Death of Dr. Alexander
From the Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the American Tract Society.
“The venerable Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander, a Vice-president of this Society, and for three years from 1842 a member of the Publishing Committee, and who was ever a firm friend and counsellor, has rested from his labors. Almost forty years he was professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, sixty years he labored in the ministry, and he” died peacefully in his eightieth year, October 22, 1851.
Prac Tr-iti.s. 1 7” While the Secretary in the publishing department was reading with him portions of ‘Flavel’s Method of Grace, he said, with a glowing, tender spirit, ‘All this carries me back to past scenes as if they were but yesterday. When I was a thoughtless youth, I passed some time in a family where was a venerable, pious lady, whose sight was dim, but who was greatly attached to Flavel7s works, and often requested me to read them to her. I read -to her this very work, I would read till the truths pierced my own heart, and affected me so that I was obliged to stop, when I would excuse myself till the next day. I would then read again, and again be obliged to stop; and those impressions never left me till I found peace in Christ.7 A communication in the Messenger of February, 1851, refers to the sermon on the word 1 Stand, in Flavel7s Knocking at the Door, as specially blessed to him. In these works of Flavel was the type of the great practical views of theology from which he never swerved till, on his dying bed, he uttered to his family these memorable words:! All my theology is reduced to this narrow compass, Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.’
“Fired with this glorious theme, he went out, at the age of twenty, as a missionary, through the mountainous regions of Central and Western Virginia, his native state, and preached to the ignorant and perishing, with great power and success, ‘the glorious gospel of the blessed God.7 In prosecuting these labors, two great principles became fixed in his mind: the value of sound practical books and evangelical writings, and the necessity of going to the destitute and tendering the gospel to them at their homes. He saw both in this Society and its colporteur system, and cheerfully gave his cordial love, counsel, cooperation, and support to the close of his useful life.
“He was the author of seven tracts of the Society’s principal series: No. 32, The Day of Judgment;’ 51, ‘Misery of the Lost;’ 65, 4 The Amiable Youth falling short of Heaven; 215, ‘Importance of Salvation;’ 350, ‘Future Punishment Endless;’ 393, ‘Justification by Faith;’ and 462, ‘Sinners Welcome to Come to Christ, A few years since, he suggested the desirableness of issuing a series in a very simple style, in large type, and in the form of a little book, for which series he himself wrote the six following: Dialogues with a Farmer, with an Aged Man, and with a Cottager; The Poor Man’s Guide and Friend; The New Settlement; and a Dialogue with a Roman-Catholic, eighty-four pages, which is one of the Society’s best practical volumes. When he observed how wide a circulation the American Messenger was gaining, he availed himself of the opportunity afforded to speak to multitudes for Christ, most of his articles for the last five years bearing his well-known signature, ’ a. a;
“But his counsel and encouragement in the issuing of the Society’s volumes, exerted a preeminent influence in giving direction and success to its extended operations. As early as 1832, when the Society had issued but about half a dozen of its larger works, he suggested adding Edwards on the Affections, and in May, 1833, cheered the Society by communicating the following views of this enterprise:
“‘I rejoice to learn that the Committee of the American Tract Society are turning their attention specially to the preparation and circulation of small hound volumes. These are as really tracts (treatises) as any of the pamphlets or sheets which are sent forth from the institution. The Society’s tracts are now bound for such as prefer them in that form. And let other treatises be selected for publication, for which purpose there are many excellently adapted. I have attentively read over the list of books which the Committee have already put into circulation, and the selection meets with my cordial approbation. Works of a more evangelical and spiritual kind do not exist; and I am gratified to see that they are printed and bound in a neat and handsome style. I am deeply persuaded that great public benefit will arise from the appropriation of a portion of your funds in this way; and that the event will prove, that however expensive it may be in the commencement, it will be wise economy in the end. When I consider how many copies of ‘Doddridge’s Rise and Progress, 1 Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted, ‘Alleine’s Alarm, ‘Edwards on the Affections, and such like works, will be circulated through the whole length and breadth of this land, I am filled with pleasing anticipations of the good which your Society will be the means of accomplishing.
“‘I do sincerely hope that the Committee will persevere in the prosecution of this object, and as their circumstances may permit, increase the number of their publications of this description. The success which has already attended your efforts in this way, is calculated to inspire you with confidence to go on in the name of the Lord.7 - fc
“Again he says, five years afterwards, ‘I reflect on no part of my life with more satisfaction than any little agency I have had in encouraging and promoting the Society’s volume circulation. I do consider the success of this enterprise as intimately connected with the prosperity of vital scriptural piety in our land — not in any one church, but in all evangelical churches, and beyond them all, by conveying a sound and practical knowledge of the gospel to multitudes who enjoy no public means of grace, or have not attended on them. If I could do any thing more to urge on this blessed work which has been so auspiciously commenced, I would cordially lend my aid.’
“Again he says, under a later date, ‘The success of the volume circulation gladdens my heart every time I think of it; and I sincerely wish that, instead of twenty volumes, you had a hundred in circulation.7
“A valuable work, stereotyped by the Society since his death, ‘Baxter on Conversion, was suggested to the Committee by him; and on his dying bed, calling to mind a. wish which had been expressed by a destitute pastor for more good books, he requested his family to find the pastor’s address, and gave ten dollars to procure for him the Society’s Religious (or Pastor’s) Library of twenty-four volumes.”
From the American Messenger of December, 1851, in addition to facts above given from the Annual Report.
“REV. DR. ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER.
“We shall doubtless gratify our readers by some memorial of this distinguished servant of Christ, whom we loved as a father, and whose cooperation we enjoyed to the very close of his long and useful life.
11° “He was born April 17, 1772, in Rockbridge county, in the valley of Virginia, between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies; and was of Scotch descent, both his parents having emigrated first to the north of Ireland, and then to this country. He received a classical education at Liberty Hall, near the residence of his parents, under the charge of the Rev. William Graham, with whom he studied theology two years, when, at the age of about twenty, October 1, 1791, he was commissioned to preach the gospel.
“Before professing Christ he was led through severe spiritual conflicts, that he might know how to sympathize with others, and guide them in the right way; and when Christ was revealed to him in his fulness, and he was commissioned as a herald of the cross, he went out immediately as a missionary preacher through the mountainous and destitute regions of his native state, with a glowing heart ’ proclaiming the way of life to the ignorant and destitute, and gathering the lost into the fold of Christ. Preaching without notes, with strange discrimination for one so young, and with an energy of thought and pathos of delivery rare in the young or aged, he spread the doctrines of divine truth wherever he went.’ These arduous evangelical labors doubtless exerted an influence in training his mind to that clearness and simplicity, as well as richness of thought and expression, which characterized his preaching, his instructions, his conversation, and his extensive writings through life. He regarded it as a high compliment, when told of a plain woman who had heard him in a destitute place, and said, ‘I guess he aint a very lamed man.’” At twenty-five, he was elected president of Hampden Sydney college in his native state, and became also pastor of three adjacent churches. He married a daughter of Rev. James Waddell, the eloquent blind preacher, celebrated in the sketches’ by William Wirt. At his death she survived him, as did all their children, an only daughter and six sons, three of whom are clergymen, one a distinguished professor at Princeton, and another, Rev. Dr. James W. Alexander, pastor in New York city.
“From the age of thirty-four to forty, he was an able and beloved pastor in Philadelphia, till 1812, when he was called to lay the foundations of the Theological Seminary in Princeton. He was then the only professor, but was soon joined by his loved colleague, the Rev. Dr. Miller, whose funeral-sermon, after thirty-seven years of harmonious labor, he preached in January, 1850. For the whole term of his connection with that seminary, almost forty years, he labored incessantly, till his last illness of a few weeks: fulfilling the duties of his professorship; watching over the students as a father, and guiding in an eminent degree by his affectionate advice their future course; constantly appealed to for counsel in all the varied interests of the churches and of the cause of benevolence; and with a discernment of character, a sound, practical judgment, a modesty and humility, and a singleness of purpose for the welfare of the Redeemer’s kingdom, that gained universal confidence. It was kindly ordered that the Synod of New Jersey, of which he was a member, and out of which he named on his bed of weakness, one hundred and fifteen who had been his pupils, were in session at Princeton when he died, and were permitted, with a great concourse of clergymen and citizens, to unite in the solemnities of his funeral.
“‘Death never appeared to me so delightful as now when it is near, he said to those around his sick-bed; and often, as strength allowed, he spoke of the peace that dwelt in his soul. The records of his last hours will be precious to the church, and they will be found to illustrate and confirm the experience he has written in his sermons and letters as the fitting close of a life of faith. His great work on the Evidences and the Canon of Scripture, several other excellent treatises, and all the productions of his active and able pen, bear the impress of his singleness of purpose to honor Christ. “H.”
From the American Messenger for February, 1852. “IMPRESSIONS OF DR. ALEXANDER.
“This Christian patriarch of fourscore years is one of the few whose fame and usefulness are immortal. Having given a long life of wtee and constant devotion to the Redeemer’s kingdom, he has bequeathed to the church a name redolent with piety and honor. We would gratefully cherish the bequest, and contribute our humble influence to embalm it in every Christian heart. Perhaps we cannot better subserve the purpose than by a brief record of our impressions of the person, character, and influence of the venerable man who has so recently passed to his heavenly rest.
“Dr. Alexander was of medium height, rotund, slightly stooping form, broad and high forehead, and piercing eye. His head was slightly inclined to one side, like Wilberforce’s. His manners were simple, frank, and dignified, eminently suited to inspire confidence and respect. A single interview would impress the visitor with his affability as a man, his maturity as a scholar, and his ripeness as a Christian.
“The simplicity of character which marked Dr. Alexander is worthy of notice. True greatness is always simple. In Dr. Alexander it pervaded his tastes, language, manners, piety, every thing. In his writings, as our readers know, his thoughts were not only readily apprehended, but he could not well be misunderstood. So of his sermons and public appeals.
“Modesty was a related trait. He seemed to know nothing of his own greatness. One who had been on terms of the closest intimacy for a generation, stated in our hearing, that he had never heard Dr. Alexander allude to his own influence.
“Symmetry of character distinguished Dr. Alexander from most men. He was not so remarkable for logic, or rhetoric, or judgment, or zeal, or learning, singly, as for an admirable combination, which left nothing to be desired in the completeness of the man, the divine, and the Christian.
u Penetration of mind, and an intuitive apprehension of the character and motives of those he met, were peculiarly characteristic of Dr. Alexander. He saw through a subject or a person apparently at a glance.
“Candor and firmness were finely combined. He had not a jot of that pertinacity of opinion and purpose which too often characterizes even good men in their declining years. To the last, he seemed as ready for new projects of usefulness, if they were well planned and had obvious bearings on the Redeemer’s cause, as he could have been in the days of his youth. Witness his attachment to colportage, his seminary plans, and the readiness with which, in his eightieth year, he undertook elaborate preparation for an entirely new department assigned to his professorship, and innumerable other illustrations. At the same time, he was firm as a rock in resisting what he deemed false principles of reform, or religious action. A hot-headed reformer once spent hours in endeavoring to enlist the influence of Dr. Alexander for his movement, plying him with argument, entreaty, and other means less gentle. After magnifying sufficiently his own zeal in the reform, he turned tauntingly to Dr. Alexander and inquired if he thought he (Dr. A.) had any piety. “None to boast o/J” was the searching reply of Dr. Alexander, sent home to the conscience with one of those glances of his speaking eye, which none will ever forget who have had occasion to remember its lightning-like power.
“A noble-hearted catholicity could not but be a characteristic of such a man. No man loved his own honored church more sincerely and ardently than Dr. Alexander. But his love and preference for his own communion was not so exclusive as to reject all who worshipped God in other forms, or who had a like attachment to the church of their fathers. Nor did it deter him from an intelligent and whole-souled cooperation with evangelical Christians in heaven-blessed enterprises for spreading abroad the knowledge of Christ. Perhaps no better illustration can be found of the true combination of denominational and catholic affinities, in just proportions. He was none the less a Presbyterian, that he gave a quarter of a century and more of counsel and aid, in a thousand effective ways, to the Bible and Tract and other kindred organizations. He loved and confided in them to the last; indeed, almost the last act of his life, as before stated in the Messenger, was to provide a destitute minister at his own cost with the Tract Society’s ‘Beligious? or Pastor’s Library, as if he would leave at once a legacy of attachment to the ministry of his own church he had so long labored to rear, and a legacy of confidence and approbation to the institution he had so highly appreciated, and to whose usefulness he had so largely contributed.
“Unceasing usefulness marked Dr. Alexander’s career. The measure and amount of his labors for Christ’s kingdom can never be fully known till the last day. But some sixty years of uninterrupted toil in the pulpit, in the professor’s chair, and with the pen, have made a broad mark on this country and the world. A whole communion of Christians owe more to him than to any other man, perhaps, for the eminent scholarship and earnest zeal of their honored ministry. The cause of sacred learning is largely indebted to Dr. Alexander for his patient toil. And Oh, how much do the Tract Society, and the related Board of his own church and sister institutions, owe to his unwearied efforts with his pen! His early training and associations gave him a lively sympathy with the mass of plain, poor people scattered abroad over our land. For them he loved to write. He knew their heart, and could afford to write simply enough to be understood in his teachings. His earnest desire for the salvation of these masses inspired his zeal for the system of colportage and other enterprises which took the direction downward with gospel influences. He wrote, and planned, and counselled, and inspired the zeal of others, with unflinching steadfastness; and he still lives, and will live while the world stands, in his practical writings, which are loved and treasured by tens of thousands beyond the pale of his own communion as well as within its bounds.^ May the Holy Spirit own them for the spiritual good of untold thousands of dying immortals. “C.”