocky sides of Ehren- 
 breitstein, were to be compared to God in Christ, his 
 Strength, his Rock, his Fortress, his High Tower, his 
 Deliverer. It was, to him, an inwrought certain per- 
 suasion and assurance, an unshakable conviction and 
 clinching proof of the reality of things hoped for, 
 though yet unseen. Once, in company with a friend, 
 I asked him if, in his definition of faith, he agreed with 
 Calvin, that it is a " certain knowledge " in the soul that 
 God in Christ is propitious to me, and that Christ is 
 mine. He replied, " Faith is a conscious confidence 
 a cable -pistis. Since my first confidence in Christ, 
 having passed through great conflict, I have never en- 
 tertained a doubt of my interest in Him, nor of His in 
 me ! " How modestly he spake it ! " It is sinful," 
 said he, " to doubt. My spiritual state has often 
 troubled me, but I have never doubted Christ's inter- 
 est in me since I believed." To the question of Rev. 
 Dr. Skinner, " Dr. Thomas, to what do you attribute 
 this assurance of which you speak ? Is it to any spe- 
 cial revelation you have of Christ's love to you, or to
 
 17 
 
 any miraculous work of the' Spirit, different from what 
 others enjoy, or to any moods or frames of mind, or 
 sense of your own perfection, or anything whatever 
 you find in yourself ?" His answer was, " To nothing 
 of the kind. I attribute my assurance to Christ's 
 promise and to my confidence in Christ alone. They 
 are the same thing. Christ is a sure foundation. I 
 can't trust my frames. or my heart, but I can trust 
 Christ. Of course, faith is the Spirit's work, yet it is 
 I who believe." Such was his reply. Christ, in His 
 objective fullness, was his all. 
 
 A Christian moralist, he accepted the command- 
 ment of God as the ultimate rule for himself and for 
 others. He affirmed its empire over every passion, 
 every human interest and will. Duty to God and duty 
 to man were, in his view, the condition of all social, 
 civil and ecclesiastical progress, and the discharge of 
 it the essence of all virtue. He denied to any man 
 the right to set aside the precept of God, under any 
 pretense whatever, no matter how plausible. Theory 
 with him was practice. The wretched utilitarian 
 maxim of Paley, so common in our day " that what 
 is expedient is right ' so grounding our obligation to 
 speak and act, upon our own opinions and personal in- 
 clinations, interests and moods, he repudiated as trea- 
 son to God, as the overthrow of all morality, the 
 source of immeasurable moral corruption. As to the 
 mode of discharging what God requires, he admitted 
 room for diversity of view, but done must the duty be, 
 at all hazards and regardless of all consequences. 
 Righteousness must be asserted and maintained in 
 every relation of life, social, civil, religious, at what- 
 ever cost. The oily appeal to " the prudential 
 motive " that slips through all God's commandments,
 
 18 
 
 balances advantage against disadvantage, makes public 
 or private opinion the censor of the divine word, and 
 does obeisance to conscience only when civil statute 
 and sheriff are near to enforce obligation, or when in- 
 dividual and clique interests are promoted, the moral- 
 ity that winks at sin and the concealment of sin for 
 the sake of peace and prosperity and hope of God's 
 glory, and degrades conscience itself to a plaything 
 to be bartered and sold in the market, he scorned. Its 
 practice awoke the moral antagonism of his whole 
 soul. To his mind, Christian virtue was impossible 
 without Christian manliness and courage, because we 
 ourselves are sinful, and live in a world of sin. It 
 gave grandeur and power to all his private and public 
 acts. Whether in Church or State, in private or pub- 
 lic, the choice between a corrupt peace or a righteous 
 war was neither doubtful nor difficult. He had en- 
 listed under Christ whom, alone, he called " Master." 
 Injustice, oppression, perversion of God's truth, or 
 God's way, in any form, could not be where he dwelt, 
 and not hear his indignant protest, or receive his well- 
 delivered blow. In his catechism of right and wrong, 
 the high behests of Heaven were not human calcula- 
 tions of temporal profit and loss, inconvenience and 
 ease, but " the dictates of a lip divine," whose every 
 word is law. It was not merely the shame, but as 
 well the damage and personal demoralization, conse- 
 quent upon the violation of Christian morality, that 
 made it so odious in his sight. For, in the nobility of 
 his spirit, he judged that where the dignity of virtue 
 ceases to attract the praises of men, and compromises 
 and expediencies prevail to usurp divine rules when 
 conscience is strangled by the prescript of a truckling 
 neutrality, disgraceful as corrupting, then that which
 
 19 
 
 ennobles the Christian man and gives him royalty and 
 state among men, and praise with God, is forever lost. 
 The victory of the Christian soldier is betrayed. The 
 vision of virtue fades from the Christian conscious- 
 ness, Christian integrity has perished, and man, de- 
 spoiled of the enchantment that would guide his steps 
 through suffering indeed to glory, sinks to the level 
 of a base trimmer, venal to the highest bidder who pol- 
 lutes his hands with his purchase. The negative mo- 
 rality of neutrality and expediency becomes, whether 
 in personal or public relations, an Italian stab, an in- 
 direct assassination. 
 
 Not such were the models of Dr. Thomas. Careless 
 what men objected, if only God approved, and willing 
 to face the intrenched carnal expediency of the hour, the 
 ideals he placed before him as aids to inspire his pur- 
 pose were Socrates before the judges, Elijah before 
 Ahab, John the Baptist before Herod, Stephen before 
 the Sanhedrim, Paul before Felix and Agrippa, Luther 
 before Pope and Emperor. Such, also, were Knox be- 
 fore Mary, Melville before James, and, more than all, 
 his own Master before Caiaphas and Pilate ! If there 
 is any one trait of character in which he, to whose 
 memory we bring this tribute to-day, looms in honor 
 before the Church and the nation, it is the grandeur of 
 his moral integrity. To every servant of fear, advis- 
 ing retreat from the presence of danger, his answer 
 was, " Go tell thy Lord, BehoU Elijah is here ! " or 
 " Go tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and do 
 cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day 1 shall 
 be perfected." 
 
 In all that enters into the institution of a Christian 
 scholar, Dr. Thomas was eminent and accomplished. 
 This testimony is confirmed by all his pupils and
 
 20' 
 
 friends, not a few of whom occupy eminent positions 
 in Church and State to-day. During his curriculum, 
 he excelled as a student and gave promise of coming 
 distinction. His love of study remained to the last. 
 To history, biography, poetry, botany, geology, eth- 
 nology and entomology, he gave attention as his more 
 pressing duties permitted. He was a library in him- 
 self. Shelves were in his capacious memory, laden 
 with volumes of solid learning, the lore of ancient and 
 modern times; cabinets, too, of scientific treasure. 
 .English and American, as well as Greek and Roman 
 classics, were there, antiquarian research, the best 
 criticism of the age in his own department, ethics and 
 theology all to enjoy and use for the benefit of his 
 fellow-man. His choice, however, was the study of 
 language and the interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures. 
 He had seen, in early life, over the thorns of his crucified 
 Master, an inscription written in characters of "Hebrew, 
 Greek and Latin." These consecrated tongues he made 
 -his own. JSTot less a Protestant than Christian, he be- 
 lieved, as Luther did, that "it is a part of religion to 
 learn and teach Hebrew and Greek." The Reforma- 
 tion, he "contended, rested on that fact, and he was the 
 sworn foe of Popery, .No number of modern lan- 
 guages, however useful or admired, could justify, in 
 his view, the neglect of Hebrew and Greek. The 
 " Magna Charta of Christianity and the Church," he 
 said, " is in them." The tongues of Paris and Berlin 
 are not so much as to be compared with those of Ath- 
 ens, Jerusalem and Rome. Enthusiastic in the clas- 
 sics, he viewed them as the best basis of the best cul- 
 ture, better than discipline in any or all the natural 
 sciences together. The Latin he could speak and 
 write with ease. He preferred the Greek. By the
 
 21 
 
 study of their faultless models, his naturally gifted and 
 susceptible mind became trained to that discrimination 
 of thought, crystal clearness and perfection of style, 
 exquisite taste, beauty of illustration, elegance, direct- 
 ness and force of expression, which characterized his 
 own. How deeply he drank of the " Pierian Spring!" 
 How often the allusion adorned his diction ! How fre- 
 quently, even in religious discussions, his speech was 
 graced with sentiments drawn directly from the clas- 
 sic fountains ! another insatnce that sacred eloquence 
 and prayer alike have flowed from lips 
 
 " Wet with Castalian dews ! " 
 
 He was even more devoted to Hebrew than* Greek. 
 He understood perfectly the genius and laws of the 
 language. He loved it, moreover, chiefly because of its 
 contents. He could repeat Psalms and sections of the 
 Prophets without difficulty. It was not for mere liter- 
 ary amusment, however, he loved the study of the lan- 
 guages. A nobler motive spurred him to their diligent 
 pursuit. It was to be able to reach with certainty, for 
 himself, the heart of divine truth; to "open and pass 
 through " the nearest doors to the mind of the "Spirit;" 
 to be able to serve God with his best powers, and to 
 sow seed for eternal life. His last effort was a re- 
 translation of the celebrated epistle to Diognetus, and 
 an argument built thereupon to prove in opposition to 
 modern infidel schools of criticism,' how deeply the 
 very words of the gospels had sunk into the hearts of 
 the Christian Church in the beginning of the second 
 century. 
 
 As a theologian, Dr. Thomas was Calvinistic to the 
 core. He was familiar with some of the Church 
 fathers and with the great Calvinistic divines of the
 
 22 
 
 Reformation* He had studied Calvin and Beza, Van 
 Mark and DeMoor, Witsius and Martyr, Tnrrd tin 
 and Stapler. His favorites among the English thco- 
 gians were Flavel and Baxter, Howe, Owen and Bates, 
 Man ton and Charnock. Liberal in spirit, because lov- 
 ing the truth in its fullness, overleaping the boundaries 
 of his own denomination in his Christian regards, and 
 unfettered by extremes of whatever school, he had no 
 sympathy with those who, ever professing to be ortho- 
 dox, are yet ever complaining oi the difficulties of 
 their creed, and sighing for theological nurses to spoon 
 out "milk" to babes rather than for well instructed 
 scribes to divide " strong meat " to men. Creed- 
 tinkerers he regarded as superficial and incompetent. 
 He loved the Gideons and Baraks in theology, an 
 Athanasius, an Augustine, a Luther, a Calvin, who 
 had " earnestly contended for the faith once delivered 
 to the saints." If the Church creed had, in any de- 
 gree, become what some would call a " dead ortho- 
 doxy," it was not the fault of the creed, but of the 
 "men who professed it for the glory of its historic 
 name, and yet preferred to it some new, unhistoric, and 
 piebald actualism, unlike any compound ever put up 
 before! Upon this point his mind was precisely ex- 
 pressed by the celebrated Dr. Chalmers in a quotation 
 which, years ago, he told me John Angel 1 James had 
 inserted in his " Earnest Ministry." I have not only 
 no reason to believe that Dr. Thomas ever changed his 
 opinion in this respect, but positive reasons to the con- 
 trary. The quotation is from a publication of Dr. 
 Chalmers, about the time of the disruption of the 
 Scotch Establishment and organization of the Free 
 Church: " We do not need to take down the frame- 
 work of our existing orthodoxy. All we require is that
 
 23 
 
 it shall become an animated frame-work, by the breath 
 of a new life infused into it. What we want is that the 
 very system of doctrine, we now have, shall come to 
 us, not in word only but in power. Prayer can bring 
 this about." Dr. Thomas learned his theological sys- 
 tem, however, not from text-books or scholastic man- 
 uals, although he was an able theologian, and the com- 
 panion of the greatest theologian in the West, but 
 from the Bible alone. Here was his forte. Interrogated 
 once in the following manner: "Dr. Thomas, where 
 did you get your theology ? " he responded, " T 
 found it in the Bible." " I meant," said the interroga- 
 tor, " who was your theological teacher ? " " My chief 
 theological preceptor," said he, "was Professor Paul, 
 who was brought up at the feet of Professor Gamaliel, 
 and my judgment is that he was a better teacher than 
 his master." " Ah, yes ! " replied the interrogator, 
 " but I was inquiring in what seminary you were 
 trained ? " " I never saw a theological seminary," an- 
 swered Dr. Thomas, " until after I was ordained." It 
 was not that he undervalued seminary instruction, but 
 only that Providence had prepared him for the ministry 
 without it. But he had done what few do in the course 
 of that preparation. He had passed into the heart of 
 the sacred originals. He had made himself a first- 
 class competent judge of Bible doctrine, able for him- 
 self to tell what system is true, what system is false. 
 The form of doctrine he adopted was eminently bibli- 
 cal, and the spirit of that form was, to his mind, ex- 
 pressed as well in the Calvinistic symbols as it could 
 be. He was no innovator. In the language of his 
 colleague, Professor Evans, of Lane Seminary, " The 
 Bible was to him, in a very earnest sense, his supreme 
 and sole authority in faith and practice." Catholic in
 
 24 
 
 hie creed as could any one be who is evangelical, he 
 was yet conservative of the old dogmatic truths. 
 Scripture for him was not a quarry where every man 
 might chip and square the stones to suit the necessi- 
 ties of some preconceived theory of his own, but a de- 
 posit of sacred truth, already fitted, stone to stone, for 
 the heavenly temple, yet scattered about in different 
 places, without system, and for the wisest purposes. 
 The utmost any system could do, in his judgment, is 
 to approximate the complete conception of the relation 
 and harmony of the different parts in the temple of 
 inspired truth, not fully to compass them. And yet, 
 as between the two great opposing systems of theology 
 which have perpetuated the conflict of ages the one 
 starting with the principle of divine agency and con- 
 tinuing with it throughout, operating in man the initial 
 as well as continuous and final work of grace, and the 
 other, starting with the principle of human agency and 
 only introducing the divine as supplementary and 
 synergistic, so making the work of grace conditioned 
 , on human co-operation he declared, unhesitatingly, 
 for the former. He held it to be the only true, only 
 possible and non-contradictory conception of grace, 
 in the very n tture of the case, one postulate being 
 admitted, viz: the "death in sin" of the whole 
 human race. Of this " death in sin " and utter spirit- 
 ual ruin, God had given him deep personal experience, 
 and on the other hand a triumphant confidence in the 
 salvation that is in Christ. He repudiated the conclu- 
 sion that because Scripture propositions are not formu- 
 lated in an ecclesiastical creed, therefore they are not 
 dogmatic. He affirmed them to be more dogmatic 
 than any creed could make them and of higher author- 
 ity. Creeds he admitted. They were to him mensurce
 
 25 
 
 mensuratcB rules ruled but the Bible mensura men- 
 surans, the rule ruling. His genius gave him a predi- 
 lection for the grandeur of. divine mysteries. To 
 destroy these, by foolish explanations, is to rifle the 
 Bible of the signs the most elementary of its origin. 
 Mountain, ocean, and mine, were the playthings of his 
 childhood. He was ready to confess that God had 
 made him, and not he God. He had sense enough to 
 admit that the music of the ocean is impossible with- 
 out its depths, the flowers of earth without its rock- 
 ribbed foundations, the glitter of the firmament with- 
 out immensity behind it. And so did he say that the 
 simplest truths of the Bible are impossible without the 
 underlying deep things in the dazzling abyss of His 
 bosom to whom DO man has ever been counselor. He 
 remembered " God answered Job out of a whirlwind " 
 and scattered his puny objections to the mysteries of 
 the divine administration, as chaff is scattered before 
 the tempest, by a simple reference, in the physical do- 
 main, to the mysteries of Arcturus and Mazzaroth, 
 Pleiades and Orion, Behemoth, " who moveth his tail 
 like a cedar," and Leviathan, " who maketh the deep 
 to boil as a pot." He loved Paul's ejaculation, " O 
 the depths!" and said amen to Calvin's motto, "Let 
 God be true and every man a liar.' 
 
 If the consistent voice of pupils, colleagues, direc- 
 tors, and those who best knew him, is of value, Dr. 
 Thomas stood second to none as a teacher in the Pres- 
 byterian Church, or in the nation. The rich furniture 
 of his mind, the sharpness of his intuition, his power 
 of induction and deduction, his logical precision and 
 comprehensive grasp, his exhaustive treatment and. 
 ability to impart instruction to others, ranked him as 
 an educator of the first degree. He exercised a stimu-
 
 26 
 
 lating T effect on the minds of his students. As Presi- 
 dent, he commanded respect and obedience, as Profes- 
 sor, an attachment that was simply romantic. The 
 chair of instruction was his throne. ~No clod, cold and 
 lifeless, was there, burdened by a sense of its own 
 importance, while he sat in it. The scholar was smit- 
 ten with the enthusiasm of the master, the pupil with 
 the charm of the teacher. He connected every student 
 with himself by wires of his own battery, and a mag- 
 netic stream of sympathy ran tingling through them 
 all. Sometimes a shock and a flash might indeed wake 
 the disciple to a sense of his responsibilities, but not 
 oftener than beads of dew might be seen in the Mas- 
 ter's eyes. Only the genius of an adept in the art 
 could guide the steps of the learner, without weariness, 
 through intricate processes of argument and exposition. 
 " As a teacher," says Dr. Scovel, of Pittsburg, who 
 sat at his feet for seven years, " he was unsurpassed. In 
 the quiet summer afternoons, during his presidency, 
 with the audience of young men seated solidly in front 
 of him, with Robinson's Greek Harmony in his hand, 
 and a section of the Life of Christ under review, I 
 have known him to hold the students and the audience 
 an hour and a half, and leave them hungering for 
 more. He could not but be fervent, who thought so 
 clearly and felt so deeply." Says the Rev. Dr. Steven- 
 son, of New York, "His love for truth was conspicu- 
 ous and unvarying, his enthusiasm and skill in impart- 
 ing to his students, whether collegiate or theological, 
 his wealth of knowledge, were equaled only by his 
 ability to set them upon independent lines of study for 
 themselves. In all these respects he stood peer to the 
 unsurpassed Dr. E. D. MacMaster, his 'dearly loved 
 associate and brother in !New Albany Seminary." It
 
 27 
 
 is the affirmation of one of the most judicious among 
 the students of Lane Seminary, " There is not a young 
 man in the Seminary who would not prefer losing his 
 dinner r.ither than one of Dr. Thomas' lectures." If 
 love of truth and hatred of all superficiality if skill 
 to attach and lift the meanest intellect to unexpected 
 heights, and animate it with the apprehension of hope 
 if success in rousing the mind from indolent and 
 passive sequacity to independent and active advance, 
 and inspiring it with confidence of its own attempts if 
 to blend the severe and the tender, authority with affec- 
 tion, the sparkle of wit with sober demeanor, insuring 
 obedience, respect, proficiency, and love if to infuse 
 the life of his pupils with Christian manliness, integrity 
 of purpose, nobility of character, and the spirit of a 
 lofty aim if, above all, to fix in their souls that Christ, 
 and Christ alone, is the only object worth living for 
 if these things are the marks of a prince among teach- 
 ers, then he who has gone to gaze on the face of the 
 'Great Teacher" forever, has rleft none behind to 
 dispute his eminence in the qualifications we have 
 named. Hundreds of young men, both in and out of 
 the Presbyterian Church, are the fruit of his faithful 
 labors and prayers, some of whom have gone peace- 
 fully to their rest, or "fallen asleep " fighting for their 
 country on the ensanguined field. 
 
 Shall I speak of him as a preacher and pastor? How 
 imperfect must be my poor utterance in presence of 
 you who, for thirteen years, listened with delight to 
 his instructions and were the objects of his spiritual 
 care! The Christian pastorate was to him an awful 
 function. Its honor scarce compensated for its solemn 
 responsibility. He regarded it as more noble than the 
 Aaronic priesthood. God, eternity, man, sin^and salva^
 
 28 
 
 tion, are its themes. Yet nature and grace alike had 
 qualified him for the pulpit and given him that com- 
 bination of endowments, richness of knowledge and 
 spiritual unction, which contributed so highly to the 
 life and vigor of his discourse. He stood, the ornament 
 of the sacred desk. Notwithstanding the feebleness 
 of his voice, 
 
 He had Elijah's dignity of tone, 
 And all the love of the heloved John. 
 
 " He was a burning and shining light." He shone 
 with no doubtful splendor. Sensationalism and me- 
 chanical revivalism found in him no support. The light 
 he brought to the pulpit was no fancy blue and green, no 
 gaslight, nor torchlight, nor tallow flame, but heaven's 
 own sunlight, unclouded, brilliant and pure. It was 
 " Christ, the Light of the World," he held up before 
 blinded men. If he scorched the Pharisees, as did 
 John the Baptist and the Master himself, it was not a 
 hissing rocket he let off, no display of Greek fire, but 
 the focal concentration, ''in the spirit and power of 
 Blias," of the truth of God, through the Scripture lens, 
 that made the conscience smoke and burn. And yet 
 who more tender? Who more tearful, in or out of the 
 pulpit? Was it not the stern Baptist who said, " Be- 
 hold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of 
 the world?" Was it not Jesus who wept on Olivet 
 after the thunder of his denunciations had reverberated 
 in the temple? Even such was the case with our 
 departed. His felicity in expounding the text or chap- 
 ter, as the case might be, his exhaustive analysis and 
 presentation of the most difficult passages so clearly 
 that the simplest intellect might understand as well as 
 the profoundest admire, checked not the flow of his
 
 29 
 
 tenderest emotions, nor the outburst of his sanctified 
 fire. Where will you find a tongue more persuasive? 
 Who that heard his exposition of the psalm, " My God, 
 my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" or his sermon 
 on the text, " The love of Christ constraineth us," or 
 hundreds of others of pathetic appeal, can ever forget 
 the warm glow and the streaming tenderness of his 
 address? It was in the heat of one of the most violent 
 political contests ever known, that during a meeting 
 of the Synod of Cincinnati, one of his strongest oppo- 
 nents, now with him in glory, a man eminent on the 
 bench, heard him preach the sacramental sermon before 
 the Synod. With tears running down his cheeks, he 
 approached, at the close, to grasp the hand of the 
 preacher he had never grasped before, and said, with 
 faltering voice, "Dr. Thomas, we are one forever!" 
 O blessed, blessed Spirit, who thus endowedst thy ser- 
 vant to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, and 
 break through the barriers of the strongest prejudice! 
 And you, who have marked his pathos and communion 
 with God, on sacramental occasions, when now he 
 would gather you around the cross, and now would lead 
 you to the mount of transfiguration, where his devo- 
 tions overflowed, how can you forget his tenderness 
 and love! As one has well said, what "a fragrant 
 blossoming of study, thought, experience, and glowing 
 love to God and man!" None realized more than he, as 
 he moved among you, his own insufficiency. He knew 
 that only the power that cleaves the sea and breaks 
 the rocks could convert a soul and knowing this, how 
 often he spake as a dying man to dying men, and 
 prayed how fervently! All pomp and affectation he 
 abhorred. His aim was not self-presentation, but the 
 presentation of Christ, the conversion and edification
 
 30 
 
 of souls, and the Christian walk and life of his people. 
 Here, to this flock, for thirteen years he preached, 
 
 In language plain, 
 
 And plain in manner, decent, solemn, chaste, 
 And natural in gesture ; much impressed 
 Himself, as conscious of his awful charge 
 And anxious, mainly, that the flock he fed 
 Might feel it too. Affectionate in look, 
 Aud tender in address, as well becomes 
 A messenger of grace to guilty men. 
 
 Eloquence to him was only a vehicle by which, not 
 shunning to declare the whole counsel of God, he be- 
 sought, persuaded, entreated, and prayed men to be 
 reconciled to God. His human models were a New- 
 ton, a Cecil, a Baxter, a Bunyan, a Whitfield, an Evans, 
 a Harris, a Flavel and McCheyne but, more than all, 
 he drew his inspiration from a Paul and John, and 
 most from the Master himself. Everywhere, at Harri- 
 son, Hamilton, New Albany, Dayton, Cincinnati and 
 Walnut Hills, he was held in the admiration, reverence 
 and love of his people. The fruit of his ministry was 
 extensive and precious. Eternity alone will reveal 
 the number of souls to whom it was a blessing-. 
 
 o 
 
 This magnificent edifice, erected to the worship of 
 God by your beneficence and his unwearied persistence 
 and resolution, stands a monument of his indomitable 
 enthusiam, public spirit, and pastoral zeal. He was the 
 last man on earth to put God off with mean things. 
 Like the sainted Dr. Edward Andrews, of Wai worth, 
 England, he could answer every objector by the short 
 argument, " God, my boy, should be worshiped with 
 the very best of everything best architecture, best 
 painting, best organ, best music, best singing, best 
 poetry, best preaching, best genius, best people. He
 
 gave us Jesus, the best he had to give. Shall we not 
 give him our best in return?" 
 
 Dr. Thomas was an orator without a superior in the 
 Presbyterian Church, and unsurpassed outside of it. 
 Had he possessed the voice some men possess, a 
 world-wide fame had been his. But oratory consists 
 neither of declamation, nor artistic elocution, nor vocal 
 force. The throat of a Stentor could not make it, nor 
 could all the arts of a mere rhetorical accomplishment 
 create it. But if a worthy cause, a virtuous character, 
 a clear conception outrunning tedious deduction, a 
 noble end, sympathy with righteousness, and forget- 
 fulness of self; if logical precision kindling into in- 
 tense emotion, truthful utterance, amplitude of illus- 
 tration and beauty of diction; if force of imagination, 
 tact of approach, readiness of anecdote and wit, dig- 
 nity -md deliberation, relieved by fervor and grace of 
 bodily action and gesture, with emphasis always in the 
 right place if these are the essentials of an orator, 
 then Dr. Thomas was second to none in the whole land. 
 We judge, by the rule of Cicero, that eloquence is sim- 
 ply "Wisdom speaking fluently," or by the rule of 
 Quintilian, that three things mark the orator, " He 
 instructs, he moves, he delights;" or by the rule of 
 Augustine, " Matters of small moment are to be spoken 
 lowly, those of ordinary importance temperately, 
 and great things grandly and fluently;" or by the 
 rule of the gifted Fenelon, "The orator speaks 
 naturally; bespeaks not as a declaimer; things flow 
 from the fountain; his utterances are living and full 
 oi movement. The heat that animates him gives birth 
 to expressions and figures he could never have fash- 
 ioned in his study." And judged by such canons as 
 these from the writings of men who have given orator-
 
 32 
 
 ical law to the world, Dr. Thomas deserved a place be- 
 side the best orators of ancient or modern times. Dif- 
 ficult at times to hear his voice, yet, when roused to 
 its clear strength and impelled by the ardor that bore 
 him along, unconscious of his power, his accents 
 streamed through the souls of men as magnetic cur- 
 rents stream, and flamed as the lightning flames! It 
 was not literally true that he made " each particular 
 hair stand on end." It was, however, true, that at 
 times, not a few of the vast audience thought so. 
 Concluded every fiber trembling with emotion he sat 
 down amid the applauses of an enraptured audience 
 whose pulses throbbed high with excitement, and 
 whose unrestrained admiration of the speaker broke 
 out in redoubling, and, one would think, unending 
 demonstrations. He had the fire of Demosthenes, the 
 diction of Tully. Like the elder Scaliger, he touched 
 nothing he did not adorn " nil tetigit quod non 
 ornavit." He was greater than Spurgeon, greater than 
 Gumming, greater than Parsons or Monod, in the 
 breadth of his accomplishments, in the loftiness of his 
 intellect, in the brilliancy of his genius, in the impas- 
 sioned outbursts of his sympathies, in the eloquence 
 of his tongue. In his best moods, Patrick Henry and 
 Chatham would have been proud of him. It affords 
 me great pleasure to repeat to you here the tes- 
 timony of one of your own journals, in support 
 of this tribute to his oratorical powers. Speaking 
 of your loved pastor, it said: "During his res- 
 idence in Dayton his influence on all great public 
 occasions was invoked, and he always gave to 
 any cause with which he co-operated great strength, 
 and that which he opposed was apt to break down un- 
 der his frown. Whatever he touched with his golden
 
 33 
 
 speech blazed with beauty. His delivery was fiery and 
 impassioned, though very graceful. His language, 
 which flowed from his eloquent lips in a limpid, un- 
 broken volume, always seemed to fit the place into 
 which it fell, as exactly as if he had deliberately 
 measured and calculated all the proportions and con- 
 ditions. He knew by intuition exactly what to say on 
 most occasions, and precisely how to say it the most 
 effectively. As an Englishman would say, he knew 
 wonderfully well how to ' put things.' Logic and 
 fancy seemed so admirably balanced in his mind that 
 you were apt to consider his speeches perfect. Among 
 the notable speeches of his life, in DaytonJ, were his 
 splendid Thanksgiving Sermon, in 1863, when he chose 
 *the Feast of Purim, described in Esther, for his text, 
 and his thrilling half-hour speech in the Court House on 
 the day of the assassination of President Lincoln an 
 involuntary burst of eloquence that never was exceeded 
 by any orator." Dayton Journal, February 4, 1875. 
 
 The criticism is just. Search the denominations 
 where you will, go to the State Legislatures or your halls 
 of Congress, the peer of Dr. Thomas as an orator is 
 scarcely to be found. Dayton has a right to be proud of 
 him. The Church is proud of him. In vain in vain 
 will this people and this community seek to fill his place. 
 It can not be filled! Chrysostom had the-golden mouth, 
 Augustine the flaming heart, Calvin the conception and 
 conviction of moral righteousness our brother, gone 
 to glory, had them all! 
 
 I should be guilty of injustice to the rare gifts 
 with which God endowed our departed brother, did I 
 not mention among them his poetic talent. Could a 
 heart so warm, a taste so exquisite, a sense of harmony 
 and love of music so strong, a facility of expression,
 
 34 
 
 genius, and imagination, such as he had, fail to utter 
 themselves at times in verse? Impossible! Many are 
 his productions of this kind, and of the first literary 
 merit. It will be a great loss, if these, in company with 
 his lectures, orations, and sermons, are not given 
 to the Church in whose bosom he sparkled as a gem. 
 His lyrics prove him worthy of the bays that twined 
 around the brows of Montgomery and Watts, Cowper 
 and Newton, Wesley and McCheyne. Chiefly did he 
 delight to paraphrase some portions of the lively 
 oracles, directly from the original, warlike or peaceful, 
 as his mood might suggest. Judge for yourselves, as 
 I read his beautiful version of Psalm xxiii., whether 
 the strains of our Barak, sung during the intervals^ 
 and near the close, of his long conflict, shall be allowed 
 to sleep ill oblivion: 
 
 Jesus, Jehovah Savior, stands, 
 
 Shepherd and Bishop of my soul ; 
 His thoughtful love, his mighty hands, 
 
 My wants supply, my foes control. 
 
 In shady meadows, fresh and green, 
 
 Where sofdy purling water flows, 
 While noonday showers her arrows' sheen, 
 
 He grants me a divine repose. 
 
 , Whene'er I wander from the fold, 
 
 With patient toil he seeks for me, 
 In deserts drear, or mountains cold, 
 And sets my soul at liberty. 
 
 To prove his tender shepherd care, 
 
 And guard me that no more I stray, 
 With hands of love and holy fear 
 
 He leads me, in his own right way. 
 
 What though it run through death's dark vale, 
 
 I walk whatever may betide, 
 Though hellish shapes and sounds assail 
 
 Walk, tearless, at my Shepherd's side.
 
 35 
 
 Mid envious and malignant foes, 
 
 Thou dost my table daily spread; 
 My cup with blessings overflows, 
 
 And holy joy anoints my head. 
 
 Kind Shepherd Savior! all my days 
 
 Goodness and grace will follow me; 
 Safe in thy house I'll sing thy praise, 
 
 And, lamb-like, I will follow thee ! 
 
 Yet once more, listen to his muse, as it breathed 
 JEollan tones, a token already that his spirit was 
 pluming- its wings to " fly and find rest." The poem 
 was composed the night after his last eloquent speech 
 before the Presbyterian Ministers' Association in Cin- 
 cinnati, wherein he protested so earnestly against the 
 encouragement of public excitements, and the advo- 
 cacy of innovations in the doctrine and order of the 
 Church, which seemed to him destructive of its very 
 foundations. Debates prevailed as to fundamental 
 theological truth, the emendation of the Standards, 
 the authority of the common faith of the Church, the 
 encroachment of a female ministry, the permanent of- 
 ficial tenure of the active eldership, an irresponsible 
 unlicensed ministry, and fanatical measures of moral 
 reform. He looked around him and all was stormy. 
 The world was agitated. He looked to the Church, 
 and beheld murmuring and division arising 1 , notwith- 
 standing boasted external reunion and promised peace. 
 He looked within at his own soul, and still the 
 struggle with sin went on. He turned, as the minstrel 
 of Israel turned, to Him who pities the suppliant, and 
 hears the suppliant's moan. He sighed for rest. He 
 prayed : 
 
 O Father of mercies, of holiness, harmony, peace ! 
 
 From a world of apostasy, sorely by Satan opprest, 
 Despairing, I lift up mine eyes to the kingdom of bliss ; 
 
 give me the wings of a dove ! I would fly and find rest.
 
 36 
 
 From the waters of Noah the wanderer turned to the ark, 
 
 And pleadingly knocked at the window with fluttering breast; 
 
 So might I, too, escape from a lite sea so dreary and dark 
 give nie the wings of a dove ! I would fly and find rest. 
 
 An ocean, tempestuous, swept by the wild winds of heaven, 
 
 Shadowed forth to the prophet earth's fierce population unblest; 
 
 The tempest still rages, the sea to its center is riven ; 
 
 give me the wings of a dove ! I would fly and find rest. 
 
 The group of Laocoon, tjpe of humanity stands, 
 
 Sin and death, twin constrictors, rear high their cerulean crest 
 
 O'er father and children, begirt by their horrible bands ; 
 give me the wings of a dove ! I would fly and find rest. 
 
 Thy Church, blessed Lord, once a kingdom of love, joy, and peace, 
 Distracted, discordant, by faction and folly possessed, 
 
 No solace supplies to the spirit that sigheth for ease ; 
 
 give me the wings of a dove ! I would fly and find rest. 
 
 Coming home to my heart, to the kingdom of heaven within, 
 By native depravity, open transgression, distressed, 
 
 Crest-fallen, I cry, in this life and death struggle with sin, 
 O give me the wings of a dove ! I would fly and find rest. 
 
 But, patience, my spirit ! thy service and discipline o'er, 
 Borne upward by angels to dwell in the realms of the blest, 
 
 This wail of the sin-stricken soul thou shalt utter no more : 
 " give me the wings of a dove !" Thou shalt-ftj and find rest. 
 
 What shall I say in praise of this perfect produc- 
 tion? Palmam, qui meruit, ferat ! " Let him, who has 
 deserved it, bear the palm!" Our Barak could not 
 only sweep the strings of a David, but play as sweetly 
 on a harp of his own. 
 
 The times in which Dr. Thomas lived, taken to- 
 gether, were an epoch-making period in the history of 
 the Church and the nation. The influence of the 
 mighty revival movement, during the close of the last 
 century and the beginning of the present, was felt
 
 37 
 
 throughout that whole generation in which, as a young 
 *man, he began his career. He was himself part of the 
 golden fruit sprung from those precious outpourings of 
 the Spirit of God, when such men as Spring and Skin- 
 ner, Griffin and McDowell, Barnes, Brainerd, Jane way 
 and Kevins, Tyng, Fuller, Wilson, Plumer, Breckin- 
 ridge, Duffield, Baker and Mcllvaine, were proclaim- 
 ing the gospel from hearts fired with zeal for the sal- 
 vation of souls, and building up the American Church 
 which now overshadows the land from north to south 
 and from east to west. In those days the house of 
 God was made awful by reason of the presence of the 
 Lord. Revival was the rule, indifference the excep- 
 tion. Hundreds and thousands were gathered into the 
 gospel net during those times. Convicted sinners, 
 pricked in their hearts, used to rise in the sanctuary, 
 hundreds at once, and stand for the prayers of God's 
 people. Undreamed of wonders were beheld through 
 the opened windows of heaven, the showers coming 
 down not only in their season, but continuing to water 
 the hill of Zion, and make the places round about a 
 blessing. 
 
 But while God prepares His Church for blessing, 
 and imparts the same, Satan ever seeks to counteract 
 it, in some measure, by the folly of men. It was so, 
 especially, in the times to which we refer. Enthusiasts 
 took occasion from the presence of high religious fer- 
 vor to make human feelings and excitements, apart 
 from the divine word, the standards and rules of 
 human duty. Providence, fancied light in the mind, 
 and religious impressions, together with a zeal for 
 God not according to knowledge, were practically 
 co-ordinated with the revealed word of God, as suf-
 
 38 
 
 ficient guides for Christian action. New measures, 
 unsupported by scriptural warrant, were introduced 
 into many of the churches, giving rise to contentions 
 both in doctrine and order. The natural ability of lost 
 man began to be magnified in reaction against the true 
 conception of the sovereignty of divine grace. Preach- 
 ers, too, self-sent, and self-authorized, began to roam 
 abroad, assuming an authoritative proclamation of the 
 gospel, without responsibility for their teaching or 
 their manners, to any spiritual court. From public 
 halls they passed, at last, into the churches. The au- 
 thorized ministry itself, influenced by the spreading 
 leaven, gave countenance to the encroachment of dis- 
 order. The result is too well known. The Presby- 
 terian Church was divided. Yet this was not all 
 that entered into the history of that result. Side 
 by side with the religious movement of the times, 
 strange as it may seem, a grievous departure in 
 the Church from the old sentiment of the fathers, in 
 reference to the perpetuation of domestic slavery, took 
 place. With this change of sentiment the period of 
 violent pro-slavery and anti-slavery agitation com- 
 menced. The political affected the ecclesiastical, and 
 division in the State contributed to effect a division in 
 the Church. 
 
 It was during such a time as this it pleased God to 
 call into His kingdom our departed brother. His pub- 
 lic life spanned the whole measure of the great pre- 
 dominating slavery contest, when the voices of such 
 men as Mason and Calhoun, Benton and Clay, Adams 
 and Webster, Garrison and Giddings, Seward, Sumner 
 and Wilson, were lifted in high debate, in the national 
 councils. They were the times of gag-law, riot 
 and mob, slavery extension, bloody atrocities and
 
 39 
 
 compromise, iugitive slave law and Kansas out- 
 rage, the assertion of State sovereignty over Fed- 
 eral authority, and, in turn, of Federal usurpation over 
 State constitutional enactment. He had lived to see 
 the prisons of Ohio made traps to secure the rendition 
 of the fugitive, and deeds of barbarity perpetrated in 
 free States, by special police, at the remembrance of 
 which humanity shudders. He had lived to see civil 
 and political ostracism reflected in ecclesiastic courts 
 and manners, and the sentiment of society brought to 
 bear adversely, in Church and State, upon every man 
 who dared to lift his voice in favor of the freedom of 
 the slave. He had lived to see his own denomination 
 thrice sundered, and every political party in the land, 
 as well as almost every evangelical denomination, 
 broken in twain by the destructive conflict. He lived 
 to hear at length the trumpet of war sound " to arms," 
 and to pass through a struggle which cost the nation 
 the blood of 500,000 men and an expenditure of 3,000,- 
 000,000 of treasure. He lived to see slavery de- 
 stroyed, the flag of the nation raised in proud triumph 
 over every State in the Union, and the sundered 
 branches of the Presbyterian Church reunited, save 
 where the demand is still made that the Northern As- 
 sembly shall crave pardon of the South for the sin of 
 its loyal deliverances. 
 
 As to the manner in which our brother deported 
 himself in reference to the characteristics of this 
 whole eventful period, his life was a bright testi- 
 mony. The baptism of the Spirit, received upon 
 his entrance into public life, remained with him to 
 the last. The sacred fire never went out. Many 
 were the revivals of religion in which he labored 
 with the zeal of an apostle, drinking an abundant
 
 40 
 
 blessing to his own soul, while made a means of 
 abundant blessing to others, watching ever for the 
 early and the latter rain, and in times of drought, suppli- 
 cating, like the prophet on Carmel, for the torrent from 
 heaven. With new measures whether in doctrine, 
 order, or worship, he had no sympathy. To an un- 
 authorized and intermittent ministry he gave no sanc- 
 tion whatever, maintaining that consecration to the 
 work of reconciling sinners to God demanded the 
 most solemn and careful preparation, and the utmost 
 nnintermitting devotion. Fancied light apart from the 
 word of God, and supposed to be received by prayer, 
 he considered a delusion. Tn the words of Calvin, he 
 held that " God has determined, indeed, that the 
 Church should be guided by the Spirit, but yet has 
 connected this guidance always with the word of God, 
 that there may be no danger, or wavering, or uncer- 
 tainty, and that the Church must have for its basis in 
 all things the word of God, and not rest in general im- 
 pressions of the Holy Spirit; that without the word of 
 God, a man fluctuates to and fro with the Holy Spirit, 
 and is in danger of becoming any thing, and that we 
 bring division only on ourselves, for this, that we sin 
 against the Holy Ghost, the builder of His own 
 Church, by dividing Him from His own word, it' be- 
 ing not less injurious to boast of the Spirit without the 
 word than to appeal to the word as uninspired." As 
 to making the providence of God the interpreter of 
 Church and Christian duty, in contravention of the re- 
 vealed will of God, he planted himself upon ^Jie com- 
 mon rule accepted by the Church in all ages, viz: that 
 the providence of God can never be a light to the 
 Church as against the written word of God. I know 
 of no better expression of his views upon this point
 
 41 
 
 than the words of Milton, who said : " If it be affirmed 
 that God, as being Lord, can do what He will, yet 
 must it be said that God hath no will contrary to His 
 own order, or what he hath already established in His 
 own Church. The ways of Providence we adore and 
 search not, but Liis revealed word is His will, His com- 
 plete, His evident, His certain will. Herein He ap- 
 pears in human shape, binds Himself to His own pre- 
 scriptions, and binds us beside to the same." How 
 fully Dr. Thomas carried out these views in e very-day 
 life, on all social and public occasions, and enforced 
 them as against the innovations which, in his view, 
 threaten the Church at the present time, all his breth- 
 ren who knew him can bear witness. 
 
 As to the question of slavery he was one of the 
 foremost and most pronounced men of his time. From 
 his youth he threw his whole energy and heart into the 
 scale of freedom, and bared his breast to all manner of 
 insult, proscription, obloquy and reproach. He took 
 prominent part in the anti-slavery conventions that 
 characterized the agitations of the period. Files of 
 newspapers still exist, and living witnesses still arise, 
 to remind us of the printed declarations that " a young 
 preacher named Thomas and a young lawyer named 
 Chase are expressing such dangerous sentiments re- 
 garding the abolition of slavery that they ought to be 
 put down!" Christian men still exist who remember 
 when every church in Cincinnati was closed against 
 " the young preacher Thomas," save one. Let the 
 mantle of oblivion forever cover the shame! Thank 
 God, he lived to see the day when every church in 
 Cincinnati would welcome his entrance to its pulpit, 
 and admiring audiences hang in rapture on his tongue! 
 He lived to see the Rev. E. D. MacMaster, one of the
 
 42 
 
 greatest of living theologians, ecclesiastically cut down 
 by his side, and driven by Southern influence from his 
 post of usefulness and labor. Let the mantle of ob- 
 livion cover, too, the enormity of that disgrace. What 
 cared either of these heroes for popular favor or popu- 
 lar reproach? Each could say, as did the dauntless 
 Chrysostom: "Let the enemy saw me in sunder I 
 have Isaiah before me! Let them plunge me into the 
 fiery furnace, I see the three Hebrew children wrapt 
 in the flames. If they give me to wild beasts, Daniel 
 was in the lion's den. Would they stone me? Stephen, 
 the proto-martyr, is my example. Would they bid for 
 my head? John Baptist is before me. Let them take 
 all I have. Naked came I into the world." Both 
 endured their reproach for the Master's sake, waiting 
 in hope for the day that should crown their believing 
 expectation a day that came to them at last amid the 
 acclamations of a delivered Church, and the pseans of 
 a nation jubilant with songs of victory. 
 
 By some Dr. Thomas has been called " austere." If 
 by austerity is meant a lack of gentle and loving dis- 
 position, the charge is a sad mistake. If by austerity 
 is meant uncompromising and incorruptible integrity, 
 moral heroism in face of opposition, obloquy and 
 reproach, then it is a compliment to his Christian fidel- 
 ity, a glory whose brilliance shall never pale in the 
 luster of his bright reputation. He lived in times of 
 social, civil and ecclesiastical demoralization. So 
 Elijah and John the Baptist were austere. So the 
 prophets and judges of Israel were austere. So Cal- 
 vin, and Luther, and Knox, and Melvill, and Milton, 
 and Cromwell, and the Hampdens, and Sidneys, and 
 Pyms, abroad in the panoply of the gospel and in the
 
 43 
 
 majesty of popular rights, were austere. So Christ, 
 the Master, was called " austere." To say that the 
 corrupt times in which Mr. Thomas lived stood in awe 
 of him, is beautifully to crown him with honor. So 
 corrupt Israel stood in awe of the seraphic EzekieJ, 
 the tearful Jeremiah. So Sisera stood in awe of Barak, 
 Midian of Gideon, and the confederate kings of Canaan 
 before Joshua on the heights of Beth-horon. Your 
 neutrality man, " neither hot nor cold," " the gentle- 
 man from Laodicea," as our departed brother was wont 
 to baptize him, he could not endure. Dr. Thomas was 
 no man to trifle with high moral issues, nor with in- 
 sipid obsequious and polite circumlocution, simper out 
 with a French smile, " My dear Mr. Elymas, it i::ay be 
 possible, perhaps, that peradventure you are laboring 
 somewhat under the difficulty of a slight misapprehen- 
 sion." None of this. Blit. Paul-like, "O full of 
 subtilty, and all mischief, thou child ot the devil, 
 thou enemy ot all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to 
 pervert the right ways of the Lord?" Sin was sin to 
 him, and he hated it with a perfect hatred. He remem- 
 bered the woes his Master had denounced, not only 
 over Bethsaida and Chorazin, but made echo in the 
 priest's court, in the temple of Jerusalem. Whether 
 the object of his attack was slavery or popery, infi- 
 delity or intemperance, false science or false legisla- 
 tion, the bar-room or the theater, a corrupt pulpit, press, 
 society, or worldly pleasure loving Christianity, he 
 was "no respecter of persons." Faithful among so 
 many faithless, unbonght. unsold, he kept his gar- 
 ments clean. Manliness, Christian heroism, this was 
 .the virtue that shone untarnished through all the rest, 
 untarnished, bright as the sheen of the sun.
 
 44 
 
 Be this thy crown, brave soldier of the cross, 
 That what men counted gain, thou only loss, 
 Be this thy glory, thy undying fame, 
 That incorruptible is written o'er thy name. 
 
 Shall I tell you the secret of our brother's life, so 
 manly and true, so courageous and noble ? It was faith 
 in God. This magic spring, once touched, reveals to us 
 the hidden Christian workings of his soul, and explains 
 the grandeur of all his public acts. It was this divine 
 virtue which, unknown to the " fearful and unbeliev- 
 ing," has ever been to the brave their inspiration in the 
 hour of danger, and to the feeble their strength in every 
 conflict. By it he stood, walked, ran, wrestled, fought, 
 endured, overcame, lived, died, and entered heaven. 
 " He believed God." He " conferred not with flesh and 
 blood." He declared " the whole counsel of God." 
 It was the measure of his "Christian greatness. The 
 object from which its power was derived was not any 
 mere abstract idea of duty or law, right or wrong, 
 fluctuating and powerless, but the living, personal God 
 Himself, in Christ, and so, next to God, his faith be- 
 came omnipotent. It could master all things. It was 
 no mere opinion; it was not an intellectual act alone, 
 but a moral act as well, an act which became, no less 
 than a habit, the synthesis of reason, heart, and will, in 
 their spiritual efflorescence, the plural unit in con- 
 sciousness, of spiritual knowledge, confidence, and 
 self-surrender, so that to " believe " was to "know," and 
 " to know," " to believe," and both to follow." The 
 Holy Ghost, thus grasping his whole intellect, sensibil- 
 ity, and will, in one divine renewal, made his whole 
 inward spiritual life a "life of faith on the Son of 
 God," in thought, ieeling, volition, and his whole out- 
 ward life a life of " obedience even unto death." Hence
 
 45 
 
 his trials; hence his struggles; hence his unflinch- 
 ing perseverance and glorious victory. So was it with 
 the " elders " of Israel. Many virtues each possessed 
 as peculiar, but this one, common and pre-eminent 
 among all. Here is the central gem, more brilliant 
 than all the rest, shining in the crown of their fame, 
 and brightening as the ages wear away. It was this 
 practical and elementary principle, this living power, 
 which underlaid the whole Christian life of our brother, 
 and preserved his moral aspect firm while others 
 changed their Proteus-face, this conserving virtue 
 which in any soul, or any people, is their moral life 
 and health, but which, once lost, the soul, the church, 
 the nation, rots like some base carcass, fit only for the 
 eagle's beak, or to be hidden out of sight. 
 
 By this divine virtue were all the victories of old. 
 By it Abel " obtained witness that he was righteous,' 7 
 Enoch that " he pleased God," Noah that he should be 
 " heir of the righteousness of faith," and Abraham 
 that in his seed " all the nations of the earth should be 
 blessed." By it Moses rejected, like our brother, of- 
 fered greatness, " esteeming the reproach of Christ 
 " greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, " choos- 
 ing to suffer affliction " because he had " respect to the 
 recompense of the reward." By it Gideon brake the 
 lamps and pitchers in the camp of the Midianites and 
 routed their affrighted host. By it Barak swept down 
 from the summit of Tabor, with Deborah at his side, 
 and " led captivity captive " on the plain of Esdraelon. 
 It was the faith of Samson who smote, one day, a thou- 
 sand Philistines " with the jaw-bone of an ass," and 
 of Shamgar, left-handed, who, another day, smote six 
 hundred more "with an ox-goad." It inspired the 
 Gileadite valor of Jephthah who " smote the Ammon-
 
 46 
 
 ites from Aroer to Minnith, even twenty cities ; " the 
 faith which in righteous Samuel " hewed Agag in 
 pieces before the Lord;" which in Hezekiah became 
 " strength out of weakness; " which in Joshua and 
 David " escaped the edge of the sword," and " turned 
 aliens to flight" Og, king of Bashan, Sihon, king of 
 the Amorites, Oreb and Zeeb, Zebah and Zalnmima, and 
 sent them, whirling, like thistle-down, in the air, before 
 the hurricane's blast. In Daniel and his companions it 
 " stopped the mouths of lions and quenched the vio- 
 lence of fire." It was the faith of Paul, and of John, 
 and of Christ Himself the faith of martyrs, confes- 
 sors, reformers, and saints in all ages, who have run 
 their race, and fought their fight, " looking unto 
 Jesus." 
 
 Nor, in closing this imperfect portrait of our de- 
 parted brother, could I do better than, imitating an 
 inspired precedent, emphasize, in a brief enumeration, 
 some of the victories of his own faith, whereby, like 
 elders in other days, he approved himself unto God, 
 and "obtained a good report." 
 
 By faith it was that, in 1831, when nineteen years 
 old, he " fled for refuge to lay hold on the. hope set be- 
 fore him in the gospel," and committing body and 
 soul to Jesus, as to a faithful Creator and living Re- 
 deemer, laid, by this one act, the foundation of all his 
 future victories over self, sin, the world, Satan, death, 
 the grave, and hell ! 
 
 By faith, in 1836, when twenty-four years old, he 
 began to " preach the unsearchable riches of Christ " 
 to dying men, and in the blessing which crowned his 
 faithful ministry of forty years obtained witness that 
 he was " a chosen vessel " to turn men " irom darkness 
 to light, and from the power of Satan unto Uod."
 
 47 
 
 By faith, in 1843, when only thirty-one years old, he 
 encountered in debate, during the September Sessions 
 of the Synod of Cincinnati, at Hamilton, the President 
 of Miami University now singing hallelujahs beside 
 him in glory who, during nine hours, defended the 
 proposition that the apostle, in 1 Timothy vi. 1-5, uses 
 the term " yoke " to indicate New Testament coun- 
 tenance of involuntary and perpetual slavery, and, in 
 an impromptu response of five hours, lifting his voice 
 like a trumpet, blew upon his antagonist the inspira- 
 tion of the Holy Ghost in Isaiah Iviii. 6, commanding 
 the oppressor to " undo the heavy burdens, to let the 
 oppressed go free, and to break every yoke! " And by 
 faith, when threatened with riot and mob-law in his 
 ministry, he lifted his voice only the louder. 
 
 By faith, in 1846, when thirty-fgur years old, he stood 
 with the now sainted Fullerton, of Chillicothe, in the 
 General Assembly, in Philadelphia, and contended 
 against almost the entire body, for principles of right- 
 eousness, now received without question by the whole 
 Northern Church, and gave evidence, as an eminent 
 survivor declares it, that both " he and his friend were 
 fearfully and wonderful in earnest." 
 
 By faith, in 1849, when thirty-seven years old, he 
 assumed the duties of the Presidency of Hanover Col- 
 lege, in an eventful crisis, all eyes being turned to him 
 for succor, and all hands outstretched to welcome him, 
 and four years later was inducted into his chair in 
 New Albany Seminary, and, later still, in Lane Semin- 
 ary, challenging, in these three institutions, the ad- 
 miration of colleagues and directors, for his integrity 
 and zeal, and leaving behind him a multitude of pupils 
 who mourn his loss, and cry after him as they gaze on 
 his bright ascension, " My father ! my father ! the 
 chariot of Israel and the horseman thereof 1"
 
 48 
 
 By faith, in 1859, when forty-seven years old, he 
 despaired not, when beholding his brave colleague cut 
 down on the floor of the General Assembly by voices 
 and votes of Southern sentiment, but declared that 
 God would yet exalt his head, which God did, tri- 
 umphantly, seven years later, in 1866, when, with As- 
 sembly acclamation, he was borne to the very chair 
 from which, seven years before, he had been driven by 
 a Church in chains to slavery. 
 
 By faith, in 1861, when forty-nine years old, he 
 lifted his manly voice in the General Assembly, at 
 Philadelphia, protesting against the effort there made 
 to commit the Presbyterian Church to silence, in that 
 hour when treason unsheathed its sword against the 
 national government, and the blood of brethren in the 
 same fold was soon to flow in streams, either to term- 
 inate or extend and " conserve " the system of Ameri- 
 can slavery. 
 
 By faith, in 1866, when fifty- four years old, he stood 
 upon the platform of the General Assembly at St. 
 Louis notable forever in the history of the Church 
 and delivered upon the exciting issues of that hour, a 
 speech the vibrations of which still tingle in the mem- 
 ory of all who heard it, an impromptu effort carry- 
 ing the house by storm, and which, could European 
 Liberators and Reformers have matched it, would 
 have won them the honor of being drawn in laureled 
 triumph through the streets. 
 
 By faith, in 1873, when sixty-one years old, and his 
 hairs had begun to silver for the tomb rich in the ex- 
 perience of many a conflict, yet richer in the enjoy- 
 ment of communion with his Lord he was able to say, 
 in calm review of all his struggles, trials, and whole 
 Christian life, " I gave myself to Christ forty-two years
 
 49 
 
 ago. From the hour of my first confidence in Christ 
 .1 have never doubted His interest in me, nor mine in 
 Him!" 
 
 By faith, in 1874, when sixty-two years old, over- 
 borne by accumulated labors weary of the " life and 
 death struggle with sin," longing for "home" and 
 sighing to "fly away and find rest" he rallied his 
 drooping spirit, and, drawing comfort from the promise 
 of Christ to find him a place in heaven, woke his muse 
 to sing, and his harp to breathe its last sweet min- 
 strelsy : 
 
 O G-uardian Savior ! who hast led 
 My steps from earliest infancy, 
 Thou hadst not where to lay Thy head, 
 Yet Thou hast found a place for me ! 
 
 And when my spirit wings her flight, 
 
 I dare not doubt that I shall see, 
 In worlds of everlasting light, 
 
 The promised HOME prepared for me. 
 
 And so, by faith, in 1875, when sixty-three years 
 old his course nearly run he calmly called to his 
 side his sons one day, saying to each, " Give me your 
 hand, my son; kiss me!" still concealing in his heart 
 the consciousness of his approaching departure. And 
 so, shortly after, leaving the wife of his youth and his 
 dear surviving ones to struggle on a little longer in 
 this world of sin, he closed his eyes and fell asleep in 
 Jesus. 
 
 Leave Leonidas to his glory at Thermopylae! Admire 
 the greatness of Epaminonclas who refused to let the 
 spear be drawn from his side till the shout of Thebaii 
 victory rang in his ears! Their laurels fade before 
 those of our Barak, who, during a whole generation, 
 stood in the moral breach till conquest bore him in 
 triumph to his reward.
 
 Farcwell, brave soldier of the cross! Thou art gone 
 to banquet with comrades in arms gathered from all 
 ages around the table of thy great Captain with 
 patriarchs and prophets, judges and kings, apostles 
 and the Master himself with martyrs, reformers, con- 
 fessors and saints, whose robes are " made white in the 
 blood of the Lamb " with bright " stars " in that 
 "cloud of witnesses" whose trailing galaxy reveals 
 the face of thine own Fullerton, and of the sainted 
 MacMaster who said, with his dying breath, " / have 
 fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I 
 have kept, the faith!" Blessed company ye are ! 
 What beauty blooms upon your countenances, ye vet- 
 erans of the Lord, once so worn with care! What 
 smiles! What happiness! That crystal river! Those 
 palms and golden crowns! That multitude of "the 
 spirits of just men made perfect!" That song of vic- 
 tory in which the angels join! That Paradise. of God! 
 And thoii Thomas Ebenezer Thomas could human 
 breasts be laid open for inspection, thy image would 
 be found, here graven as with the point of a diamond! 
 Dead, yet speaking, thy voice shall still be heard 
 saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it!" The mem- 
 ory of thy light, as it set below our western horizon, 
 shall long leave within us the wake of its brightness, 
 to gild our pathway to the tomb! As we follow thee 
 to thy rest, thy example shall still inspire us to emu- 
 late the deeds thy faith has made immortal! 
 
 Peaceful be the slumber of thy mortal remains! 
 White sentinels, unseen, watch the dust that is pre- 
 cious in the sight of God. Yet a little while, and 
 " the trumpet shall sound," and "the dead in Christ 
 shall rise first," and we, and thou, and thine, 
 and the whole Church of God, shall meet to be
 
 51 
 
 severed again, never, forevermore ! Together we shall 
 survey the past, recount the dangers of the way, and 
 sing the victories of faith. 
 
 And, now, unto Him who created thee, renewed 
 thee, endowed thee, tried thee, sustained thee who 
 o-ave thee, took thee, and soon will restore thee to 
 
 O ' ' 
 
 Him, the Shepherd of the sheep, the First-begotten 
 from the dead, Prince of the kings of the earth and 
 Captain of salvation, be all glory and honor, and power 
 and majesty, and might and dominion, in all the 
 churhes, and throughout all the world, both now and 
 forever. Amen and amen!
 
 The dead are like the stars by day. 
 
 Withdrawn from mortal eye; 
 But, not extinct, they hold their way 
 
 In glory through the sky. 
 Spirits, from bondage thus set free, 
 Vanish amid immensity !
 
 AMONG the various written communications privately re- 
 ceived from ministerial brethren, during the preparation of 
 the preceding discourse, there are two whose contents de- 
 serve to be appended to the discourse itself, as part of the 
 widespread tribute of affection spontaneously offered to the 
 memory of the deceased. These communications are from 
 the pens of Rev. J. M. Stevenson, D. D., of New York City, 
 and Rev. S. F. Scovel, D. D., of Pifctsburg, Pennsylvania. 
 Acknowledgments are due, not only to these brethren, but 
 also to Cyrus Falconer, M. D., of Hamilton, Ohio, Rev. George 
 C. Heckman, D. D., President of Hanover College, Indiana, 
 for written accounts of Dr. Thomas, and to Rev. A. A. E. 
 Taylor, D. D., President of Wooster University, Ohio, Rev. J. 
 G. Monfort, D. D., editor of the Herald and Presbyter, Rev. 
 J. L. Evans, D. D., of Lane Theological Seminary, and others 
 from whose published notices of Dr. Thomas, valuable facts 
 have been drawn, and accuracy reached as to some important 
 dates in his life. The memorial resolutions passed by the 
 First Presbyterian Church, Dayton, the Seventh Presbyterian 
 Church, Cincinnati, the Presbyterian Ministers' Association, 
 Cincinnati, the Bo.ird of Trustees of Miami University, of 
 which Dr. Thomas was so long a member, and by the colored 
 people of Dayton, merit, though not here inserted, to be 
 mentioned in company with the numerous- testimonies of the 
 press, both secular and religious, as part of the universal ex- 
 pression of sorrow and esteem, evoked by the death of Dr. 
 Thomas. In addition to the papers of Drs. Scovel and Stev- 
 enson, the memorial actions of the Trustees and Faculty and 
 students of Lane Seminary are appended, together with a
 
 54 
 
 brief notice of the funeral services. The memorial tribute 
 of Cincinnati Presbytery, of which Dr. Thomas was a mem- 
 ber at the time of his death, is also properly added. 
 
 FUNERAL OF DR. THOMAS. 
 
 The remains of Dr. Thomas were conveyed, by sorrowing 
 friends, to their last resting-place in the public cemetery at 
 Dayton, Ohio, on Friday, February 5, 1875. At nine o'clock 
 of the morning, the ministers of the city of Cincinnati and 
 suburbs, together with a large concourse of friends, met at 
 the residence of the deceased, on Walnut Hills, near Lane 
 Theological Seminary, to pay to the honored dead the trib- 
 ute of their respect. The professors of the Seminary, and 
 the whole body of students, were present. Appropriate ser- 
 vices were conducted at the house by Rev. Hugh Smythe, 
 pastor of the Seventh Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, and 
 Rev. J. G. Monfort, D. D., editor of the Herald and Presby- ' 
 ter. The pall-bearers were Rev. Dr. Evans, Professor in 
 Lane Seminary, Dr. Worrall, pastor of the First Presbyterian 
 Church, Covington, Kentucky, and Dr. West, pastor of the 
 Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, and Elders 
 W. W. Scarborough, of the Walnut Hills Church, Dr. James 
 Taylor, of the Second Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, and 
 H. W. H ighes, of Grlendale. At the conclusion of the pre- 
 liminary services in the house, the remains were conveyed, 
 by train, to the city of Dayton, where a relay of pall-bearers, 
 chosen from officers and members of Dr. Thomas' last pas- 
 toral charge, were waiting to relieve those to whose care the 
 remains had already been intrusted. They were borne 
 from the depot to the First Presbyterian Church, a magnifi- 
 cent edifice erected by the liberality of the congregation 
 during the pastorate of the deceased. As the coffin entered, 
 the bell tolling, and passed through the main aisle to the 
 bier, in front of the pulpit from which, so often, the eloquence 
 of the deceased had streamed in other days, the tears and 
 sympathies of the vast audience betrayed how deeply he had 
 enshrined himself in the admiration and affections of the*
 
 55 
 
 people. The vast massive edifice was thronged by mourners 
 from all parts of the adjacent country. Hundreds of persons 
 who came ;< to pay the last sad tribute" to the incomparable 
 virtues of the deceased were unable to gain admittance. The 
 great audience-room, the chapel, the vestibule, the hall, and 
 all the approaches, were crowded to their utmost capacity. 
 The services were tender, impressive and solemn. After an 
 appropriate anthem by the choir, the Scriptures were read 
 by Rev. Dr. Evans, of Lane Seminary. Prayer was offered 
 by Rev. Dr. McKniglit, of Springfield, Ohio. Rev. Dr. Wor- 
 rall, of (Jovington, Kentucky, read the hymn commencing 
 with the words : 
 
 " There is a land of pure delight." 
 
 After the singing of which, by the congregation, Rev. Dr. 
 Smith, of Lane Seminary, delivered the funeral sermon from 
 the words of the dying Savior, recorded in Luke xxiii. 46 : 
 "Father! into thy hands I commend my spirit," a discourse 
 full of comfort, pathos, and power. The concluding prayer 
 was offered by Rev. Dr. West, of Cincinnati. The following 
 beautiful hymn of Montgomery, printed on slips of paper 
 and distributed through the house, was then read by Rev. O 
 A. Hills, of the Central Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, and 
 sung by the congregation standing : 
 
 " Servant of God ! well done ; 
 
 Kest from thy lov'd employ ; 
 The battle fought, the victory won, 
 
 Enter thy Master's joy." 
 
 The voice at midnight came ; 
 
 He started up to hear, 
 A mortal arrow pierced his frame ; 
 
 He fell, but felt no fear. 
 
 At midnight came the cry, 
 
 " To meet thy God prepare ! " 
 He woke and caught his Captain's eye ; 
 
 Then strong in faith and prayer, 
 
 His spirit, with a bound, 
 
 Burst its incumbering clay ; 
 His tent, at sunrise, on the ground, 
 
 A darken'd ruin lay.
 
 56 
 
 The pains of death are past, 
 
 Labor and sorrow cease, 
 And life's long warfare clos'd at last, 
 
 His soul is found in peace. 
 
 Soldier of Christ ! well done ; 
 
 Praise be thy new employ ; 
 And while eternal ages run, 
 Rest in thy Savior's joy. 
 
 The benediction was pronounced by Rev. Dr. Smith, of 
 Lane Seminary, after which the large body of ministers in 
 attendance first passed out, immediately followed by the 
 congregation. TJie procession troved to the public ceme- 
 tery where the last solemn service was performed in a most 
 touching and impressive manner at the grave, by Rev. Dr. 
 Skinner, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Cincin- 
 nati. 
 
 The coffin of the deceased was richly ornamented and 
 strown with flowers. A portrait of the deceased was hung 
 beneath the pulpit in view of the congregation during the 
 service. Near the coffin stood a sheaf of wheat, fully ripe. 
 The scene was one not soon to be forgotten. It spoke in 
 language not to be misunderstood, the high and loving ap- 
 preciation in which the religious community held the life, 
 character, services, and memory of Dr. Thomas. 
 
 TRIBUTE OF DR. SCOVEL. 
 
 Sketch of Dr. Thoma* from 1849-1857. Dr. Thomas was 
 not only well known to the friends of Hanover College by 
 general reputation, but had won their special admiration by 
 the able and admirable address delivered at one of the com- 
 mencements on " The Literary Merits of the Bible." When, 
 therefore, death had bereaved the college, in July, 1849, of 
 one whose short presidency had been signally blessed in im- 
 proving the financial condition of the college, and accom- 
 panied by remarkable revivals, all eyes turned at once to 
 Dr. Thomas, and all hands were stretched out to him. He 
 came promptly, and seemed to bring his whole soul and ma- 
 tured powers to the work. In 1853 the Theological Semin-
 
 57 
 
 ary, at New Albany, having overtured the Assembly, and 
 very properly dissatisfied with the response, resolved to con- 
 tinue its sessions, and in 1854 made an appeal to Dr. Thomas 
 to come to its help. He brought with him students as well as 
 qualifications, and labored with success as Professor of 
 Church History and Her meneu tics, adding also occasional 
 lectures on the Ministry and its Work. This continued until 
 the second and final crisis of this seminary's history, begin- 
 ning with the cessation of its sessions in i857, and termina- 
 ting in Chicago in 1859. 
 
 Having become much endeared by occasional ministra- 
 tions to the Old School Church, in New Albany, he became 
 stated supply for that Church, and from this relation re- 
 moved to Dayton in 1859. 
 
 In all the relations of an active and broad life, Dr. Thomas 
 was pre-eminently manly. There was no concealment of 
 convictions and no pandering to prejudices. The instinct of 
 justice was easily roused in him, and never failed to carry 
 with it that blaze of indignation which proved its genuine- 
 ness. He loved all good, and with equal positiveness hated 
 all evil. Assumption and pretension were absolutely foreign 
 to him. His integrity was secured, and made the more strik- 
 ing, by his simplicity. There was sincerity in the glance of 
 his eye, the grasp of his hand, and the tone of his voice. 
 Whether on great or small accasions, on the street or in his 
 study, he was always the same genuine true hearted man. 
 Bis sympathies were quick and his emotions lively. The 
 fountain of tears and the spring of laughter were very 
 nearly on the same level with him. Without a touch of lev- 
 ity <>r unsteadiness, he was exquisitely mobile and sensitive 
 to grave or gay. What a treasure it was when he opened 
 his heart in tenderness, or his memory in anecdote, or gave 
 play to bright association and wit. Such character made 
 him almost the idol of young men. He was never inacces- 
 'sible, and never inconsiderate. He was not weak, and did by 
 no means always cry " bene, bene," but when he corrected 
 us, it was easily seen that the offense gave pain and correc- 
 tion was no pleasant task. His religious experience, as far
 
 58 
 
 as it became known to us, was that which belonged to such 
 a character. It was full of fervor, of enjoyment of God in 
 nature and mind and art, and of deep thought ; and found 
 honest and frank expression in private and public. In all 
 things and everywhere he was real, sterling, genuine; a man 
 whose memory must grow the more powerful for good the 
 mere sadly one learns to contrast him with the many who 
 are not like him. He was honest, bold, fearless, sincere, and 
 sympathetic. His graces and his gifts alike came out in his 
 work. 
 
 As President, he came to a most difficult task, and never 
 shrank from toil in accomplishing it. The financial problem 
 pressed all the time in the form of supplying sala- 
 ries from an inadequate fund, and urging a half-interested 
 and struggling church to the work of building and endow- 
 ment. If there was error in anything of this nature, it was 
 the error of trusting too implicitly the promises made in the 
 most solemn manner by representatives of the church. 
 Along with this, Dr. Thomas entered quite as vigorously upon 
 efforts to uplift the standard of scholarship, to improve the 
 methods of teaching, to increase the library and apparatus 
 and cabinets. This would be expected from one so fond of 
 learning, and of thoroughness in it, and whatever difficulties 
 he encountered in this direction were unflinchingly met, and 
 all the success possible under the circumstances was won. 
 Administratively, Dr. Thomas endeared himself to every 
 honest man in the college, and made himself respected by 
 the worthless and bad. Resoluteness and tenderness were 
 always combined. Personal interviews were preferred to 
 public and stinging rebukes. Playful banter sometimes ac- 
 complished what scolding could not have secured. His flex- 
 ible nature fitted easily into the exigencies of the situation. 
 He never emphasized amiss. An immorality found him 
 firm and fiery, or tender, according as rebellion or submission 
 marked the offender's deportment. He knew when to appeal 
 to the nobler thoughts always accessible in young men. 
 Once, when many of the best men of the college had been 
 led into signing a protest against the discipline of an offend-
 
 59 
 
 er, I remember to have watched the tears trickle through 
 the fingers that covered his face, while the morning prayer 
 was being offered by another member of the Faculty. And 
 then, what an appeal ! The most thoughtless of us bent 
 under the power of a great heart administering justice for 
 our good. 
 
 As a teacher, Dr. Thomas was unsurpassed. He passed 
 easily from department, to department, appreciating thorough 
 work and detecting shams everywhere. His method was 
 varied, but always intelligible. Adhering to the text-book, it 
 was only as the body adheres to the spinal column. He 
 built up upon text-books the thoughts and feelings of the 
 whole subject. No question ever found him off-guard, and 
 none ever frightened him into an unwary decision or harsh 
 reproof. Though not always, he used often the Socratic 
 method, and brought the pupil by successive and unerring 
 steps face to face with his former blunder, to his temporary 
 confusion but permanent benefit. Wit and humor were used 
 as lubricators and stimulants for attention. In the profes- 
 sional chair of the seminary, Dr. Thomas commended to all 
 his pupjls, by method and example, a conscientious thorough- 
 ness of investigation, and a fearless acceptance of the final 
 results of sound interpretation. He was sincere in* holding 
 the authority of the word of God to be superior to that of 
 creeds and councils. I heard him lamenting that the library 
 was deficient in the " Fathers," and then turning, with that 
 merry twinkle in his eye, to say in the same breath, " But we 
 have the Grandfathers.' 1 ' 1 He had an enthusiasm for the 
 grammar and the lexicon, as " the nearest doors into the 
 mind of the Spirit.'* 
 
 And the impressions made by the man and the master 
 were supplemented, perhaps surpassed, by those which he 
 made upon us as preacher. Here all his varied powers and 
 solid character combined. He was expository, but never 
 tediously minute or over-critical. No matter how long his 
 sermon, there was always an impression left that he saw 
 yet much more in the subject. He was a model in freedom 
 of action without a touch of violence, of fervor without a
 
 60 
 
 moment's loss of self-possession, of musical, rhythmical and 
 expressive diction without a suspicion of any false arts of the 
 rhetorician. His preaching was simply the man and the 
 student, and the Christian, kindled into superlative and in- 
 tense activity. I am sure he never had his equal in America 
 in the peculiar precision of his expression, joined with flexi- 
 bility and warmth. There are precise men who are cold, and 
 warm men who are not precise. There are men who are 
 sometimes both clear and warm, but they betray the marks 
 of effort and diligence to appear, the one or the other. But 
 with Dr. Thomas all was as natural as the easy flow of 
 limpid water. The sincerity of his preaching was more evi- 
 dent to me than that of any man I have ever heard, not ex- 
 cepting Spurgeon. At times, when subjects of commanding 
 interest opened before him, he seemed to forget, as most of 
 his audience did, the limitations of time and endurance. In 
 quiet summer afternoons, during his presidency, with the au- 
 dience of young men seated solidly in front of him, 'with 
 Robinson's Greek Harmony open in his hand, and a section 
 of the Life of Christ under review, I have known him to 
 hold the students and audience beyond an hour and a half, 
 and leave them hungering for more. He could not but be 
 fervent "who taught so clearly and felt so deeply. Rarely 
 was a whole sermon controversial, and rarely a whole ser- 
 mon without some trenchant blow at unbelief or error. 
 He knew the Papacy and hated it. And no conflict with 
 error but seemed to settle him deeper in the truth. He was 
 an oak, and gathered new life out of the storms. His imag- 
 ination was vivid, but exquisitely discriminating and chaste. 
 In all his powerful figures I never heard agross one. 
 
 In short, as preacher of the everlasting gospel, he brought 
 all his resources and all his powers, and all in the most per- 
 fect subjection and in their highest exercise, to the work of 
 glorifying God and saving souls. Such, and so great, was 
 our loved Dr. Thomas.
 
 61 
 TRIBUTE OF DR. STEVENSON. 
 
 I think of my dear brother Thomas as a schoolmaster, a 
 pastor, a professor, and a beloved friend, and in each of these 
 I find illustrations of his love for the right, his heroism in 
 its defense, his warmth of domestic and social affection, and 
 his breadth and strength of Christian character. 1 first met 
 Dr. Thomas in 1831-32 as a fellow-student at Miami Univer- 
 sity in the palmy days of that institution, when the vener- 
 able Dr. Bishop was its head, and Professors McGufFey, Scott, 
 Armstrong and McCrackjen its active and honored teachers. 
 Of the two hundred and more young men there, he stands 
 before memory's eye now, as he then appeared, honest, earn- 
 est, vivacious, with a sturdy and compact body, a clear and 
 perspicacious mind, and a devout and loving heart, which 
 easily distinguished him from most of his companions. All 
 loved him; few cared to meet him either in the struggles of 
 the playground or in the debating hall, while all, of like 
 mind, rejoiced to join him in the prayer-meeting and the 
 " Society of Inquiry." 
 
 Two incidents of his college life I recall, as will many 
 others, with special vividness. In 1833 the cholera, a far 
 , more dreaded scourge than now, made its sudden and death- 
 ful appearance at Oxford, and within the first few hours 
 swept away several citizens. The students in the university 
 were soon in a complete panic, and determined to leave in a 
 body. The Faculty counseled calmness and delay, but the 
 fright of the students was uncontrollable, and the entire body 
 met in the chapel and discussed the duty of a rebellion 
 against the authorities. A vote was soon reached, and only 
 six names were found in the negative; of these six Bro. 
 Thomas was one. He believed it right to obey the author- 
 ities, and he defended his convictious against an overwhelm- 
 ing and intolerant majority, with a true heroism which ever 
 after characterized his life. 
 
 His ardent love for the truth and his deep emotional na- 
 ture were signally illustrated by a very different state of cir- 
 cumstances at another time in his college life. In 1833 (I
 
 62 
 
 think it was) an unusual religious interest prevailed for 
 months among the pious students. Daily prayer and confer- 
 ence meetings were held in recitation rooms, and smaller 
 gatherings in students' rooms at nine o'clock at night, for 
 weeks, and an intense religious fervor was developed; which 
 left its impress upon not a few during all their subsequent 
 lives. During these meetings Bro. Thomas fell into mental 
 struggles and spiritual darkness, which were most distressing 
 to his friends, and agonizing to himself. He saw the truth 
 of God's justice, and the criminality of sin, but could not 
 see the infinite mercy of Christ as applied to his own soul. 
 His chosen friends among the students prayed with him and 
 for him, daily and nightly, rising at midnight to walk away 
 into the grove with him to plead for the light of God's 
 countenance. So resolved was he to see the depths of sin in 
 the heart of man, and therefore in his own heart; so deter- 
 mined to magnify the infinite holiness of God's law ; so 
 honest in the application of these truths to his own case, 
 and yet so unable to appropriate atoning grace, that we 
 often feared his reason would give way under the stress of 
 his agony. He read and studied the word of God incessantly, 
 and at length, in His time, God brought him forth into the 
 full and joyful realization of his love in Christ Jesus. From 
 that hour he was a bright, trustful, joyous, exultant Chris- 
 tian, such as he could never have been had God not led him 
 through these depths of experience. That precious Bible 
 was ever afterward the man of his counsel ; and with the 
 strength of his massive intellect, and the wealth of his ar- 
 dent affections, he continued to teach and impress its sacred 
 truths while he lived. The earnest biblical student, the pro- 
 found scholar, the faithful pastor, the admirable teacher, 
 which he became in turn, I doubt not received form and im- 
 press largely from this youthful struggle. 
 
 Of the nearly twenty-five years of Bro. Thomas' pastoral 
 life, the record is in many thousand hearts. 
 
 During these years, in addition to a faithful, laborious and 
 successful discharge of pastoral duty, he took a leading part
 
 63 
 
 in most of the questions which agitated the councils of the 
 State and the courts of the Church. 
 
 He was almost THE FIRST, both in time and ability, in our 
 Church, in the West, who thoroughly studied and manfully 
 defended the right of the slave to freedom. In that long 
 struggle for the right, in the early stages of which so little 
 that is creditable to our philanthropy or Christianity ap- 
 peared, Bro. Thomas always stood boldly for the truth, and 
 with a strength of argument, and a fervor of rhetoric which 
 few could equal, battled against the giant wrong of 
 slavery, and this at times where it demanded a heroism 
 equal to facing a cannon's mouth. On one occasion in the 
 General Assembly, he and the now also sainted Rev. Hugh 
 S. Fullerton, of Chillicothe Presbytery, stood, and for hours 
 contended against the almost entire body, for principles of 
 justice and righteousness which are now received without 
 question by the entire Church, though their advocacy, then, 
 led him to admit, and the Assembly to feel, that he was 
 fearfully and wonderfully in earnest upon that question. He 
 lived to see that truth which was " crushed to earth " many 
 times in his person, " rise again," and the Church and the 
 nation stand by his side in its maintenance. 
 
 After these earnest discussions in Synod or General As- 
 sembly, he would return to his pastoral duties and there re- 
 sume the study of God's word with all the ardor and fresh- 
 ness of a new inspiration. 
 
 His ability and felicity in expounding the Holy Scriptures, 
 whether with an isolated text or an entire chapter before 
 him, none who ever heard him can forget. While exhibiting 
 profound scholarship, and exhaustive analysis of most diffi- 
 cult passages, he combined simplicity of presentation and 
 practicalness of application, so that the humblest hearer was 
 edified under his ministry. 
 
 Nor did he limit his thoughts and sympathies to his own 
 Church alone. As the representative of a great public, but 
 not denominational institution (the American Tract Society), 
 it was my privilege at various times to lay before Bro. 
 Thomas, and his people, its modes of working for Christ.
 
 64 
 
 Well do I remember how his great heart swelled, and his 
 true catholicity of feeling welled forth, when he contempla- 
 ted the vast work to be done in the evangelization of our 
 country, and the zeal and liberality essential for its accom- 
 plishment. While he devoledly loved the doctrines' of his 
 own Church, his zeal for Christ was broader than denomina- 
 tional bounds, higher than church walls, and profound as the 
 wants of the human soul. Hence he was prompt to labor 
 for their salvation in all scriptural and approved methods. 
 
 It was during his last pastorate that the struggle for the 
 nation's life occurred. Not only the members of his own 
 congregation at Dayton, but the entire city, the State, the 
 West, aye, the whole nation, know how promptly, fearlessly, 
 persistently, eloquently, he contended for the integrity of 
 the Union, and the freedom of those whose cause he had 
 plead amid obloquy ind scorn for so many years. 
 
 But in my opinion the art and science of teaching specially 
 distinguished the public life of Dr. Thomas. To this he de- 
 voted nearly fifteen of the forty years of his professional 
 life; more than two years in private schools, five as president 
 of Hanover College, and seven as professor in the theologi- 
 cal seminaries of New Albany and Lane. 
 
 As a director of Hanover College during his presidency, 
 and pastor ol the First Church of New Albany, during his 
 session in that seminary, I was brought into most intimate 
 relations with him, and speak from personal observation. 
 
 And here, his love for the truth truth as against all super- 
 ficialities and shams and half truths, or perverted and defec- 
 tive statements was conspicuous and unvarying. No inves- 
 tigation was too protracted and exhausting, if at the end he 
 attained the full conviction of having reached the bottom of 
 the question. Days, weeks, months, he would pursue, with 
 marvelous tenacity, a given line of study, and when it was 
 .mastered, the knowledge became a part of his mental being, 
 ever after at hand for the instruction of others. 
 
 And then his enthusiasm and skill in imparting to his 
 students, whether collegiate or theological, his wealth of
 
 65 
 
 knowledge, were only equaled by his ability to set them 
 upon independent lines of study for themselves. 
 
 In all these respects he stood peer to the unsurpassed and 
 honored Dr. E. D. MacMaster, his associate and dearly loved 
 brother in New Albany Seminary. Can we doubt, that they 
 now pursue their investigations together into the still higher 
 mysteries of the heavenly world ? 
 
 Dr. Thomas, as Dr. MacMaster, bound his pupils to him as 
 intimate personal friends, as well as docile and earnest stu- 
 dents. No ingenuous youth, once under his tuition, ever 
 ceased to honor and revere the teacher. Most especially was 
 this true of teacher and scholar in the study of the divine 
 word. 
 
 Here, the master's greatest power and warmest enthusiasm 
 were displayed, and here the pupil caught the fullest in- 
 spiration. Would to God that a mantle so fragrant of divine 
 truth, and so shining with light, might fall upon all the pro- 
 fessors in our colleges and seminaries. 
 
 I may not close these few words in memory of our dear 
 Dr. Thomas without a distinct reference to his domestic and 
 social character. While seated with him and his intelligent 
 and lovely family under his ever hospitable roof, you forgot 
 the scholarly professor, in the warmth and unaffected sim- 
 plicity of the genial and thoroughly human brother. Hap- 
 pily united with a cultured, amiable and obedient wife, and 
 with children gentle, loving and obedient, too, his home be- 
 came a model Christian household. This home was always 
 for the husband and father a blessed resort when weary with 
 the cares and responsibilities of public station, or perplexed 
 with the exciting ecclesiastical or civil questions of the day ; 
 and here he found his sure repose and sweetest rest Within 
 this sacred circle came also, and because it was so sacred, 
 his sorest earthly trials. Death may enter some families and 
 break few bonds of afl'ection, because few exist, but wher^ 
 heart strings of husband and wife and children are all en- 
 twined, and the pulsations of every heart are in unison, let 
 but one babe be torn away from the circle, and the very 
 agony of dissolution seems to be suffered by all. Our de-
 
 66 
 
 parted brother once and again was called to give up a dear 
 child from his home, and here came out the amazing depth 
 and strength of his personal affection. 
 
 As the pastor of his family, it was my sad duty to bury out 
 of his sight a beautiful and precious boy, bearing his father's 
 name, the darling " Ebenezer." Never did I see, in all my 
 pastoral experience, so dreadful a struggle between pious 
 resignation to the Divine Will, and overmastering parental 
 love. But here, as in the other case, grace at length en- 
 abled him to say : a The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken 
 away. Blessed be the name of the Lord" 
 
 And this large-hearted affection, which distinguished our 
 brother in his family, was in due measure extended to his 
 early associates of like character with himself, who in every 
 instance, I venture to assert, were life-long friends. No en- 
 grossment in public duties, no separation by time and dis- 
 tance, no diversity of pursuits, or change of circumstances, 
 ever alienated him from those he once loved. If they con- 
 tinued worthy of his affection, and especially if they served 
 that Savior who had his supreme devotion, then were they 
 always regarded as his friends in Christ Jesus. Nor is this 
 trait of character to be lightly esteemed in a day when 
 worldly ambition and narrow self-seeking alienate and 
 embitter so many once bosom friends. 
 
 ' To sum up all in a few words, too few indeed, I recall Dr. 
 Thomas, in his private life, as an affectionate husband, blessed 
 with a loving and obedient wife, a loving father, blessed with 
 dutiful children, a true friend and a devout Christian. In his 
 public relations, as a noble patriot, a profound scholar, a suc- 
 cessful teacher, an acute reasoner, an eloquent speaker, and 
 a most instructive preacher. Not only his family and per- 
 sonal friends, but the Church and State have sustained a sad 
 loss in the death of our beloved brother, Thomas Ebenezer 
 Thomas. Blessed be God for his life, character, labors, and 
 memory.
 
 67 
 
 
 
 THE ACTION OF THE TRUSTEES OF LANE SEMINARY. 
 
 The Trustees of Lane Seminary, at their annual meeting, 
 May 13, 1875, entered upon their records the following 
 tribute to the memory of Dr. Thomas : 
 
 On the second of February, after nearly a year of conflict 
 with organic disease, Dr. Thomas Ebenezer Thomas was sud- 
 denly called, at the age of sixty-two, to lay aside his earthly 
 * work forever. Both the pulpit and the press have already 
 recited his history and spoken eloquently of his abilities. 
 Struggling into manhood under peculiar embarrassments, 
 but made strong and sinewy by such struggles, he developed 
 during his earlier ministry both an unusual love of study and 
 culture, and also an active spirit of consecration to his 
 chosen work, which were the certain pledges of his future 
 eminence. Most of his active life was spent in the ministry, 
 and at Hamilton and Dayton, and elsewhere, he won for him- 
 self an extensive reputation as a prince among preachers. 
 Three times in his life, in Hant>ver College, in the Seminary 
 at New Albany, and in this institution, he was called to the 
 spec'ial task of educating young men chiefly for the ministry. 
 It was a work which he greatly enjoyed, and for which,' es- 
 pecially in the department of biblical exposition, he had 
 some rare qualifications. In familiarity with the Scriptures 
 in the original tongues, in extensive acquaintance with com- 
 mentaries and expositions, in retentiveness of memory, 
 quickness of insight, and affluence of language, and in a cer- 
 tain spontaneous enthusiasm and aptness to teach, which 
 awakened responsive en.thusiasm and responsive activity in 
 those whom he taught, he had few superiors. A student 
 rather than a man of affairs, and therefore less prominent in 
 ecclesiastical circles than he might have become, he was yet 
 remarkably earnest in his convictions, and prompt and fear- 
 less in action wherever he deemed it essential. Of slavery 
 and intemperance and other social evils, and of popery and 
 all other forms of priestly domination, he was from first to 
 last a resolute foe. Somewhat reserved toward strangers, 
 especially in later life, he was yet bright and vivid in com-
 
 68 
 
 i 
 
 panionship, and warm and strong in his personal attach- 
 ments. His connection with this institution was compara- 
 tively brief, extending from the autumn of 1871 to his de- 
 cease, and limited, during the last year, by his physical 
 disabilities. His death at last was sudden, giving no oppor- 
 tunity for those expressions of personal faith and of interest 
 in the cause of Christ, which both his household and the 
 Church might, have coveted, but of these his whole life gave 
 the best evidence. His remains are now resting on a beau- 
 tiful slope consecrated to the dead, almost in sig*ht of the 
 city, where, perhaps, the largest part, of his -ma hirer work 
 for the Master was done. There and here, and wherever he 
 lived and labored, his memory will long be cherished as that 
 of an assiduous student, an eminent preacher, and a devout 
 Christian man. 
 
 THE ACTION OF THE STUDENTS OF LANE SEMINARY. 
 
 4 
 
 WHEREAS, In the providence of God we. the students of 
 Lane Seminary, have lost our beloved instructor, Dr. Thomas 
 E. Thomas, 
 
 Resolved, 1. That, in our judgment, the Church which he 
 dearly loved and labored for has sustained a loss which she 
 will long feel ; that the truth alter which he was an ardent 
 seeker, and for which he contended against unnumbered foes, 
 has lost an able advocate; and the ministry of which he has 
 long been a devoted and successful member has lost a wise 
 father, a reliable counselor, and a sympathetic brother. 
 
 2. That the State in whose affairs he was ever interested 
 has lost an estimable and valued citizen, and the cause of 
 liberty an able and fearless defender. 
 
 3. That in the death of Dr. Thomas, Lane Seminary has sus- 
 tained a great and severe loss, and the cause of Christian 
 learning a faithful and exceptional patron and example. The 
 Faculty have lost one who was an honor to their number and 
 a blessing to their fellowship. In this affliction, the students 
 of the seminary have sustained a loss which is peculiar and 
 irreparable. ^ We shall^ever remember his incomparable
 
 _ 69 . 
 
 qualifications as an instructor, his thorough integrity as a 
 man, and his remarkable sincerity and devotion as a Chris- 
 tian. While we mourn his death we are thankful for his life 
 and our acquaintance with him. To have known him was 
 to love him. We shall honor his memory as that of a 
 father and a friend. 
 
 4. That we, also sufferers in this affliction, extend heartfelt 
 sympathy and condolence to the bereaved family and friends, 
 and we commend them in faith and love to our Father in 
 heaven and to the ward of His grace. 
 
 5. That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the family 
 of the deceased, and that they be published in the press of 
 Cincinnati and other cities. 
 
 ACTION OF THE PRESBYTERY OF CINCINNATI, APRIL 16, 1875. 
 
 Presbytery records the death of one of its most learned, 
 honored and usful members, Rev. Thomas Ebenezer Thomas, 
 D. D., Professor of New Testament Greek and Exegesis, in 
 Lane Theological Seminary, which occurred on the second 
 day of February, 1875. We tender to the family of our de- 
 ceased brother our cordial sympathy, and our earnest desire 
 that a covenant-keeping God will sustain and bless his be- 
 reaved widow and children in their painful affliction, and 
 comfort them with the consolations of that precious gospel 
 which he so dearly loved, and so efficiently commended by 
 his life and labors. While we would reverently bow in sub- 
 mission to the will of God, who doth all things well, we 
 would express our painful sense of the loss which this event 
 brings to the Church of which our departed brother was a 
 minister, so able, efficient and beloved, and to the school of 
 the prophets, of which he was one of its most distinguished 
 and successful instructors.
 
 Oh ! is it not a noble thing to die 
 As dies the Christian, with his armor on ? 
 What is the hero's clarion, though its blast 
 Ring with the mastery of a world, to this ? 
 What are all the searching victories of mind, 
 The lore of ages vanished ? What are all 
 The trumpetings of proud humanity 
 To the short history of him who makes 
 His sepulcher beside, the King of kings ?
 
 UCSB LIBRARY